Arts Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the September Parks and Community Services Board meeting. Stevan Hopp and Michelle Valverde are absent today. No members are attending remotely and Eric's on his way. But we are at quorum and so this meeting is now called to order. Is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda? So moved. Thank you. Is there a second?

Second.

I'll say Steve provided a second. Thank you. So let's vote. All in favor to approve tonight's agenda, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say no. The agenda is approved unanimously. Next up is the approval minutes from the Park Board's July 2026 regular meeting. Is there a motion to approve the July 2026 meeting minutes?

So moved.

Thank you, Eileen. Is there a second? I second. Thank you, Elizabeth. Let's vote. All in favor to approve the July 2026 meeting minutes, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say no. All right. The minutes are unanimously approved. Next up is oral communications. The Parks and Community Services Board values community input and looks forward to hearing from you during its meeting. Please be aware that in compliance with Washington state campaign laws regarding the use of public facilities during an election, no speaker may support or oppose a ballot measure or support or oppose a candidate for an election, which includes your own campaign. Any speaker who begins discussing topics of this nature will be asked to stop. There are rules adopted by City Council limiting the topics about which the public may speak during our meetings. Under Ordinance 6752, the public may only speak during public comment about subject matters that are related to the City of Bellevue government and are within the power and duties of the Parks and Community Services Board. Following the Board's bylaws, the total time allowed for oral communications shall not exceed 30 minutes. Each speaker will be allowed to speak one time for up to three minutes. We will follow the order in which individuals sign up. If you do not get a chance to speak this evening, you are always invited to email your comments to us at parkboard at bellevoix.gov. Now I'll turn it over to Cameron, who will read names from the online and in-person sign-in sheets.

Thank you, Chair. We do have a few signed up to provide comment tonight. First is Patrick Alina and Emma Traub.

Good evening board members. My name is Patrick Alina, City of Bellevue YouthLink staff and with me is Emma Traub. Emma is our new YouthLink board member, and we're excited here tonight to share our annual event, which is a long, ongoing tradition in the city that's held and hosted by YouthLink board. So, Emma.

Good evening, board members slash commissioners. My name is Emma Traub, W YouthLink board member. We are here tonight to extend our invitation to you for our upcoming annual YouthLink Gumbo Night event on Wednesday, October 28th from 6 to 8 p.m. at Crossroads Community Center. For the past 28 plus years, Bellevue Youth Link hosts this special event that provides an opportunity for Bellevue Youth Link members to dialogue with our elected officials, community board members, and other city leadership about important topics affecting our youth today. Youth and guests share important conversations over delicious pots of gumbo and other foods.

So this year is special. So again, 28 years is a lot of years, a lot of positive gumbo. So it's a private closed event that's hosted by YouthLink. So if you're interested, please let staff know, please let Cameron, Miriam know, and then we will send follow-up information regarding the logistics of the event. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

okay uh next signed up to speak is alex zimmerman thank you and it's always

Yeah. My name is Alex Zimmerman. I'm president of Stand Up America Party. Yeah. And I want to speak about something absolutely critical for PARC. Beloved GDP 37%. What does this mean, 37% from gross local GDP? It's more than $150 billion. Guys, you need to understand, the situation is absolutely idiotic. We have 100 plus, $150 billion. If you have budget, only $1 billion. 150 times different. You understand different between $150 billion and $1 billion? So when you want to make a good life for people, 150,000 people who live here, and exactly want to make park better, need money. We have money. We have a ton of money. I'm talking about this. Zero reaction. Consul are pure degenerative idiots. They are idiots. For the last eight years, under Mayor Robinson and Mohammed, nobody is talking about this. Nobody is talking about this gross domestic product. It's more than $150 billion, but it's not a point. So what's happened? Where does this money go? To who? To Amazon, Microsoft, to corporations? Where is money for people? We have a ton of problems right now. Bellevue right now is totally in crisis. It will be worse. It never will be better. And I talked about this a dozen years ago. Bellevue is a small city. They cannot accept this, what's happening right now. It's collapsed. This is exactly what it's supposed to be, by definition. This is not New York, not Los Angeles. It's collapsed. This exactly happened. This will be worse and worse. And when you want to make a part good, you need money. So talking to consul about stopping this BS, you know what I mean? Stopping this idiotic situation. Dozen and dozen buildings only for last few months grow up in Bellevue. I control this everything, check everything. So when you have a ton of money in system, ask council, make decision in stopping or cut little bit this $150 billion and bring this money to the people. It's very important. You like debil or quiet. I never see one from you talking about this. I need more money. I need another billion dollars. We are yesterday in Kirkland. Kirkland have only 100,000 people, have 1 billion. We have 150,000 people, we have 1 billion too. You understand what I'm talking? What has happened with council under Mayor Robinson, Imam Muhammad, this freaking idiot. Viva Trump, viva new American revolution. Stand up, slave and happy cow. Stop and be quiet. Life for people is number one.

Thank you very much.

That concludes our preregistered speakers. We'll open up an opportunity for anyone else in the room that would like to use public comment. Feel free to come on up, grab a chair, if you could share your name, and we'll start the time.

Hello, my name is Nicole Myers. I recently sent all of you a couple emails because I'm trying to figure out where the connection between the transportation decisions, the planning commission decisions, and parks designs are going to take us. I think you may have seen my most recent email identified some ways where hopefully we can avoid the need for certain aspects of the roadway that's currently proposed through the park. I know this is something that was, you know, imposed from the beginning and it was just assumed during your master planning process for Bell Red and that that road would be there. But I do think we have a huge opportunity to expand the playground, to make it a much more pedestrian and bike-centered experience, to maybe have a nice tree tunnel to make the connection, and a very wide path that's um, you know, just the kind of thing that you don't have too many other places in the city. Um, I recently was very disappointed that trees were cut down in downtown park where they had formed basically a room that you could walk through on the southeast corner of the park. These were trees that had been there even before the park was designed initially. They're quite large Port Orford cedars. And, um, So I think, Any place where you can have different experiences like that as part of the park experience is really important to capture. I think we have that opportunity with Bell Red. I'm hoping that we'll get some answers from the transportation side about what the constraints are now. Planning Commission is re-envisioning what is necessary for Bell Red. We're trying to maximize the potential for housing and other construction by... limiting the number of streets that are taking up the space. So if we can pare back some of the streets that are needed, maybe we can also consider this to be one of them. I hope that if anyone has questions about what I emailed, you know, my email is there. So just please feel free to reach out. you know, don't know all of the conversations that you guys have been having. I didn't get to go to the open houses for the Bellred Park, unfortunately. So I know there might be other things I'm not aware of. And I'm going to try to take that into account as I make recommendations and I continue to like work with people on hopefully coordinating some of these questions. So anyway, just thank you very much for your time and your service. And I'm looking forward to tonight's presentation. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Now we'll take a look online and see if anyone is interested in speaking from our Zoom platform. All right. No raised hands. I'll turn it back to you, Chair.

Thank you. That concludes oral communications. Now I'll turn it over to Councilmember Breyer for City Council communications.

