SOUTH ROSE HILL/BRIDLE TRAILS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

General Meeting - Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Bruce Feuling opened the meeting at 7:05 pm

Attendance: 50

Announcements

Church picnic Sept 26 - please pick up a flyer
Please support Starbucks for the coffee donation
Welcomed Tom Dillon, Jim Lauringer and Jessica Greenway from the Council
Jim McElwee handed out information about Neighborhood View, which this year will look at City finance. Sessions are set up for people like us.
Party in the Park raised $15,000 for the Park foundation
Ben Franklin School - concrete is poured and all is on schedule

S Rose Hill/Bridle Trails Neighborhood Connection

Kari Page made a presentation relating to the neighborhood connection program that is coming this year to our neighborhood. She congratulated us for great turnouts and use of the matching grant program, great coffee and cookies, and a complete agenda.

This is the second time through the neighborhood. The first $25,000 was used for the crosswalk in front of the church. She handed out postcards for suggestions.

Kari went through the presentation.

Key Points:

$25,000 every three years intended to connect the neighborhoods with the rest of the city.
Second cycle going around the city
October 1 action request due
November 9^th meeting- results of requests
Household ballots sent out- vote for 3-4 projects. Top vote getters will be funded.
Action requests referred to immediate attention, referred to others (e.g. state parks, schools, Metro), added to small capital project list, or considered in the neighborhood match program.
Projects and new ideas have included crosswalks, street furniture (e.g. plants, benches), landscaping in parks, park gazebo, sport court, playground equipment, neighborhood traffic control (within guidelines for neighborhood traffic control process), permanent or hand-held radar detectors, walkway connections, signs. Can include with matching grant ($3,500 funds annually).

Doug Love made a short presentation regarding the proposed speed watch program in our neighborhood. The neighborhood has 7-8 volunteers to use speed radar guns to help slow down traffic. This is an alternative to physical devices such as speed humps. The purpose is look for excessive speeders. He wants people to vote for $3,500 for radar guns and some signs to get this program going. They don’t have authority to give out tickets but can provide license information to the police, who can do follow up letters or personal visit.

Picnic

Several people came to the picnic. Please give suggestions on Sept 28 for next year. It was almost a wash in terms of cost. Let Bruce know if you want to volunteer next year.

116^th Ave Reclassification

Dogs-n-parks

Five parks remain on the shortlist for a dog park. One is Snyder’s Corner. Please contact the City Council with your comments.

Santana Sports Park- Tom Dillon

Tom corrected that this is no longer ‘Santana’- the sign came down today. Taylor is working on a new sign design. The fill operations will be done by next week (Phase 1). 1,200 truckloads have come in so far. The parking lots and access roads will be a week later, then the topsoil and irrigation will be installed, followed by hydro seeding. Everything should be done except fencing by Oct 15. Then winterization will take place to avoid runoff. Ditches have been cleaned up during this process.

Phase 2 (30,000 yds added to north end) - A major change was made due to weather and soil conditions. This will be held off for the winter. Phase 2 involves additional fill in the north end. There is too much risk of soil runoff. T his will take place next spring. The funding will no longer be available to complete the ball fields. But Taylor will front the money in hopes that Phase 2 will take place and pay them back.

How will this delay affect Phase 1 topsoil at soccer field? They may delay the north end of the soccer field until Phase 2 done. How can access be maintained for people walking on site due to rise in grade? Tom gave some specifics regarding what the grades are relative to the design. A road will cut through the site next year.

NRH NA Presentation- Karen Tennyson

Karen is the president of the NA. She used some of their grant money for a neighborhood survey. Very interesting results relating to traffic and land use etc. They also use grant money for cleanup of Mark Twain playfield. Looking to adopt the entire school. They clean up the 100^th ST overpass on I-405 and 124^th Ave from NE 85^th to NE 124^th. They don’t need that many people to help each time. They have two innovative housing projects- (1) cottage housing (18 homes), (2) 17 homes (not cottage, but high density). There are other examples in the neighborhood of clustered housing. They will hold an open house when they are done. Other actions include comprehensive plan review and review of smaller lot sizes due to short-platting.

The NA was formed a long time ago (1992/3), have a similar sized board; they meet every other month with board meetings on the other months. They meet at the fire station. They usually have good turnout. They did their 9^th picnic, raised $275 and had 450 people. Various members are part of other City commissions and committees.

Various streets have traffic calming. They have gone street by street with interest from neighbors. They are also closely watching 124^th. One person asked whether the increased density in housing means more traffic in the neighborhood. Karen expressed her support for transit as an option.

Central Way Project

City Capital Project Manager Ray Steiger described the Central Way Update project. The Central Way plan came from the downtown strategic plan in 2001. Various improvements were identified in the strategic plan. The City has focused on Central Way safety and traffic issues. They looked from 6^th St to Market.

Ideas had surfaced to narrow or close Central to non-local traffic. An opportunity arose with a 2005 utility project that will require the road to be dug up anyways. The Council formed a working group to examine short and long-term options which met throughout 2004. The alternatives studied matched the priorities to balance access to downtown and traffic impacts, pedestrian safety, speeds, neighborhood connectivity, aesthetics, and creation of a retail-friendly ‘main street’. Challenges included connecting Norkirk to downtown while not diverting traffic into the neighborhood.

Traffic volumes have not changed very much along Central Way and surrounding streets over the past few years. Also, traffic is three times higher on Central Way vs. Kirkland Ave. He described where the traffic is going along this corridor. Much is local traffic heading south into downtown. The biggest concern is the PM peak in terms of possible cut-through traffic issue.

Ray described the various options. There are four alternatives. Each builds on the other in terms of narrowing portions of Central Way. Parking is gained by removing some lanes. The final alternative results in a lane reduction in both directions from 6^th to Market. Questions included those related to parking supply, parking cost (e.g. meters), emergency vehicles and traffic volume growth from new developments.

He showed that each of the alternatives would function within the City’s acceptable traffic level of service standards. A question was asked why the traffic forecasts are showing increases even though the trends have been flat.

Next steps include a recommendation being developed in September with a Council presentation on October 5.

Marina Development

Jeremy McMahon gave an update on the Marina Park development. Several concepts have been examined at three workshops. The preferred design alternative was presented to the public in July 2004. The key goals included enhancing the existing park, walkable environment, integrating existing buildings, promote active retail, maintain community events, and creating a fun and authentic place.

The preferred alternative includes retaining the existing buildings around the plaza for the most part. The park stays about the same. The basic concept is to add a lid over the parking lot with a plaza on top. The plaza will lead from the waterfront up to the retail. The through road would be eliminated. The existing pavilion may be replaced with a different, more usable feature in the park.

Preliminary costs range from $26-34 Million with 75% public. New commercial activities and parking charges could subsidize the public cost.

There will be a recommendation to City Council this fall. More study will follow if the Council is in favor. Jessica indicated that the Council needs to hear from neighbors whether you think this is a good idea. There will be some public funds involved for sure.

Adjourn

Bruce adjourned the meeting at 9:20 pm after extending the meeting time past the usual 9:00 pm completion.