SOUTH ROSE HILL/BRIDLE TRAILS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION
General Meeting - Tuesday, May 11, 2004
President Bruce Feuling called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. Bruce introduced the SRHBTNA Officers in attendance. He also introduced members of the Kirkland City Council in attendance: Dave Asher, Tom Dillon and Jessica Greenway.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
A SPECIAL THANK YOU to Dana and Rhoda for, once again, bringing the refreshments to our meeting, and to the new Starbucks on 85th Street for donating the coffee.
THE KIRKLAND TRIATHLON is looking for volunteers to help with water stations.
NEIGHBORHOOD SPEED WATCH – Speed Watch members Brian Moore and Doug Love are actively recruiting members to join the citizen volunteers from our neighborhood who will be working, using a radar unit, to identify speeders on our neighborhood streets.
THE BRIDLE TRAILS PARK FOUNDATION is holding its “Party in the Park” on Saturday, July 10th. The SRHBTNA has been asked to sponsor the 10K Fun Run. As a sponsor, our logo will be printed on the T-shirts. The Neighborhood Association will collect donations tonight at this meeting (a hat is located on the table at the back of the room.)
CITY UPDATE AND Q & A - DAVE RAMSEY, CITY MANAGER,
City Manager Dave Ramsay delivered the “State of The City”, an update on news from around town, with particular emphasis on our neighborhood. Dave began by saying that there’s never a dull moment on South Rose Hill and Bridle Trails. There is a lot going on and a lot involves Planning. Rose Hill Elementary is going to have a brand new school. It will go before the Hearing Examiner in September, and then before Council for review and approval. The Amber Ridge housing development will consist of eleven lots on 124th Ave.
The City is working on plans for N.E. 85th Street. There will be physical improvements in conjunction with Sound Transit, including a signal at 128th Avenue, a double turnlane northbound on 124th at 85th Street, and from 124th to 132nd, there will be sidewalk improvements, planting strip and center median.
Totem Lake has some exciting development news. The Totem Lake Mall has been sold to a new owner who wants to implement a mixed use project, redesign traffic, add a hotel, theater, etc. It will be more on a U-Village theme and it is already in the planning process. The new owner is a major mall developer which has 300 malls and is acquiring more. There are many long-term leases in place so redevelopment will take place over several years. This redevelopment is critical to the City because 30% of the City’s sales tax comes from Totem Lake. There is a major Master Plan in the works for Evergreen Medical Center. The ability to go forward is dependant upon the upcoming bond measure.
News from Downtown Kirkland is that a hotel is about to break ground on Kirkland Way. Demolition will start soon and construction of a first class hotel will begin. It will be operated by the operators of The Bellevue Club. The height will be within the current zoning (4 to 5 stories) and it will have 100 rooms. Across the street will be another planned development of retail with four stories of residential. The corner of Lake and Central is now in the planning process. A proposal is being looked at for U.S. Bank to combine their site and include a grocery store and four stories of residential.
The True Value Hardware site is the preferred site for the Transit Center. However, there has been an inability to make it work financially with mixed use, as the office market is flat. The Center is on hold and the City will be looking at options on how best to proceed. Across the street from this site, a new owner would like to develop residential over retail and a proposal has been submitted to the Design Review Board. All this development indicates the economy is rebounding.
Some very exciting news is that the Wednesday Market is opening. Now in its third year, the Kirkland Wednesday Market is the fifth highest grossing market in the State.
Phase One of Juanita Village has been completed and they are now starting on Phase Two.
Innovative Housing is happening on North Rose Hill, with smaller unit, cottage-type housing. Currently there are two demonstration projects in the works which Council will be looking at. A similar project can be viewed on the Redmond side of 132nd at 112th.
Annexation is back on the radar screen. The County has a planned annexation area which includes Finn Hill, Juanita and Kingsgate. This would add significantly to the City’s size and would impact the quality of services up there. However, there would be a $3 million gap, as residential areas do not pay for themselves. (You need commercial to pay for residential.) Also, taxes are actually higher in these areas and would go down if these areas were annexed into Kirkland.
The Bridle View area is back on the radar screen again as an area of possible annexation. Since there are no equestrian areas in Redmond, they have shown a willingness to work with Kirkland, after they solve some of their annexation problems. Kirkland is also interesting in annexing Snyder’s Corner, since it already owns that property.
