Good evening and welcome to the February Parks and Community Services Board meeting.

Um Steve is unable to attend tonight's meeting, and Paul Clark is joining remotely.

Uh we are at Quorum, and so this meeting is now called to order.

Is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda?

I so move.

Thank you.

A second.

A second.

All right, let's vote.

All in favor to approve tonight's agenda, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, say no.

Okay.

The agenda is approved unanimously.

Next up is the approval of minutes from the park board's January 2026 meeting.

Is there a motion to approve the January 2026 meeting minutes?

So moved.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Let's vote.

All in favor to approve the January 2026 meeting minutes.

Um say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Any opposed, say no.

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 the 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 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 communication 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 signed 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 Bellevue Aw.gov.

Now I'll turn it over to Cameron who will read names from the online and in-person sign-in sheets.

Thank you.

We have one person pre-registered this evening.

That's Neil Hines.

Good evening, and I want to thank you for uh making the adjustment about what speakers can say at the meeting.

I think that's a a great idea.

Uh I came uh to express two comments about parks matters that I wanted to deliver in person to the commission here.

Um first is connection of the East Trail to existing Bellevue Parks.

Um I think it's gonna be a critical matter to help pedestrians and bicyclists access the East Trail, which is making great progress.

I bike commute on it myself.

Um notably uh Newcastle Beach Park is a very steep access to the to the um east trail, and I'm glad to see that it was paved over because last year it had a lot of ruts in it, and the steepness is still there.

Uh Wilburton, I think would be an ideal park also to have connection to the East Trail.

It's gonna be a major thoroughfare for runners, pedestrians, bikers.

Uh so I just wanted to put that out there.

And then the other point that I wanted to bring up to the commission here was uh encouraging the opportunity for groups to volunteer with parks.

Uh when I looked at the Belleview webpage, I counted uh 12 activities that people can volunteer on, and only one of those I really saw as appealing to groups, and that was for seniors during work hours, probably because park staff want to have uh presence during work hours, but I think there's a rich potential for support of Bellevue Parks in volunteer opportunities um in weekends and uh this would also help to reduce OM costs for the park.

Uh trail maintenance during the pandemic.

I was amazed to see some of the degradation of the trails.

Um I've seen that in other park systems, and I know that Bellevue has a pretty active group of volunteers, very educated.

I'm on the stream team myself.

I see no shortage of hours there.

It's a matter of the staff and the people power to connect hours to the um to the activities.

So in summary, I think that's about it.

Uh those are just my two cents, and thanks for listening.

Thank you.

And in Zoom.

I'll go look here to the room if there's anyone else who would like to.

Thank you.

All right.

That concludes oral communications.

Next up on the agenda is uh city council communication.

So tonight we welcome a new council liaison.

Uh Councilmember Nareen Breyer.

So welcome.

And um, oh, I kind of awkward.

And one second, sorry.

And we also have the pleasure of having our prior councilees on here tonight, Deputy Mayor Hamilton.

Uh, we're gonna miss working with you, Dave.

Congratulations on your new role and all the support you've provided us.

Um, and I'll turn it over to you real quick for Thank you.

Sorry to uh interrupt, but I didn't want to miss the chance to come down and just uh personally thank all of you.

I've got a long, really uh fun and interesting association with the parks board and had a chance to serve with many of you.

Um every two years we do a little bit of shuffling on council and uh reassign a liaison positions.

Uh luckily for you, you've been upgraded um with council member Briar uh who um has already turned out to be just a really wonderful addition to the council, super engaged, super smart, um, right on top of things, really interested in in being engaged.

So you are gonna be well taken care of uh by council member Breyer.

Um and the rest of us too uh on the council are always interested in what's going on with parks.

We talk about it all the time.

So it's really a main feature of the city.

I've really enjoyed uh working with you and being a part of this.

And I'm gonna be moving over to transportation.

But I think my heart's gonna always be with parks, and we we talk a fair amount about that.

So I think this is a wonderful group to be uh part of, and I really appreciated all the chance that I had to be a part of it.

So just wanted to be sure to have a little official goodbye.

I'm not going very far.

So you know, any time there's anything I could do for anyone, uh don't hesitate to reach out, and I'm sure I'll see all of you around at something or other.

So that's it.

Thank you all.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Thank you.

Paul.

Um, good evening, folks.

It's an honor to be here.

My name is Councilmember Noreen Breyer.

Um, so quick intro.

I was working at Facebook prior to joining the council, was doing AI ethics and policy there.

Prior to that was working on human rights work at an international level in Iraq and Syria.

And um, I'm particularly excited to be here because uh I study political philosophy in Boston.

And when we're in Boston, we studied the inception of the first public park in the United States and what conditions led to the creation of it, the works of Frederick Law Almstead and and others.

So I really do firmly believe you're conducting God's work here.

So uh Deputy Mayor said you'd be in good hands with me.

I think it's the opposite.

I'm in good hands with you all and looking to forward to learning a lot from you.

So thanks for having me again.

Thank you, Councilmember Breyer.

Um, and then just curious if there was any um city communication you wanted to relay or uh yeah, also should have started the um I don't have any substantial updates from the council.

Our recent focus has been the affordable housing strategy and the economic development plan.

So nothing yet, but we'll update you accordingly.

Okay, awesome.

Thank you so much, and welcome to the board.