Hey folks, glad to be here. Just a quick housekeeping items we'll have to dip after because of YouthLink meeting is happening at the same time, which I'm also the liaison for. But council is working on budget deliberations currently. So, and we will continue to do so for the next five weeks until adoption of the budget. And so let me tell you that neighboring cities, I will start with this, have had to go through conducting layoffs. Some have even started the fiscal year and huge budget deficits. But here in Bellevue, we're able to start with a balanced budget. And we not only that have left over end funds at the end of each year, which we put into the reserves. So according to the next six years, we're really in a really good position considering the current macro and microeconomic impacts of the region. We will be discussing the various options we have for investments in transportation. It's safe to say that some of this will naturally align and intersect with the work that you're doing in parks. We have various tiered approaches to investing in transportation. It takes a look at do we leave taxes, do we raise taxes, do we raise a Car tab fee or do we do sales tax and depending on the revenue, of course, that tells us what projects can be delivered and what cannot be delivered. So you sort of have to consider what levels of investment allow us to build a fully connected park system. So I encourage you all to really stay in touch with the budget deliberations because I'm sure you don't have anything better to do on Tuesday nights for four hours. Another item that I think is a little bit interesting as well that I wanted to bring up is we are also discussing the recent state mandate on parking and how some minimums have been removed in certain areas of development. So it'll be good to take a look at that as well. Again, this is all about really, I think both of these two big items that we're talking about, talk about increasing access to our parks and the incredible facilities here that we have in Bellevue. And so one thing I wanted to read from our budget book, which is 500 pages, which I'm sure you've all read diligently, right, is one of our main strategic target areas to keep in mind as you're making all these decisions with the park designs and all the incredible work that you do here and you're speaking to the public. One of our North Stars is a high quality built in natural environment. So Bellevue is a livable city with world class places to live, work, play and learn. We work to create iconic destinations and vibrant spaces for everyone to enjoy. And then the next section is environmental stewardship is intrinsic to a healthy community and economy. Known as a city and a park, Bellevue's parks and open space systems is nationally recognized. Give yourself a pat on the back. We have something for everyone, for small parks, for neighborhood gatherings, to forests and trails, to large community parks with unique events and experiences. Our parks and recreation system connects residents and visitors to nature and provides opportunities for improved mental and physical health. So I will leave you with that in terms of council communications. And if you do have some time, just reading some of the strategic target areas could also be helpful, but that's all I have for you.

Thank you. Does anyone have any questions? No. Thank you, Council Member Beyer.

Thank you, folks.

Great to be here in person. All right. Cool. Now we'll turn it over, sorry, to Cameron Parker for the Director's Report.

Thank you. Several items to note coming up in October, we will keep you all very busy if you like, with events and tracking the budget process. Just to follow up on that, the night, these things can change, but at this point, the night that we expect the city council to sort of hone in on the high quality build a natural environment strategic target area, which was where a lot of our programs and projects fall is the 20th of October. So we'll keep you all informed. That would be the night at which the board's recommendation memo for the CIP is included in the packet for the council and the public to read and have access to. Um, in addition to that, uh, some things that, that just may be a tad more fun. Um, we, you did hear about gumbo night that's on the 28th. Uh, so we'll, we'll send you kind of a calendar, hold more information about that and how to sign up for that. I think last year we had a, a huge turnout from the park board. We had an actual park board meeting at gumbo night. Um, good food, good conversation, uh, highly recommend. Um, Coming up a little earlier than that on the third is the Kelsey Creek Farm Fair. That is from 11 to 4. Always a great way to celebrate the changing of the seasons there at the farm. Very popular, cherished community event. And then also a little bit later in the month on the 17th is the Arbor Day Volunteer event that will be held at Lewis Creek Park. from 9 to 11, and we'll send out more information on that. That is one that does have a cap limit, so it does require pre-registration. So if you want to check your calendars and you want to get out and help in Lewis Creek Park in support of Arbor Day and improving the natural environment there, you can sign up for that. With that, I'll turn it back to you.

Thank you, Cameron. Does anyone have questions about anything Cameron shared?

Arbor Day, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. 11 a.m. Who else?

Thank you, Cameron. Anyone else? Black. All right. For that, let's jump to the next item on the agenda, board communications. Maybe we could start off on this end of the table and then pass it around this way. Does that sound good? All right.

Sure. Let's see. Not much to report on my side, except he did attend the Bell Red Neighborhood Park open house. And some of the things that came up that I think we probably will be discussing is, I think, and it was raised by Nicole, I believe, earlier is the road that goes through. And I think a couple other items that came up was additional bike lanes or bike access to the park. So those are things that I was thinking through and definitely would like to have more information about that and and how the design of the park contemplated those items or those issues and whether the city and the members thought through that entire planning process. and how the road was designed. And for me, when I was looking at the design, my concern was mostly for safety purposes, because I think the road kind of goes uphill towards there there's some gradient to the road and so i was just thinking well if there's if there's a car coming is there a way to make it uh safer for for people who are crossing the street between the two two parts of the uh the park that was my main concern but um i think other people might have other concerns about that road thank you thanks elizabeth

All right, so I had a lovely summer in the parks, and I also did read a lot of the letters that we got. So was I also able to attend the Bell Red Park discussion? As a cyclist myself, I'm very sensitive to the need for more bike lanes and access. I'm also a parent, and so I know how much... Parents depend on cars to get their kids to and from many things at a time. So would also love more information around how we've planned this out holistically to make sure that everybody has access to the park and how can we think about this across departments to make it the best possible solution for everybody. But it was great to see so many people turning out. And I also want to say thanks to the park staff for providing food at that event. I had been determined. I was like, I'm not gonna go to Crossroads and get Indian food. I'm not gonna go to Crossroads and get Indian food. And it made it so much easier because there was food provided there. And hopefully if we can do that more often, Um, we can get more families to come at that dinnertime space and get more of that input from a wide variety of stakeholders. So I really appreciated how that was put on. Um, I also have been spending a lot of time in the parks with my dog. I did see the letter about off leash dog use. Um, and I think it just speaks to the need for more safe spaces for people to take their dogs off leash, um, and, and continued education. for off leash and keeping our dogs on leash for their own safety and for the safety of others and everybody's comfort. Also wanted to ask if we could learn more about how we're dealing with some of the climate issues because it was so dry. I know in my own garden, things are drying out and I was wondering as I walked through the parks, what's happening to some of these trees because it was so dry that we had to water our larger, older trees. Hopefully, Well, I'm sure we have a plan, so I would just love to hear more about it in the future.

Thanks, Elizabeth. Eileen?

