Arts Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, and welcome to the April Parks and Community Services board meeting. We are at quorum, so this meeting is now called to order. Is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda?

I so move.

Thank you. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. Let's vote. All in favor to approve tonight's agenda, say aye.

Aye. Any

opposed, say no. Okay. The agenda is approved unanimously. Next up is the approval of minutes from the Park Board's March 2026 regular meeting. Sorry. Is there a motion to approve the March 2026 meeting minutes? So moved. Thank you. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. Let's vote. All in favor to approve the March 2026 meeting minutes, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say no.

The minutes are unanimously approved. Alright. Next up is oral communications. The Parks and Community Services Board values community input and looks forward to hearing from you during its meeting. Please be aware that in compliance with Washington State campaign laws regarding the use of public facilities during an election, no speaker may support or oppose a ballot measure or support or oppose a candidate for an election, which includes your own campaign.

Any speaker who begins discussing topics of this nature will be asked to stop. There are rules adopted by the City Council limiting to topics about which the public may speak during our meetings. Under Ordinance 6,752, the public may only speak during public comment about subject matters that are related to City of Bellevue government and are within the power and duties of the Parks and Community Services Board. Following the Board's bylaws, the total time allowed for oral communication shall not exceed thirty minutes. Each speaker will be allowed to speak one time for up to three minutes.

We will follow the order in which individuals signed up. If you do not get a chance to speak this evening, you are always invited to email your comments to us at parkboardbellvuwa dot gov. Now I'll turn it over to Ryan, who will read names from the online and in person sign in sheets.

Thank you, chair. This evening, we will start with our preregistered speakers. The first name we have on the list is Anne Clark, who I believe is joining us virtually. Anne, are you online at this time? I believe she is online quite yet.

K. Hearing nothing, we'll move to our second preregistered speaker, Alex Zimmerman.

You should

turn your mic on.

Up to you because you

It's just

my to speak to city of Belizev. Oh. A 150,000 people. This is very important. I don't see too much people here in every meeting. Is this a problem that we have? So first, I want to explain to you why I don't show my face. And I spoke from Tacoma to Uber in Everret more than 5,000 time. I speak every week, approximately five, ten times in every council meeting, and everybody show faces. Because when you don't show faces, you look like a real Nazi pig.

It's exactly who you are because it's doing this for one particular reason, so people cannot understand who's talking. It's a trick, criminal trick. And I talking about this for many year, and nothing change. It's a problem, what is we have. Second problem, what is we have? This and I show you before. Twelve year ago year ago I'm sorry. Twelve year ago, council make a decision so people can speak only for thirty minute in 10 people only. This is pure violation of first amendment, free speech. Situation is so stupid, so idiotic.

You know what this mean? Because for motivation in doing this, they supposed to be have a reason. What is reason can be limitation of freedom of speech. Yeah. I understand. Cut constitution. Read First Amendment and freedom of speech to eliminate what is supposed to be. Shut up. Stop people for opinion. It's absolutely absurd by definition. You know what is I mean, you cannot do this, and you're doing this for many year, and you support this. Because when one from you or two from you or another people from Bellevue, for example, for 150,000. Time time, come and talking. This will be stopped. No one talking about this.

What does this mean? Does this mean you under control? Like Nazi Gestapo mafia, you know what has been? Control everybody. Everybody is scared talking about constitutional right. It's absurd. You understand? We have a government who exists for two hundred fifty year, and no one from Belvieu, 150,000, come and speak like Alexander when he took his first amendment broken. What does this mean? This mean you all slave. You're a bit. Yeah. You slave. You understand what this mean? I call this about this. It's very important. And nothing changed for twelve years. We were Trump. Were new American revolutions. Stand up, slave, and happy cow.

We need to stop in doing this. It's absolutely dewotic situation. Yeah. Thank you very much. This is for you guys. I very appreciate.

Alright. We'll return to our preregistered list at this time to see if, Anne Clark has joined. Still has not. So with our remaining time, the floor is opened up to anyone else that would like to speak. We'll start with anyone in the room. Please raise your hand and come on up. Not seeing anyone. And finally, anyone online that wishes to speak, please raise your virtual hand, and we'll give it just a moment. Alright. Not seeing anyone there.

So we will, well, Anne Clark, we'll see if we can get those comments, in written form if they are interested in providing them. But at this time, that closes our our speakers for our communications. So I'll turn it back to you, chair.

Alright. Thank you, Ryan. Next up on the agenda is council communication, but council member Briar is unable to attend the meeting tonight. So we'll move on to director's report. So we'll turn it over to assistant director Cameron Parker for the director's report.

Yeah. Thank you, and good evening. A couple things to share tonight. It is but I'll speak more distinctly. Want to share with you all the we are planning ahead for our expected vacant seat coming up here in June.

The recruitment was posted by the clerk's office and closed yesterday. At the close, we had 18 applicants, so that's a very healthy number. So the clerk's office now is sort of assembling them all together, and we'll share those with with us and our council liaison, and we'll sort of start the process to see who's within that pool of 18. A couple events coming up. I think we've mentioned these in prior meetings, but coming up soon.

Earth Fest at Bellevue Botanical Gardens is a Saturday, the eighteenth from eleven to three. Lots of programmed activities there at the garden. And then the following Saturday is the always popular sheep sharing event at Kelsey Creek Farm from eleven to four as well as a kickoff for for spring in Bellevue. And lastly, I did want to just acknowledge this month in April, a few we had three staff people within parks and community services who are celebrating milestones. Sharon Franzen, who's a senior administrative assistant, thirty five years working in Parks and Community Services, Michelle Campbell, who works on our park scheduling office, and John Soriano, who we had here not too long ago at Robinson Tennis Center.

They are both thirty years in. So three staff members and almost a hundred years worth of service to Bellevue Parks combined. So I just wanted to acknowledge those folks. And with that, I'll pass it back to you.

Well, thank you, Cameron, and thanks for sharing those milestones. That's really awesome. Alright. Next up is board communication. I always perhaps start up one end of the table, and then we could work our way around if that's okay. We start with Eric.

Not too much to pass on. I was excited to see a couple weeks ago. We finally got a little bit of snow. I am a snowhound. I love seeing the snow. And with that short dispersal, got to see kids playing in the parks and making snowmen. So that was extremely exciting. Aside from that, I'm excited to dig deeper into the Bellevue Parks and everything as the good weather comes on. So that's all I've got to share.

Thank you, Eric.

Yeah. But likewise, not too much. Few trips to the downtown park and a few of the other downtown areas, but nothing of note to report. I was at the downtown park earlier today, and I would say that with the impending weather, it was quite sparse. I have not seen the downtown park quite as empty as it was. As we did get a hailstorm an hour or two later, that was probably wise.

Thank you, Paul.

Aileen? Sorry for being late. I had a very tight pickleball game that fucking Went went to, like, 11:11, and she had a win by two. We finished yeah. We were we finished at 05:57. And then I text both of you, like, I'm gonna be a few minutes late because it was just, like, a Bellevue Pickleball Club, which is really close, but then with all the lights. So sorry.

Priority straight. So

if I look sweaty, that's why. So let's see. Let's okay. So I've been riding a lot of trails, bicycle, like, every Saturday trying to get ready for my December kind of bike around Taiwan. So I I can appreciate how like especially with the trails, like, when they're connected, it's just so nice.

You'll be able to ride, you know, from, you know, one trail to another. And then I noticed, like, one of the project reports saying that Citi is working on a trail system report, some strategies around that. So I would love to know more about that. And sounds like it's trying to connect a lot of open spaces within Bellevue. So I don't know even if it's realistic, but it will be nice to be able to bike across all the 16 neighborhoods within Bellevue, like, in all connected fashion.

But I would love to know more about the Trail System report. And then oh, the other day, my husband and I went to Robbinswood. I hadn't been there for a while. And then because I used to go, like, at least once a week with the kids, you know, different sports, but I hadn't been there for a while. I noticed, like, the field looked really, like, fresh. Yeah. It's all it's a construction. Yeah. Yeah. It looks really nice. And then, yeah, it was I think the day I went, it was really nice weather. So a lot of people were out there. Yeah. So that was really nice to see. And then one other thing.

In one of the report, there is, like, capital project dashboard. And I tried to kind of look around it, and then I was wondering if that is intended for the community to use or just for the city employee. Like, if it's for the community, I would love to have, like, a session on that, and maybe the board member can give some feedback on, you know, how we should be using that and how to look for information and get information out of that capital project dashboard. I think there's kind of some interesting information, but then I had something that I was trying to do. I wasn't sure if it's, like, by design, it worked that way or or if there's any opportunity for us to give feedback.

So I think those are the oh, one other thing I wrote. Congrats to the city. I think there was a pedestrian pathway connecting Newport Way to the south won some award. Some what was that about? Would love to know more about that.

You'll hear more about

it shortly.

Okay. Alright. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thanks.

Thanks,

Hey, everyone. Sorry. I guess a couple of things. I don't know if you guys know, but when you search for Bellevue Parks and Recs on Google, it has two sublinks that show up too, and the activity guide is right there directly. So I don't know if that was planned, but that's pretty awesome. So from a Google search on the parks, you get right to the activity guide. So very convenient. That's that's the link I go to mostly. I think in terms of some events that weren't called out, Keep Bellevue Beautiful is doing a couple of cleanup events. I believe they had one last weekend, another next weekend, I think the next couple of ones.