And then um during communications, uh, we'll take a moment and everyone can introduce themselves to you as well.

Um with that, uh let's jump into the director's report.

And so we'll turn it over to assistant director uh Cameron Parker for the director's report tonight.

Thank you.

Uh just a couple things to note uh at your place.

You have a copy of our 2022 Levy for Parks and Open Space report.

Um, this was a presentation uh several months back uh when we talked about sort of putting this together and thought we'd share the final product with you.

This is available on our webpage as well.

And then in the next um edition of the It's Your City um newspaper that's sent out to all Bellevue residents.

There'll be a sort of a feature article as uh as well about and with links to this report.

It's something we're planning on doing um probably every couple years, just to give um the Bellevue residents sort of an update on all the projects that are uh benefiting from uh from levy support.

Uh so if you have any questions about any of the content in there, you can um you let me know.

Um a related note, we have also uh just completed a project to get all of our active CIP projects um mapped and available on our webpage as well.

That was noted in the the CIP report in the the packet with uh a link to that, which is uh just a great feature, not only for um parks and community services, but uh other um departments as well, transportation and utilities.

You can kind of get a sense of what's going on geographically around the city with different projects.

So it's worth a look.

Um then uh you also have uh it's a little a little in advance, but you can mark your calendars for sheep sharing.

Also always uh a very popular event.

Um if you want to see thousands of super excited children and more uh tired parents.

That's usually what I uh um witness when I go to sheep sharing.

Um, but uh great community event.

Um, and uh always looking for reasons to spend some time at Kelsey Creek Farm.

Um lastly, I did want to also just recognize we we um had talked in previous meetings about the retirement of our uh director, Michael Shiyosaki.

So he is we've sent him off about a week after that.

We had another retirement in parks and community services uh employee by the name of Ted Middlestad in our recreation division who worked for the city for over 40 years in parks and community services.

So just wanted to note that.

Um Ted's gonna go spend um a lot more time with his grandkids, but he was um very much into uh bicycling and uh was kind of the architect of the lake to lake bike ride um event that we've had for many years.

It's an annual event as well as supervising a lot of our um youth recreation programs.

So just wanted to note that milestone.

And uh with that, I'll turn it back over.

Thank you so much, Cameron.

Does anyone have any questions?

Cameron.

Oh, go ahead.

Are we still planning the lake to lake?

Uh oh, that's a good I should have been prepared to answer that.

With that, not here.

I'll find out.

Things get this year.

Oh, not this year.

Okay.

Well, thank you.

Yep.

Thank you.

Um, Cameron.

Yes.

Um, I noticed in the CIP neat dashboard um that there is a piece of information on Enatai Beach Park.

Uh sorry, Natai neighborhood park, uh, about a tennis court renovation.

And I was curious um if there was any sort of pixel ball allocation there.

Um the plan, I don't know if we have a set plan yet.

Um, but the court itself needs um a fair amount of work and some reorienting.

It does.

It does.

Oh, some re some reorienting.

That's interesting.

So is it gonna be rotated?

If if you're uh aware of that park, there's a very narrow sidewalk.

Um and the tennis court actually is extending into the right-of-way a bit.

So we're gonna try and resolve that.

I see.

So there's some design work to do there, but uh, we will certainly, as with all of our um our courts look at what the options are for um for court sports, including pickleball.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Yes.

Thank thanks again, Cameron, for yeah, recognizing Michael and Ted's retirement and uh and then calling out the the ArcGIS map.

It's really fun to zoom into what's nearby and what's going on near your neighborhood.

And I thought it was very intuitive and interactive.

So thank you for sharing.

All right.

So the next item on the agenda is board communications.

Um in addition to our normal communications, if maybe we could all provide a quick intro to council member Nareen about ourselves as well.

I think that would be a fun way to kind of start our meeting.

Can I ask a question?

Oh, go for it.

Can you all tell me your favorite park and one thing that could enhance the parks as well?

I'd love to hear that.

Okay.

Okay.

Might need a moment.

And then who wants to go first?

Eric, and then we go around this way.

Oh, wait.

Okay.

Or okay.

All right.

Sorry, put you on the spot, Eric.

Oh, that's uh Eric Griever.

Uh been on the board now for about seven months.

Uh Bellevue resident for about 23 years.

And favorite park.

Um, I'm gonna be boring with this one, and I'm gonna say Robinswood.

I only say Robinson because it's so popular, but I have fond memories of it because I have two boys that played little league, played soccer uh in the Bellevue system, and they spent we spent so much of our time there in the rain, uh, especially come soccer season.

So that would be probably my favorite park because I've got memories tied to it.

One thing to enhance our parks.

Well, one thing to enhance our perks.

Um quite honestly, I think that Bellevue does a fantastic job of its maintenance program, far better than any park system I've ever ever seen.

That part of their maintenance is always looking at ways to enhance, like we just discussed um about uh changing up the tennis courts and all that.

So I don't know that I have any specific enhancements.

As you know, well, you may not know Robinswood right now is undergoing a bunch of construction and renovation and maintenance and enhancements.

So um I would leave it with that.

So thank you.

Great answer.

All right.

Hey Nareen.

Um, Michelle Valverde, um, originally from Puerto Rico, San Juan Puerto Rico.

I moved uh to the US uh Boston.

I actually spent 10 years there, and I've been in Bellevue now for the last uh nine years.