Hi. Let's see. I think I missed the open house. I think we went to the first one at the Highland. That was the first one, but I guess there's another one that I think I missed. I missed the food, apparently. I don't think there was food at the first one. But I did go to the on-site visit with Zara that showed us, walked around the park. And so now I have a more visual, I guess, image of what the current site looks like. And so I think I'm looking forward to tonight's presentation. Yeah, I've also had a pretty busy summer. um i've been uh just trying to bike around to get to get ready for my december around the taiwan island trip and uh yeah i i think i have a lot to say about bike lanes these days because i a couple weekends ago we biked they they call the seven hills of kirkland but it's like 10 hills of east side we end up biking like 100 kilometers and um yeah, overall, like, I think there's a lot of improvement can be done on these bike lanes. And the one thing I want to say is that, you know, in Redmond, I, cause I bought, we, we started in Kirkland and we went to Redmond and Woodinville. I think it's a little bit of Bellevue, but I don't know if you guys know in Bellevue, in Redmond, there's a sign says, welcome to the, world capital, bicycle capital of the world, that sign, literally at that sign, there's no bike lane, like nothing. I thought, oh, that's very ironic. I'm looking at the sign and I don't know where my bike should go. But yeah, so and then other than that, I'm just trying to be, you know, just check out the events that we have. So I went to one of the lunch concert in the summer. Even though that's not put up by the city, I think it's put up by Bellevue Downtown Association. Do they usually collaborate with the city when they put on events like that or? Or they just kind of do their own thing. But it was lovely. I went to one of them. And then from Rowena, I found out there's this fall series of free activities people can check out throughout the month of September, kind of leading to the various activities that people can do. I think you went to like a sewing class and I checked out a Tai Chi class. It was like pretty well attended. It was like, I don't know, 15, 20 people there. And I thought it was good, different variety. People can come and try out different activities and then decide if they want to sign up for those. I actually didn't even know that existed. So I thought that was pretty good. And I think this Saturday, I'm going to try to see if I can make to this event my friend sent me. Bellevue Demonstrator. Demonstration Garden, I think they have 10 to 2. I probably can, if I can make it, it will be towards the end. They have plants and garden, a device of sale. So I thought that was interesting too. But I think it would be great to have more people just to know about these events because I think there's a lot of activities and resources, yeah, that's actually happening in the city of Bellevue. Yeah. Okay, thanks. Thanks, Eileen.

Eric?

Good evening, everybody. And I want to begin by apologizing for missing the last two meetings. I have compounding family emergencies that have been taking up most of my summer. That being said, I have had a chance to stay up to date on the parks meetings that we had, as well as the Bell Reds situation. situation, competing interests, especially having read the email. Some of the things that I noticed also got brought up and where there are competing interests as it relates to whether road or bike lanes or safer play areas. I want to make sure that whether it's the Parks Commission planning and or we're following the city's established values for prioritizing and how we go about making those decisions, which I trust staff to be presenting those priorities as we move forward with the recommendation process from this board. However, I would like to see what we can do to have communication between boards so that we're all working on a unified path moving forward. Uh, aside from that, uh, the summer, uh, provided opportunities. I did get a chance to go and tour the bell red, uh, facility as well. When we received the earlier presentation, um, I had concerns about, I believe it's the pump house that that's there and what kind of aesthetic it might be. But after the tour seeing it, I. it's very professionally installed and well-maintained. So it's not the eyesore I was envisioning from the presentation. So I was relieved by that as well as it's, in the corner of the property. So I think that it won't be a distraction. It's obviously a necessity to remain there, but it was good to see that. Hiking the trails this summer with my wife, the Coal Creek Trail, I was excited to see the new bridge that's there. I can't wait to finally get to walk across it. It's been about a week since we hiked. It's not open yet, but it's good to see that connection so that community has more direct access. And we also got a chance to tour a lot of our beaches. over the summer, deliberately going there, just comparing and seeing how they're all managed and maintained. And hats off to the park staff. They're doing a fantastic job. So I look forward to getting back involved because in August we had no meetings. So I'm getting back up to speed. It's been a while since I've seen everybody. So I appreciate seeing some smiling faces. Thanks.

Thanks, Eric. Um, I'll jump in. Sorry, I keep getting something in my throat. Um, appreciate the, the awesome tour with Zarian, Wyatt, and Ryan at the Bell Red Park site. And so excited to talk about that in a bit. Um, I'll jump into, um, I did a few things at South Bellevue Community Center this summer, which was pretty fun. I signed up for a gym punch card. So I got the tour, a short orientation of the equipment and, um, Yeah, it's a nice place to work out. So I really enjoyed that. And as Eileen mentioned, there's that Fall Into Fun series. And this past Sunday, I attended an event called Thread Together Sewing and Upcycling. And it was really fun. It was like $15. And it was like a four hour long set of time. And I got to learn how to set up a sewing machine. I worked on a little basic bag. I forgot to bring it today. Sorry. And then a woman was showing us how to do some basic stitches. So I learned some basic cross stitches. And there was a station on how to mend garments. I didn't have time to go to that. And for the slightly more experienced people, there was a station where volunteers were putting together patches of a quilt that would be given to Seattle children. So I thought that was a cool touch. So it was a lot of fun if you're ever interested in sewing. the teachers and volunteers, Bo, Sheila, Monica, they were really nice. And there was one volunteer whose husband dropped her off and he's like, what should I do now? And then he was like, I don't know, maybe I will learn how to sew. So he stayed on and he learned how to sew and he also had a good time. So yeah, definitely check it out. So that's a fun thing. And then I have one little question or comment about, we had a note about the Eastgate Park being switched to pickleball only courts and that maybe we might learn more about that. Would we learn more about that today? Or is that another future topic or?

Yeah, I mean, I can share. So these are two tennis courts that are down below South Bellevue Community Center in Eastgate Park. They kind of have their own little parking area, if you're familiar with that complex there. We are trying out just having pickleball-only So two tennis courts equals four pickleball courts. So we removed the tennis nets so that it's no longer possible to play tennis there. We chose that location because there are other public tennis courts in the close vicinity. And also to sort of just test and see how it worked, the thought process. is that perhaps if it's more of just a dedicated pickleball use there, then that might sort of free up some of the other tennis courts. If pickleball users sort of congregate more there, we might not really lose any capacity overall just to have um people may be moving in in of the courts that are in the vicinity just being having them used in different ways so we're not taking any of the tennis like infrastructure out uh for now sort of keeping our options open moving forward um so that's been active for a few weeks now We have gotten some feedback, not probably as much as we were expecting, and it's been very balanced. So an equal number of thank you for doing this to what are you doing? and put it back a comment. So we'll just keep tracking that and sort of keep it as a kind of a pilot to see how it goes, you know, I think for the next several months and then just keep continuing to kind of check and adjust as we move forward.

Thanks Cameron. Oh, did you have a question?

I'll let you finish. I do have a follow-up question, but why don't you finish your report and then I'll go on.

Oh, no, I'm done with my communication. I wanted to segue into that question.

Okay. Do we need to call a new point of order, or can I just ask a follow-up question about the feedback? So thanks for gathering the feedback. Is this an area where we have a survey out to the community or we could survey the users of the court? I imagine there's a lot of different reasons people choose that court in particular, whether it's open or near their house. It would just be good to understand. Did we do that before we removed the tennis courts or was it more based on location?

Yes, this tracks back. There's sort of a history of working with... community of both pickleball users and tennis users. We've put together a focus group that have been meeting together to sort of talk about what works best for both groups in the shared use kind of scenario. So we do have that group that has met and sort of came up with some recommendations that we've been implementing so that we do have in most cases now shared use and sort of the policies and rules and expectations for how to share the court. So it has, yeah, been definitely an area where we've been working with the community on finding the sweet spot there for both user groups.

Thanks, Cameron. I look forward to hearing more about it. Oh, go ahead, Eric.

Yeah, sorry to drag this one out. Just seeking clarification, when you say pilot, for that location or if that's successful converting other locations as well? Because I know we had earlier this year somebody come in and present, a community member present on pilot. preserving tennis courts so this being again i haven't been here for three months so i don't know if this came up some of the other meetings so uh this was new to me hearing this now so uh just curious about uh that clarification sure um it is uh just for this um particular court um if um

If it seems like all the user groups are that it works to have it dedicated for pickleball in the future, then we would go through the steps of actually taking out the tennis lines and just having it painted and pulled for pickleball only. But that's a decision down the road. We're not going to jump to that.