So just shouting that out. I know Earth Day, there's a cleanup again in Wilburton Park, I believe, on the eighteenth at 9AM. So just in case anybody wants to engage and head out there. Hopefully, the weather's good. I know they were scheduled for spring because it was gonna be good, and everyone can go out and help.

And then in engaging Bellevue, I know they have an open survey for BellRed. At least there's an interactive map. Folks can kind of say, hey. It would be great to have this here. I thought it looked really great, and it was a great way to get input, like, with the map itself and for folks to kind of you know, you can see what other people are putting in or recommending.

So I think there's last I saw, maybe, like, close to 30 entries. And if you guys wanna have an opinion, highly recommend you check that out. So kind of sad I'm missing the sheep shearing this year. I've been going for the last couple of years. My my daughters will go regardless of my absence, so I will report back on how that went on the next meeting. So thank you so much.

Thank you. Elizabeth?

Yeah. Thank you. So like many of you, I've been hanging out. Weather has not been awesome, but we did enjoy the snow. I wanted to talk today, given some of the recent comments as well as our recent report from the human services folks on our our community services aspect because there are a lot of people there. We're we continue to hear about layoffs. We continue to hear about people in need. As the city warms up, there are more people sleeping outside. Of course, they're looking for places outside that are under trees, under bridges, etcetera, and that's tragic. I did see that the Human Services Fund is open for applications for 2027, 2028.

And my feedback to just the the parks and community services team in general is I would love to be able to dig into a combination of parks and community services at at our meetings as we talk about things, not just one park, but hear more a little bit about those projects that we're doing that are alleviating these issues. Because that person who's struggling, who we may think you should not be here right now, well, they gotta be somewhere. Right? Ideally, not a jail cell, but, you know, there there's a larger system at work, and and part of that is under our purview. So I'd just like to be able to talk a little bit more about it.

Not right now, but in the future when it gets on the agenda.

Thanks, Elizabeth. Steve, would you like

Well, it's it's great to be back after missing two of the board meetings. Been traveling a bit for work and then also for family reasons. Last month, I was in Taiwan, and so visiting some clients and also my my grandma who just turned a 102. So but while I was in Taiwan, visited couple of parks in the area. They were very well maintained and but, you know, I was I was mostly in Taipei.

It's a highly densely populated city. And I'm in comparison with the with with our parks system, there's a tremendous difference. Right? There's lots of buildings, and then here in here in the city is there's water and greenery. So so I I was quite there is a quite quite of a contrast.

But I was just thinking that, you know, a lot of the decisions that we're making today, it's gonna be impacting how the city will develop and and how the park systems will will develop over time. So I think that helps me to gain some perspective in in in, you know, comparing other other park systems, well, you know, two or three in in the city of Taipei with with what we're doing here, I think it it gives me perspective. And another thing that that kinda that I saw when I was visiting the parks was that there were the parks were not just geared towards children because of a lot of our park systems. The equipment, the the gym equipment, their parks equipment is targeting children. But a lot of the the equipment there in in Taipei were for adults.

So you would see adults, you know, exercising, gather together in community. So there's a lot of equipment for for older people, you know, like, for me. So and that kinda reminded me of a meeting that I attended at pride bridal trails, one of the association meetings. One of the the members of what attendees came up to me and said, hey. You know, we should also consider equipment for adults.

So that's something that I'm I'm sure there there's been thought that goes through what kind of equipment is put into these park systems, and I'm sure that there are a lot of equipment that's targeting adults. But I I just thought that, you know, while I was visiting Taiwan that it was pretty it was pretty neat to see a lot of the adults using the equipment. So Uh-huh. That's what I have for right now. Thank you.

Thanks, Steve. I'll go next, and maybe I'll start off with Newport Hills. That park has some adult equipment. And I was gonna mention, I do see people use it a lot and kids trying to imitate adults using the equipment. So, yeah, I think that yeah. Thanks for ringing that up, Steve. I noticed that too when I was in time Taiwan a year ago. But, yeah, it's great to see some parks getting it here and it being used. One also other weird thing about Newport sorry. Woodlawn Park has that big off leash dog area, and I noticed some signs that said that from the city about people having off leash dogs.

And I think some of our neighbors or some neighbors intentionally destroyed some of the signs but left parts, so I just thought I'd share that. I mean, that I saw some of that. Even though there's a big off leash area, some people are still allowing their dogs off leash, like, within a few feet away, which is very unfortunate. So, hopefully, that can stop. One, I went to Downtown Park too and actually walked a circle, like, twice with council member Briar the other day.

So we had a nice little chat just syncing up. She she mentioned, like, one of her big things in upcoming is the budget, and so, our work today will be very appreciated, and looking forward to working on selecting a new board member. So, yeah, it was a really nice sync up. And then I wanted to mention, I saw in the CIP, that on May 7, there's a Bell Red neighborhood park master plan public meeting, and that'll be the first one at Highlands Community Center at 6PM. And I think it's really good if any board member is available to attend that that first one.

That's kinda where a flurry of ideas, I think, will come from the neighborhood. So that'll be a good first one to attend. And then I was gonna mention, I like, scrolling through Instagram a lot and saw the parks, Instagram account highlighted a new playground in the shape of, like, a pirate ship at Clyde Hill. I thought that looked really cool. I haven't had a chance to to visit yet, but, yeah, it really caught my eye.

So I definitely keep spreading the world word about cool stuff happening through Instagram. Alright. That concludes what I have to say in board communications. So I guess we'll move on to the next item on our agenda, which is the city budget process and park CIP overview. And presenting for us today is, Jenny Zhang, fiscal manager of the Parks and Community Services department, and Wyatt Thompson, park planning and development manager for the Parks and Community Services department. Thank you so much for joining us today, and I'll give you all a few minutes to set up. Yeah.

As they're getting ready, I can do just a quick intro here. As as you'll hear, the board has a specific role within our budget process, to, sort of, track our CIP budget and provide communication to council, as they consider in the fall the the citywide and the in its entirety, the budget in its entirety. Tonight, we're really just sort of kicking that off and providing all of the information that will lead into a future meeting or two when we'll go into more detail about what the board's feedback will be. So we'll just kinda hit an understanding of the overall budget process and also wanted to give you just a a download on kind of the current status of our CIP projects that are in our current budget. And then in future months, we'll be a little bit more forward looking in terms of what's sort of what we expect in the next budget.

One thing I can share is that our overall budget message due to just a lot of economic uncertainty, is, there will not be much of it'll be a status quo is our approach, to this upcoming budget. So not really expecting, on the CIP side or on the operating side, lots of new investments or new projects, given that our, kind of our our '20 22 levy projects are kicking off. Expect just to see mostly kind of continuation of those projects, without expectation of, offering lots of of new things this for this two year cycle. With that, turn it over to Jenny, and she can get us started.

Chair.

Oh, yeah. Good evening, chair and parks and community service board members. My name is Jenny Zhang. I'm the fiscal manager of the third parks and community service department. And thank you for having me here tonight.

And in line with our commitment to keep you update on the parks and community service budget development, I will provide a brief review of the city's twenty twenty seven to twenty twenty eight budget process, budget time line and CIP budget structure updates and we'll also discuss the important roles of the Parks and Community Service Board during their budget process. Additionally, White will provide an update on the current status of all the projects in the current parks capital investment programs. And as you know, the budget authorized resource allocation and also aligns the policy priorities established by the council. The city budget office lead the buying new budget development. The overall city budget process revolve around these six strategic targeted areas, which represent the City Council's vision and support alignment with budgeting and organizational work plans.

The current six strategic targeted areas were updated in March 2024, which emphasize on community safety, equity, environmental stewardship, resiliency and the importance of partnership in achieving our long term goals. Each target areas include several supporting objectives to further guide the implementation. And the Parks and CIP projects are proposing the current budget to provide a high return on investment by aligning into main strategic targeted areas, which is the high quality builds and the natural environment and the thriving people and the communities. This year budget proposal from each department will be update and submitted to the budget office by May 1. And teams of staff from throughout the organization will evaluate and package those proposals for review by their city's leadership team of each department director.

In the fall of this year, the city manager will submit a proposed preliminary budget to the city council. And there will be two public hearing session during, at the City Council meeting held in September and October. And council deliberation will happen in October into finally the city adopt, city council adoption of the balance of the budget is expanded in late November around Thanksgiving time. For this buy new budget process, Citi stay with six years of CIP spending plan, which will be either 2027 to 2032. And for this budget cycle, CIP proposal will be submitted at the program level.

Later our CIP Program Manager, Wight, will provide you more detail on the CIP programs. Starting 2025 to 2026, the long range planning reserve is a new budget to hold funds in a special account for their funding for property acquisition. As Cameron mentioned at the beginning, there is no new CIP funding source expected during the 2027 to 2032. So okay. Now we talk about the parks board's role.