Um been with the Parks Board, I think a little over two years, but I might be completely forgetting how long it's been.

I have two small girls, six and three.

So I spend a lot of my times in all of the parks, especially the ones with you know kids' play areas, um, definitely a little bit biased towards those topics, and um, you know, I'll talk a little bit more about my ideas for enhancements.

I would say around that in particular, which again is kind of the feature that I use the most.

I would say um, I think more available lighting in different parks, and you know, again, uh, we do have a lot of rainy weather, and then having play areas that are are also accessible like during the rainy season, which is a lot of season, uh, would be so awesome for me.

So my kids can go to the park more when they want to.

So um, other than that, I think uh we offer a lot of great programs, right?

Like uh summer camps, um, different like break activities.

The demand is so high.

I want so much more.

Um, I was so very lucky to get uh my daughter into the art camp that's happening now in the Northwest Art Arts Center.

Um, and again, like got a weightless spot and um ultimately I think you know there could be more opportunity to to offer more.

Um, so thank you.

Nice to meet you.

Aileen.

I'll go at the end.

Hi, my name is Eileen Cho.

Um, I've been living in Bellevue for almost 20 years.

I think I moved in around 2006.

Before that, I lived in Redmond.

And um uh raised both my kids uh through the Bellevue School District, um, been on the board for two years.

Yeah, Elizabeth and I start on the same time.

So I was a graduate of uh Bellevue Essential 2022.

So that's almost two and a half or three years ago time flex.

Um I the first six months when I was on the board, I actually spent time to visit every park.

Like I went through the list of the the website and I checked all the ones I already been to, and I think I've been to maybe a third just through my kids' activities and all that.

So now for the rest of two-thirds, my husband and I just spend weekends or weeknights, and we just plan out you know one spot and then plan around the parks around that area.

So one thing I think I mentioned before is that especially for the parks that are named after certain individual, I would like to have more description in the park itself.

So when people visit like Zoom diac, for example, it has a name, but it doesn't quite have the description of what that means.

And so I thought since we already name like for these names that it has more meaning behind it, I think it would be great to kind of um showcase this more to our residents.

So that's my suggestions.

Oh, and another thing um is actually there was an incident that I um uh Hidden Valley Park, they have a tennis court, and then right now it's divided that you can also use for pickleball court.

So a couple weeks ago, uh my friend called me because they saw damage on court.

So I went over.

Um looks like some people probably use very heavy bike and it was doing like loops and dug into the court, and so you could see gravel on some of the the spots.

And so you could see gravel on some the the spots.

So half the core, I mean it's still usable, but if the ball bounced on it, it it's gonna be you know kind of dead spot.

So I already emailed a picture to Cameron and forward to maintenance.

But I was thinking, like, you know, obviously we don't know who did it.

You know, it's I don't even know how to see, but if we have some hot tip line or community report line, maybe some people could report in um things like that, just disappointing to see a beautiful park being damaged like this.

And you know, you just it costs more money to fix it and yeah.

So that's kind of another thing that was kind of on my mind.

Like, how can we I mean, I think Camera mentioned that the uh maintenance department keeps track of these kind of behavior, if there's a pattern and maybe we do something about it, but I just don't know what else we can do.

But community line was something that I thought if we could implement something like that, like post in different parks if you see something suspicious or um that you could report.

So thank you.

Welcome.

Okay, I'll jump right in.

Um Welcome, Nareen.

Glad to have you.

This is this is definitely the most fun community board in my opinion.

I mean, it's parks.

Uh I've enjoyed staring on it.

I've been on the board for I think about three years now, since two 2023.

Yeah.

We all joined around the same time.

Maybe May.

Two and a half.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh native of the Pacific Northwest, uh, moved to Bellevue in 2013.

So I've been here now about 13 years in in Bellevue itself.

And um, my favorite park is the park we live near, which is Weona Park.

I love the name because we own a park.

Uh, I love the old growth.

It is just a very special place.

If you're there in the morning with a fog, it's it's gorgeous.

Uh, one thing that I think we can improve, and this ties to what Eileen was saying is as well is helping people understand the value of parks and really making sure that they are making good decisions.

For example, keeping your dogs on leash at that park.

It feels so wild.

So why wouldn't a dog, you know, be its true wild self?

And I get it, but there's a lot of other dogs.

So we need to help people make good decisions and signage, I think is part of that.

You know, just reminding people, hey, here's the consequence.

Um, similarly, mountain biking, I see increasing in Weona Park, which seems harmless, but of course the bike has to cede way to the pedestrian.

So there's really not a lot of fun to be had in downhill mountain biking in that park if you're really seating to pedestrians.

So just thinking about what kind of signage we could have uh would be great.

And that that goes for all of our parks, you know, letting people know, hey, here's the consequences, and this is your park, and how can you be a part of that?

Um, so that's one thing I'd look for.

I did have also my report I wanted to talk.

This isn't specifically to your question, about the weather.

So there's very little snow in the mountains, and there's the macro climate change that's going on, and you know, it could be a weird year.

But this has led my one of my kids to develop a new sport, which is skateboarding.

And very, very grateful for the skateboarding parks that we have here around Bellevue because this has really west rescued the winter for her.

And I just wanted to shout out to the different opportunities they have to skateboard around town.

On the other hand, I have also seen a reduction in water in the stream.

I mentioned this to Cameron before the call.

Uh it's very low.