Any other pickle poll questions? All right. Thank you so much, Cameron, for answering those questions or answering that. All right. With that, I say we conclude board communications. And so we'll move on to our big discussion item for the night. So our presenters are Zarian Sorry, Zarian Smith, Capital Project Coordinator and Wyatt Thompson, Parks Planning and Development Manager. And they're going to talk about the Bell Red Neighborhood Park Master Plan. Thank you for joining us tonight.

Good evening board members, thank you for starting the discussion on the project already we're very looking forward to continuing. The good discussion about our our new park in the bell red neighborhood so we're very pleased to present. An update on our planning process to you tonight. The site for the park is both unique and strategic in that it has always been intended to meet multiple goals for the city as well as for the community. And so the city's facility asset management and transportation and utilities departments all had short term needs for the site for operational purposes, which you saw on the tour as to how they're using the site today for various equipment and material storage. And then longer term parks and transportation and utilities all had long term needs in order to support the vision for the redevelopment of the Bell Red area to bring that into a more dense, more connected and more energized neighborhood as part of the city. and so the site has always been about that collaboration between departments and now we're seeing that opportunity through zarian's work to work internally with those departments as well as bringing that public access aspect of the park development now into the picture as we talk about the future development of the park and more of a public space versus the the internal operational space that that site serves today So several board members, as you mentioned, were able to attend our community meeting number two. And so it's great to see many of you there just to preview the concepts. And so tonight, if we can go to the next slide, Zarian will provide some more background on the project and the input that we have received so far and the concepts that are currently available for public review and then what our next steps in the planning process are. So with that, I'll turn it over to Zarian and you can get into it.

All right. Thank you, Wyatt. Thank you all for having me tonight. Good to see you again. Seems like we've been seeing a lot of each other lately. So it's good. So just start off with a little background. I know most in the room are very familiar with the site. But just to reset for a moment. This is a general look at the general location of the of the Bell red neighborhood in central northern Bellevue between 520 and Bellred Road with the general location of the park site indicated by the red star. The following is a more close in view of the same area from our Bellred sub area plan. This project was identified by project N2 that's listed there, which identifies a goal of developing a park along the West tributary in Bellred.

If we go to the site conditions,

This, as Wyatt mentioned, this particular site came with several conditions that all of our planning efforts will be basically responding to. They're labeled on the map there. We have the wetland that was left over as mitigation from the Sound Transit project. The West tributary stream indicated by number two running along the eastern border of the property. We have the large storage building on site. Then, of course, the Northeast Spring Boulevard project, which is a future condition. And also the utilities pump station, which is located in the southwest corner of the property, indicated by number five. Public outreach and engagement. As you know, we've had three public meetings to date. We had two in person, and we also had one online a couple of weeks ago. The first was at Highland Community Center here, which is where this actual photo is from. We had the second at the Crossroads Community Center here. And then, as I said, per the Park Board's recommendation during our initial meeting, I also included an online meeting for at least my first time anyway. So I'm trying to provide as many opportunities as possible for the public to comment and participate. In terms of community feedback, in addition to those meetings, we also held... several tabling events at different community neighborhood events around the city, including the East Gate Block Party. We had a farmer's market in the Spring District that we attended and tabled at. And then there's also another tabling event at one of the food banks in the area. So in addition to those events, we did have a first initial survey. And once we gathered all of that information to summarize some of the big main bullet points that we got from the public was basically these five categories were the biggest themes that we heard, which was the multiple use paths, flexible lawns, restrooms, picnic shelters, and also covered event space and seating areas for the site. So all five of these were major themes that we took into consideration and we tried to represent as best we could within the concepts that you'll see following. Concept number one. This concept includes a dog part in dog park in the northeastern portion of the of the site. This is something that we heard in several of the open comment areas from the public because of the lack of dog parks or parks in general in the area. This has a midsize parking lot. a smaller covered picnic area with a deck that extends over the wetland and native growth protection area. All of the concepts will feature a daylighted stream, but there will be different elements around that stream. This particular concept includes a cobbled beach and some nodes along the southern border of the pathway there that can be used just for sitting or just taking in the elements of the stream as you walk along the path there. This concept also has all the concepts also include a indication of future pathway access to the north of the site into the utilities wetland parcel to the north and a future potential connection to the east at the southern part of the site. Layout for concept two. One of the major elements of this concept is the boardwalk that goes across the wetland mitigation area and extends underneath the proposed bridge from the transportation project and then carries on potentially into the wetland to the north on the utility site. There's a play area in the upper corner, upper left-hand corner, along with restroom and other potential facilities there. This concept has the smallest parking area adjacent to the play area. And it has the mid-size flexible covered space that the existing storage building could be repurposed into. Another good feature of this one is taking advantage of some of the gradient in the southern portion of the site where a lookout hill could potentially give you some balance against the stream that's coming through, the daylight stream that would be coming through on the southern portion. And finally, the third concept is probably the most aggressive as far as potential programming. It includes a pump track in the northwestern corner of the site. It has the largest kind of repurposed area for the building that includes a covered play area, also partially covered recreation courts in the southern portion. of the zone, a lawn area, restroom area also. And another interesting feature is an amphitheater at the southern portion of the site, amphitheater seating mainly with open space on the other side of the trail there. This also has a feature to play area in the southern portion of the property near the opening of the daylighted stream. So our next steps, we're currently here at the second park board meeting. The hope is to come out of this meeting with obviously with your feedback, questions, comments, and combining those with other comments that I hope to receive from other internal departments. As you know, this project is pretty wide and varied, and we have a lot of answers from other departments within the city that I've been in contact with that I'm also sending these concepts to, and we'll be retaining their feedback also, which includes transportation, utilities, finance and asset management, our economic development team, and also our... Uh-oh, I'm forgetting. Yes, thank you. The arts group, and that's just to name a few. We've been doing a lot of internal communication to get feedback from this. Also, externally, we're also in contact with the Snoqualmie tribe, and I've sent these concepts to them and their board for their feedback because they have a high interest in what's happening to the daylighting of the West Territory. They're very interested in that and excited about the possibility of that happening too. So hope to get their feedback also. So over the next couple of months, that's what we'll be engaged in and We'll be using all that information to hopefully pare this down into one, possibly two concepts that we will be preparing for the third community meeting that will be taking place around the first quarter of next year. Um, afterward, we'll come back to the board, uh, potentially with the results of all of that information on the survey that is currently available right now, uh, which does include, um, the possibility for people to submit names for the park site. So, uh, the, the goal is to return at that time with, um, uh, a, if not a preferred plan, one or two plans for you to choose from, along with some suggested names. So at this point, I'd be happy to take your questions and comments.

Thank you so much, Wyatt and Zarian. So we'll turn it over to the board. For questions and discussions, which is probably going to take 30 minutes or so. So first round, let's see, are there any clarifying questions before we get into preferences?

You'll have any questions for Wyatt and Zarian? Clarification. So none of these options will preserve that structure. That we, the, you know, the indoor, the really large, like much bigger than I expected. None of these options preserves that.

