Arts Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everyone. I call this meeting to order. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda?

I motion.

And move. Do we have a second?

I second.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Motion carries. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes from the April meeting?

I make a motion to approve the minutes.

It's been moved. Do I have a second?

I can second.

Okay. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. And then do we have oral communications?

Yes. We do. We call forward Mr. Zimmerman.

Very efficient. Oral disablement is good. I hope isn't you.

Oh, I'm going to read the script while you're getting set up. 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. In addition, there are new rules adopted by the City Council limiting the topics about which the public may speak during our meetings. Under Ordinance 6752, the public may now only speak during public comment about subject matters that are related to City of Bellevue government issues. and are within the power and duties of the Arts Commission. Additional information about the new rules of decorum governing conduct of the public during our meetings can be found at Ordinance 6752. And with that, Mr. Zimmerman?

Yes, thank you very much. My name is Alex Zimmerman. I want to speak about something. What is I speak for last 10 years? Number one, what is I want to speak? Yes, this is my official statement about your committee. You know what it means? And I come to this meeting for 10 years. I don't come to you because you look to me like a dirty, damn Nazi, fascist bastard. You know what it means? I come speak to people of Bellevue, 150,000. So first I try to understand... Why you cannot show these faces is go for many year, and I complain in every meeting, not only yours, in every meeting, because five people, five meeting in this room, 13, don't show faces. I never see like this before from Tacoma to Seattle, in every, I speak more than 5,000 times to a dozen city. Everybody show faces. You're only one who don't do this. Is this exactly present right now, consul? You know what it means? Another dirty, damn Nazi, fascist, bastard. You know what it means? What is no about this? And they don't do this. It's number one. Number two, Mayor Robinson 12 years ago cut a statement saying, For speech, you know what it means? Before we can speak without limitation. But Mayor Robinson did this, and I bring this paper to you. Yeah. And she did this, and council supports them. So for 12 years I talk and we need stopping this, this Nazi, Gestapo, fascist, bastard, a mob, a bandita, what is, don't want what these people speak. Limit this and totally cut us constitutional right, freedom of speech. In council this present too, you see, this is not first time what is, I talk to her and she not react. Why? Because it's an ordinary Nazi, Gestapo, fascist, bastard, a mob, a bandita. Why consul not doing this? Why they don't give a chance speak to every city? 150,000. It's a big problem what is we have. It's number two. The number three, the last week expired three-year trespasses what is Mayor Robinson give to me because I'm candidate against her. She acting like a criminal and consul support her. You cannot stop in somebody who go against you, candidate who go against you, use your power for cut me totally for three year right of speech and cut my statement for election. It's never happened before in state. Washington, you know what it means? You guys very quiet about this. Why? Because you are cretina and bandita. You are Nazi bandit. It's exactly who you are. And I repeat this in every meeting in this room, not only to you. Viva Trump. Viva New American Revolution. Stand up, slave, and happy cow. Guys, we need to stop this right now because the situation we have right now is critical. You steal a billion and billion dollars from people.

You're done.

Time is up. Super. Thank you very much. It's for you again.

Do we have any more oral communication?

right here we go all right hello i'm bailey fuentes uh i'm returning back from may uh i we did we missed that meeting for may um i only have three minutes so i just gotta be very quick about it um i'm ready to go for the project i went to the site we we talked about it um it's down there in the the red barn where the utility vehicles are the city doesn't want us to do the whole the full building And I think that's what I had suggested at first was we're going to do the full building. They just want us to do the doors. So the doors that you see on the south facing side. So as you're taking the light road that goes across the spring district, it's right there in the middle. It's a park. That they're going to turn it into a park. And so the idea is to get started on that as soon as possible. They asked me to have insurance for that. So we've got the insurance. And so now that we've got the insurance, we've got the money to do it. I've got the two grand that they gave me up front for it. So we've got that money. And then we're going to use that. The remaining amount, the $2,000 that they gave for the Bell Red Arts Grant, the project grant, we're going to use that now. So just over the next few months going forward, that's what we're going to do. We're just going to get going on the supplies, get everything organized, and then just start the work. I think that's where we are with it, and that's really all I have to say about that. I did apply for the Bell Red. They've got another project separately going on at the Bell Red Art Studio. And it was for like eight grand. So I applied for that and they're going to do a panel for that to see who gets it. There's no guarantee that I'm going to get that, but I did apply for it. Other than that, what else do I really have to say in my minutes? Yeah. think this whole thing has been great just doing the project um just talking people i think just hitting walls with the business was like the hardest part was just like we had that private business um that was that we were working with and then they kind of just like pulled out on us last minute and so we were just left with our hands in the air i'm not really sure what to do so i think this whole red barn is a good idea it's right there in the area I mean, they're going to tear the building down anyway or do something else. So I think if with the amount of time that I have, this mural should be good. It should be excellent. I think as soon as you see it, everyone's going to love it when they take the light rail. So as soon as you're taking the light rail from the Bell Red Art District into Spring District, you'll see it. And we'll do with my last 30 seconds, we'll just do like a ribbon snipping. I just want to do a ribbon, like a really big red ribbon. A bunch of people show up. There's like a giant pair of scissors and then we just snip it and then like say hurrah and everyone cheers. But yeah, that's where we are with that.

Great.

So that's, thank you.

I have a question for staff. If he's being restricted to the doors, is there a thought that they might be salvaged and reused if the building is demolished? And that's just a question, but art resource, you know.

It's certainly something we can look into. If it's something smaller like the doors, we could talk to our peers in other departments. We're having a similar conversation with a mural that's coming down right now about what part we might be able to salvage.

I would maybe put that in your notes as to think long-term about if this is part of a building to be demolished. I think that's great.

So would I. I think that's a great idea.

Well, thank you for the update.

Of course.

Any other questions for...

Just a simple question. Do you need anything from us?

No, just show up for the ceremony. I think it would be great just to have like public facing there just to kind of like see how the whole thing has gone through. I've been showing up to these meetings consecutively. So like just to kind of see the end result of it, just so you're like aware of how the project turned out. I think that's the only thing I would want from you guys. Other than that, we're set to start on it.

All right. So action items, discussion items. First on the agenda is new commissioner. Welcome.

So after six months, we found a lovely new member for you all. I'd like to welcome Brendan officially. Do you want to share a few words about yourself and why you might be interested in serving, why you applied, and what you're excited about?

Sure, why not? So my name is Brendan. It's nice to meet all of you. Looking forward to meeting with you guys routinely. I wanted to join because I'm very passionate just about the arts in general. It goes from live theater to museums to open spaces, activating parades, things like that. And I've been following the Arts Commission for quite some time and just the arts kind of in general with Bellevue. So I'm excited to try and be a part of that.

Welcome. It's great to have the seat filled and to have us a little more balanced gender wise. So really thinking that. Yeah, really glad. Next item on the agenda, Great Neighborhoods Eastgate and Factorian Neighborhood Area Updates.