The role of the parks and community service board in the budget process, typically, the board functions as a adviser to counsel on parks capital needs, review the preliminary Park's CIP strategy and develop a communication to counsel to address requested projects. The Board's letter will be provided to the City Council as they consider citywide budget decisions this fall. EU packet there is an example of the Board communication to counsel from the last budget process as a reference. So next step, in the coming Park Board meeting, we will present more detail on the current CIP projects. At future meetings in the summer, the Park Board will work with the staff to draft their memo for council and in September transmit Parks and Community Service Board comments to council.

Thank you for the chance to present. We can pause now and if you have any questions.

Anyone have any questions for this part of the presentation?

Alf? Just one. I mean, was a comment. It was good to see the reserve fund for long way long range acquisition. That's much needed. The letter to counsel timing, typically, that would go out in August. So do we need to adjust? Like, what when is the best time for that to land in terms of having the right availability for council?

We have the schedule set up for the board to have conversations in the June and July meetings. Okay. So the letter would should essentially be done at the July meeting.

Because gonna be in July? We

neither we nor the council meet in August. Mhmm. During that recess. We are planning July meeting.

Okay. Okay. But yeah. Oh, wait a minute. I I had my month shifted, so there's not the yeah. The the the month off is after the okay.

It is August.

Yeah. Is is July a good time for that to land?

We would well well, the board will sort of have the letter approved by the July meeting. Then it's just a matter of inserting it into the the budget process at the time when the council kind of starts their engagement, which is more in the September time frame. It

is. Okay. Okay. Just don't want planning your transportation to, like, sneak stuff in before we do. So

Alright. We'll make sure we'll just hand them over simultaneously.

So Alright. Thank you.

Any other questions? Okay. Let's move on then. We'll shift it over to Wyatt's part. So thank you. And, yeah, I'll give you the mic, Wyatt.

Alright. Good evening. Board members, Wyatt Thompson, parks planning and development manager. I oversee the capital projects division and as well as our capital improvement program and portfolio. And so tonight, we'll have a lot of information to share with you.

I do have a couple of points where it might make sense for me to stop, get a drink, have you all ask any, you know, brief questions, and then we can also reserve time at the end for more extensive discussion or questions if you have have more that you'd like to discuss. So just a a brief overview here of our of our team that delivers projects design and project management group, we have capital projects, planning, and property management staff, all under the direction of assistant director Cameron Parker. And, collectively, that team, provides award winning projects. I'm so happy that you asked about the Eastgate pedestrian pathway earlier. Both that project and the Bellevue Adventure Park, were recognized by the Washington Recreation and Parks Association this year for, a couple of different categories of awards, and we have a staff member that will be going to that conference, to receive those awards on behalf of the city here in a couple of weeks.

We have a capital project dashboard that is included in your monthly report. This is updated quarterly, for parks projects. It also contains information from transportation and utilities, but you do have the option to filter for just parks projects if that's what you're you're interested in, and then you can drill down into some project details that are provided there. Else also, as a part of your monthly report, we've been experimenting with different ways to format that, and so I'm very open to your feedback on as to the types of information that we provide you on a monthly basis. And if if you have input or feedback tonight, we can certainly try to provide you the information that you're looking for in a format that makes the most sense for you each each month.

That is, by the way, a public facing dashboard, and so it is available to all of the public. It is intended for for the public who's interested in in city projects. And so if there's if there's feedback on how it works or doesn't work, we'd be be we'd be happy to receive that tonight or in the future as well. Our capital program is funded by a variety of different sources, including several voter supported levies. You'll notice the twenty twenty two parks and open space levy has has a a special logo and identifier.

Betsy Anderson in November provided you an update on that levy specifically and kinda previewed that. And so we do have projects throughout this presentation that are funded with that levy, noted with that graphic, and you will start seeing that on public signage as well as we roll out projects that are supported through that program in the future. Also, funded projects are funded with real estate taxes as well as specific project leveraging opportunities, grants, partnerships, developer fees, donations that support certain projects on a specific basis. And so those private dollars are able to extend what our public dollars can do and allow us to do more than we otherwise could. Our programs begin with long range planning, and so the city's comprehensive plan provides that policy framework for land use decisions and how the city is intended to grow in the future.

The Bellevue Parks and Open Space Systems plan then drills down specifically into, parks and opportunities to expand our park system. And within that, within that systems plan can is contained, all of our capital improvement projects and, opportunities for acquisition and development of those parks that come come after that. And so we will be starting an update to that plan, later this year, and you all will be get briefed and updated on that as we move through that process. So in terms of the kind of life of a park, you know, it starts in that with that identification of needs and opportunities within that systems plan. Parkland is acquired.

Parkland is then master planned. There's a naming process that you all are involved in as part of that. Then the projects are identified. They move through a design and permitting process, then they go to construction. That's about a six year cycle, typically, if everything kinda moved sequentially through that process.

And then, of course, as as projects are completed, if the public uses them, the infrastructure ages, it goes through our typical o and m and maintenance process. At some point, it needs renovation and renewal, and it kinda go circles back to the planning stage, design, and construction of improvements in order to maintain that those that infrastructure and and parks over the long term. Jenny mentioned that we have a new organizational structure for our capital program starting this year. So we have our parks and community services portfolio of projects. Each department has one or more portfolios.

And then within that portfolio, we have four program areas, and you can think of these as just containers to to categorize similar or like projects together. Our four programs are park development and expansion, trails and natural systems, waterfront and destination parks, and renovation and renewal. And within each one of those programs, there may be multiple CIP projects, and each one of those CIP projects could be a project for a specific improvement at a specific site, or it or it could in itself also be a container to include multiple jobs or multiple projects at multiple locations that are all nested under one CIP number. And you'll see that as we kinda walk through each of the projects here next. This is a good place to pause before we get into specific projects.

Are there any questions about that overview?

You wanna have any initial questions? Oh, go ahead, Elizabeth.

So this is probably getting quite a bit into the weeds, but I am curious as someone who also has to categorize projects. Let's take just so I understand what fits under which of these boxes. Let's just take a renovation, or like, let's say, a regular maintenance at Robbinswood Park, but it involves a stream. Would you have to break apart that work to put it in two buckets, or would it all just go into renovation and renewal?

We would I think we would try to categorize a project into one category, even if it touched kind of even if it included a trail. For example, it might actually be a new park development with a trail. We wouldn't split those apart into two programs. It would all be contained under the primary program, and then whatever improvements needed to happen there would all be budgeted and live in that one container.

Okay. Does the structure mainly reflect the way the budget is allocated and how much we have for that or the impact? Or, like, how should we think about this in relation to what we're about to look at in terms of the overall plan?

So I don't think these the programs aren't necessarily driven by budget. They are intended to encompass both our current suite of projects as well as some future opportunities that we think may be coming in the future as a way to categorize those projects. We I do in the next slides, we will discuss each one of the programs in a little more detail to kind of provide you a why we established that as the program element and then which projects fit which of our current projects fit into that program space. Yep.

Any other questions, comments? Eileen?

Can I ask a few questions about the dashboard then?

Yes.

So what kind of projects, like, would go on to that dashboard? Like, would park maintenance be on it or no?

The dashboard's envisioned for capital projects. Mhmm. So we do do a lot of maintenance and op you know, work that that happens from our operations teams.

Mhmm.

And that that type of work wouldn't show up there. The the limits for the for most projects is $1,000,000 and up would appear there.

Okay.

A million dollars and below is typically the cutoff for, like, a renovation and renewal program project.

So only a million above projects will show up on these dashboards?

Probably, yes.

Okay. And then, like, as a is that it it is open to, I guess, anyone? And how should we use this? Because it's updated quarterly. Like, you know, like, if I come on, I just see, like, list of active projects. I like, if I scroll through, you know, if I click on them, you know, give me a little description. Description. But what is, like, the intended use for this?

I think it's for for you all or any member of the public that is interested in in projects that we are doing or that other departments are doing. If you see that you know, if if you go go to visit Robbinswood Park, for example, and you see that there's construction fence around the the synthetic turf field and you wonder, well, what is what's happening here? We we typically do have a project board for those types of projects that might explain and provide some detail about the project, but maybe you maybe you aren't on that side of the park that has the board or maybe you don't see the board. You could go to this you go to the project dashboard website and get some information about that project, you know, what what it's doing, who the project manager is. If you had question, you could contact that individual, what the funding sources are, the budget, those type of details.

And then can I like, if there's a few that I'm interested in, can I can I make a list of, like, my interested projects? And then I just kind of focus on those updates. Uh-huh. And I because I was trying to do that. I don't think there's any way, like like, here because when I looked at it, it was, like, overwhelming. There's so many projects around the city. Right? So I'm like, oh, you know, if I'm interested in this five, can I just say, hey? Here's five that I'm interested in. I somehow, I can mark them, and then soon then I somehow can get updates.

So that's a really good suggestion. I'm not sure if the technology is capable of doing that. We do have some of our projects on their project web pages do have opportunities to sign up for specific lists to be updated about that project. That wouldn't necessarily the current in its current form, that wouldn't be the project dashboard. It's more here's everything, and you can filter by department, but you can't necessarily select to get notified when when we update a certain project on that list.