It's slower now, I think, than we would typically see in early June.

The water's just not flowing even when it's well above freezing.

And so it's really concerning.

And I wanted to learn more about zero scaping and what we're doing to reduce the amount of water usage.

We have quite a few green lawns and they are awesome.

I love the green lawns to have a picnic, but how can we start thinking about a lower water future?

So we're not putting all of that water in the summertime onto these spaces when we need it in our rivers and our lakes.

So that's what I've been thinking about over this very dry and weirdly sunny February.

Thanks, Elizabeth.

Uh Paul, would you like to go next?

Sure.

Um we've talked a number of times.

Uh, so I'll just say welcome, Councilmember Briar, and not bore you with the uh bio.

The I cannot echo enough uh Elizabeth board member Kronov's uh comments about off leash dog um noncompliance um at a number of our parks, especially downtown, as well as fast-moving vehicles, whether they're e-bikes, mountain bikes, whatever.

Um I think it's creating a real anti-inclusive element in those parks um that uh require, I think significantly more uh enforcement.

Uh I think we can we can do messaging, we should do messaging, uh signage, whatever else we can do is welcome.

But I think that the carrot won't be sufficient in this case, especially and the surprises some people that we have significant um we we've gotten number numerous reports of the the fact that there is a um informal grouping of folks at uh downtown park that run their dogs off leash and have essentially told each other that they'll pull resources if a ticket is ever uh issued.

So I mean we've we've got uh a tough nut to crack there.

I think we need um something that was uh proposed but didn't make it through the last budget cycle was um additional funding for a full-time King County animal control individual to to do more um ticketing and enforcement.

And I think that would be welcome.

Um in addition to that, um I didn't say favorite parks is not all negative.

Um I really love Ashwood Park, really love what's gonna happen there.

Uh lived over 10 years within a stone's throw of the park and still live just about five blocks from there.

So can't say enough good things about that as well as the changes that are coming and what I'm really looking forward to and the excellent uh job that the uh department has done in terms of designing um and really meeting the community's expressed desire for for that space.

So um with that, welcome.

Thank you.

Thanks, Paul.

Um I'll go next.

Hi, um, my name is Rowena Klima.

I've been on the board for four years.

Um before I was on the board, I was uh I had just uh completed the Bellevue Naturalist training program and it's uh program by the natural resources division uh where you learn about the local ecology and then you afterwards you get to help Rangers facilitate environment uh education environmental education programs for kids or work on environmental stewardship projects.

And then from there I learned about and joined the parks board and then um and then I joined Bellevue's Essentials along with Hileen and Paul.

Um let's see, I was gonna mention oh, my favorite park um is uh I live near Woodlawn Park and I have a dog, so love taking my dog on the off-leash area, and there's a fun trail north of it near uh between the park and uh the freeway that uh it's pretty amazing.

You kind of feel like you're immersed like out in the wild with it.

Um so definitely recommend checking that park out.

And then in terms of enhancement, I was gonna mention uh I really I've heard a lot about uh off leash dogs, and so I really appreciate the pop-up off-leash dog program where uh the city is testing new sites for potential off-leash areas.

And so I would love to see that continue.

And then um, and then my Bellevue Naturalist side, if there was some way we could convince people not to plant invasive ivy, um, because those that's really harmful for our parks.

Um so yeah, really discourage- I I think the the state of Washington recently banned the sale of it, which is good.

Um, but doing things to uh yeah, discourage the use of or the plantings of invasive plants would be really awesome.

And so that's kind oh, go ahead.

Check my can I add on to mine?

I want to make sure it makes into the minutes.

I'm sorry, I forgot to mention I received the volunteer resource guide from the human services folks um before I came to this meeting, and I just want to say thank you.

I've only had a chance to look through it, but it's awesome.

And it has an email for all of those opportunities, which is just what we asked for.

So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thanks.

Oh, yeah, thank you.

Oh, go ahead.

Yeah, we kind of skipped a bit.

Um and maybe this is more of a follow-up that we can do uh offline, but um in terms of you know, typically, right, the parks board we have a goal, right?

To you know, have uh particular percentage of you know, communities have access to to parks, you know, you know, walking distance.

Um I know uh I'm not sure if the parks and the facilities included in schools as part of that measure or not, or if you know how much we rely on particular school facilities to kind of cover certain areas of of what we we want to have our community members uh have access to.

But I know that uh recently in uh some of our, at least at Spirit Ridge and Phantom Lake, there've been some security incidents around campuses uh and schools have are wanting to shut down access or public access to the facilities, right?

Like the playgrounds and stuff like after hours.

Um so ultimately I know some family members are like, that was my that was my park, or that's where, you know, that's what I used and had my kids uh go to given you know access.

So I wasn't sure if you know there was something we could do, or you know, ultimately, you know, how do we know which parks remain open and accessible, you know, from the community.

I know this is a school kind of outreach.

I'm happy to to help follow up on this, but I know that was uh a concern that somebody, or at least in uh mom group chat came up with parts being closed and not accessible.

So for our um the walkable access level of service that we have, we do not include uh school district facilities.

Um just because it while uh they can be a great resource for neighborhoods, they aren't always guaranteed and and um don't have just this the same level of access as the the city park system.

Um so we have at the same time um they do often provide that service at a neighborhood level.

Um, so that's um valuable.