Good evening. My name is Zachary Luckin. I'm Senior Planner with the Comprehensive Planning Division in Community Development. Good evening, Chair Aldridge and the rest of our members here and Council Member Bhargava and members of the public, those who are online. Tonight, we're excited to share the progress for the Great Neighborhoods Program in Eastgate and Factorio. We launched the work program in August of last year with Council to update the neighborhood area plans for these two neighborhoods. Over the past eight months, we've talked to over 1,200 people at 31 events who have shared their vision and ideas for the future of Eastgate and Factoria. That feedback was used to create a draft neighborhood area plans that lay the foundation for neighborhood improvements. The policies tonight were shared with the public earlier this month, and we're in the process of hearing from community boards and commissions prior to returning to Planning Commission later this month on the 24th to share the full draft plan and updated policies. Next slide, please. so this meeting is information only although we certainly invited discussion about how the draft policies support art identity place making and for both neighborhoods a formal recommendation is neither requested nor required but feedback from this study session will be shared with planning commission as they consider different inputs and we provide inputs when providing staff to update the plans excellent So this is our agenda for this evening. I'll do a brief bit about the neighborhood planning process, go over the scope of the plans, talk about our community engagement to date, and then we'll go through each plan first, the Eastgate policies and implementation concepts, and then the same for Factoria. So the Great Neighborhoods program was initiated by city council in 2018 to update all of the 16 of Bellevue's neighborhood area plans, many of which have not been updated comprehensively for several decades. The primary objective is to develop neighborhood plans that are relevant, community-driven, and reflective of citywide and local priorities. This planning process is done by engaging community members who live, work, play, and learn in these communities so their inputs shape the plan outcomes. These plans serve as a guide for decision making and informs how the city will partner with others to realize a 10 to 20 year vision for the neighborhood. We completed several neighborhood plans already and are currently working on updating Eastgate and Factorio. Neighborhood area plans are part of Bellevue's Comprehensive Plan, which is the city's guiding policy document for how the city grows and develops over the next 20 years. The vision, goals, and policies in the plan describes what the city wants to achieve, balancing clear direction and flexibility to respond to changing conditions within the neighborhoods. There can be several ways to implement policies, such as investing in new facilities, creating new regulations or ordinances, or supporting programs and partnerships. A policy around arts, for example, can result in public art installation or establishment of public spaces for cultural events. Next slide. Eastgate and Victoria, as planning boundaries, followed the I-90 business corridor, which historically has our highest concentration of mid- to large-size employers and hotels outside of downtown. The Eastgate neighborhood area includes areas both north and south of I-90. It's a large geographic area. It's made up of many different uses, including lower-density residential areas, apartments, light industrial, retail, parks, offices, and Bellevue College. Bordering Eastgate is Factoria, bound by I-405 and I-90. It's predominantly a commercial employment center known for Factoria Mall and the T-Mobile headquarters, as well as numerous professional services, retail, and restaurants, many of which are international. Beyond these commercial areas, there are pockets of residential neighborhoods to the southwest and up the hill to the east. The neighborhood area planning process is divided into four phases, as shown here. In previous phases, we worked with the community to identify the values and priorities that they had and develop a draft vision and policy priorities that should be the building blocks of this draft plan. We are currently in the refine phase, and where we have developed the draft plan policies for community review. We anticipate returning to Planning Commission in June for an initial review of the full draft plans that includes the plan policies, narratives, and maps. We aim for a final review and adoption of the plans with City Council by the end of the year. Next slide. Neighborhood area plans are organized into five sections and relevant policies for this commission can be found in several of these sections. The first is neighborhood identity. These policies strengthen the physical and cultural elements that anchor the neighborhood and make it unique. Mixed use and neighborhood center policies support the evolution of our mixed use centers so they are convenient to get to, attractive to be in, and have unique offerings for the community. Community gathering space policies support developing, enhancing, and connecting people to indoor and outdoor gathering spaces. Mobility and access policies inform future capital improvements around streets, sidewalks, bicycle facilities, trails, and transit infrastructure. And lastly, the environment. These policies support enhancing natural areas. As mentioned previously, we've had extensive engagement to date during the Discover phase that took place in late of last year. We focused on identifying those values, opportunities, and challenges. The team engaged communities through events and platforms that reached residents, business owners, students, and others in the Eastgate community and Factorio as well, with the emphasis on groups less likely to participate in the planning process. Activities included tabling, questionnaires, workshops, walks with the community and more. These events are summarized in the engagement reports that were provided in your agenda materials. Moving on to the defined phase, this took place earlier this year and focused on developing a draft vision and a set of urban design and policy priorities. During this phase, we held a workshop with a range of hands-on activities, providing people of all ages with the opportunity to identify public space improvements and provide feedback on our vision statements and draft policy moves. To support the workshop, we also held smaller workshops and tabling opportunities in the community throughout both neighborhoods. I'd like to use this photo collage just to really emphasize that this plan is shaped by community. We've heard from many diverse voices and perspectives in many different settings from classrooms to apartments, common spaces, and even some intersections of our main arterials too. So in Eastgate, we've learned that the community members value a safe, natural, diverse, and economically prosperous neighborhood. Neighborhood assets include mature trees, which largely define Eastgate's residential areas, streams, and open spaces. Another asset is its parks. Community parks that border Eastgate, such as Eastgate Park in Robinswood, can be directly accessed from the neighborhood and draw people in from across the city. And there are a number of neighborhood parks within the area as well. People also appreciate the convenience of being able to access transit, grocery stores, restaurants, and coffee shops in the neighborhood, while also being close to the wilderness features like hiking trails and streams. Lastly, people really care about their neighbors, and it's common for them to encounter them while going walks throughout the neighborhood and connecting with people. Based on these values and assets, the team developed a vision statement of what Eastgate will look and feel like in the next 10 to 20 years. It focuses on opportunities for Eastgate's diverse communities to thrive and connect, enhance Eastgate's natural, recreational, and commercial assets, and create hubs for communities to gather on both sides of I-90. This vision statement for Eastgate is the foundation for the draft policies around arts and culture. and I'll read it briefly here. Eastgate is a convenient, safe, and welcoming neighborhood where its diverse residents, businesses, and student population can thrive and build connections with one another. Its tree-lined and well-maintained residential areas are the heart of the neighborhood, and people from all stages of life are seen walking, biking, and taking transit to experience the area's natural beauty, outdoor recreation, and retail and entertainment offerings. Mixed-use areas on both sides of Interstate 90, as well as Bellevue College, anchor the neighborhood as vibrant hubs for living, working, gathering, learning, and fostering community. So now we'll take a look at some of the policies, which again are in your agenda memo. I'm just going to summarize them broadly in terms of some of the main themes that we've seen here, and then we can have a brief discussion after each section or after each neighborhood. Policies in the neighborhood identity section seek to enhance Eastgate's distinct qualities as a convenient, green, and welcoming neighborhood. From an arts standpoint, this highlights the neighborhood's opportunity and role in economic development, and the goals outlined in the economic development plan update. This includes recognizing that Eastgate has the second highest concentration of hotels and part of its revitalization strategy is increasing opportunities for having more things to do for visitors in the area as well as its residents. This is also achieved through placemaking that celebrates and promotes the neighborhood identity and through streetscape and threshold enhancements. And thresholds, which we'll talk about a little bit later, are those natural entrances into the neighborhood. Policies in the mixed use and neighborhood centers section seek to help Eastgate's centers evolve into places where people can easily access transit, housing, shopping, places to gather, and services. And through these policies, this is done through building partnerships that improve the business environment in Eastgate. Moving on to our community gathering spaces section. This seeks to provide a variety of indoor and outdoor gathering spaces to serve a growing and diverse neighborhood. This is accomplished through coordinating with organizations such as churches and schools and private development to increase opportunities for recreation and cultural programming. Also in this section, we have developing new accessible parks and outdoor public spaces for recreation and community events. And then we have policies in our environment section, which focus on enhancing natural assets by integrating trails into natural areas and supporting environmental education opportunities. In addition to these policies, a key element of the neighborhood area plans are the concept maps that locate and visualize opportunities to improve gathering spaces. Improvements are supported through policies and community feedback to help inform where these opportunities could be. As the name indicates, these maps are conceptual. They're not potential project lists, but instead guide project identification and partnerships for other departments. Going from left to right and top to bottom, some of the improvements that are explored through community spaces include enhancements to natural features, new neighborhood parks, neighborhood markers such as public art and signs, improvements to streets, paths, and trails to connect these destinations together. And so this is our gathering space concept map for Eastgate. And it really pulls together and creates a cohesive vision for what these community gathering spaces might look like and how they function and are connected.

Would you go back just for a minute to that previous map? This one? The next one. There we go. Zoom in.

Oh, I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to talk through it. Yeah. So the green bubbles indicate potential new park space south of I-90 and are informed by policies recognizing the need for neighborhood parks in areas that lack walkable access currently. The orange cogs dotted throughout the map represent destinations within the community where people would like to see opportunities for both indoor and outdoor gathering spaces, including shopping areas, community facilities, schools, and campuses. The purple circles What we call our thresholds, as I mentioned before, and these mark entrances into the neighborhoods from the freeway and adjacent neighborhoods and are key opportunities to highlight neighborhood identity, whether through art, signage, or some other visual element. And then tying together these elements together are those blue dashed lines throughout the neighborhood, which we highlight as opportunities for improved walking and biking connections to safely and comfortably travel between these destinations. And so as we move on to the discussion in the next slide, my one prompt, and I'm open to other feedback, specifically is where are the entrances or some of these national thresholds in the community that we should be prioritizing? We can move on. So opening up to discussion here, in addition to some of those thresholds, do these draft policies for Eastgate provide adequate direction to inform the development and implementation of arts and cultural projects and investments to support the neighborhood area's vision? Yeah, so we're going to have a discussion around Eastgate, and then once that concludes, we'll move on to Factory and walk through those policies.

Well, as a resident of Eastgate, I would say I think your map is the most instructive thing to see how you are thinking to implement the policies. And Um, I think, I think you're dead on that the, that more parks and trails are needed in the neighborhood and more gateways or, and more public art. I understand we have a call out for public art at one of the places you've marked. I think it's Victoria Boulevard and 136 right there by ourselves, jewelers. So it seems we're already moving in that direction. Um, So I think you've done a good job as a resident, I would say.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Sandra, if you want to speak online, we see your hand. Can you hear me? Uh-oh, just a second. We can't hear you.