But there are three departments, parks, transportation

around parks, it's not that many. I mean, there's 20 some at the end.

Yeah. Oh,

so most are, like

We can certainly ask if there's an opportunity in the future to update the technology to allow people to sign up for notifications. I'm interested in that. If that if that is a possibility, we'll certainly let you know.

Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Yeah.

And I have any additional comments, questions? One quick comment. I really like the the levy logo on things. It shows kinda where what people voted for and where tax dollars go. And then just to you said in the next section, you'll talk about each of the four categories and kinda what what mean. Is that correct?

Yes.

Okay. Yes. Then I'll save my questions for later. We'll turn it back to you, Wyatt. Great.

So our first program area is park development and expansion, and this this this is probably the largest program area. And so after we get through this suite of projects, I'll pause for a breath again, and and then we'll take the next three program areas to co you know, together. So the park development and expansion program is in is intended to expand and enhance the park system by building new parks or facilities or by making major enhancements to existing parks that that fundamentally change what that park does. So it it adds a brand new element or it changes an element in an existing park. And these are typically gonna be larger projects, and they're they're gonna be more impactful to to the park or the community of users.

And so our it ties back to our parks and open space systems plan that emphasizes acquisition and development of parks to meet that future demand as well as provide for geographic equity by, you know, locating parks throughout the community. We've we've got, six CIP projects that are in some stage of planning, design, or construction, and then there then there are are three, that are in the pending category, meaning that they're not started here in 2026, but they may be they're they're planned for, in the next come couple of years to to begin work on those projects. So the first, project is the Bell Red Parks and Streams CIP. We have a a current project that is kicking off the master plan at this at this site that's on the right, at the West Tributary, location. Project managers, Rian Smith, provided an update to the board a couple of months ago on this project, and we are kicking off in May with the May 7 with that community meeting.

Thank you for for raising that earlier. Again, that's May 7 at Highlands Community Center at 6PM to kick off that master planning process. And then also within within this CIP, we would have a desire to add new additional parklands in the Bell Red neighborhood. It's a it's an area slated for redevelopment and a lot lot of potential population increase, and it's an area where we have very limited parklands other than this one site that we are currently planning. And so as we you know, we're actively looking for other acquisitions in this neighborhood.

And as those acquisitions would be made and can come online, they would get that land would get programmed into this CIP for future planning efforts. But the current the current planning effort is for this this one site on the West Tributary. And so we anticipate having that master plan throughout 2026 and the council adoption in 2027, and then we would move into construction with construction anticipated in 2030. The next CIP PAD one zero seven is Ashwood Park development. So this is a single project CIP, whereas the Bell Red might contain multiple projects over time.

So the Ashwood Park master plan was adopted by council last year, and we're currently in the design phase for this park. It features a, large open lawn, playground, off leash dog area, restrooms, picnic shelters, seating areas, and we expect construction to start late in 2027 and throughout 2028. The next project area is Eastgate Neighborhood Park. Like BellRed, this is a CIP that could eventually contain multiple park locations as those are acquired. We currently have one site in the East Eastgate neighborhood.

We acquired two lots in that neighborhood in 2022 and 2023, And the council adopted a master plan in November 2025, which is the image on the right. It features a a large open lawn area, play structures, and a a picnic shelter and some seating spaces amidst a lot of landscaping and and trees that are already existing on that site. And so we're working through design now, and we anticipate construction in 2027 for this new neighborhood park. The next pro next CIP is the off leash areas and emerging sports facilities. This is a levy funded project that encompasses our ability to nimbly react to new needs in our community based on changing demographics or changing trends in sports and activities.

And so this this CIP covers projects that might include things, you know, new, new turf fields for cricket, new pickleball courts, as well as off leash areas for or improvements for dog owners, as well as any other new types of sports or activities that may occur, during the planning period. And so on the left, we have the Robbinswood Turf Field, which was just recently completed, and it opens up it opened up on earlier this month. It it has it has soccer and lacrosse lines that it had previously, and it also added a youth cricket pitch in the center to expand opportunities on that field. And then the off leash area program has been in place for a few years. We've started that project a number of years ago with pop ups that were intended as temporary to to test out, gain community feedback.

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. People love these sites. They use them extensively, and so we have made several of those locations permanent at and are planning additional amenities at those locations at Wildwood, Wilburton, Crossroads, Robbinswood, and Newport Hills, adding things like like other amenities, water, benches, shelters, just other enhancements to those sites, as well as we are also planning new pop up temporary locations in neighborhoods throughout the city that we plan to release in about a month or so. We'll have community outreach, surveys, opportunities for people to provide input on whether, they feel like those are good locations, to keep those off leash areas for the future. The next project is, Factoria Neighborhood Park.

So this is another growing area of the city that lacks, park space, and so we we are actively seeking land in this part of the city to acquire property. And once that property is acquired, this project would activate with master plan for that new site. And so that it's dependent when this project starts is dependent upon when that property is acquired, but we do we do have it in a holding and for for when that opportunity comes. The next project is the Japanese American legacy project. A couple of years ago, Sound Transit developed a park at the corner of 112th Avenue Southeast and Main Street as part of the light rail extension into downtown, and then they they gave us that parkland.

And so there is an existing park that is currently there. Subsequently, we began working with a community group, to identify a project that would, describe the history and the contributions of Bellevue's Japanese American families during the first half of the twentieth century and their incarceration during World War two. And so you will be receiving a more detailed briefing on this project as well as a council briefing on this project in the next couple of months, but we're currently in that early stage, and we'll provide a lot more detail when that when that next update happens for you. The next project is the 2nd Street Downtown Neighborhood park. This is a small green space at 2nd Street and 110th Avenue Northeast.

This is in an area at Southeast the Southeast corner of the downtown area that does not have a lot of parkland. It does have a lot of residential and residences in this vicinity, and so this will meet that future need for for parkland. We have this in the to begin a master planning process in the next couple of years, and we that would involve community engagement and a a planning process engagement with you all on the on the types of features and amenities that might make sense to be located in this site. The next project is the Wilburton Parks And Streams CIP. Like some of the other ones, before it, this one, again, a highly a very active part of the community in terms of future redevelopment and engagement.

This is the the location where the Eastrail is coming through north to south. It is also the landing spot for the Grand Connection, And so, we anticipate a lot of of redevelopment in this area. We don't have a lot of park space at those and within those areas where that transit oriented development and those transit projects are happening. And so this, CIP is intended to acquire new property and then plan that property plan out those parks as they, as they are acquired. And then the last project in this section is not really a park project so much as it is a support facility for our parks.

Our park our new park operations facility is a new office and operations location for our o and m teams in natural resources, resource management, and our structural division. And so this project supports the design, permitting, and construction of that new office and workspace for them. It's part of the citywide strategy to to improve employee workspaces and facilities, and it'll it will have their offices as well as shops and equipment and material storage, for our our park operations division. It's located at the East side of the Bellevue Golf Course, and, it is currently in design with construction expected to start the middle of next year. And that is the end of that section.

We could take a quick break for questions, and then there's three more program areas after that.

You wanna have any initial questions? Excuse

me. I'm glad to see Victoria on there. I know it's been in work for a while as a resident back in the nineteen hundreds. I I was going to just ask this generalized question because the boundary of that area that you had there, and I know we're getting it a little bit off of, like, the money side of things, but just bear with me for maybe thirty seconds. A lot of the areas are not are so peripheral as to not be so helpful.

And a lot of the areas where you might say, hey, it'd be great to have a park here in Factoria are industrial or not industrial, commercial property commercial properties. And I'm curious, do we have any kind of mechanism every so often there's a plan put forward to do something fundamentally different at Factoria Square Mall, for example? Do we have some kind of mechanism available to us to, through a combination of developer incentives and sort of city partnerships, make the redevelopment of of something should it ever finally take off? Kind of a joint public private partnership that would fulfill the the need in that area per our goals.

I think, generally, yes, those opportunities exist. I'll take a stab at this, and then Ryan or Cameron can jump in with with more detail. I think our obviously, the the comprehensive plan lays out kind of big picture vision within that. Then there's often sub area plans that define major redevelopment areas and vision that the city and and stakeholders have. Those plans often can identify like, the BellRed sub area plan identifies major park improvements and trail and greenway improvements as a component of that redevelopment.

Those plans then drive conversations with developers as they come in for applications to rebuild things or build new things, and we have those conversations. And Ryan is involved in a lot of those conversations to ensure that where park space is available, where where public plaza space can become made available. And so there's a dialogue that that often occurs at that at that planning level. Ryan or Cameron, do you have additional insight?

No. I think I think you covered it pretty well. You mentioned the subarea plan aspect of this. So, there the sub area plan update is ongoing currently for Factoria. So to that question, it's an important point in time. And there is an open house also on May 7, same day as BellRed. However, they, the the neighborhood plan open house is longer. So if you're really ambitious, could you potentially go to both. But Mhmm. But keep that in mind just generally that that plan is ongoing.

So what's identified in that could potentially drive policy towards working with landowners like you mentioned. And then there are are always other tools. We have staff in the city that are working with, you know, folks out there on different agreements, and we are in contact. And so there are opportunities for Mhmm. You things to happen in the future. Okay.