Um it is always uh kind of uh um area of interest for us to work with the school district and in making their facilities as open and available as possible.

Um, but still acknowledging that we we don't have a lot of control there.

Yes.

Um, and I had one small communication I wanted to ask uh uh at our last meeting uh during public comment, there were some children who talked about an asphalt bike park request.

And uh Cameron, I'm not sure if you have anything share about that request.

Um Yeah, we we did reach out um to them to get the copy of their um of what they had uh shared at the meeting and um directed them toward our uh upcoming update for our park system plan, which will be kicking off um in a few months, the second half of this year, sort of the best venue for them to advance that idea uh as a need within the community.

Thank you, Cameron.

Um did anyone else have any comment because we might have forgotten it during intros.

All right.

With that, um we'll uh we'll conclude board communications and then move on to the next item of the agenda, uh, which will be the Bell Red West Tributary Master Plan kickoff and presenting this.

Oh, oh, yeah, presenting this is Zarian Smith, Capital Project Coordinator and White Thompson, park planning and development manager.

Thank you for joining us tonight.

Good evening, board.

Uh my name is Wyatt Thompson.

Uh, this is my first opportunity to uh introduce an item uh for you this evening.

So I appreciate the opportunity uh to be here um and introduce our newest uh upcoming park and a new neighborhood park in the Bell Red neighborhood.

And so we're we're kicking off that planning process, and through that process, we'll be looking to you to uh advise as uh as part of your duties on the board for the master plan as well as for the park naming.

And so as we move through this process, we will eventually return to you with a request for your recommendation for the master plan as well as the name to be forwarded on to the city council.

And certainly as we move through our process, we'll have lots of opportunities for community engagement, and we would invite you to participate in as many of those uh as you are able to.

So with that, I will turn it over to Zarian Smith, our project manager who is overseeing uh the planning process.

Thank you.

Hello, everyone.

Um our agenda tonight, I'm just gonna briefly walk through uh background of uh this project, uh, followed up by our typical park uh development process and um public outreach and engagement, and then an estimated timeline um for this project and then next steps after that.

Oops.

Okay.

Um so we're looking at to the right, the map on the right is a vicinity map of the city with uh the general bell red area outlined in black and the red star depicting the approximate location of the project site.

The map to the left is a zoomed in version of that map.

The project site itself is located roughly between 124th Avenue and 130th Avenue with border bordered to the north by the Sound Transit Line and to the south by some private businesses, including a Coca-Cola plant on Bell Red Way.

The city originally acquired this property years ago for the purposes of providing and supporting services of multiple multiple departments, including utilities, transportation, and future park development.

Bell Red area also has a sub-area plan that was recently updated in 2024.

Portions of that sub-area plan included a robust parks and open space system which outlines a framework for future development and goals specifically in the Bell Red area.

One of those goals was the development of a neighborhood park along the west tributary of Kelsey Creek, which is depicted by the I guess the leftmost screen and the red star over the project site and the N2.

This project is also supported by funding from the 202022 parks and open space levy.

Our park development process.

This is a summary of our kind of the general uh phases of our normal park development process.

Typically, we start uh kind of with the second bullet, which is the master planning and park naming process, but given uh the attributes of this site, they're pretty um pretty unique.

Therefore, we felt the need for some uh to spend a couple of months uh developing feasibility studies for certain elements of the site to kind of uh outline what we might be able to do and might not be able to do and inform future design when we do get into the master planning process.

Um after the master planning process, we move into construction, design, and permitting, and then eventually into construction.

Some of the potential design opportunities at this site, which we are uh currently um reviewing um through our feasibility processes, include uh the stream daylighting.

Um, on the graphic to the right, uh the blue line loosely depicts the path of uh the existing stream, which is primarily underground, and we will be evaluating whether or not um we can daylight that and what daylighting looks like and how it would impact future park design.

Um, in addition to that, um we also be evaluating uh trail connections, uh, some of which uh were envisioned to run parallel to the to the outline of the stream.

Others um on the site might be able to extend to the uh parcel to the north of the development parcel, which is uh which is a utilities property and mostly wetland, and then others may run along uh the path of a future uh ride of way that is planned to bisect the property on the northernmost parcel.

Um there will also be considerations given to repurposing of the existing building on the site, which is depicted by the red star in the bottom left corner.

Um, this is a uh very old uh storage building.

Um we uh will evaluate uh kind of what we might be able to do with repurposing it for some future park programming or um you know whatever whatever uh uses we might see being valuable to us with that building.

But it speaks to the old history of the uh of the area and the site in general, it's industrial past.

So it's something that we wanted to take into consideration with uh conceptual design.

And then lastly, uh site sustainability.

Um any design work that we will be moving forward with, we will um we will do so with uh the city's uh sustainable plan in line.

Um I um personally will hope that we would be able to also meet um the uh the newly incorporated envisioned sustainability program and certification.

Um as a part of the feasibility studies that we're doing.

We're also evaluating how well this pro this uh project might align with uh getting certification under the invasion program, and that will uh determine whether we are able to go forward with that or not.

But I'm hopeful that we can because we have some um we have several elements that I think will qualify.

Potential design challenges.

Um Northeast Spring Boulevard Zone 3 design and construction.

This is a transportation project for a new riderway that's going to connect uh 124th and 130th.

Um this is depicted by the yellow line that's bisecting the northern parcel of the park property.