Want to go ahead and try again now, Sandra?

Can you hear me? No. No. Hello?

Give us just a sec. Do you mind if we come back to you in just a moment?

OK.

The audio is on. Should I speak while we're waiting for Sandra to set up? Hello? Yeah, I think you guys have done well. I think with the survey, I can see that it's quite extensive and accessibility convenience for people is something that seems to be a requirement. And also the need for more places where people can gather. We are like a city in a park, but more places where people can I guess very intentionally come together is what it seems like is coming forth in this. Would you guys be doing like more surveys and follow-ups or this is pretty comprehensive and we're done with that?

So we're pretty much at the conclusion of the process from here on out. We're just going to be, you know, we've got our draft plan out for review and public comment and boards and commissions, but the bulk of the community engagement has concluded. and in addition to the surveys that we did we had online tools so we had a similar mapping tool to this online where you could drop a little pin that described the type of improvements so maybe we wanted to see place making maybe we want to see better sidewalks or parks and so we kind of took and distilled that information from both online as well as our in-person workshops um you know we we went to the eastgate housing campus and engaged our You know, folks who are struggling with homelessness. We went to a senior's home. We went and taught a bunch of classes in Newport High School. So we were really all over the place to get a good, you know, array of community voices.

No, I think that's great. I can see that it's pretty comprehensive and you do have even voice, business voices and retail spaces. I think that all sort of also ties in from Serving as serving twofold, you know, they can also be gathering spaces and places where businesses thrive. And I think communities thrive when small businesses do well. So I think I just want to say good, good job.

Sandra, would you try again now? Hello, can you hear me? We still can't hear you. Just a second. Joydeep, as a test, would you say something?

Yeah, I can hear Sandra, and I can hear all of you. It's us.

Okay, problems in the room. Sorry, we're going to keep working on this.

Type it in the chat. There's no chat. Oh.

I'm going to play it through. I don't know what's going on. Sandra, you can try speaking now.

Hello?

Yeah.

Sandra, I can hear you perfectly well.

Yes, Zoom is working. I can hear you, Sandra. Yeah, it's a problem since the beginning, isn't it?

It's a problem in the room. I'm so sorry. We can hear you through my computer, so go ahead.

Okay, so I have a question related to some specific policies that you were mentioning. For example, the SEGN1. I'm talking about, I mean, it mentioned something like recreation and tourist destination by increasing opportunities for cultural and sports facilities and entertainment. we have been this kind of discussions that we don't want to have, I mean, the distinction between culture and art and entertainment. So I'm a little bit like confused of what do you mean about this? Because you are mixing like a lot of things in this first draft policy. You're putting the recreation, tourism, cultural things for facilities. So maybe in another opportunity, you can go and explain a little bit that, because if it is the first one related with art, for me, it's a little bit like to match things into the same policy. If you can talk about it right now. Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah. I appreciate that. We've heard some similar feedback from community members as well. And the intent of this is really responding to feedback that we've heard of. There needs to be more things to do within the community. People want things nearby. Again, entertainment. So right now, I think it kind of feels like a catch-all, but we want to acknowledge that there's an array of experiences that we want to be able to provide for folks. And we are we've I think we're going to be revising this policy a little bit to be focusing more on those mixed use areas north of I-90. So those that are accessible to transit and near like some of the hotels and other amenities. So certainly open to feedback of how we can further refine. But I think this is really based on we just want to. We don't want to leave something out in terms of the types of experiences that we want to provide for people because we've heard that people want a lot of different types of things. So, you know, theoretically, you could put them all in separate policies, but we wanted to try to, you know, be somewhat broad and consolidate them in one, but certainly open to feedback.

Yeah, yeah, because we have been having the discussion in the Arts Commission about the difference between art, culture, and entertainment. And in between entertainment, you can see all the things, and sometimes people confuse it with recreation. So I'm going to a lot of things, so yeah, something that we can improve. The other policy that I was, and I found it very much interesting, the number N6, that talk about cultural diversity, that they're talking about development of public spaces, community facilities and public art. Can you develop a little bit more about it? We're going to see something like that in the map, like spaces for cultural diversity, or we're going to leverage the existing ones? Because I'm not clear about how much of this current public spaces do we have there in the East Gate area.

So is the question where they would go or how?

Yeah, because you have, I love the map that you show us that you have all the things related with parks and everything, but I don't see that much clear about these public spaces that we're going to use to develop the cultural diversity that you are mentioning in policy number N6. Okay.

i think this is again when we talk about highlighting the the neighborhood history and cultural diversity it's like through art and place making i mean i think this could be implemented in another number of public spaces um and also again i think we're adding community facilities in there for instance we want like performance spaces or places that can acknowledge the cultural heritage of the area. Again, it could take many forms. And so we don't identify specific projects. We're just saying this is a value and a priority for the community. And then departments such as the Parks Department or Economic Developments and Arts folks could then take that and interpret that into various programs, projects, capital investments. So we, again, wanted to leave it somewhat high level, but I do want to recognize... that maybe having it a little too inclusive of all of those things in one policy might make it worth breaking out a little bit.

OK. And my last question, sorry, I'm taking too much time, is related to the policy number N23, that you are involved in the Bellevue College. Do you have something about it that you can tell us? What is your expectation about the involvement of the Bellevue College with the arts and the culture?

Let me look at that one. So just we were thinking that we could collaborate on hosting events and as they expand out and develop more connections within the community, we feel like that they could be better connected and representative of the surrounding community. they feel a little isolated and they are in one of our mixed use centers and so as we build that out we want to make sure we're developing those natural connections and kind of leveraging some of the community assets to make it you know more of an institution that is connected to the surrounding neighborhood so again that could take many forms we're just acknowledging that there's future opportunities for collaboration uh i think having it as an event space uh is certainly probably one of the top ones for that

Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

I would just make a comment that we had One of our grants, our big development grants, was for a Bellevue College theater. And part of the conditions we tried to establish when we issued that grant was that the theater space would be more available to the community in recognition of the desperate shortage we have throughout Bellevue for performance spaces. So I think maybe we as a commission could look for more opportunities to you know, provide asset to Bellevue College, but also demand more public access as a consequence of that.

Thank you. Thank you.

Any other comments?

I don't know if this is completely off topic or not. these individualized neighborhood plans i see the tremendous benefit to to having the neighbors in that neighborhood help guide how they want their neighborhood to go from your personal opinion if you have one or you can decline um how do you how does the city balance the wants and desires of a neighborhood with the wants and overall vision or wants and desires of a, of the entire city. Right. Cause I could sort of just visualizing a neighborhood saying we want to have big purple flags on every street corner. Let's say very distinctive, uh, recognizable, memorable, um, But does the city have an overall, I'm thinking from the arts point of view, does the city have an overall vision of how the city wants to be seen and the symbology that the city uses? How would you propose the city balance that?

Yeah, so we have the comprehensive plan. There's volumes one and two. So volume one is citywide policies. Volume two is those neighborhood level plans and policies. And so what we do through this neighborhood planning process, we take volumes. And that's kind of the foundation. So we want to make sure that everything is in alignment with the citywide policies and goals. And then we kind of pull from those our neighborhood priorities so we can localize citywide policy. So citywide policy, maybe, you know, we want to, you know, develop better placemaking and public art across the city. And then through this, we say we want to celebrate cultural diversity as part of our placemaking, or we want to celebrate the history of Eastgate or the history of Factorio. And that's kind of we can take that larger policy and localize it. And again, this is still identifying priorities. So for instance, you know, there was a recent exercise in Eastgate where they wanted some neighborhood signs. So we can say, oh, we know that, you know, neighborhood signage and placemaking is a priority. And then we can go and work with that neighborhood to work on designs. And then we go through still like various boards and commissions review. So there's still the traditional like, you know, review and design process. Obviously, we still have to adhere to, you know, our our sign code or whatever else. So there's still some confines, but I think the the thing that we kind of start with is that foundation of volume one we've got our city-wide policies and how can we then make those applicable so we're not kind of pulling pulling things out of left field and say this is totally in conflict everything needs to you know kind of be be consistent between volume one and then get a little more specific with each neighborhood plan but we certainly want to you know acknowledge that alignment and consistency across the city uh is certainly our goal in this yeah i get you

Shall we move on to? Yes. Oh, sorry.