Oh, actually they all, they all have a, it'll be preserved, but in a different manner, basically refurbished. So I can go back to them. Okay. So it's somewhat difficult to see from this aerial view, but basically the squares where the covered picnic area is depicted, that space is where the building stands right now. And that's indicating repurposing of the building using the cover and the frame of the building and possibly building a new roof on top of it there. And the same thing for the following concept, the flexible covered space again, and then the remnants there in front could be, it potentially could be reused for like a plaza type area. So each one of the elements has different variations of how we could reuse the building for programming or active space. recreational space, things of that nature.

So to add on to that, all of the concepts show more of an open air pavilion style reuse of the building. You are correct that none of them repurpose the building as an interior space. And I guess that would be feedback. to hear if there's an interest in that type of use in this location. I think there are considerations for that, but that would need to be made if that was a direction we explored. But the three concepts currently, you know, retain that building in various sizes as more of a part, like a large park shelter with, you know, a roof, but open sides. And then various uses could occur beneath that.

Was there specific feedback to kind of not use as it like completely closed interior structure like as is today, but making more open air was that specific feedback from the Community that went this direction.

There wasn't specific feedback to that it was more um. It was more a recommendation for using it in some type of purpose so that we didn't completely lose the character of the site and its industrialness. And the fact that if, you know, it's a big, it's a large building, a large space. So the thought was if we could do something with it, but there wasn't anything specific about that. whether it was enclosed or an open-air structure. Most of the feedback that I received in person at the meetings and whatnot, people really thought it was a good idea, a great idea to create an open-air structure if we were able to do that.

Thanks. Thanks, Eileen. Any other questions? Maybe I'll bring up a question, but I'm not quite sure how to phrase it. I've heard a lot of questions about the road, I guess. So maybe if you could give us more. The road, we can't move it, correct? Yeah. So if you could share more insights about the possibilities of the road or the not possibilities of the road. the road, maybe, or is that too beyond? Sorry.

No, fair question. Um, well, given that it's, uh, as we know, it's not exactly a parks project, but we, um, What we have been able to do is provide input on their process for designing the road. I sit on a project team with that group who's designing the road and we've been providing feedback. from a parks perspective and how it would impact our project and vice versa. They are also on our team for the same purposes. They are ahead of us as far as the design process goes. They are currently working towards 60% design, but they are not funded at this point, which is why we continue to believe that theoretically, the park would finish. We would basically start building or constructing the park before they would begin constructing the road. Given that scenario, we would be working with our consultant to develop alternatives for what the space would look like in an interim phase. before the rope came in and then what it would potentially look like afterwards. So I can say, well, no more as they move along. I don't have anything, any information about the status of that funding or anything like that. But uh what i can say what i can report to is that uh we we are part of their uh design process and will continue to be um to your question uh steve about the cross sections um here you know those are some of the things that we have been in discussions with them um for instance like uh that will inform some of the decisions that we'll make for safety purposes of the park. Like, for instance, one of the things we were just recently discussing was the possibility of one of the concepts has a trail that goes underneath the bridge instead of going at grade to cross the road. Now, that might be a safer path from our perspective to have people travel under there to keep them from having to cross the road. But that does impact transportation efforts, given that that would cause them to create a higher bridge. Also, the crossing there, as it's shown, when we get to more detail on that, there are things that we can do to make that crossing as safe as possible, like raised tabletop designs. Probably wouldn't do anything as significant as signaling it, but you have to keep in mind, factor trucks and whatnot from the utilities department, even after we're completed construction, we'll still need to access that turn to be able to access the northern parcel. So those design characteristics will be considered for that. So there's a lot that will go into it. So hopefully that answers your question, but there's more to come.

Thanks, Ari. And yeah, I just wanted to bring it up because I felt like there was a lot of questions about the road. So sorry if my question was also pretty vague. Does anyone else have any additional questions? Oh, go ahead.

Just a comment on that point. We did have a really good meeting one time where we were able to meet with the, I think it was the, was it health and human services? It was a partner commission, um, to talk through some things together, the two groups. I wonder if that would be possible in this case, just to, just to understand, cause I don't want to put it all on our parks team to explain what transportation's doing because it's transportation and they have all kinds of things. Would that be possible?

I don't know the extent to which the Transportation Commission is engaging on this. Well, I would say it's safe to say they're not engaging on the same timeline that we're on. It may be more effective just to have transportation staff that are engaged in the design to be able to provide, you know, answer questions. There's certainly... You know, the questions that you all do have, we can, you know, chart those and collect responses and just go, you know, go back and work with the interdepartmental group that's working here to be able to answer whatever questions you have.

Yeah, it just feels like that would be like more direct for us and we could get like clear up a lot of questions. Okay, thank you.

cool thank you cameron thanks a little bit any other questions i think everyone's excited to share their preferences this is my guess all right let's go share preferences who wants to go first oh you guys are shy oh eric go for it

I don't have a preference for any one overview altogether. There's bits and pieces that I like, and all of them revolve around what I think would draw more attention I guess, programming of the space, as well as the intent behind parks, or one of the things I believe the intent of parks is to provide areas where we get to experience and engage with nature. So I really like the concept of a boardwalk through the wetlands. We have other parks that do that. And that's one of my favorite part of using those trails is because you actually feel like you're in nature and you get to have that in nature. inside of our city known for its parks, but being able to enjoy that right in the middle of the city. I like also referring to the programming, the amphitheater, it provides opportunities for us to program and bring people there for a reason besides just using the park. It's now we have these events that, and this band's going to be here, this acting group, this whatever, to be able to utilize that space to draw people to the location. I like, no matter what we do, obviously we should have a play area. I like the idea of covered play because it provides a space when the weather, especially for about two-thirds of the year here, isn't as favorable if it's not covered. And then I like the idea of a dog park, except I add the caveat of what are the needs for the city? How many dog parks do we have? I haven't gone and caught them up. And is that, for this particular area, is that specific need lacking? In which case, does that then prioritize it over programming it some other way? So aside from that, I love... the idea of all the greenery and vegetation that's going to be put in, especially after going on the tour and seeing what it is, you know. So adding that green space is exciting for me as well. So thank you for putting together some really good ideas.

Thanks, Eric. Who would like to go next? Elizabeth, thank you.

Yes. So again, thank you for bringing us these options, which are all super exciting and all of the work you did to incorporate the ideas. Eric stole what I was going to say, which is like, there's certain features that I'm really excited about, but I couldn't choose just one. Like you, I love the concept to walk through of the green space. And when I was looking at these plans, I was thinking I'm a resident of the apartment buildings that are going up nearby. And this is going to be my park. This is going to be the park. that my kids go to before school, where they go after school, they're going to remember all of that. So agree that, um, play a play area is critical. I also think for a lot of the workers in those buildings, they'll have a dog before they have kids or instead of, and so a dog park will be really helpful for them. So something between as much as I would love a pump track and that's super cool. Um, something between one and two preserving that ability to go through the wetlands. Um, but also getting the player or getting a play area and a dog park out of it would be great. I noticed that. So thinking that some of the transportation things are outside of the control of this board, um, as much as we want, one thing we can control is the parking and how much parking is available. There's tons of parking nearby. Um, so I did definitely like the concept to smaller parking area with less pavement between the main road and the parking. Um, yeah, it just minimizes the, the amount of additional paved space that we take away from the greenery. So that would be my non-negotiable knowing that all of the other things are super cool. Um, and will be used.

