Construction begins on I-405 widening project

On Monday, July 9, WSDOT will begin construction to widen I-405 within the city of Bellevue between 112th Avenue SE (exit 9 near the park and ride) and SE 8th Street.

You may notice construction activity as crews shift lanes on I-405 to set up work zones and move in heavy construction equipment. Ramp alignments may also change to accommodate construction. All lanes on I-405 will remain open during the day with a few lanes closed at night.

The I-405 South Bellevue Widening Project will help relieve congestion at one of the worst I-405 bottlenecks by adding lanes and improving merging conditions through the drive in and out of downtown Bellevue.

The project is divided into two stages:

Stage 1: July 2007 - June 2008
Between 112th Ave SE and I-90

• Add a new northbound lane from 112th Ave SE to I-90
• Build a new, three-lane, southbound bridge over I-90
• Widen the existing northbound bridge over Coal Creek Parkway

Stage 2: March 2008 - August 2009
Between I-90 and SE 8th

• Build one new lane in each direction from I-90 to SE 8th Street
• Remove the Wilburton Tunnel
• Convert the existing southbound bridge over I-90 to carry the northbound HOV lane

For more information visit the WSDOT I-405 Widening Project Website.

Windtree Park Update!

Construction is getting closer! At last nights Council meeting the City Council authorized the City Manager to sign construction and access easement agreements with two property owners adjacent the North and East of the park property. The good news is that one of the easement agreements includes the construction of an asphalt path extending from 91st St to the North end of park site. (where the gravel driveway currently extends from the dead end of 121st) This will give residents a paved pathway from both the South end of the park and the North end of the park. The residents of Windtree owe both of these property owners a big "Thank You" for working so cooperatively with the City to reach this agreement.

This means that the city can now begin the process of advertising for a contractor (bidding the project) and hopefully start construction as soon as August. The public works director indicated that the park construction and landscaping would last about 3 months. If all goes well, we could see the park finished by Oct-Nov.

Parks, Fireworks, and Road closures

The following is a roundup of updates from last nights council meeting:


Skate Park Public Hearing
Tonight, June 20th, the Parks Board will be holding the first public hearing on the feasibility of and possible site location for a skate park. The meeting is at 7pm at City Hall

4th of July Fireworks
This is the last year that the personal discharge of fireworks will be allowed in the city of Newcastle. If you chose to shoot off your own fireworks please be safe and use common sense especially if there will be children in the viewing area. If you choose not to hold your own fireworks display there will be a public display at Lake Boren Park. Festivities in the park begin at 6pm. From 8-10pm there will be live music and the fireworks display over the lake will begin at 10pm. There will also be several food vendors in the park during the event. Also note the following from the city website:

NO outside fireworks are permitted at Lake Boren Park. All dogs must be ON LEASH and horses are not allowed during this event. All attendees should remember that fireworks can startle or frighten animals. For the safety of others and your pets, we recommend animals be kept at home.

Coal Creek Parkway Closure
Coal Creek Parkway between Newcastle Way and Golf Club Road will be closed from approx 11:30 - 2pm on this Friday June 22nd. Traffic will be detoured along Newcastle Way and Golf Club Road during the closure. Please expect delays if you will be travelling during this time. The reason for the road closure is for the dedication of the Officer Richard Hertzog memorial. For those who have been in town for several years, you may recall that Officer Hertzog was a well respected and loved Officer of the Newcastle PD who was shot along Coal Creek Parkway while on duty.

Concerts in the Park
The Summer concert series begins next Wednesday June 27th at Lake Boren Park. For a schedule of performances visit the Newcastle Event Calendar.

Windtree Alternate Access

Access into the Windtree neighborhood is challenging. The only access is via 121st Ave. which serves more than 100 homes as the sole access point from 88th St. In the past six months this bottleneck has been made painfully apparent by a few events that have caused road closures along 121st. First, during the December windstorm, a power line was downed and lay draped across the roadway for more than 6 days. There was limited access around the downed line but the situation could have been worse especially if emergency vehicles were unable to use the roadway. Second, the construction of the Windtree sewer project has caused daily short-term closures, that are not just inconvenient but pose a safety risk as well.