Please. Some of this might be a bit pedantic. So, you know, forgive me for that. One of the things when we talk about the year round, I saw in the map, which I think was great. We had like the, it was like in the circles and it was like the, the orange dashes, which I think is great. I think you mentioned that it's like indoor outdoor space, but specifically when we also like talk about parks, ensuring that it's also like year round available, obviously being the Pacific Northwest, you know, it's something that it's a bit of a challenge or, you know, some people like, you know, I'll wait till I wait till summer, you know, everybody comes out during the summer. So just keeping, you know, some of that in mind, I think that may have been covered when you said year round, but just wanted to call that out specifically.

Yeah.

No, I appreciate that. And then another thing for... And I don't know if this is the right time or what have you, but it's a thought that I thought about as I was preparing and reading through the report that you guys put together. But a lot of the things I saw, a lot of people really appreciated the community center, the South Bellevue Community Center. And I just learned about the South... the community center like a few months ago. And I think one thing that

be really good is if we also like focused on like marketing yeah and so again i don't know if that's this okay great and i i think that's one of the things when we talk about uh wayfinding um in signage so like people know oh you know when they come over the bridge across i-90 or there's a pedestrian bridge or you know various or like our active transportation walking and biking people can say oh there's a community center a mile away um and they have you know some wayfinding to help them get there um I certainly think, again, that's part of the end of the economic development plan is really focusing on being able to better market the assets that we do have. So that's certainly a priority. And maybe that's something where we can be a little more specific around not only developing new assets, but better promoting the ones that we do have in addition to kind of the wayfinding piece for how you get there.

And then I have one last thing on this. And this isn't any action going forward because it sounds like you've already gone through and done the community outreach, tried to hit a lot of different demographics, which I think is great. One thing I was reading, it was the... Younger people, specifically for Eastgate, was a bit underrepresented, which is natural when you're trying to get surveys and things like that. I noticed that we went to the college and high school once, but it might be good to repeatedly go back to some of those places just because that's such a concentrated group of the demographic that we need.

Yeah, we actually, we were at Bellevue College twice. And so the first time we did like a neighborhood walk with some of the students. So we took them kind of down some of the trail system over by Robbinswood and down towards like the coffee shop with Last Frontier and kind of down and around. And it was really interesting because Being a commuter campus, a lot of the students, they have no idea anything that's outside of campus. They're like, oh, I could walk to a coffee shop. I could walk to somewhere to grab food or a nearby park. So that was really informative. And again, going back to our kind of wayfinding and signage and just better integrating Bellevue College within the community, just kind of building that awareness. They're working on developing some housing. I think that'll really help, too. And then we went back later on once we had those high level policy moves and we put up our boards in the cafeteria. But I think I think it's an ongoing challenge. And I think as they have more student housing on campus that can we can try to get better engagement with them is like people just aren't really feeling connected to, you know, sometimes not even just that neighborhood, but Bellevue as a whole. they're coming from you know renton or even farther away spending a couple hours on the bus um and so sometimes it's kind of it's a it's a challenge to relate to them like why this is important to them um and certainly an opportunity for for improvement for us so i appreciate that all right factoria factoria all right thank you all right So in Factorio, community members valued safe, diverse, accessible, and affordable community. Neighborhood assets include its diverse and international retail options, and many people from across the city and the east side and across the lake enjoy Factorio's diverse cuisine and shoppings. Another asset is this convenience. Factoria has many places to work, eat, shop, and access services, and so people can meet most of their daily needs within the neighborhood. This also has great access to highways and the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trail, making it convenient for drivers, transit riders, and cyclists to get to. So Factorio's vision statement focuses on fostering a global, vibrant, and walkable residential and commercial community that brings together a mix of people, new housing, and retail opportunities. Like Eastgate, there's an emphasis on parks, open spaces, and gathering spaces, which are notably lacking in Factorio today. So our vision statement is, Factorio is a locally rooted, globally connected neighborhood and major employment center that welcomes people from around the world to live, work, shop, and learn. Centered around its vibrant commercial core, Factorio is anchored by a strong network of local businesses and diverse retail offerings with affordable housing and nature-oriented gathering spaces that bring people together of all backgrounds. A walkable pedestrian-oriented design complemented by strong access to transit and regional transportation networks support Factorio as a connected and thriving community. So policies in our neighborhood identity section seek to enhance Factorio's distinct qualities as a convenient, green, and welcoming neighborhood. From an art standpoint, this is achieved by establishing and promoting neighborhood identity through art and placemaking and improving the pedestrian environment. Policies in our mixed-use and neighborhood center section seek to focus on Factoria's center and help it evolve into a place where people can easily access transit, housing, shopping, places to gather, and services. And this is accomplished through integrating plazas and flexible public spaces within the mixed-use center. Policies in the community gathering spaces section seek to provide a variety of indoor and outdoor gathering spaces to serve a growing and diverse neighborhood. And from an arts perspective, this is accomplished through collaborating with community partners to provide gathering spaces and host community and cultural events. So again, my prompt to you as we look at the gathering space maps is, are there any specific entrances or those natural thresholds within the community that we should prioritize or additional spaces that we should look at for arts and placemaking improvements?

I think I want to say here that there was a point you did mention about using Factorio Mall more often. frequently, or I guess you know, in a more deliberate way as a gathering space. It already is a huge gathering space. I see, I think it was Chinese New Year or something, correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah, it was great because you see so much of the community show up there. So is that something that Victoria Mall, like the owners or whoever they are, is that something you're also doing? Are you talking with people, you know, who are the owners of the mall and are they open to this? Is that part of the scope?

So we had two conversations with Kimco, who's the folks who own the mall, and they are certainly open to hosting more events. I think it might require a little shepherding from the city or other community partners to move some of those things forward. We certainly acknowledge they do have some events. I think what we've heard from the community is there's an opportunity for a lot more. And considering that this is essentially their only public gathering space. There's the school, but like having events, community events at the school is like pretty limited. And so if we can, you know, connect the folks at the mall to local artists, cultural groups or find ways to better leverage it just for other events in general, I think there's a lot of opportunities and space that can accommodate the types of things we'd like to see. Another one is when we heard from our youth community they didn't really feel like there was much there specifically for them. And that's, you know, one of the things kids like, well, they want to walk down from the mall after school and the main attraction is fast food, not because that's their favorite thing to do. In some cases it is, but that's all there is to do. So if we can not only, you know, we've had some great cultural events, there could be more, but just finding events for people of all ages too, I think that would really, you know, serve a larger swath of the community and Again, in terms of what makes Factorio an attractive place to live, and we see a lot of growth there in the future, I think that's something that we should try to accommodate for.

Do you have specific small businesses within the mall as well that you're speaking with or just Kimco at large?

So I did a business, what we call business walks. So I visited every business in Factoria door to door. And so I got some relatively targeted feedback from them. A lot of it, I think. know as you can imagine it was more focused on some of the challenges of running a local business or challenges of being um you know holding space in the mall or not having enough foot traffic or something like that um we didn't we're not to the point where like we're talking about okay so what how can we partner with you to implement some of these things i think that's kind of where we hand it off to our other departments for the implementation But in terms of understanding, like, what are their needs? What are the challenges? What are the opportunities that they see? Those are some things that have directly informed some of the policies and as well as some of the planned narrative where we talk about, you know, the makeup of the neighborhood and the challenges that folks experience.

Good. I think it's a good starting point.

Here we go. I think we had art events occur in Factoria Mall. There was both an exhibition, as I remember, and there was also a DigiPen, something combined with DigiPen with students again. And I think we've been involved with that through some of our project grants. So, you know, I definitely remember at least two grants that... centered activity. And, you know, we're happy to continue that because there's a dearth. Again, I go back to the dearth of publicly available space for events, for arts events of all kind. I'm also curious though, because when I think about, you talked about having public plazas also associated with it. In fact, Torrey Mall has a great amount of interior space, which is what makes it so desirable in our climate. But when I think about exterior, it's all parking lot. And it would be really wonderful to encourage more than just parking lot.

I would agree. We have a policy on flexible outdoor gathering spaces, temporary spaces, so farmers markets, events, concerts, whatever that might be. I think, again, just from what I've heard from community and some of our earlier conversations with some of the business owners in that area, if there was a partnership or a program where the city could work directly with the mall owners as an intermediary, I think maybe like some of our local artists or performers haven't had success or maybe feel a little intimidated going like directly to the mall and try to organize things. So if there was a program that could kind of facilitate those.

With a residency or something.

Right. Yeah, exactly. I think that would probably be, you know, one of the big things that could kind of bridge that gap for people and help us, you know, realize Factory Mall as an asset for arts and culture. Right.

I would also just make the comment something that, to me, has made a huge difference. There is the TNT grocery coming in. It's incredible. And, you know, that was, I mean, Walmart couldn't survive in that space, which... Yay, you know, Bellevue for that one. But I mean, I really feel like that's a regional draw to that neighborhood. And I think we need to figure out how to build on that because that is hugely activated, that whole end of Factorium all in a way that really reflects our community. And that's saying something because Walmart couldn't stay. Right. Yeah, that's saying something.