Thanks, Elizabeth. Eileen or Steve? Sure. Okay, we'll go to Steve.

All right. Thank you so much for these concepts, one, two, and three. It's really difficult to choose from these concepts, but one couple of things I do like, I like all these ideas. One thing I do like is keeping that flexible cover space. I remember when I was at the second, at the crossroads meeting where there was discussion about uh, minimizing the cover space or maximizing the cover space. And personally, it's just my personal opinion. I, I, I kind of like the idea of maximizing the cover space. I like the industrial, uh, look and also the history behind it. Um, so I, I do like that. The, the second thing is, yeah, the trail boardwalk is a really neat idea. Um, I don't know what you can do with the wetlands over there, but I mean, can you go fishing over there? I don't know in the future. Probably not, but people can try, right? And the third thing about the play area on the left-hand corner, I do like the pump track idea. The reason why I like that idea is Is because I don't, are there many pump tracks or similar kind of concepts here in Bellevue? And maybe that would serve, you know, that would be a location for certain group of Bellevue people to go to if they, you know, maybe... They like to use the pump track for bikes or maybe skateboarding, right? That could be something that maybe we can explore and see what the public feedback is on that. Because a pump track, if nobody uses it, it'll be kind of a waste too. And amphitheater, great idea. Yeah. So. And with respect to parking. My thought was if we minimize parking right now, what happens in the future? What's the development plan over there? Would it be difficult for people to... If, let's say, it becomes more dense, would there still be the same amount of parking around that area as of right now? Or will we lose parking in the future? But, you know, I do... Unfortunately, I drive a lot. So I do like parking. It makes it easy for me to access park facilities. But then at the same time, I do agree to maximize the programming space for different uses at a park is a great idea too. So again, I mean, that's open to public feedback. Thank you.

Thanks, Steve.

Eileen? Sorry, I can't be on the spot. Let's see. So I was recently in New York. And as I was walking around, I just noticed a few things. Like New York, on one of the piers, they have this little island. They have a huge amphitheater. I think it's like... maybe 500, 600 seats, and they actually run ticketed events there, like, you know, like not just a small. So I felt like I remember when I visited there, I thought, oh, it would be really cool if we have something like that in Bellevue, like to your point, kind of really bring the community together, build. I don't know how big this amphitheater is like the when i'm thinking is like the New York little island along the Hudson River it's actually large enough that you can actually have professional. performances and uh not just something that uh like doing just a small community event but I mean I don't know how how big the amphitheater will be like to me if we want to do something like that I would recommend to build something a little bit larger to becoming more of a gathering point um because I thought that was really cool um And then they had, and I think when I went there, there was no, they were setting up for an event like happening a day or two later. So when there's no event, people can just sit there, take a break, and you can have a really good view. And potentially this can look out to the wetland, could provide some kind of nice kind of sighting. And then when you have events, because there's also not a lot of, there's no like, it's more industrial there. So the noise may not be an issue with, you know, if you would have houses around. So that might be something to consider. In terms of play area, I thought this, like I like the play area to be a little bit more inside the park. Like I think on option two, I was looking at versus at the entrance. like I was just thinking about safety because I remember driving there for the side tour. It was like, what, coca-cola or safeway plant right i don't know is that future still going to be like that because there's like basically you drive in and then if the play area is right at the entrance i was a little thing i was thinking about the safety of the kids versus more i think concept two you have a option of the play area more on like that seems to be a little more included or, you know, parents could have a little more relaxed feeling than right at the entrance. So that was what I was thinking. And then also, I think multiple people mentioned, I do think we would love to have more covered recreational area. Could be basketball, right? Could be, I know the future will have covered pickleball courts, but even some kind of racket sports, because that's another thing I noticed in New York. Like, because, you know, everybody is living very small area. So they really relying on this public space to provide all kinds of recreational area. So I remember seeing like this large, open air covered area, you can do basketball, you can do I don't know, like, kind of, I see some courts that didn't go all the way there, just kind of saw from far. And then kind of multi-use covered recreational areas. I think that will be very, because we don't have anything that's large enough that we could do that. So I think those are my thoughts. main thing oh and i think the palm track oh that was another thing but we do have a skate park that's not that far you know at the highland um so i don't know if those will be too close the skate park you can you do bikes on it or no just and then the the bike like marimore park has something like that right the palm track is that uh marimore park is the velodrome okay

The pump track would be unique and something we don't have and is, I think, more so used for bikes than skateboards. The Highland Park, which is not too far away, that has the indoor skate park and the outdoor skate plaza.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I think Crossroads has something. I remember seeing people doing that.

They have the skate bowl, which is terrifying to me. But it's like an empty pool. Maybe it's worth doing some survey to see how...

What's the use, like what's potential usage from the pump track? Because I really don't know. I do see little kids like do it on the crossroads one. And then the, especially they run camps at the Highland, the indoor skate camps. So the kids will practice outside. But on the biking thing.

Okay.

Well, I do remember now. The palm track, I think there was one I remember biking through, maybe in South, not in Bellevue. Like, it's close to, like, I remember biking a trail down in Auburn, maybe, and they were running a camp the kids were doing, and I was tempted to go with my bike. I'm like, okay, forget it. I don't want to make fun of myself. Yeah, but I think that one maybe it's worth to run some survey just to see. yeah the interest level. But I think the two things i'm most excited about is the large enough amphitheater and the covered recreational area. That will be. A big win for the city.

Thank you, Eileen. So I'll share some of my thoughts. I actually went to the SeaTac pump track not too far after this. So it's maybe a 45-minute drive south near the airport. So it's a bit far. And that's the first time I'd seen a pump track, and there were lots of kids. I was surprised there were two-year-olds kind of rolling on bikes up and down the pump track. And... All the kids seem to know the flow and we're really good at helping each other out. And it's like someone like slipped or something. So at first I was like, oh, I'm not sure about a pump track. But after seeing so many kids on that one, I was I was like, oh, this is pretty neat. I could see this be kind of a growing sport and interest. So the only challenge is when it's drizzly, I think it's kind of hard to use, which it's kind of drizzly a good chunk of the year. But I actually, sorry, jumped into pump track. I think if we were going to build a pump track, it would be pretty cool. And that's kind of good space because, yeah, it's kind of in an industrial area. people going on the light rail might enjoy watching kids go down the pump track. So it's kind of a little noisy too. So I don't know. I was thinking that corner would be pretty cool for a pump track. Um, so, um, sorry, I jumped to my pump track comment, but overall I, I kind of lean towards a lot of the ideas in concept three, actually. I like maximizing the amount of covered area for play, um, I, and there's a restroom down there, which was nice for parking. I know parking's always iffy, but actually I was thinking if you had a pump track or if the space was used for a lot of like big events, having. 16 over 10 parking spots might be beneficial i don't know if there would be events where people could bring a food truck or for the pump track sometimes people will throw their kids bikes in the back of their pickup truck or in their vehicle so i i don't know i was i was thinking i was okay with 16 spots um there which i guess was the most spots um So yeah, I liked Concept 3 with the most covered play areas and a flexible covered area. And then like everyone else, I think I really like the multi-use boardwalk trail in Concept 2. I just love walking over kind of watered areas. There's like... A boardwalk over Totem Lake, that's, I imagine, might be pretty similar. And whenever I'm kind of up in that area, I see like teenagers meandering it all the time. So I know like boardwalks get a lot of use or it's a good place to kind of like walk and chat with people and stop and see like a bird land on a grass or whatever. So it's a really good way to kind of get immersed into that wetland area. And then I had the most random comment that you might. So I've heard of these places called adventure playgrounds. Have you heard of it? It's where like there are wooden boards and kids get access to tools and they kind of like hammer away. It's a little chaotic, but it's like a place where kids kind of roam free and build their own structure. And with all the remnants of like these places, these um old industrial things I was like oh it kind of has the vibe of an adventure playground I don't know if anyone else is familiar with it but there's one in Berkeley California that's really popular it's really popular in uh like western Europe I think it started in Denmark um so if there's any like ideas for themes of playground I was like oh kind of like bikes and Hammers and kids with nails. I don't know. That's kind of the vibe I'm starting to get from this park. A little homage to the industrialness of it. Sorry if I rambled a bit. But yeah, those are kind of my biggest comments. So yeah, I liked... Concept 3. But yeah, all the designs are pretty awesome. And I'm really happy about daylighting the stream. I think all of them, I think, do it well. So we kind of glossed over that. I remember that being a really important part. Yeah. So thank you so much for putting this together. And I really liked all the outreach you're all doing, going to like farmers markets as well. And like the Eastgate community event and things like that. I really, I think that's a good way to get in touch with people about this project. So I really appreciate all your efforts kind of going to those big events.