Um we are working closely um in concert and collaborating with transportation uh about this project and kind of determining how both of the projects align with one another so that we can help inform each other on different elements of design for both uh the transportation project and the parks project.

Uh I will have um or I do have a couple of transportation representatives on my project team for this project to help uh facilitate that as we go forward.

But definitely it will be um as we move along.

Um it will be uh uh there'll be some challenges in trying to uh satisfy both the balance of both projects um uh you know for the benefit of both sides.

Uh also there are uh existing infrastructure on the site which will remain um as and basically become part of the park.

Uh these are um two to three utility uh sites uh depicted by the yellow um the yellow diamonds on the picture.

It's uh the bottom left diamond is a sewer pump station uh that will remain, and the upper right one is a um kind of a weir that leads into the uh the upper wetland parcel.

So with both of those remaining, uh we need to come up with a design that will still allow access for operations and maintenance of uh both of these, uh both of these objects, and there's also a couple few that are on the ground, which we'll also have to take into consideration and continue uh to allow access.

And lastly, um property edges, uh Bell Red is a transforming uh neighborhood.

Uh so we will be tasked with coming up with a design that will um somehow integrate and support the changes to the surrounding neighborhood, especially our neighbors to the east and to the south.

Um we don't know what that will look like in the future, but we do know something is coming and there will be change in what's out there today.

So we'll be tasked with trying to come up with something that will um uh uh that that will integrate in a nice way between the park and the more commercial areas around it.

Our public outreach and engagement um stages um as we've as we typically do with master plan processes such as this, we'll offer uh several opportunities to engage with the public and hear their thoughts on um on our uh design options and things they would like to see in the park.

Um I anticipate having uh three to four uh community meetings, uh also uh potential pop-ups and um tabling events uh where possible.

Uh we uh will probably have uh two to three uh additional parkboard meetings in addition to this one.

Um then there will also be uh um the ability for people to track the project process online through the project web page and um the solicit um I'm sorry, not solicitation, but um oh geez.

Where are we where do you go if you want to listen to if you would like to sign up and get updates on the project um going forward?

Uh distribution.

Yes.

Yes, thank you.

Sorry.

Um, so uh those will all be opportunities uh for public outreach and engagement going forward.

This is our estimated timeline.

Um I touched on a couple of these items.

Um we hope to have uh in addition to this parkboard meeting.

Um a couple more uh culminating with the uh the fourth quarter 2026 parkboard meeting, which we hope at that time to have a preferred plan for you to review and make a rec recommendation to uh to council um the following year, uh probably first quarter of 2027.

Um and as I stated, there will be a series of community meetings um uh in Q2 and Q3.

Um hopefully we're aiming for the first one here in late August, early May uh for our first introductory meeting to the public, which is our next steps here.

So with that, um if there's any questions or comments, I'd be happy to um take those now.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Um so yeah, uh does anyone have some initial questions or comments about this process?

Oh, go ahead, Eric.

Uh, in regards to the existing infrastructure that we potentially have to work around.

I'm making an assumption here based upon past projects that we would do something to incorporate the like blend them in, hide them in, like as compared to just having a water pump sitting in the middle of a field with road access for the I mean, we would do something to make it so it's appealing within the project itself.

Yes, to the best of our ability.

I mean, some of the uh some of the infrastructures that that's there, like the pump station.

I mean, there's only so much you can do to hide a pump station, but some of the smaller uh things like some of the inverts uh for some of the utility areas, those things we could come up with some creative solutions to work around them, certainly.

Yeah, for you know, for example existing buildings and that taking advantage of some of our local artist and beautifying the exterior as compared to just having a building sit in the middle of it, make it a focal point uh if it's gotta be there, uh, make something of it.

So I'd be interested in hearing ideas.

And those are relatively simple and uh uh cheap ways for us to beautify an existing structure that otherwise might be an ISOR.

So yeah, the um we are um I guess one of the benefits of the location of the site, we're right next door to the uh the art desk art district there in Bell Red, and that's uh definitely one of the partner groups that I'm hoping to reach out and collaborate with on uh just for that reason.

I mean, we'll have some elements that uh we can you know um improve upon uh maybe through some um artist installations or some other opportunities like that.

So yes, definitely.

Perfect.

Thank you.

I look forward to anyone else have a question?

Uh Elizabeth.

Yeah, I have a couple of questions.

So the what an interesting project.

It looks very, very challenging.

I'm really interested to hear what the community has to say.

So this is more for Cameron, but hopefully we'll get information about those meetings ahead of time so we can attend and hear what the community's ideas are, because I think they all probably have a lot of interesting ideas.

There's so few parks in that space.

Um so it's awesome that we got a big space.

My question question is the the stream that says fish bearing, um, what challenges is that going to present?

And can you tell us a little bit more about that stream?

Because it looks like it's like literally going between two parking lots and um there's fish in there.

Are they doing okay?

Like what's going on?

Um, I can't speak to the health of the fish, but um hopefully if we're able to um, well, first of all, we're evaluating we'll evaluate whether we can daylight that or not.

It's partially daylighted um at the current time, but you'll notice the line kind of straightens out as you go further south because it's piped and it continues to be piped between the buildings.

One of the challenges is it does run off of the city property.

We do not own any um any properties to the south of that.

So uh we'll kind of be limited in that regard.