Well, I bring it up because my high level concern is that we don't try to check the box by saying we gotta park in Factoria by putting it near the periphery of that outlined area as opposed to something that might be cost prohibitive if we were to literally just do what we did in Eastgate, buy a chunk of land, which in this case would be commercial property valued at who knows what, and then try to put a pocket park in the middle of all that. You did a great job. I don't know if you can pull that off in Factorio is all I'm saying, Cameron, or whomever the new Cameron is on that. So Mhmm. That's that's kind of the I want to make sure we have enough flexibility such that that that's an option. Yeah. Anyway, thank you.

Do you have a question?

Oh, yeah. So

first of all, this looks like such a pretty building. I have a question about the parking here. Because there's so much parking, and we're always saying, like, oh, we don't have enough space for parking. How many of, how many spots are expected to be part of our, maintenance fleet? How many cars do we know? Like, I would assume this would include a lot of the maintenance vehicles, right, because it's the operations and facilities and all the trucks that would go pick up things.

Correct. I think the I don't have the exact number of parking spaces off hand. I think it's intended for the number of fleet vehicles that we have that would be stationed out of this facility for the employees that report to this site as well as an anticipated number of vehicles for the employees arriving to the site in their personal vehicles. And then and then it's also the number is driven by land use code and other other city regulations relative to, you parking.

Yeah. Thank you. And then can I ask a second question, or did other people have one? Okay. I wanted to respect Robert's rules of order, so I think everyone is supposed to get one question. So I'll wait.

K. Let's go look.

Along the Factoria site, they're giving the considerations of how difficult that it's been expressed as well as I believe it will be to find a location that would be suitable waiting for it to just come up. Is this the type of project the city may consider eminent domain on for trying to push something forward? Not that I'm advocating

for it.

I'm just I'm trying to understand where the city's authority lies if it becomes problematic and we can't push this project forward. Not that I'm ever an advocate for that. I'm just curious. Not that I need an answer to tonight off the cuff, but I'm always concerned about the displacement of community as well as our retail centers and people who already have enough trouble with businesses. And I'm not familiar enough with Citi's past practice on something like that, because I think it will be problematic to try and find a location that will be suitable there.

It's such a small area we're working with with so many retailers, and and so, just a concern of mine, and I'd be interested in knowing if there's authority that lies there so that it might be something council might be considering. So just a thought.

Yeah. I can give a quick response there. There's not been the city's practice for acquisition of of Parkland to to condemn for that purpose. Practically speaking to with the often the county and state and and other grants that we apply to to help leverage our funding, they they actually don't allow for that type of property acquisition anyway. So it's there just aren't many cases where that would actually help us. So acquiring from Welling sellers is always the preferred way to go for for park acquisition.

I appreciate that. That eases my mind.

So thank you.

Deep?

Just this is more of, like, educational for me. In terms of since now we there's a budget for long term planning for acquisitions, how does the city go about identifying the properties to to acquire? Is there, like, a process that that's in place? I'm assuming there is a process, and and so maybe you can explain the process to me a little bit. And then the other the other one, same along the same lines is for sales of of of city property.

How how are those things factored in, or how how what are the considerations that going into for acquisitions and sales?

Yeah. So I'm gonna take a quick stab, then I'm gonna let Cameron answer the rest of your question. It's a great question. I there within the parks and open space systems plan, we've done walkability analysis, and there's a goal within that plan to have every Bellevue resident within a third of a mile of a park or trail access point. And so that that map starts to show us areas where there are gaps or deficiencies in our park system, where people are further away from that or they can't walk to to to one of those asset locations.

So that starts to identify the neighborhoods or parts of the community where we would like to have some sort of new park acquisition occur. And then there is a team that that evaluates and works with real estate developers to identify specific sites within those locations, and Cameron can talk about some more of the process as to how we arrive at those decisions.

Yeah. Not too much more to add. But, actually, if you could go back to either Factory or Eastgate, you can see that map with or the downtown one. Yeah. That's that's a good one because there's so much white.

So in the northern area where it's shaded green, that that is our walkable access coverage that would be coming from a trailhead onto the mountains of Sound Greenway Trail or the I 90 Trail that runs along the North End of I 90 there. So we, put a point on the map, and, the the mapping software will sort of walk out a third of a mile, and that gets shaded green. And then we focus our attention on on the white areas there that aren't that don't have that walkable access. And in residential cases like Eastgate, it's often working with the local community group to be kinda eyes on the ground. That's how we, came across the properties we did end up acquiring there.

It was like a a hot tip from a neighbor. In commercial areas, it is more challenging. The but we are also sort of working just with folks who know the area, including commercial real estate professionals just to to try and get, you know, a a foot in the door somewhere within that area. So like Paul mentioned, you know, ideally, we'd find something like square in the middle that would have a nice big bloom of a third of a mile all the way around. That would that would be the the best case scenario.

And then one once those potential properties are acquired, there would typically be a team, you know, from planning side, from the capital project side, from the acquisition side, from, you know, city staff that would go and and walk that site, you know, sometimes with the property owner or their representative, always with their permission. But, you know, we would do some some quick analysis of the of the site just to understand, you know, is it is it possible to build a park here? We're not doing high we're we're not doing detailed level planning or anything at that stage, but it's just, you know, what are the immediate recognizable opportunities and constraints on that site. And sometimes, you know, they're it's identified through that that that site, just for whatever reason, isn't feasible to develop or it doesn't offer enough opportunity. And so, you know, we we pass on that opportunity, or it has a long list of opportunities, you know, minimal list of constraints, and that, you know, that might be a property that we would then pursue to acquire from that landowner.

Follow-up question? Yeah. Sorry. So so then if the city does not ex well, if I understand this, city does not exercise eminent domain. And so then the my my next question is, does it reach out to landowners and say, hey. This is a great site for us. We are interested. Or is it more the city waits until somebody wants to sell and falls into that area, and that's when the brokers or whoever it is, the city starts to negotiate for these sites.

Yeah. It has typically been more the the latter and just exercising a lot of patience in in finding willing property sellers. Again, that it's in, like, more commercial areas. It's just a completely different environment, and we have been more proactive, in engaging with commercial real estate professionals who know the area and know, know, how to kind of more proactively make those connections and and test the waters in some of these areas that are a high priority.

Thank you.

Oh, sure.

Sorry. Just one point on this. The Buenos Airesola Elementary moved to Lake Hills, so we might wanna update that.

Yes. Yeah.

Don't know what it's used for now.

Oh, you could have been park.

I feel like I've asked about us talking to the school board many times about sharing properties, figuring out how to use them. I don't I believe that a lot of the elementary schools that were closed were used to relocate other schools that needed to be renovated themselves. So then I believe that happened with Wilburton and also with Big Picture Schools going to Eastgate. So I'm sure this one's already packed up. I'm guessing.

Oh,

Thank you. So as you were going through these projects, I was trying to look them up on the dashboards. Some of them, I don't find. So if they're in acquisition, does that mean they don't make into the dashboards?

Correct.

Okay. Okay. So it's only when you have something acquired and in construction or it was the earliest phase. I don't know. Design, planning?

Yes. I I think we, yeah, we would have to you know, because there's not a site yet, for example, in in Factoria Mhmm. There's not a true project in the way that capital projects dashboard would define project. And so once we acquired a a property and began a master plan and then moved through design and into construction, that's when projects would start to show up there.

And then kind of related to that, I was looking at some of them, and they have, like, the cost estimates. Right? Like so Ashwood is a cost estimated at 8,500,000, Eastgate at 3,000,000, Bell Red is at 10,000,000, and then the park operation is about 40,000,000. So I was kinda curious about the BellRed because if Ashwood is at I think Ashwood is only about two acres, right, at 8.5. Is 10 a bit seems like a little bit lower than I would expect because it's a much bigger piece of land, and we haven't had that May 7, the initial feedback gathering.

So is that 10,000,000 cost estimate, is that something that we have to work? It's, like, the bounds that we have to work with? Like, you know, we basically have 10,000,000, and so whatever community feedback have to fit in that 10 mil budget? Because it seems to be a little lower than I would expect given Ash would be fee 8.5.

So the the budgets that are shown on that dashboard are the approved from are from the approved budget

Mhmm.

Within the CIP. So and it's so are we at a master plan stage, for example, at Bell Red at the new Bell Red site?

Mhmm.

No. We wouldn't necessarily be constrained to that 10,000,000. But when we go to construct the first phase of that project, we would be constrained by that budget. So we could have a master plan that might identify $15,000,000 worth of improvements, but we would only build first, you know, 8,000,000 of that in construction. And then we would have a phase two that would need to go through the budgeting process to have that additional funding allocated and approved.

And that might happen that could happen immediately, or that could happen several years down the line in a future budget cycle just depending on, you know, other priorities, the amount of funding available, what the needs are.

Okay. So, like, does that just the first phase?

It potentially. Potentially. So frontline the master plan may identify improvements that are $10,000,000, and we might build be able to build it all. Mhmm. But you're right. We're very early in that process, and so we don't know yet what the community will ultimately propose and what the design process will ultimately recommend in that plan and the council will adopt. But the but that that budget is intended for to cover that whole life of that first initial master plan design fees as well as construction of the you know, of that initial development of the park site.