At this Tuesday's (June 19th) Council meeting we will be reviewing and considering changes to the TIP (a public hearing will also be held at a future meeting). The Transportation Improvement Program (or TIP) is a list of transportation related capital projects the city intends to carry out. The TIP is a planning tool that is required by state law for coordination with other local public agencies. The only change to the TIP currently being proposed this year is a project titled "Alternate Access for Windtree". Of the 18 projects identified in the TIP, this project is placed 6th in priority behind phases 2&3 of Coal Creek Parkway, general pavement overlays, and the Newcastle Transit Center. By placing this project on the TIP, it gives the city authority to begin planning for a possible project. The first step in 2008 would be to survey/study the current access and explore possible alternate locations for access roads. After a study is completed an estimate of cost for a full project would be presented to the council (presumably in late 2008).

I believe that it is important for the rest of the council and city staff to hear the opinions of the residents of Windtree on this subject. While I have been an advocate of exploring alternate access to the neighborhood I am unsure of what the best alternate might be and am curious to hear the thoughts of other neighbors. So if you have opinions on the issue please feel free to come speak at public comment period during this Tuesdays meeting or submit comments via email to cityclerk@ci.newcastle.wa.us.

July 19th Council meeting agenda

For those who are interested, the following items are on the agenda for next Tuesday's meeting.

• Financial Report; 1st Quarter 2007 (no action)
• Introduction of 2008-2013 Transportation Improvement Plan
• Ordinance Repealing CBC Building Moratorium

-dan

CBC Part 2: Public comment roundup

Post clarification
I need to clarify a comment from an earlier post. I wrote:

Critics of mine claim that the free market of development will provide what we envision. I believe that view is sorely shortsighted. We have seen time and time again in other regional communities like Mercer Island, Mill Creek, Bothell, Sammamish, and repeated by developers on several occasions that the key to seeing successful community development is the following:
- A clear set of development guidelines
- That are consistently applied
- That work toward a central vision

I did not intend to imply that cities like Mercer Island have used the same development regulations as we have recently adopted in Newcastle. My only intention was to say that the 3 points I list are what have been key success factors for each of the those communities. And that I believe our new regulations bring us closer to meeting those 3 points.

Newspaper editorial insight
I want to clarify the use of Carol Simpson's phrase "need a time-out" in her June 1st Newcastle News letter to the editor. This appears to be a dig at me and a comment I made nearly a year ago when the council was voting to impose a development moratorium in the CBC.

Now why did I use this phrase? The context of my statement was in regard to the fact that I felt the city council was divided and our city codes were all over the map when concerning our development codes. I felt the codes were inconsistent with the visions and the visions among the councilors were varied. Now fortunately for the city we have documents that specify each of these things and planners must adhere to them when allowing new buildings. So the "time-out" was for us, the council, to step back and take stock of our regulations and for us to get back on one page. It was not intended as a slight to any of the property owners or businesses. A majority of the council concluded that the currently adopted CBC master plan contained the correct vision but a number of items in our code needed to be reviewed for consistency. My feeling was that our existing code allowed a type of development that was severely inconsistent with the vision laid out in the CBC plan and it needed to be corrected.

The council should be lifting the moratorium at our next meeting on June 19th, and I still think the decision to impose such a restriction for the past 12 months was a prudent one.

What about public improvements?
Currently the only public project for the CBC in the works are intersection improvements to Coal Creek Pkwy and Newcastle way. While these improvements are highly needed, I don't think they are a significant enough investment to spur additional development in the CBC. I think the best potential investment the city could make would be to invest in a public parking structure that would remove most of the parking burden for developers. Then i think we could see development happen rather quickly since structured parking is the one item that is repeatedly mentioned as cost-prohibitive for the type of mixed-use development we are looking for. Unfortunately with big projects like Coal Creek Parkway widening consuming most of our resources, a project like this is probably many years away.

These new regulations actually deter development
During our last council meeting a public comment was made to the effect that the new development regulation requiring a minimum density for development would "freeze the downtown into a block of ice, and by not allowing the development of a low-density, pad-style developments like Blockbuster Video, we will lose out on potential taxes in the near term".

In the short term those types of developments could be a small benefit to the city, but long-term would be harder to re-develop than if the market just waited a few years due to the density requirement. Continuing to allow the market to build that style of development is not in my mind in the best interest of the city long term.

Other items of note
Candidate filing has ended. All four council seats are contested and will make for a very noisy election season here in Newcastle. The good news is that there will be at least 3 new faces on the council this year after 3 incumbents decided not to seek re-election.

The city council will be holding a study session on emergency management at 8pm on Tuesday June 26th in the city hall chambers. The public is encouraged to attend.