Uh, but um some of the things that we'll have to take into consideration is uh given the fact once you daylight a screen, there's gonna be some buffer zones around that.

So depending on what we're told from regulators, how wide that buffer zone has to be um and where it has to be.

Um we'll have to make some design considerations around that.

Uh so um it's some of those things.

I mean, things like that, things like depth, how deep the pipe is in the ground, and how deep the water is in the ground.

Um, all that's gonna help tell the story about um how we might go about making it healthier and the condition of the potential condition of the fish and so on.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So it's um, you know, in terms of the fish bearing qualities, that's more of a system-wide approach, and certainly with the amount of pipe stream today that it's not currently um uh conducive to fish using it, but we can sort of do what we can in our design to improve our reach and then um as other redevelopment happens.

But we can sort of do what we can in our design to improve our reach.

And then as other redevelopment happens, uh, those that also have pipe segments will sort of consider what they need to do with that goal of ultimately uh having them be um successfully fish bearing.

Go ahead, Michelle.

There, nice to meet you, Wyatt.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um I think my question was around the the location and the neighborhood.

I was I was curious around um, you know, understanding, you know, who was our intended target audience for the park, right?

Like looking at the images, there's so much commercial property around it, a lot of parking.

So I'm just wondering like what are the neighborhoods and kind of the walkable residential areas or the potential folks that would kind of walk into this park just to try to understand, right?

Like what park would better service, you know, that type of uh community member.

Do we know?

Um, like how far away would we have like a neighborhood or kind of uh maybe residential area, or would folks drive into this park from from other communities.

Um at the current time, um, there'll probably be more folks driving in, but Bell Red Um is increasing its amount of residential um capacity.

So there are um a number of uh dwellings that are being constructed um around the borders of Bell Red, if you will, um apartment complexes, fairly large apartment complexes.

So um given the time that it would take us between now and reaching construction, uh I would expect those buildings to be full, and I expect those people to be um probably the primary users of this park because they're all within walking distance.

Um also we have the spring district um area just to the west of the park site, and there are a couple apartment complexes in the spring district as well.

So um I think those would be the main users of the site, given that this is a neighborhood park.

Um, again, we we would kind of lean more towards people walking to it than driving to it uh because parking the parking lot is going to be limited.

So uh I think that the effort would be supported by uh the incoming residential community that's not quite there yet, but it's on the way within the time that we will be designing and constructing.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Um what's the distance like do you think from the park to the spring district?

And you know, is there possibility to connect that or to have like a walk like walkable access to and from I'm not again, there's there's so much development development happening in this area.

You know, we're talking about buildings that are gonna be developed in the future, which we don't know what they will look like either, and how the roads and access around them is gonna change.

Um so I know it's a very hard question to answer, but yeah, in terms of distance, I don't know how too far right ahead.

But uh what we have an idea from I know it's walkable.

I know maybe there's an image we can take a quick look.

It's it's pretty easily walkable.

It's easily walkable.

Okay.

Yeah.

So there could be a potential to connect or to have like, you know, a corridor or you know, some pre-planned connecting point between them.

If that was the case, that would be a little um the right-of-way connection that uh transportation is working on, um, that actually could help um connect the spring district to uh this site.

I mean, that's one of the reasons that it's uh being built as like a connection uh pathway.

Um it's kind of hard to see from the map, but uh kind of in the center of the parcel there, it um is where Northeast Spring Boulevard comes in uh from the spring district on the left-hand side there.

Um maybe if I go to think a walk shed analysis is something that we can do as part of the initial planning study to understand what radius around the park within a third mile, you know, uh based on today's infrastructure as well as based on what we anticipate the future sidewalk infrastructure would look like.

So we can get a sense of which parcels, whether they're residential today or they're industrial or whatever they are today, we could assume that there's gonna be some sort of change in the future.

And then, you know, maybe not all of it would be residential, but we could at least see the impact to I think to address your question of, you know, could people walk from their residence from their place of work from a restaurant from whatever might happen in the future, could they walk to this park?

I think we can find out what that geographic area looks like.

Yeah, I think that would be fascinating.

And again, I think I'm not able to place myself and with the images, kind of see it visually.

So, you know, apologies about that.

But I think that's something that we can, you know, in future presentations, just you know, what would that look like and kind of show that um to get that perspective?

And if that would be one of the main walkability or access points to the park, you know, for that and all other access would primarily be drive-in, then that sounds like a core component, probably.

So um, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Uh Elizabeth, did you have a question?

I just wanted to say, if you zoom out, you can see on the other side of Bell Rad, there's a bunch of like not on this, um, but if you go to Google Maps, there's a bunch of residential stuff on the other side.

And if you know Mock's boarding house and the pay, it's it's like right by there.

So there's a ton of like walkability, like walkable areas and a train station, like right there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Look at it.

Yeah.

Oh, Eileen.

Yeah, thank you for the presentation and welcome, Wyatt.

I think last time you were in the audience, maybe it was like your day one on the one introduce you.

So thank you.

Um, I actually drive um by that road all the time.

And I see the change because before like the Coca-Cola plants, always very industrial.

There's a car dealership ship or car like shops, and then there's like a discount tire.

Um, but now I see more town homes, townhouses.

There's a quite a few projects.

So I think um, so there will be residents there.

Uh, how big is this gonna park gonna be?

Uh this is a this it's an eight-acre park as it stands right now.

Eight acre acre.