Okay. Alright. Thank you.

Any other questions? Do you have one more?

I have one more question. This is oh, almost there. The about the Grand Connections. So this is a suggestion slash question. I think I heard you say we are looking at potentially acquiring space down there near the Grand Connection.

We I The the little red asterisk kind of in the middle Right. Is the is the meeting point of the East Rail and the Grand Connection. So so we we certainly have an interest in how that comes together.

Okay. So what we're really interested in then is just being part of the placemaking, but there's no acquisition discussion, like, for this area.

I think within I think there is acquisition interest

Okay.

Within the I mean, not just specifically at that point on the map, but within the broader surrounding of that node as well as other areas throughout the transit oriented developments that are planned.

Okay. So I just wanna make sure I heard correctly. Because when I when I think about all of the acquisitions or new spaces that we would be making in some of these highly urbanized areas, a little bit less so, like, than what we look at in Factoria where that it's a different environment. But there's so many people, so many businesses and opportunities, and so little land. And a lot of folks want to move in there.

When I was looking at this map, I was just thinking, are we going to have a high rise of parks? And then I thought, well, maybe, like, that would not be a bad idea. So some follow-up questions I have also don't need to be answered now would be things like, does a rooftop park count as a park? Are we looking at mixed use buildings that could do things like community services? I noticed that in the plan, it says opportunities for public spaces, not necessarily outdoor spaces.

I mean, yes, we want space. Again, could be rooftop, could be yard, but what about indoor play places for kids, people who are waiting? So I was wondering if we've thought about some of those more urbanized park public space opportunities for acquisitions, especially in the Grand Connection where there will be just so many people and also so many other facilities around for them?

Yeah. That's a great question and thought experiment for sure. I I see some green lights over there for for for some ideas. So Put them on. Just Yeah. Yeah. Go for it, Ryan.

Well, I would I would say on that last point, I I think there's a lot of different park opportunities that are being considered. Not all of those are necessarily through an acquisition purchase process potentially. In Wilburton, for instance, through the land use code, perhaps there's opportunities for working with developers for smaller scale spaces. But, the image shown on the screen, that is from the sub area plan update. And those those green fuzzy areas, I'll say those are more indicative of areas that we would potentially be interested in a neighborhood park style setting, not just a plaza space or something along those lines.

And so that's what's identified there. And so there you know, you'll see that through our sub area planning processes, particularly in these more urban areas. So there is acquisition interests there, and we are, you know, as we mentioned earlier, trying to follow-up and be pretty intentional about talking to folks in these areas, because it's not not easy, you know, and these are high priced areas with a lot of development happening. So, it's a challenge, but we are are trying to be on the forefront of that, and and acquire some open space through some process.

Mhmm.

Alright. I might have one quick question. Sorry. And then we can move on. Just that when I looked at attachment a under park CIP list, park development and expansion, there was one bullet for King County Parks Levy twenty twenty to 2025. What was that about, or did I blank on that? Sorry.

Yeah. Currently, we do have a a CIP project that's kind of a holding account for funds that are passed through the or collected by King County. It's by the King County wide parks levy. They have a portion of their levy that's passed through to cities to support city work. So that's the the purpose of that account. In the moving forward in our new budget, we won't have that specific project line anymore. It'll just be within our kind of revenue stream, and it then it will be as with all our other revenue streams applied to projects.

Okay. Thanks. Alright. Maybe Wyatt go, or did you? Alright. Let's let Wyatt go. Alright. Thank you.

Great questions. Thank you all for for that discussion. Our next program area is trails and natural systems, and our our purpose of this program and the projects that are in it are to expand and enhance our trail network, improve access, mobility, as well as, support environmental resilience of some of our sensitive natural systems that are through located throughout the city. You know, trails are one of the most popular things that we provide as a park system. They are consistently one of rated as one of the most used elements of our park system in community surveys as well as something that residents routinely consider as a top priority for us to focus on.

And so setting aside this program area felt like a natural outgrowth of some of that community engagement that we have had over many years and many planning processes. Of course, the the open space plan provides that goal that we talked about to bring parks or trail access to within a third of a mile of every Bellevue resident, and so this program directly supports, that initiative. The there was a question at the beginning of the meeting about our trails plan that we are working on. That's currently an internal document that is going to provide a framework for trails discussion and planning as part of the open space plan. And so it's it's laying out some of the the initial goals and and strategies that will be developed with through community engagement as a part of that planning process later this year.

So it it it's something that you will likely see at a future at a future meeting, and it and it's it's a a very important piece of of the this work moving forward. There is, currently one CIP project, that that holds a variety of projects and and job locations, for trails. This that may expand in the future. But currently, PAD one one two is our parks and trails, CIP project. Currently, we have six, active projects that are in planning, design, or construction, and they're they're focused on promoting connectivity and and adding new miles of trail to our system.

One of the next projects that you'll be seeing is the Forest Drive Trailhead in the Coal Creek Natural Area. It's a new trail access point that's being redeveloped, and we're currently in permitting with construction expected to start later this year. Other examples, the the Mercer Slough Boardwalks, and so, you know, trails might mean a lot of different types of surfaces and a lot of, you know, paved or gravel or boardwalks. And so, you know, the they could take different forms, but all of those support that goal of connecting parks and spaces to the people who want to use them. The next major program area is waterfront and destination parks, and this program, will support projects that develop new or improve our existing waterfront parks as well as enhance the city's signature or destination, parks.

And these are grouped together because, typically, parks that are well, one, because parks that are on the waterfront are a high priority identified in the parks and open space plan in terms of allowing greater access to the lakefront and developing new properties and access for water recreation as well as the fact that waterfront parks as well as our signature parks often are high they're both highly visible. They're both typically more complex in their construction, the type of amenities that are being provided, the the type of permitting that is required in order to build a signature park or a new park along the water. And so this is a place to house some of those, more larger larger complex projects for some of the parks that are really the most, perhaps beloved parks in our system. And so we have five of those active, projects and then two that are are pending, awaiting start in a future budget year that's that that will be coming in the next few years. The first of those project checks both of those boxes.

It's a signature project as well as a waterfront project at Maidenbauer Bay Park. We're initiating the phase two of that project, to build upon the success of the first phase that happened a few years ago. And so this project will develop a new Gateway Plaza at 1 Hundredth And Main and then work a network of pathways down the hill to the waterfront and then make some improvements along that waterfront to connect to, the Whaling Building and the existing park west of the marina. Future phases then would work on the actual marina, but that's not not part of this current phase two. So this is currently in I call it I call it pre early schematic design, predesign.

We are intending to initiate a a GCCM process for this. That's a process where we bring on a general contractor early to work with our designer, make sure that everything that we're designing is constructible, and it's in the most effective and efficient way possible. And so we're currently working through that approval process to to hire that contractor to work with our design team. And and ultimately, and together, collaboratively, we'll move that project through the design phase and into construction. We anticipate construction occurring here in 2029 and 2030.

The next project is the Lake Sammamish Neighborhood Park. So this is new, park property that we have been acquiring along the West Bank Of Lake Sammamish. And when once it is completed, it will provide the endpoint for the city's lake to Lake Greenway Trail as well as nearly 400 feet of new accessible shoreline. And so we are currently in the process of we've acquired a number of these properties. There's there's a couple that are are yet to be acquired that are in process.

And this summer, we intend to begin demolition in preparation for a master planning process that will kick off once all the properties are acquired. The next project is the Park Shoreline Restoration CIP. So this is a a project that will hold a number of lakefront projects. A lot of our lakefront properties were built quite a few years ago with infrastructure, shoreline armoring methods that are no longer recommended. And so this project seeks to renaturalize a lot of those shorelines, install new or updated ways to manage that erosion or wave control as well as provide new natural buffer as well as additional better access to the water in some of these locations.

And so some of these examples, Chisholm Beach or or Clyde Beach Parks, you know, wouldn't would fit under this CIP. I think that that might be the Pirate Ship Playground in that photo that you mentioned earlier in the meeting. The next project is the Bellevue Airfield Park Development. This is an 27 acre park. The council adopted a master plan for this park back in 2024, and we are currently working through a process, called progressive design build.

That is a process where we hire the design team and the builder together as a team, and they work together with us to, again, design and build the project in the most efficient and effective way possible, really to maximize the the public benefit of the dollars and and get the most out of the project budget that we can. The project has things like eight new covered pickleball courts, which we know is of of going to be a very popular feature, trails, play area, splash pad, as well as a large aquatic center. The project, as envisioned, that's currently in that queue for hiring that design team, will build out the first phase of the park as well as do some of the preliminary design for the aquatic center so that we make sure that those two uses blend well in the park, and then there's a subsequent project to develop that aquatic center. We are expected to be work begin working on design this year with construction of the park in starting in 2029. And the next CIP is is related.