we will be at the night market this Saturday too. So yeah.

Perfect. Yeah. And I'm curious what every, the name, the name part's really interesting because I always feel like the name kind of should go along with the design vibe, but that's kind of hard to do at the same time. But if we go with like this weird Mad Max adventure world, I don't know. I kind of have a, I'm feeling this kind of vibe with Concept 3. All right, I'll be quiet. I think I've said too much. Does anyone have any comments? Go ahead, Eric.

Yeah, I forgot to bring this up, but a question about daylighting the stream where you just mentioned that. That would require rerouting the stream, right? Because I think it goes like... right down the side of the building right now, doesn't it? Underground.

Yeah. It ends up being piped about halfway through the Sun Transit mitigation area. Then it hits a pipe, and then it goes straight down, and it takes a hard turn, 90-degree turn. Right. And then another 90, and then south.

So envisioning what is up there on the screen, all of that, basically, we'll just say from that walkover bridge, looking around like that would be re...

relocating where the flow goes isn't it isn't it yes i mean the the natural flow will make a lot of determination about how that path the rerouting of that path will take place but yes it will technically be rerouted you'll notice that in each of the plans it's slightly it's so slightly differently right so there are there are some things we could do to reroute it but a lot of it is going to be depending on the natural flow of the water and where it might pool or how the depth at different areas. I appreciate it. Thank you. Sure.

Thanks, Eric. Oh, Elizabeth, did you have a question?

Oh, not a question. Oh. You could share a comment. I have comments on the comments. So I wanted to, first of all, comment on the parking question because I can't share my screen here, but in the area, like Even if we got rid of like 80% of the strip malls, we would still have like 20 parking spots within like a really close walking distance. Like there's so many. strip malls there um like there's so many parking spaces it's just something to consider like if there were an event and i would hate to take the very little green space that we have and dedicate it to what we already have and i i will also say this when when i was in that space again what i was thinking of there's a lot of apartment buildings and mixed-use things coming up there It's true that some people will still want to drive in, but there will be thousands of people who will be like overlooking that park, who could easily walk to the park, you know, or even if you had a disability, like it would probably be within range of walking. And so that's where my comments are coming from in terms of minimizing that concrete space and the in park parking, not that we have none, because we want to be compliant for ADA and everything, but yeah, I think if you zoom in on Google Maps, You can kind of see it now. I'll show you. Like that's all a strip mall. This is all a strip mall. We can send it afterwards, but there's a lot. So that's just something I wanted to like pull out so that we don't put it on our park that they have to provide all of that space. And there's also like parking requirements in the apartments themselves. And a lot of times they will also sell those spaces. Um, like they can have like rent out spots in the event that we had an amphitheater that was drawing in like what, 200 people or, or even 50 people. So something to consider. Um, and I remembered something else, all of the covered spaces we have right now that I see is basketball. And we're kind of, I can tell everybody else is like struggling to think what else the people do. But I remembered at our park, a lot of people use the covered spot for Tai Chi, um, And for practices like dance practice outside and, um, yeah, different types of like martial arts practice and things like that, which makes the mixed use and not just like a covered play area really important. Like people need that flat space. So I wanted to provide that comment to the, um, to our team that we have that available. I don't know if they're even officially renting the spot, but at Telecom, they use the place for Tai Chi. Every day, there's people out there when I walk my dog there, which is pretty cool because I think they like the fresh air, but also it has to be covered because it's raining.

Thanks, Elizabeth. Sorry, did you have a question coming? More like a question. I want to understand a little more about the roads. What are the The other discussion I don't think I quite understand like what is the cross section between transportation and parks and which roads, are we talking about are we able to go into a little more detail.

The road that is proposed as part of the Bell Red sub-area plan, which looks at the broader region and sets of vision and goals for redevelopment of Bell Red from a more industrial to a more urban residential commercial focus with a new grid and network of streets. So the street that's proposed is shown in this plan as starting... I mean, the bridge is kind of in the middle of the road, and it goes east or west from that point. It ultimately connects 120... 124th with 130th.

With 130th.

So 130th is where the Bell Red light rail station is at, and then it would connect. The Spring Boulevard's there, and it stops at 130th, and then this is the missing link in Spring Boulevard between 130th and 124th.

Okay. And then what's the controversy? Or what are the different opinions on that road?

I think some of the feedback we've received from a couple individuals at meeting number two and in the emails you've received are questioning the need for that road to provide connectivity for vehicles through the area and in particular raising concerns about a roadway through the park. And it's, I think, from the vision set forth in the Bell Red subarea plan, it's not so much as a road going plan. through the park, it's connecting that street grid and there happens to be now a park on both sides that we're trying to plan uses for. And so from our perspective, how do we do that safely so that both in terms of what we place on both sides of the road, how do we work collaboratively with transportation to ensure that there's the appropriate crossing, whether that's a raised table, whether that's a rapid flasher, whether that's a light, You know, I think the uses that we put on each side, sorry, each side of the road could impact that. Are there opportunities for the underpass? You know, there's a cost and an engineering implication to doing that that we show in concept too. But that does perhaps provide a greater level of safety for people wanting to move between the two sections of the park.

That's the road like between the bridge.

Yeah, but the gray line between the bridge and then going to the left of the screen, kind of the S, kind of the curve is the roadway. And then the cross section of that roadway is two lanes, one lane in each direction, a bike lane, a landscape buffer, and then a multi-use path or a sidewalk.

Then car can go through.

And then, yeah, so cars would go in the middle and then there would be dedicated space for bicyclists and walkers all kind of paralleling all within that S curve. And then we're showing connections to that sidewalk with the park pathways kind of in the middle of that S curve that connect to the various amenities in each of the concepts.

Yeah, thanks for explaining.