Sandra? Sandra?

Thank you. Yes. So looking at the map, I would like just for all of us to not forget that the high school has a great potential for a cultural space because of the theater that they have there. And I know that we are talking about it and it's an ongoing issue. activity that the city is working on, but it would be worth to have it like in the plan to mention that they have a cultural space, a theater, that can be used also for the community in the future.

Yeah, we and we certainly recognizes that as one of the biggest assets within the community. And we highlight partnerships with community organizations, private property owners. And, you know, to the extent that that's feasible with the school, we didn't have direct conversations regarding the use of Newport High School. But that's something that I think could be explored in the future for some programming.

But my point is to mention that in the policy, as you mentioned, the Bellevue College, that as Lydia mentioned already, they are like opening the space for the public to be used. And I went to an Indian festival that was great, and it was held there in the Bellevue College. But going to this point, my point is to mention it like explicitly there. I don't know. Something to be considered, please. Thank you.

More comments?

All right. Thank you. Thank you.

And so I'll just go over our next steps here. So staff will consider and incorporate the input that we've heard from you all today as part of our final draft policies. And then these policies for both neighborhoods plans will be reviewed by planning commission, as I mentioned, starting in June. And again, I really appreciate your time and your insights. Thanks for looking over all the materials. I know it's probably a bit of a dense packet, but this is, you know, it's a good check for us to make sure that we're on target and some final refinements. And we appreciate your perspective. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Excellent presentation. Like the maps.

I like the surveys. The fact that they go so in deep and question people.

So moving on, we have partner presentations. Is that correct?

Okay.

We can do that because it's nice and happy. It's up to you. Thank you.

But I'll wait for you till the end of the road Tell me, do you think it would be alright If I could just cross you at night? You can see that I'm Hi, there lives a bear. Name? Uh, Polynesian. Thank you.

So Bellevue Farmers Market, I'm Barbara Hughes, I'm the board president and Phyllis White is our board treasurer. That was a small, you know, clip, not very great quality of a few of our musicians, but it gives you an idea. We have some great musicians come to the market and we really enjoy it. So good afternoon, thank you for the opportunity to share how Bellevue Farmers Market benefited from the arts grant which we received from you last year and also this year. Many people know the farmer's market as a place to purchase fresh local food. We sell Washington state food and Washington state produce and craft artisans from Washington state. But we see the market as something much more. It's a weekly public gathering space where food, culture, music and community all come together. And the Eastside Arts Programme grant helped us strengthen that vision by turning the market into a more vibrant and accessible cultural space. It allowed us to bring live arts programming directly into a setting where people already gather, shop, volunteer and spend time with their neighbours. That's an important impact of this grant. It did not support a one-time performance isolated from daily life. It helped integrate the arts into an ongoing community tradition. that reaches Bellevue residents, workers, families, senior youth and visitors throughout the season. We're in our 23rd season this year, 23rd year in Bellevue. Bellevue Farmer's Market serves as a free and accessible public space open to everyone. Our mission is to support local farms and small businesses while creating an experience that nourishes, educates and connects people. Each market day brings together families, seniors, workers and residents from across Bellevue in an intergenerational and multicultural environment. Arts and music play an important role in this experience. They help transform a shopping trip into a place where people slow down, stay longer, interact with one another and experience Bellevue as a lively and welcoming community. The Eastside Arts Programme grants supported that live music and arts-related programming throughout the market season. This includes diverse local performers, musicians, and family-centred creative programming. I think that was the Theatre 33 we had up there at the end. Through this investment, Belvey Farmers Market was able to provide paid creative opportunities for both emerging and established performers, while offering public exposure and direct community engagement. Music is intentionally located within the heart of the market, so it becomes part of the shared public experience, creating atmosphere, encouraging interaction and giving artists a meaningful stage. The grant also helped reduce the financial pressure on the market as a small nonprofit. Without this support, arts programming competes with our core operational needs, such as permitting, insurance, sanitation, marketing, vendor support, and site logistics. The grant made it possible to keep arts programming free to the public while still compensating creative participants and maintaining a welcoming, well-run market environment. The impact of this support was significant and it reached several parts of the community at once. During the 25 season, Bellevue Farmers Market supported approximately 115 individual creative participants and performers through paid and public arts opportunities. That means the grant directly helped create opportunities for local artists, student performers, youth musicians and community-based creative groups to be seen, heard and valued in our public setting. Thanks to the Cities Eastside Arts Programme grant, we were able to continue this format for most of this 26th season. In 25, the market welcomed approximately 30,000 individual in-person visitors with additional community engagement occurring online and through social media. Because the market's free and open to the public, this programming reached people who may not otherwise attend a ticketed performance, concert hall, gallery, or formal arts venue. The grant also strengthened the market's economic impact. Live music and arts programming help make the market feel more like a destination, not just a transaction. When visitors stay longer, return more often, and bring their friends or family, that additional activity supports farmers, food producers, prepared food vendors, artisans, and the nearby businesses. For Bellevue Farmers Market, the grant created a multiplier effect. A one-time investment supported artists improved that visitor experience, helped sustain those small local businesses and strengthened a free community gathering space. The intergenerational benefit is very important. Children, parents, seniors, downtown workers and long-time Bellevue residents experience the art together in an approachable setting. The market becomes a place where creativity is visible, shared and woven into everyday community life. One of the most meaningful outcomes was how arts programming shaped the atmosphere and identity of the music. The variety of music and creative programming increased engagement both on site and online and gave visitors more reasons to make the market part of their weekly summer routine. We received very positive feedback about the diversity of performers and music styles represented throughout the season. This matters because public arts programming can help people feel that the market reflects the broader Bellevue community, not just one audience, one age group, or one cultural experience. The arts help create a stronger sense of place. They encourage people to gather, linger, socialize, take photos, and share the experience online, and experience Bellevue not simply as a place to shop, but as a place to connect and belong. In this way, the market functions as both an economic and cultural gathering space for the community. The grant helped make that possible by supporting the visible human-centered elements that turn an outdoor market into a memorable public experience. On behalf of Bellevue Farmers Market, thank you to the Bellevue Arts Commission and the City of Bellevue for investing in local culture and community. The grant helped us support artists, strengthen public gathering spaces and make arts more accessible within everyday community life. It also helped us deliver a stronger public benefit by connecting arts access with our small businesses, local food and community placemaking in one free weekly setting. As we look towards the future season and new opportunities, including continued community and cultural programming, we hope to build on this partnership and create continue creating arts experiences that enrich Bellevue for everyone. I would also like to add on here and scripted that without this grant, we wouldn't be able to have live music at the market. It's very costly for a very small nonprofit, which we are putting on a weekly event. And we certainly were at the stage before we received the grant where we had to cancel music performances. because we couldn't pay people any longer. And we do get a small number of musicians, such as student groups, will come to us and do it in exchange for volunteer hours, which we sign off. But most of our performers are paid. So it literally wouldn't be possible to do this. And without music, our vendors... don't feel that they're able to sell. The small businesses, it's very hard for them to earn a living because the market feels rather dead without live music in there. So it's super important to us. Okay, so we're happy to answer questions. Phyllis has prepared a large cheat sheet of answers so far away. And we've been practising. We may not do very well, but we've been practising.

It just feels very heartening to see that the grant is being put to good use and the fact that all the businesses that are there at the market feel the value of the music that's there. I think music is a great addition. Even at Crossroads, when we go there for a farmer's market, they have not always live music, but yeah, music does add value.

Crossroads Farmer's Market, they are part of the mall? Yes. We're a very small nonprofit, tiny nonprofit, actually, with barely one full-time staff member. There are two, but it's not really even almost a full-time job because it's very costly to run a farmer's market because we... Like all farmers markets, we don't wish to charge farmers a huge fee to be there or the small businesses because they're trying to get their businesses up and running and they can't afford to pay. So very reliant on grants and sponsorship. Crossroads is very fortunate to be backed by the mall. It's a great market.

I'm curious, with your artists that our grant has brought through, were you able to keep a roster of who those artists were?

Yeah, we do have that. Yeah, we can send it to you if you'd like.

And I'm just curious, have those artists been told about the Eastside Artists roster so that we can... Give them information about other opportunities.

Yeah, that's a good idea. We should make sure that we pass that on to all of them. Yeah, we can send you the list. We do look at who else you're giving grants to because obviously we're constantly looking to see if... Many of the artists approach us, but also we're constantly looking artist vendors, craftspeople. Right. Yeah, that's a good idea.