CBC Part 1: Summary of development changes

Last night, during a meeting that lasted nearly 5 hours, the council approved several changes to the municipal code that will affect the future developments in our CBC zone. Following is a brief list of the changes. I fully intend to address each of the changes in more depth but will do so over the next few weeks for the sake of not having time to write a novel in this one post.

First, the changes that were enacted last night:

1. The requirement that pedestrian oriented uses must occupy 50% of the ground-level of new developments.
2. Ground-level transparency of 50% (ie. the frontage of a building must use 50% transparent materials like glass)
3. Minimum ground-floor height of 12 feet.
4. An increased building height of 75 feet (previously the max height was 5 stories)
5. Slightly lowered minimum parking requirements depending on usage and a new maximum parking requirement of 200% of the minimum. (300% max for dining and food uses)
6. The prohibition of new Drive-thru lanes
7. A minimum building size (Floor Area Ratio) of .75 FAR with a max of 4.0 FAR. (eg. a 10,000 sq ft lot would require a building of at least 7,500 sq ft with a max of 40,000 sq ft)
8. Finally we updated the permitted use tables for the MU and MU/I zones in the CBC. (permitted use tables define what types of business can locate in those zones and under what conditions)

I supported all of these changes and believe that they will finally bring our development codes into closer alignment with the vision set forth in the CBC plan the city adopted several years ago. There are a few things here that I don't think are perfect, parking is one of those things, but I understand that this is just a step in the direction we need to take to ensure quality development in our downtown and that these things can and should change slightly over time.

Next post.... My responses to the public comments on this issue.

Coal Creek Parkway closer to beginning construction

On Monday June 4th all of the necessary pre-construction requirements for Coal Creek Parkway have been met and the City has officially begun soliciting for construction bids on the project. Construction companies will now have until July 3rd to submit construction bid proposals. After that date the city will have 45 days in which to review the bid submissions and potentially award a contract to a bidder. If the bid proposals are within a reasonable range of the anticipated budget, the council will most likely award a contract well before the 45 day window is expired. At which point the construction will begin on Coal Creek Parkway. Construction is anticipated to last two years which would put the completion date sometime around mid-to-late 2009.

Why CBC changes?

This is an important week for Newcastle. So I feel it necessary to post more than my usual weekly update.
Tomorrow the city council will be considering a number of changes to our municipal code as they relate to the development of our Central Business Center (CBC). The CBC is an overlay zone that extends from the north end of Lake Boren, includes both the Safeway and QFC strip malls, and continues north to include the property that is currently occupied by the Mutual Materials brick plant.
Why are we considering changes? My position is very simple... Newcastle has very limited space for growth and the city needs to maximize the use of space for several reasons:

• First, Newcastle is required to accept a certain amount of population growth over the next 20 years. Current projections are that we will need to accomodate an additional 5000 people over 20 years. That equals a 55% growth in the city population over the next 20 years.
• Second, to ensure that this growth doesn't overly impact our residential neighborhoods with out-of-control and overly dense in-fill development, we need to concentrate a majority of the growth in our downtown CBC where the density is appropriate.
• Third, with increased density in the CBC we achieve a number of things... with increased population we then have the ability to attract a broader range of commercial goods and services. With an increased economic base comes an increase in revenue for the city that can then in turn be used to improve other services the city provides like parks and trails. Increased density will also attract a broader range of transportation options and local jobs.

So how do we accomplish this? Critics of mine claim that the free market of development will provide what we envision. I believe that view is sorely shortsighted. We have seen time and time agin in other regional communities like Mercer Island, Mill Creek, Bothell, Sammamish, and repeated by developers on several occassions that the key to seeing successful community development is the following:

• A clear set of development guidelines
• That are consistently applied
• That work toward a central vision

I believe that our current regulations dont work on a number of these fronts, but most importantly I dont think that our code is working toward our central vision. In fact I would go so far as to say that I think some of our codes contradict our vision. Therefor we must make changes to the code to see change in our future. Otherwise, the legacy of Newcastle will continue to be a couple of strip malls with a road down the middle.

After tomorrows meeting I will summarize each of the changes that are voted on and why I voted the way i did. I will also respond to the notion that the council is not listening to the residents by disagreeing with the "non-recommendations" of the planning commission. But that is all for a future post.

Library Update

Lorig Company has been selected by the KCLS staff as a potential co-developer of the library site. Over the next several months KCLS and Lorig will work to determine the fiasability and potential benefit of doing a multi-use development together.

The Directors report from the May 29th KCLS Board meeting has more detail. (pdf link)