That is the aquatic facility design CIP, and the the items listed on that slide are from the council approved concept per program for that facility. And so a a number of five bodies of water that provide a variety of of water activity and opportunity as well as some dry side spaces to support fitness or therapy or or meeting spaces, and certainly staff support spaces are needed in that facility as well. We're currently working on developing funding strategies as well as working with our partner Splash Forward to identify potential private partners that could support this effort with us. And so we'll we'll begin as part of that airfield project preliminary design, to develop more of the concept and kinda move it to the next stage. Once we do have that, we'll have a better idea of costs as well as, what exactly would go into the building, then we would continue fundraising.

And as as those dollars and and financial picture becomes more clear, we could then work with that same design build team that's building the park to move straight into design and construction of the aquatic center. So timing is a little bit further out and and dependent on on that on that funding picture coming together, but it it would, at any rate, follow the development of Airfield Park at some point. The next project is the Bellevue Botanical Gardens, and so projects that are are seeking to improve, the garden's nest under this CIP. It's, you know, one of our top visitor attractions in the city. It's one of the spaces that my family fell in love with when we came to visit Bellevue for the very first time.

We have a very unique public and very successful public private partnership with the Botanical Garden Society that helps support a variety of capital projects as well as programs at the at the gardens. The next major project for the gardens is the Wetland Sun Terrace Garden area, which is identified here in these concept drawings, and we anticipate working with the, Botanical Garden Society and the staff there to begin design of this project in 2028. And the last major, project in this program is Kelsey Creek Farm, major renovation. And so this is another one of those, highly beloved facilities that we have the opportunity to manage in parks and community services, gives the residents and visitors an opportunity to experience that rural farming past of our of our history as well as a variety of opportunities for educational programs and different community events. Like Cameron mentioned earlier, we have several coming up.

And so this project would seek to identify and and make plans for really a major renovation of of the facilities here at at the farm to address things like accessibility, fire safety, aging materials, major mechanical upgrades to the buildings, as well as storm water drainage and just other improvements to the to the site as well as the surrounding, parklands. So this is on tap for planning to begin in 2028 with construction to follow, you know, once that planning and design process were done. Our last major program area is renovation and renewal, and the purpose of this program is to improve our existing parks and facilities. And these are typically projects that are not they're not routine, so they're not typical day to day maintenance type projects. They're they're larger than our maintenance and o and m teams can handle on their own, but they're not necessarily changing a program a site's program or function or purpose.

So they're not introducing new things to the site. They're they're updating the things that are already that are already there or replacing the things that are there as those as that infrastructure reaches the end of its useful life. And so, obviously, in order you know, we have a large aging park system that requires that level of reinvestment in order to meet community needs and expectations for how our parks, both how they look as well as how they feel and how they you know, we wanna make sure that they're safe and accessible for the community to utilize. And there's a lot of projects that happen within this program, as you can imagine, to keep up with the the number of parks and facilities that we have. And so there's two major project areas in this program.

One is the parks renovation and refurbishment plan. And so this is a plan that allows us to systematically go through all of the park assets and renovate them over a period of time with with the to meet those goals of of accessibility and and functionality and beauty for our parks. Some of the examples that might be identified in in in that plan are the Norwood Village Park on the top, which is identifying play playground improvements as well as accessibility improvements for the park, stair construction at Woodridge Park, new play equipment at Hidden Valley, and a renovation at the tennis center for new siding and and new roofs. And so other things, you know, replacements for docks, playgrounds, other building systems are the types of projects that that fit under this capital program. There's about 60 projects per year They're typically done as a part of this.

Some of those are managed by the project by the capital projects team, and and some of those are managed by the the operations and maintenance team with funding through this program. And then the final project here is the ADA accessibility barrier removal initiative. For a long time, ADA improvements were managed through the renovation program, and they still are to to some extent. But a couple years ago, with the last budget cycle, we created this CIP to specifically direct resources towards ADA improvements, both as a a goal to meet the the federal requirements as well as our city goals to provide inclusive accessible spaces for community members. And so this year, we've we've performed ADA assessments on several park facilities that are listed on the on the slide, and and then we'll be working to build projects out of those assessments in the coming years.

And some examples of those, on the left is the kitchen at the Highlands Community Center. It has a number of of issues just with the way the space is laid out and the doors are located that don't meet current accessibility requirements. And so we have a project envisioned to begin later this year to address those concerns. And then the project on the right is at the Crossroads Pro Shop, and there's some accessibility issues getting in and out of the front door of that building as well as around the building. And so that we have a project planned again later this year to address those issues and make make that building more accessible for the community that needs to use it.

That's the summary of our program areas and active capital projects. So happy to take more questions and more discussion.

Thank you, Jenny and Wyatt. So any final questions for Jenny and Wyatt? Okay. Go for it.

I noticed when I was looking at this earlier, the parks, trails, CIP section on on the site has about 6,000,000 ad allocated for that. Interesting thing about parks, like you said, it or trails rather, it's the most requested feature. But it's also, depending on how you classify it, one of the highest ROI things, like, doesn't cost quite as much to build a trail as it does to build Maidenbauer, for example. And there's kind of two things I was wondering about. One is, as a portion of the total park CIP, should this number be higher?

But also, like, where are we at in terms of building out the trail network in the city of Bellevue? Like, if we were I don't know. Someone dropped a billion dollar grant on us to build trails. Like, what would we build? Right? Like, where is the point where we'd say, okay. We got the trail sorted out. I don't I don't know if I have a good handle on that. Like, are there is there $2,030,000,000 dollars worth of trails that we could build if the money was just kind of burning a hole in our pocket, but that's about it? Or, I mean, I'm talking about connecting up the existing parks, talking about building out the cross city trails like the lake to lake and and similar things. Like, how how how do we how do we measure that?

That is a really good question. And no. And and it's something that we're that we're actively working on. It's a component of the trails plan that we're working on now that will feed into the open space plan. Mhmm. I think our our our prior our current open space plan has a has a it it emphasizes the importance of trails. It doesn't necessarily take the next step of having all the details of where the trails would go and what those trails should look like to create that full network.

Mhmm.

I think the city has relied on a prior bicycle and pedestrian system study that was an from a number of years ago that was was not readopted more recently. And so I think there there is a a bit of a gap in that. We are actively working with transportation to identify kinda what the next iteration of that plan would look like and incorporate that into a trails plan that comes as a package with our parks and open space plan. So I think there's a lot of ideas out there about what the trail system could and should look like and where those corridors should be. I don't know that they're all collected in one spot.

And our our goal with with the trails planning work that we're doing now is to actively get them into one document that shows this is the vision for trails for Bellevue Mhmm. And and where where we have existing, where we have the gaps, and then what it takes to fill those gaps from a from a dollars perspective. So that if 20,000,000 or 30,000,000 landed in our laps, we would know here's here's the, you know, the list of 10 or 20 projects in their priority order that we would start to to go after to that would have the biggest community impact.

Right. I mean, if if nothing else, it's kind of a parallel concept to the whole, you know, we're trying to get walkable parks third mile. I mean, I understand trailheads fit into that, but just this this kind of easy to grasp metric of this is what we're going towards, it would be nice to have that for trails for the reasons you mentioned as well. But also, I think there's a little bit of time criticality because as Wilburton TOD and BellRed get built out, I mean, we would hope that there would be a higher vision of interconnectivity between the surrounding areas and these new upcoming areas. And we wait too long, and some stuff might start gelling there. I mean, it's maybe not moving that fast from what we can tell, but it's something we don't want to get behind on.

I think the sub area plan for Bell Red, for example, identifies Greenway Trail type corridors along some of the streamways. I imagine that the Wilburton sub area plan is currently in process. We'll we'll, like, start to identify some of those connectivities be primarily because it's of Eastrail and how do we connect more people to that asset as well as Connection coming into that area as well, which will provide a major pedestrian multimodal node. So I think those I think we lean in on those types of regional plan or, you know, sub area plans and then start to identify as we have master plans coming up for BellRed or or other active work along Eastrail that we're gonna be involved in, hopefully, you know, we start to to push that. You know, these these projects are needed to connect to these regional or local park assets.

K.

So and all of that would be nested into this trails plan that's part of the open space plan.

Right. So Okay. Awesome. Thanks.

Elizabeth?

So first of all, great question. Plus one to everything Paul asked. I I'm really eagerly awaiting that deep dive so we can see, like, how we're measuring it, and we can see the increase in connectedness that we can get for pedestrians and cyclists and people on trails. My question was around a specific comment about the we the adjacent to Weona Lake Sammamish addition. Did I hear you say potentially that would be part of an extension on the Lake To Lake Trail.

So right now, the Lake To Lake Trail ends in we own a park. And then, I know, god help anybody who tries to get over that road, and then there's private property. So would we would we be potentially looking at getting to the lake from there on a trail?

That that is the vision. Yes. We have we're cord we plan to coordinate with transportation as they have plans to improve the roadway through there. There's sections of it that have been improved for the bike lanes or or side paths. And so, you know, what does that look like through this area adjacent to our future park site and coordination for a safe crossing from the Weona side over to what we're calling Lake Sammamish properties. And then, you know, how do we get down to the water from that from the roadway down to that point. So those are all things that, you know, will be explored as in those future planning

efforts. Yeah. Well, first of all, I really appreciate your presentation, Wyatt. I think you have a very important job and tough job. I don't know how you keep track of all these projects. Like, do you review them? Like, do you like, every couple weeks? Like, how internally, I wonder, you guys manage all these projects or, like, risk and issues? Yeah. Just curious.