One visual that might be helpful that has been sort of brought up of what this might look like is the, I think it's like Washington Boulevard and the Seattle Arboretum. If you sort of are driving through the Arboretum, it's narrow, one lane in each direction that goes through there. That might just give you a little sense of what it would look like.

I see. Okay, now I remember. I feel like oh go ahead go go go I was just thinking for Arboretum I was just there biking across 520 I always felt it was really hard for me to bike through Arboretum because there's so many people walking and then we all kind of share the path is that the

idea here like you're gonna have people walking and driving and biking all on the same that gray road the um so you can correct me if i'm wrong but it would be a little more separated uh so there would be the the travel lanes for the cars um um a like a striped bike lane um then like some actual separation like uh a a row of trees or shrubs, and then more of a wide multipurpose path that would probably that would probably look like what the that sort of wide sidewalk and that's in McCormick Park, that sort of width, where it's 16 to 20 feet wide for bikes and pedestrians.

Yeah, so I know we're still early in the planning on this, but has a speed limit been discussed or other traffic calming measures for a road going through here? I know the city's moving to 20 mile an hour residential areas. I would assume at minimum we would do that, but consider lowering it to like 15 or so for that strip going through a park, as well as potential other traffic calming measures if... PB, John Gerstle PB, David Ensign, A plan where people have to cross the street in any way, you know, like it was mentioned the flashing lights and all that. PB, John Gerstle PB, David Ensign, Maybe other traffic calming measures might be looked at as compared to if you do have safe passage, like a bridge going over and overpass or an underpass or some other means for going without. pedestrians having to walk in the street. I just want to make sure we're looking at, I know our staff will look at those things, but those are some ways we might be able to mitigate the concerns of a road being in there, you know.

So we've definitely had conversations about traffic calming measures. But as you said, it's a little early. We haven't had any discussions about speed limits on this particular section. But yeah, traffic calming has been discussed.

Thank you. Oh, go ahead.

So along the same lines, that road, what's the expected number of cars? Have there been projections of... How busy is it going to be? Is it going to be like Northrop? Or will it be more like some other street. I just wanted to have an idea of what kind of street would that be, how busy it is, and if there's any analogies or comparisons that I can put into context. Thanks.

Just a reminder, we do have the comments from...

Okay, great.

Sorry.

about what type we expect. Having dealt with this before, you will get people that are trying to circumvent traffic trying to find ways to get through, especially if they live locally, they will use that to get through. But that then gets to my comments of the traffic calming. So if you make it, so it's not really a faster route to cut through. What you usually will end up seeing is it being used more by local residents and those people that live in the area to get to and from their work as compared to, a main arterial, like you mentioned, north up where you have traffic that just know that path and they just religiously go that way. So I personally wouldn't be too concerned about overuse there and or excessive amounts. But I would imagine during our normal commute times, you're going to see increased traffic going through there, which gets back to the traffic comment to mitigate that. So...

Okay. Oh, I forgot to mention, I should have done this before I spoke. Stefan Hobe, our board member, he couldn't make it tonight, but he attended a community meeting and the tour, and he emailed me some comments. And so I'm going to read him exactly as he, or this version as he sent it to me, so everyone could hear his comments. So following the recent Bell Red Neighborhood Park community meeting, I would frame my comments around these three questions. First, how do we make a neighborhood park with constrained parking truly accessible? If parking is constrained, walking and bicycling needs to be realistic alternatives. GIS-based pedestrian and bicycle service area analysis could help identify who can realistically reach the park, where barriers exist, and where connectivity improvements would have the greatest impact. Second, how do we let people experience the wetland without compromising it? I appreciate that the concepts explore different levels of access from the boardwalk in concept two to more passive viewing opportunities in concept one. The goal should be to make the wetland visible and memorable while protecting the ecological resource that gives the site its character. Third, how do we design for the neighborhood of the future? Future residents may have different needs, including greater demand for active and play-oriented amenities. At the same time, planning for the neighborhood's future does not mean losing its past. I particularly like the idea of retaining the industrial remnant frame as a functional element that keeps Bell Red's industrial heritage visible without the visual weight of retaining an entire building. Overall, I would evaluate the concepts not only against current preferences, but also against future land use demographics, connectivity, and long-term community needs. So those are the comments from Stefan. Any other additional final questions or comments? I have such a silly one to end on. Why? How come concept two has a stormwater feature and that's not in concept one and three? Is there a reason for the stormwater feature?

No particular reason for it, just we can. Sometimes we'll put one feature in one concept just to see if it's something that people like. enjoy an element that people enjoy. And it's something that we could add that could be added to other concepts if that's the case. But yeah, it's, you know, what we do with the stormwater at this site is going to be a pretty big undertaking, especially with the right of way coming through and transportation will have their own stormwater needs. So this, it's just a design thought about something that we could do with that to make it incorporated into the park.

Okay. Thank you. Sorry. And then maybe I'll put a light comment for the flexible covered area. I know there was mentioned to possibly basketball courts and use for Tai Chi or I was thinking pickleball courts potentially. I imagine that's a really popular idea. I don't know if that's kind of in the current plan, but I was thinking plus with pickleball courts, if You wanted to take down the net and use the space for other things. Wouldn't that be kind of same as a basketball court, I imagine. But anyways, with all the talk about pickleball, that might be another solution to the pickleball needs of the city.

No, we definitely heard that in the open comment portions of the survey. As far as covered sports are concerned, something that can handle pickleball or maybe a one-sided tennis where you can hit the ball against the wall, there'd be enough space for that. Other types of sports. So yeah, that's something we heard too.

Awesome. Thank you. Final, final? Okay, I guess we'll conclude that with that. Thank you so much for your presentation and answering all our questions, Arien and Wyatt. Sure.

And we look forward to hearing more about it.

Thank you. All right. With that, that concludes our discussion items. New business, the next meeting is scheduled for October 21st. If anyone knows now if they need to request remote attendance, please let staff know.

No, or if you know, right this moment.

Okay, everyone, let's let everyone check their calendars. Good, good. Oh, OK. And then we could always email Cameron afterwards. So I'll turn it over to Cameron for a brief preview of that meeting.

Great. Yes. Well, first, thank you for the robust discussion this evening and great amount of feedback. I know even though Michelle couldn't be here in person, she was planning to sort of track the conversation and certainly we'll have opportunity to provide her thoughts as well. So it's great to have participation from all of you as we move that work forward. For our next meeting in October, our agenda is a significant one. We'll be kicking off an update to our parks and open space system plan. So this is... Something we do about every six years, sort of open the book on that document that is kind of our North Star for where we as a community want to see the overall parks, trails, and open space system go in the future. So the board will spend quite a bit of time on this in 2027 as we work our way through the process. It also has a large community engagement aspect as well. So in addition to park board meetings, you'll be getting invited to a lot of those engagement events additionally. So we'll get that rolling next month in October. And we will also bring back a memo that will cover the third quarter of this year that we can take a look at. And uh, send on to the city council that will, um, cover the third quarter. That's, I think, I feel like this year is going to be over in the flash. It's going so fast. So, uh, so those two main agenda items.

Okay. Awesome. Any questions about the agenda items for the next meeting? All right. With that, we've completed all the items on tonight's agenda, and so I call the meeting now adjourned. Thank you, everyone.