The city maintains what we call this Eastside Artist Roster, or EAR for short. And we ask people to select, are you a visual artist? So musician is one. And I think we can do a good cross pollinating, make sure they're on the roster. It's all east side. So east side King County. So it wouldn't be any Seattle or west side. But I think if you're looking for more people and we're looking, we should.

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. We'll do that. Yeah. Thank you.

I love farmer's markets. They're a central community spot for any city that hosts them. If you had a vision of... of what Utopia looks like, what the perfect farmer's market would be for your organization? What would it look like?

Oh, well, I've said this many times. We'd like to be in Downtown Park. Oh. To meet a farmer's market. We've already been told no many times. A farmer's market in Downtown Park. would be wonderful, even just the roundness of the space, but we could have so many, you know, live performances in there and expand and so on. Yeah, live music is actually really, really critical to the farmers' market, and I've personally had to cancel on music before and stand there and, you know, with everyone directing, complaining vendors and public to me to explain, because many people... Many people in Bellevue come and support the farmer's market. They will come and buy from the vendors, but it costs us as a non-profit a tremendous amount of money to put the market on. We have insurance, we have permits, we have tents to buy, even fire extinguishers, you know, and so on. So to me, a bigger space would allow us to have more shoppers spending more and therefore more of a community event so more opportunities for music um i believe issaquah has several different um music um performers going on at their market or they have when i've been there so you know that would be kind of more more would be the answer yeah variety similar to what brendan was saying about the south

Billview Community Center. You don't know it's there, really, until you happen upon it. And the same over the Bill Prez parking lot. It's a more centralized location.

Say that you have to have a good balance because you need shoppers and you need them to sort of look around and be interested in the vendors. And you need more if you have more vendors, because people tend to have a limit on what they can spend. And so if we had a bigger place, we can expand with more vendors. And if we could be seen in downtown, that would increase our population or our consumer base. And that would benefit the vendors. And in that way, we could become more self-sustaining rather than depending on sponsorships. You know, our goal is to become self-sustaining, more self-sustaining. Because everything we do comes at each market season with nothing, right? We have to go out and sell ourselves. And we never know whether someone will give us or grant us the funds or whether they'll just say no for that year. So we had several this year that, you know, they're cutting back.

Can I ask, what are your major costs?

staff um even though we pay our staff very um modestly um but our major costs like many organizations is staff yeah we also have to pay for a bookkeeper of course a cpa you know it's just insurance is huge washington state to be a farmer's market we have to be a member of Washington State Farmers Market Association. So we have to pay them fire permits, King County health permits. I can talk to you for hours about what our costs are. They're absolutely mind-blowingly huge. And what the public sees is... We sat at the table, the music's playing, and it's great. The sun is shining. What Phyllis and I see is 24-7 Phyllis's dining table on my kitchen counter and a lot of bills. So, yeah, that's our biggest cost of staff, yeah.

The SNAP program, the market match, that takes an incredible amount of time.

You know, I think there's another connection we might be able to make. I'm thinking about our new, we're just in the art planning for essentially the Highline equivalent. I forget. Help me with the name.

The Grand Connection.

The Grand Connection. And that's going to provide a lot more space and a lot of covered space and a lot of places. And I know the Grand Connection is looking for programming for all of that. So it's not immediate, but it definitely, I think, would be worth talking to that project and the artist, because like I said, I know there's all sorts of hopes for programming and that cuts right through the middle of everything and connects with Eastgate. You know, it connects a lot of things. So it might not be downtown park, but it might, um, provide you with a new opportunity. That was very exciting.

Thank you. We, um, are in discussion, um, We have been awarded a grant, Community Programming Fund grant, to pilot a one-day market on 106th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 6th Street, which is about eight weeks out and causing us a lot of work. But yeah, we're not totally certain at this second whether that will go ahead, but we're treating it as if it will. So 106th Avenue North East, right where North East 6th, it's kind of the Arts Fair side. for those of you who know that. But it means closing the street down. So it's a tiny non-profit already stretched running our current market. This is a big, big project for us. So that will be on August the 8th, assuming it goes ahead. And that's a pilot for us. There are many costs involved in shutting down the city street. And that would, I'm so glad we have council member here tonight because that would be... Quite a discussion as to, you know, the permanence of farmers market for Bellevue, because that's not something those those permit costs that we could afford out of the money that we take. Or, you know, maybe another large sponsor might come along. I don't know. We're always hopeful. But thank you.

So I want to give you some of the gravity of, you know, what this does for us, because we didn't have a much increase in traffic in terms of what we expected. But, you know, our numbers are off because we use clickers, but it's not an accurate call. However, just having... the entertainment and people staying longer, enjoying, allowed for about $15,000 more in consumer, in our revenue from sales. That's an incredible amount because we don't charge the vendors very much. It's less than 10%. So, I mean, it could be 7% each vendor. So, you know, for small businesses, it's a low-cost risk, and we do all the work for free. You know, we're volunteers, so.

Five minutes?

Okay.

Any other questions? Sandra, I did see you had your hand up at one point.

PB, Lupita D Montoya, hmm I just wanted to tell you both that I love this will be a private market, I can walk there from home when I always come back with a bag full of fruits and vegetables, so I love it Thank you very much for having this. Thank you.

PB, David Ensign — He, Him, what's the reason. PB, David Ensign — He, Him, That the city saying no for the downtown.

PB, David Ensign — He, Him, Sorry, Mr what was the reason for.

PB, David Ensign — He, Him, For why the city saying no about using the downtown park.

Well, I think it's just a no. What I get told is many of the groups would also like that. So I don't know. I don't know. Don't know. We did discuss with the city, you know, saying we wanted to we would want to pilot trial a downtown site. And we were given three options, not including the downtown park. But 106 was the largest site because for us, we would like to grow. Mercer Island has a farmer's market twice the size of Bellevue. Issaquah has a farmer's market twice the size of Bellevue. And we would like to be twice the size in the downtown because we believe, I mean, we're obviously Bellevue residents and we just believe it's critically important that Bellevue has its farmer's market. We believe Volvo can support that.

And we are a true farmer's market. We have 50% of sales just from produce, fresh produce. Most of them don't have pesticides on it. So even if they're not certified organic, they are very healthful types of growing. It's really good for those that cannot normally receive it because of the SNAP program and the Women and Infants and Children program and the seniors as well.

I have a question. Laura, do you think that if it's downtown, is that a special events committee?

So it would probably be park scheduling office. It would depend on whether or not the attendees were over 500 people per incidence, then it would go to special events. But either way, it would be the park scheduling office would be where they'd start.

Yeah, we're going through the special events committee right now, which is taking a while, for 106th. It's not yet. progressed but we're going through that process right now um and we don't we've based our anticipated attendance on what we see regularly where we are now because we have no other way to think of it yet and it's under 5 000 so yeah once you hit 5 000 you need a medical unit on standby and it becomes a whole more even more expensive thing it's 500 so yeah Yeah, once you go over 5,000, I think is further, you need a medical unit on standby. There's a further tier and hugely increased fees.

We don't deal with the over 5,000 as frequently.

Yeah, that would be a great day over.

Happy farmers.

So I think as long as the process being shared to which department go to, because I think council will be the last step. It's more policy driven.

We're talking with Anthony Gill at the moment and Emily Sherman. Yeah, that's who's helping us through the process.

Well, let us know how we can support you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. We do have to move to the next part.

Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you.

All right, Carol, you're up. I'm going to have to unfortunately pay you through my computer, but hopefully you can screen share if you want to try that out.

I'm going to try because if I screen share, then you can actually hear the snippet that I want you to hear. Let's see. Screen. I don't know. I haven't been able to on this device, but I don't know. Let's see. Let's keep our fingers crossed. No, it's not working. So I'm going to have you says I'm screen sharing. But can you see? Wait a sec.

That looks good.

You see it?

Yeah.

All right. So here's just a little less than a minute of a snippet of an a cappella joint chorus song. And I think you might be surprised at what you hear. If you can hear it.