Thank thank you for that comment and question. So so internally, I mean, there's you know, there we have a group of project managers that are all into the details and of project delivery for these projects. I meet with them every week. Mhmm. And we talk through projects, you know, kinda status, and we do have a we have an internal dashboard that is just for our tracking purposes that kinda shows, you know, the life cycle of those projects and where they're at.

And then, yeah, we we talk all the time. You know? This is this is this is what we do, and and delivering these type of projects is what what I and our and the team love to do. And so it's it's hard work, but it's great work. It's fun work. So happy to happy to share it with you, and I really appreciate all the questions tonight.

Yeah. Thank you so much. I'm sure the city is grateful to have you. Been here, what, a year? Not quite. Not a few months.

Five five month five five five months.

Yeah. Thank you. My other question is about you know, I I talked earlier in my sharing about these trails, I think Paul mentioned. So I'm just curious. Out of the 90 miles, how what's the percentage?

I I mean, you may not know, like, on top of your head. Like, how much of that is bikeable, and how much today they are connected? Like because the reason I ask is I'm constantly looking for trails to practice because for my for my big biking trip at the, December, we need to bike on a on average 50 to 80 miles per day. Right? So so last weekend, we biked from Merimore Park to Carnation, Falls City, Kahani, and then Lake Sammamish back.

So total about 51 miles. Right? So I'm constantly looking for and that was, like, some of most of them are on the roads. And, literally, like, some places, I won't even call them bike lane because I'm literally, like, biking on the roads. And then I was like, if I fall, do I fall to this zipping cars, or do I fall down the hill? You know? So, literally, that's what I'm, like, facing. So I'm constantly looking for a safer trail. Yeah. I'm curious, like, are there existing connect is even a map within Bellevue I could bike even, like, thirty, forty miles connected within the city of Bellevue?

Yeah. I don't know that I can answer the first question yet. I think as a one component of this trails planning that we're doing now that rolls into this larger plan is to map all the trails. There there there are resources. There's a there's a bike map Mhmm.

That's in print form. It's probably on the website that has the that existing network. I think, ultimately, a there is a future state that is, like, the finished you know, this is the dream vision where there's a full loop and everything's connected to everything. I think there's likely an interim state where we have, you know, what we have today and how do we how do we prioritize key connection points to make to make it so you can go from the end of this trail to the beginning of the next trail safely. And it may not be all on a trail.

It may require a street connection or a side path connection. Mhmm. But I think as part of the planning effort, you know, we we would like to identify what that temporary route is with the idea that those become permanent improvements over time. One of the one of the things that we did at a city that I was at previously was I think Kirkland is doing a version of this now. You know, we we had the Little Apple Loop, which was a combination of trails and sidewalks and local streets that made a loop around the community, and we identified that route with some small inconspicuous signage to where you would know you're on that route.

And it and that was with the vision of long term. All of that would be converted to, you know, either either separated bike lane, protected bike lane, or a multiuse path. So I think a vision like that for Bellevue is something that we we would share and that we would want to incorporate into that future long range plan and identify, you know, what do we do now in the interim and then while we while we work towards that full future protected safe state.

That'll be great. Thank you.

And as part of that, I think we'll look at, you know, what's how many miles of trail surface type? Is it bikeable? Is it more for hikers? Mhmm. You know, what what what's the what is that split? And then what enhancements do we wanna make to that.

Great. Thank you so much.

But I would I would say, generally, you know, our regional trails are our largest bike routes as well as some of the other greenways. On the trails slide, Dwight had a map of greenways and proposed greenway trails. So not all of those are complete, but those are kinda the main corridors that we would likely envision biking. A lot of our other trails, you know, make up that 90 miles. I don't know what the exact percentage would be, but it's it's a large percentage.

Those are interpark trails. They're more paths, or or areas that you just wouldn't be biking or that biking isn't really permitted. So, really, it's, you know, a lot of trails that parks doesn't actually manage are are, some of our heavy more heavily biked routes.

And I and I think that that ultimately requires that collaboration with transportation that that is is currently focused on on street or side path, you know, within located within right of way bikeable connections. And so, you know, at some point, you're going to leave a park trail, and you're going to enter a a different type of bike experience that, you know, is is planned by transportation. How how do you do that safely? You know, what what is their pro long range priority for those type of connections, and how do we utilize those to connect people from park to park or trail to trail, to get back onto a dedicated, pathway.

Thank you. Any final comment? Actually, I have one question which might transition. I think two years ago when we put the memo together, it was part of an off-site. And is that kinda how we put but, yeah, I was curious. This is all amazing information, but how do how shall we go about synthesizing a a memo? Is that kind of a next month stuff?

Yeah. We do have so we have June and July meetings reserved for that. We are working on, potentially having one of those be off-site. I don't know that we have details quite nailed down yet, but, but, yes, that's that's the the vision.

Oh, okay. So we'll take what we've learned today and then bring it to the off-site where we'll throw all our ideas together as a board to try to build a memo. Okay. Yeah. Thank you so much. Sorry. I was just curious about how to

take this. To to follow-up on that just a little bit, is the memo also gonna cover things not talked about today, like non CIP related operations, budgetary issues?

It focuses on CIP, just staying within the the board's charge in terms of what it what it weighs in on in in the budget process, which is focused on CIP. The using the two year ago letter as an example, it just tend to it has tended to be more thematic. I've actually been keeping some notes here of themes I've heard just from the questions and conversations today. So that that would be kind of how we would approach that again as sort of talk through, kind of the look at the projects that are underway. Again, sort of recognizing that the, we won't have an element of adding new necessarily.

It's more about, living within our means and our current projects and just what, what themes and points of and messages you want to make sure the council gets as they look at the city budget as a whole when they do come to the time of looking at the the park CIP specifically. Mhmm.

Yeah. I'm not gonna have a chance to weigh in on that, but the the non CIP related issue I was thinking about was last year you made or Michael made a request for additional dedicated King County animal control. Mhmm. I hope you're gonna consider that again. Yeah. For the same reasons that I've Same reasons. Flavored this body with on numerous occasions.

That was I don't believe we captured that in the board's letter. But but, yeah, we did have support for that on the operating side. Yes. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone. With that, I guess yes. Thank you, Jenny and Wyatt, for your wonderful presentation today. And then Thank you. Thank you.

Alright. And then final agenda item of the evening is the twenty twenty is the report and communication to counsel for the 2026, and presenting that will be Ryan Walker, senior I'll turn it over to you, Ryan. Sorry.

Thank you, chair. So this is the, regular cadence for memos to council. It's, just a report out of what the board has been, taking part in and and hearing about. So this is the first quarterly memo of 2026. Couple of things that are highlighted within it.

One is that the board kicked off their role for a master plan for the, what Wyatt referred to in in Bell Red at the West Tributary Park site, generally. So that's that's highlighted. And that process will be moving forward, and description about that process is included. And then there are there's a description of some other items and tools and plans that the board heard about that will that are really aimed at increasing access, to parks and to programming within the entire system. So these included the a summary of the program, marketing and communications, included an overview of the human services needs updates that occurred, as well as the recently adopted diversity advantage plan, DAP 2035.

I'm glad to answer any questions about the memo. I'll turn it back over to you, Cher.

Yeah. A super fast question. Reading through this, it looks like everything under supporting equity and engagement with the community is in chronological order. Is that right?

It is. Okay.

Yep. And that's the intent of the I mean, it's I would not ask for a change at this point, but I'm just

Yeah. I don't

Good to know.

We we kinda put the tools up first. It ended up being in chronological, but, really, the idea was for the marketing and then to highlight the plans that that follow behind that that works on the programming side and human services side.

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.

Oh, did you wanna, like, reorder in?

Yeah.

Oh, okay. Okay. Any additional comments, questions? Alright. With that, is there a motion to transmit the first quarter report and communication to counsel as presented?

So moved. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you.

So I guess we'll put it to a vote. Shall we move to transmit the fourth quarter report and communication to council? I I Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. All in favor. All in favor, say aye.

Aye. Any

opposed, say no. Alright. The the motion has been vote. I don't know. I'm I'm, like, stumbling on question. It's how do you say it? The motion has been unanimously. Carried. Carried the motion has been carried unanimously. Sorry. I really got tongue tied. With that new business, we'll turn it over to Ryan. Excellent.

Thank you. And and thanks to you, chair and and vice chair, Val Verde, for all of your help in in getting the memo together, as always. So, looking ahead to May, we have, looks like two agenda items on the docket. One will relate to project you heard about tonight at our park at the corner of 1 12th And Main Street. Some information and and naming, to, consider on that process moving forward.

Another item, we'll we also talked about a bit tonight is the neighborhood planning, neighborhood sub area plan updates for Eastgate and Factorio. So we'll have staff from community development here to talk about that process and look at some of the policy that, is in draft form. That's all I have.

Thanks, Ryan. Any questions for Ryan? Alright. With that, we've completed all the items on tonight's agenda, and so I call the meeting now adjourned. Thank you.

Thank you.