There has been a proposal for Traffic Calming on 128th Avenue N.E. in front of Rose Hill Elementary in conjunction with the upcoming signal installation at N.E. 85th and 128th. The proposal is for three slotted speed cushions and one raised crosswalk. The measure needs 70% support. June 18th is the closing date for voting. Regarding other traffic calming, Dave commented that the N.A. Traffic Calming Committee is divided, with some people wanting only education and enforcement, and others wanting actual physical improvements in the neighborhood. He said the City is ready and committed to work on a neighborhood traffic calming plan. Dave added that the Norkirk Neighborhood Traffic Calming Plan has been a huge success.
With regards to pedestrian safety, the City is putting together a Sidewalk Bond Exploratory Committee to work on a possible upcoming bond measure for sidewalks.
The Houghton Transfer Station continues to be worked with a lot of energy. Right now, the local committee, which is made up of SRHBTNA representatives, staff, Waste Management, and Council, is looking at issues and will soon be meeting with the City of Bellevue. It will also meet with other cities in King County to get a better, fairer tonnage distribution and address waste export issues. The County wants to make safety improvements to the Houghton Transfer Station, which are being met with skepticism. The City will be watching closely to make them focus on structural safety issues. The Transfer Station had appeared on a list of possible County sites for a Tent City. Dave says he does not think the Transfer Station would be chosen for a number of reasons, but the City is sending a proactive letter to say, “Just don’t go there.”
BALLFIELDS UPDATE – Councilman and Kirkland American Board Member Tom Dillon
Tom reported that KALL fired Santana in February. They are now finalizing a contract with Taylor Development Company of Redmond to manage the remaining 30,000 yards of fill and completion of the ballfields. Taylor is anxious to get started and hope to have the fields, road, etc. done by July. The name will change to Paul Taylor Sports Park. King County Parks representative T.J. Davis introduced himself to the membership and explained that he is working with the subcommittee to take care of concerns and work to get the project wrapped up quickly.
PROPOSED RECLASSIFICATION OF 116TH - Thang Nguyen, City Transportation Engineer
Thang explained that cities periodically make changes in the classification of city streets to have them consistent with the Federal Highway Department and to have consistent terminology throughout the City’s neighborhood comprehensive plans. He explained that some streets were called “collector” and similar streets were called “minor arterial”. The City was proposing that 116th Avenue N.E. be reclassified from collector to minor arterial. He pointed out that the other City streets that connected with Bellevue, had similar functions, traffic counts, and characteristics, were called minor arterials. Thang reiterated that the changing of the classification had nothing to do with plans to widen the road or intersection at N.E. 60th Street. There was some discussion by members of the possibility that reclassification would allow further expansion of the Houghton Transfer Station by allowing additional turning radii. Following discussion, it was moved, seconded and approved by majority vote, that the Neighborhood Association’s desire is to retain the current classification of 116th Avenue N.E. as a collector street.
HOUGHTON TRANSFER STATION UPDATE – BRUCE FEULING
Rabanco is involved in a lawsuit against the County, and a six-month injunction has been issued. Due to the recent County measure, there is an anticipated increase in Waste Management trucks in the neighborhood. If the judge does not rule in November, we face the possibility of another 50,000 truck trips through our neighborhood.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS – BRUCE FEULING
SRHBTNA Officers run for a one-year term, with directors being elected for staggered two-year terms. After calling for additional nominations from the floor, the following officers were elected: President Bruce Feuling, Vice President Jeanette Simecek, Secretary Deirdre Johnson, and Treasurer Barb Jones. Directors up for reelection were Andy Held and Laura Seitz (Director Jeanette Simecek ran for Vice President). Andy and Laura were reelected. Director Brian White has submitted a letter of resignation which leaves a director position open with a one-year term remaining. After nominations from the floor, Colleen Cullen was elected to the director position vacated by Jeanette Simecek, and C.Ray Allshouse was elected to fulfill Brian White’s one-year director term.
NEIGHBORHOOD PICNIC – BRUCE FEULING
The Picnic Committee met and is planning the first annual SRHBTNA picnic. It will be held at Rose Hill Elementary on Saturday, August 28th, from noon until 4:00 p.m. We will have access to the gym, bathrooms, covered area, playground, softball, volleyball and basketball courts. We are looking for community support and will be contacting local businesses for donations and sponsorship. The N.A. will be contacting local volunteer organizations to host tables. There will be a desert baking contest with celebrity judges. We will try to get a fire truck and other demonstrations. There will be fun activities for the entire family. Advertising will be with the N.A. readerboards and with Lee Johnson Chevrolet, etc.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Deirdre DeWan Johnson
Secretary