Thank you. the clock strikes upon the hour when the sun begins to fade begins to fade till now time to figure out how to chase my blues away my blues away I've done alright up till now it's the light of day that shows me how so when the night falls

So what do you think? Not your typical barbershop, right? Acapella Joy, and for short, we're known as A-Joy. is an award-winning chorus that sings without instrumental accompaniment in the barbershop style. We're a chapter of Sweet Adelines International, who actually just changed their branding to now be called Sing United International. And it's the world's largest music education organization for females and people of marginalized genders who can sing in the triple range. So Ajoy, I just have to tell you a little story about that. We came up with Ajoy when, does anybody remember A-Rod? Alex Rodriguez in the Mariners. They were calling him A-rod, and we went, oh, Ajoy, okay. And it stuck. We're dedicated to musical excellence, committed to inclusiveness and diversity, and are determined to bring a fresh, fun approach to a traditional American art form. Ajoy has more than 60 members. We refer to ourselves as young singers of all ages. It's amazing how singing keeps one young. And we pride ourselves on our diversity, and not just in ages. We have members who are 13 to over 80, but also ethnicities, gender identities, neurodivergencies, and we even have people who come from different various geographic locations to sing with us. One comes from California, one's from Alaska, locally. Some come from Everett, Olympia, Sequim, Seattle, oh, and of course, Bellevue. The past 10 years have found us competing on the international stage. In 2024, we came in first place, mid-sized chorus, but even more significant for us was winning the Audience Choice Award for Most Entertaining. Having won our regional division contest, we're headed this year's international in October in Columbus, Ohio. Many quartets also arise from our ranks. At this year's regional contest, Meadowlark, which is the top one over there on the left-hand side of the screen, came in first and highlight which are dressed like animals. I have to tell you about them. And they came in fourth. These and smaller groups from our chorus, since it's very difficult to find a venue where 65 of us can go out and sing at one time, smaller groups perform locally at a lot of different venues. So in Bellevue and beyond, so this past year, We've sung at Crossroads Mall, Bell Harbor Assisted Living, East Shore Unitarian, Bellevue Botanical Gardens, and not just necessarily one performance, but several performances. And I added in Downtown Bothell to that as well. But we have a great time, and audiences just feel energized after listening to us. One of our quartets, Highlight, which is over on the left-hand side there, They specialize in performances for youngsters. As you can see, they were acknowledged as the most entertaining in the category of live music and entertainment in Snohomish County last year. So they have this unique niche where they will go out and perform to audiences of children. Also, they are involved with our region, which from our the information that we sent you ahead of time will show that our region comprises of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. And they're heading up, two of the highlight members are heading up a youth program and going to be doing jamborees and festivals and teaching all of the choruses in all of the regions how to do that locally for themselves. As I mentioned, we pride ourselves on our diversity and we're all about inclusion and creating a culture of belonging. So two years ago, we began sponsoring a rainbow room at regional competition with karaoke and a drag queen, Clam Chowder. The response from our LGBTQ plus musical community was just overwhelming. They finally felt seen and accepted into the region. And with the eight-year grant, we were able to continue this fun program this year. So thank you for that. Yeah, glam chatter is great. I'd like to give you a brief history of the chorus, if I could. We chartered as the Lakeside Chorus in 1958, a chapter in Sweet Adelines International that itself started in 1945. This began as a result of seeing men develop their own society of barbershop singers, and the women went... we want to do that too lakeside had a successful run coming in top 10 at international on a regular basis things changed however in 1996 when the course's long-term director retired and with that retirement came a loss of vision for the chorus i actually was a member back then so yes see we keep young in this course from a course of 130 members at the time Membership dwindled very quickly. There were, however, a group of us that believed we could find a new vision, a new direction, and a new director. So we took the time to figure out what we wanted to keep, what we wanted to let go of, and what we wanted to add to make this the course of our dreams. This led us into some transition years. 1997 to 2003, we went through a series of directors and with 19 on stage in 2001, we were beginning to get our chops back and won in the small chorus category at regional convention. But with that win, the director wanted to focus the chorus on his own vision and away from ours. Without even having another possible director in the wings, we let him go and sought one who could help us build the future we wanted. In 2003, down to seven members, and thinking we're not gonna be able to achieve what we wanted, we decided, okay, one more week. We'll give it one more week. One of the members said, oh, you know, I work with someone just finishing her master's degree in vocal performance from UW. And I'm going to ask her to just come next week so she could move her hands in front of us. And she has musical knowledge. Maybe, you know, this will just keep us going a little bit. That person was Nikki Blackmer. He says, remember the space, right? While she had no barbershop experience, we just knew and she knew this was the right connection to make this dream happen. So the growth years, 2003, we hired Nikki as our director in 2003 and have been growing ever since, learning, having lots of fun. We soon changed our name to Acapella Joy to reflect our new vision. And slowly, slowly, it took time. We grew in musical ability. Slowly, our numbers grew. And slowly, we started being recognized for the vision that we had created. Nikki Blackmer has been our director since then. We've changed each other's lives in countless and positive ways. While a trained operatic singer, she has become a barbershop expert. She was the lead in a quartet, Frenzy. who won international first place in 2017, and they call international quartet winners Queens of Harmony, and goes around with a crown. I didn't put a picture of her in a crown. I should have done that. But this opened many doors for her, and she's a sought-out coach for quartets and choruses all around the globe. And she never stops learning. With your grant assistance, we were able to support her going through an online certification program at NYU in Vocology, which is the understanding of how the voice works and how to make it more natural and understand the physiology of voice to help singers sing better. And she went through that this past year. So we are so grateful for the Bellevue Arts Commission's support, which we only got for the first time last year and this year, and are able to expand our vision of acapella joy to more people. I'd love for you to save the date of Monday, October 12th, 7.30 p.m. We rehearse at Temple B'nai Torah in Bellevue, and we are having our friends and family night that night. It's our dress rehearsal. prior to competing internationally that month. And we'd love to see you there and bring lots of friends too. And if you're a singer, come any Monday night and just come and visit us. I hope this gives you a little bit of an overview of who Acapella Joy is. And we would love to count on your continued support in the future. And I'd love to take any questions that you might have. Has anybody ever heard of us?

Thank you for your presentation. I appreciate it. I have a question about where your typical rehearsal space is.

Yeah, so we rehearse at Temple B'nai Torah.

Oh, is that where you are? Okay.

That's where we are. We've been rehearsing there ever since at the end of COVID, because during COVID, we lost our old rehearsal space, which was in Kirkland at the time. And it takes a lot of time to find a place that can house our risers and host this many people. So I was listening before to the idea that Bellevue College might have a theater being put up. And I was very excited about... It exists. Maybe that would be someplace too.

And I was just going to say that, you know, you're... Your comment about having a group of 60 people and not having places to perform really resonates with what we hear again and again. And we are encouraging any opportunity we come across to create more of those spaces in our community.

Wonderful.

Thank you for providing such fabulous entertainment for us.

And really, I would invite you to come any time, any Monday. We have a blast, and we learn, and we, yeah. Every Monday is like a voice lesson with 60 other friends. Now I'm going to try to figure out how to get out of this, sharing my screen, because I'm not the most technically efficient here.

I got it.

Got it? Okay. Okay, great. Well, thank you for inviting us. And the person who's the management team leader had a last minute trip to make, so she couldn't be here tonight. But Manette, you know her more than you know me. Arlene and Arlene is actually Nikki's mother we have a lot of mother daughter mother granddaughter combinations in the chorus and that's a lot of fun we want to get more kids understanding how barbershop is one uplifting to sing enormously fulfilling and as I said in my intro in the materials it's a It's an art form based in the black community. And there are fewer black people singing barbershop than should. So we would love to find ways of collaborating. I actually have gone through the Seattle area choir consortium. I think it is a choral consortium to find other choirs that we might collaborate with and teach a little bit about barbershop too. So if you know of anything like that that we could connect with, love to hear about it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Don't hear any. All right. So it looks like we are moving on to bylaw adoption. That is right.

I don't have any presentation prepared. The bylaws have not changed since last time. That's my question. So let's see. There were a few changes made, just as a reminder. There was a section concerning membership, one about decorum, another, actually two about decorum. And then some other formatting corrections. In your packet, you had the red line versions and the final versions. I am seeking tonight a motion to adopt the final version. And then we're going to sign them.

And just a reminder for the commission, this is a return item, you had an earlier presentation, these edits to the bylaws are also consistent with all boards and commissions, so these are coming to us at the advisement of council. They are standard across all boards and commissions. There are times where we do look at the items in the bylaws that are more directly controlled by the board here too, things like meeting times. These are a little bit more driven by our council.

Do I hear a motion to approve the bylaws?

I have a quick question. How many other commissions have adopted these bylaws to date?

I'm not entirely sure, but I know we are a little later than some. Some have already.

No commission has declined to pass them. All commissions will pass them at some point. Yeah, but no one has kind of.

I don't, not that I'm aware of, no. We all have different attorneys, so. Oh, interesting. Okay. I make a motion to pass the bylaws.

It's been moved. Do I hear a second? I'll second it. Moved and seconded. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Raise your hand. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. For the minutes, because the audio is so weird in the room, Joydeep and Sandra both said aye.

Yes.

Yes. All right. So now you can, you sign them and Lori signs them. Our next item is elections. I'll give you all a second. And then Lydia, you will be doing this. Right. You have a script.

Okay. Oh, I keep that. All right. And let's see. Is it not seeing it? Oh, it's hiding. All right. So The Arts Commission's bylaws state that there shall be a chair and vice chair elected at the first regular meeting in June. The bylaws, however, do not specify a procedure for this election. So utilizing Robert's rules, newly revised has been the Arts Commission's custom. This process identifies that nominations do not require a second and The current chair will close the floor to nominations when no other nominations are forthcoming. Nominees will be voted on in order in which they were presented. As soon as one of the nominee receives a majority vote, three votes, the current chair will declare that person elected. No votes will be taken on the remaining nominees for the office of chair. And commissioners must cast their vote either A or no for each nominee. Failure to cast a vote means your vote will be counted in the affirmative. Nominations for chair are now in order.

I'd be happy to nominate Bahabna as our next chair.

And I will nominate myself for another term. Are there more nominations online? No. All right. So in order that we were nominated, shall we vote? Okay. Yeah, sure.

I can vote for myself. You can vote for yourself. Okay. I will do that.

I vote for Bhavna.

I vote for Bhavna.

All right.

Thank you. Then you are the new chair. Congratulations. And do we and we also vote for vice chair. Do we have a nomination for vice chair?

I would like to nominate Sandra.

Do we have any other nominations? Shall we vote? I will vote for Sandra for vice chair. I will also vote for Sandra.

I vote for Sandra.

Three. This is Jordy.

I vote for Sandra.

Sandra, you vote for yourself?

Yes, I do.

All right. We have our new chair and vice chair. Commission quick business next meeting date. Yes.

That would put us at July 1st. Usually because of July 4th weekend, it's a little tricky. This is not the worst, but if we feel like there's a conflict and July 8th would be better, let me know. first works yeah online any conflicts no the first work yeah first works for me too joy deep here joy deep did you say anything sorry i said i'm okay with first of july okay thank you all right it sounds like the first is going to be our next meeting

Hey, do we have project updates?

We do, and I'm keeping an eye on that time. So I've got to direct you to your packet in your project updates memo. You will see a list of upcoming events that are sponsored by our arts grants, and it's been keeping that list updated every month. Please do check it out. If you are looking at it online, you can click the links as well to see information directly from the websites. In our planning projects, the Bell Red Arts District, we had an update. The Planning Commission heard an update from the land use code amendment process this last week on May 22nd. We heard that priorities for the land use code, which if you remember back, we start with the policy. So we just heard tonight about neighborhood policies for Eastgate and Factoria. We did that neighborhood policy work for Bell Red a couple years ago. What follows after the policy work is the code work. And the code work is a lot of the tools we have to actually make that policy happen. So policy work, or I'm sorry, code work around Ball Red is happening now, including the Ball Red Arts District. And you can see in the packet there and on your screen, some of those priority areas. Staff will work with our land use code amendment team to maybe come get a presentation on that code here at Arts Commission as well, an informative presentation as they move forward with that work. Since we last met, the economic development plan was adopted by city council on April 28th, which is very excited. Within the economic development plan, we do have policies regarding creative economy, including some policy around the art district as well. So there is some overlap with our work and the economic development plan. Our cultural facility grant program is currently open. We are accepting applications through June 15th. If you have grand plans to make that space that we know is desperately needed here in Bellevue, Get those applications in.

There was a weird formatting error. This is looking really bad. Just a second for the screen share people. Oh, yeah. I don't know.

Something funky happened in the... All right. Under public art, we do want to highlight a couple of things going on here. Our maintenance is ongoing for our public art collection, including we just recently completed the full by hand cleaning of Piloti. That happens once a year. It's a really nice service. really nice if you go out there right now you're going to see piloti at its best ready for summer we are shiny and bright um unfortunately 425 magazine took their photo of piloti the week before our cleaning but if you do get a copy of 425 magazine you can see this wonderful shot and then a future um a couple further pieces on piloti somewhere here You're going to have to just borrow my copy afterwards. So our artwork is getting some good press there. On June 18th, we are going to have a ribbon cutting for our emerging artist artwork, River by Anna Malaski. You will all receive like an email invitation with all the pertinence, but it will be. June 18th at 3.30 at Crossroads Park. We're going to have the ribbons and some nibbles, an artist speech. Our council liaison will be giving us some remarks as well. And then we're going to do a walking artist tour as well to all three pieces. Going up right now in the Ballarat Arts District, you can see... Oh, we have a hand raised. Sandra.

Go. Yes. Have you already received the invitation or are we going to receive it? For this.

The invitation has not come to you yet. I'm hoping to get that out.

Okay. Okay. Sorry, I understood.

Yeah.

I haven't seen that. Okay. Perfect. Thank you.

on the screen in front of you right now are images of our largest ever mural going up in the Ballarat Arts District. This piece is by two incredible artists who are working together. And the piece, it really focuses on what they call the ongoing negotiation between nature and, how do they phrase that? It was a really lovely phrase.

The work

Yes, coexistence.

The work considers coexistence not in its idealized harmony, but as an ongoing negotiation. Yeah.

So the themes of like human interaction and nature, the piece is over 10,000 square feet. It will take over a ton, a literal ton, 2,000 pounds of paint and has been going up over the last several weeks. We have a lot of great video of the piece at different stages of completion. We're looking for it to complete in the next couple of weeks and you'll hear more about it from then, but do consider, If you get a moment, take the light rail, experience it from the train. We've talked before about this piece when we put it out about it being a little bit temporal, a little bit of a storytell. And as you go around that big curve on the train, you can never see the whole piece at once. So you experience it as a story as you curve around. Sometimes your train conductor will slow down because I think they're looking too. Sandra? Sandra?

Yes, this is the mural that you uploaded to the Instagram, that you were presenting on Instagram, that you were saying that they were painting and all that. It's this mural, isn't it?

Yes.

I love it that you did it because I was following that and I was like, oh, this looks great. So I really wanted to thank you that you put it on Instagram.

um additionally this summer we will see our uh creative crosswalks get installed so artwork is delivered from our two artists um kenji stole and nikita aries uh these works you see here on the screen in front of you um are we we're a little bit like our parts kind kind of done-ish, getting close to being done. And so we're handing off to our partners in transportation. The transportation team will now move forward for the install portion. They work with commercial installers to lay down this thermoplast in the four intersections. Sandra?

No, nothing. Sorry, I didn't lower it.

Do you want to talk about box traps?

So this year, we have the first VoxRap of the year went up. This was a neighborhood enhancement project. So not funded by the arts program, but in collaboration, we helped hire an artist to develop this design for Viewcrest. Viewcrest had some historical documents promoting the neighborhood in the 40s. when it was being built. And so the artists use those. That's why it has kind of a mid-century vibe. And that went up over a month ago. And then we'll have 14 more throughout Bellevue targeting neighborhoods historically with low levels of public art. Yeah.

Yeah.

And another thing that I'm going to flag that's not in your packet because it is recent, the mural by Kenji Stoll, White Ashes number six, nine, White Ashes number nine, that is currently on the Grand Connection on the side of what is the former Dance Theater. will be torn down this week. We've known for many years, when we even put it up, we knew that it was going to be temporary, that the building was slated for demolition. We got five extra years out of that artwork, but the backhoes started coming out this week. Staff is working closely with the construction company or deconstruction company um to time the mural's actual collapse so that we can get out there and videotape it for the artist excited for the extra years really sad to see that one go And then the Emerging Artists Program in Lake Hills Community Park and Lewis Creek Park. Our application is closed. We got 82 artists who applied. That's a really robust response. Seven-member selection panel will select finalists to interview, and that conforms with our public art policies in terms of the composition. And then we will make a recommendation to this commission for your approval at a future date. The Factorio public art call is currently open. It closes June 7th. We have fairly robust applications, even more since when we wrote these public updates. Oh, I have four minutes. Folks who are eligible, we encourage them to apply online through Submittable. And we're very excited to see the applicants we will get for that Factorio public art call. I'm sorry, that was very fast project updates.

On the screen is the mural featuring honey bucket. But yeah, they're working on the north side of the building. And then likely tomorrow, half of this will come down.

And we're gonna try to work to preserve a chunk of concrete if we can get and get our hands on if we can just wiggle through that fence.

Do we have any written communications or other information?

There was one piece of written mail that's in your packet. Other than that, we are collecting feedback on the appreciation event. If you'd like to email that to me or just tell me anecdotally after the meeting, we are all ears.

Thank you. it is 6 27 and the uh june 2nd 2026 w arts commission meeting is adjourned