Yeah, but it's quite large.

Yeah, but keep in mind not all of that is gonna be uh uh ashwood is like two acre.

Yeah, so this is eight-acre land, okay.

Yeah, all combined.

But uh but once we get uh to the point of constructing this thing, it's not all going to be dedicated to not all eight acres are going to be dedicated to parkland because of the right-away that's gonna take two to three acres by itself.

At least four acres, you think the park end up being somewhere in there, yeah.

Yes.

Okay, okay.

And then are we thinking there will be some kind of structure on it or just like park walking path and some picnic areas or are we looking at we are considering um some structure uh there, as I mentioned, uh we are thinking about seeing if it's possible to uh repurpose that existing structure um first and foremost.

But if not, you know, there could be considerations to other structures, yes, because we have we do have the space for it.

So okay.

I see.

Um yeah, one thing I think um some of my colleagues mentioned that I think being in the heart of Bell Red, our district, I really would love to see this part just continue the theme of that being in our district.

So people recognize that.

Um, and then I think it's kind of interesting area to develop a park because um, you know, again, their business, there's industries, and I think there are gonna be increasing number of residents.

Um, I'm assuming that the people in the townhomes could potentially have needs for like off-leash park kind of uh dog off leash.

But I'd be curious in like the first community meeting, what kind of so how wide you can adivise the community uh meeting and uh to to have them join, how do you get the words out?

Um, we would at least do um a third of a mile outreach from the park site.

Yeah, from the center of the park site, but given um this kind of unique neighborhood, um I'm going to expand that.

I plan to expand that and um even pinpoint those apartment complexes that I mentioned that are kind of going around the border and um messaging them directly about it, and then also um the spring district by itself, that's another uh block of uh uh folks that we that I'll be reaching out to directly.

So it'll be an expanded version of our normal R week process, just because of the unique nature of uh Bell Red.

Yeah, yeah.

I think there's also another um daycare, pretty large, used to call it children's house or something.

Like it's it's it's not that far from there as well.

So I think some of the business might be, you know, especially if they're um serving the kids, that might be a good audience as well.

But yeah, I'm I'm really I think this is a quite unique location with uh Paula potentially various challenges um to how to best develop uh this park.

So thank you.

Looking forward to it.

Uh Paul, you're next.

Hi, um, thank you so much, Wyatt.

This was uh great to see the sort of burst of a network of Bellevue or sorry, Bellred parks start to take shape.

Um in regards to that though, um, because I believe the plan is and should be and has been documented in our comprehensive plan that there will be more parks in Bell Red than this.

Um I hope that as you are developing throughout this process, I'm gonna be term limited off the parks board in a few months, so I won't be able to uh to uh directly provide input.

Um, but um I hope that you are maintaining a sort of a sense of a I don't know, what could be um part of a continued design language for future parks in the area, such that there is a kind of a cohesive branding or a cohesive branding sounds too corporate, but this idea that when somebody is in one of the Bell Red parks, there is an immediate um recognition visually that they are in the Bellred neighborhood.

Um don't know what form that takes.

Um certainly wouldn't uh try to micromanage that.

But um as you're going uh going through the process, um uh I would ask that you sort of document as well as you can um what kind of uh themes you're working with such that they can be reproduced, not carbon copied, but reproduced in in future parks.

Um I definitely echo what uh Michelle was saying about the kind of the unique nature of the again, corporate speak customer base for this park because um it is reasonable to point out that most of the people using this park don't live in the area yet.

Um there's also this uh this um it's it's it is important that we take into account uh what kind of light rail um users um if if we could develop a persona for the uh different types of light rail users that are going to be getting off at the nearest stops, um, whether or not that's a worker in downtown or somewhere um along East Link that is for some reason deciding to uh to jump off there, whether that's somebody within walking distance in the residential units that are either there now in the spring district or are coming, um, whether that's folks in that sort of sort of that slender um triangular region of North Wilburton that are going to be walking north to get there.

Um it's a challenge.

This is gonna be uh a much more interesting public feedback process.

Um, but I just yeah, I'd urge you to take into account uh four or five, six different um park user types um because this park is is gonna be, I think, more complicated in that sense and acquiring feedback um will also be more challenging.

Um additionally, um I had one question that um and I'm I'm not an expert about underground streams, but that underground stream on the diagram sure takes a really sharp right angled turn.

Um is there something unusual going on there?

That I mean that seems odd for a natural uh feature.

Yeah, it's uh it's piped at that portion.

I agree that that's a hard 90 degree angle for water.

Okay, it it's a pipe at that point.

Okay, so this was intentionally piped at a right right angle.

Yes.

For whatever for whatever reason.

Okay.

Um yeah, that's interesting.

And and when it comes to daylighting, I mean, I do believe that the more we can lean into the natural streams in this area, the more we're gonna have a sort of a cohesive Bell Red park network.

Um, I understand their limitations.

You explain those limitations.

I don't know the extent to which the private developer bordering that stream could be induced.

This would get into planning and all sorts of other departments, but um certainly we have um we have precedent for um you know working with developers um to for FAR bonuses for amenities, and certainly I would think this would qualify.

Um I would I would hope that if the development of that parcel is at a point where communications with the developer are possible, I would hope you'd at least um see what could be done there.

Um I know that's a very complicated sort of set of talks, but um I think it could really bear fruit in terms of bringing about uh a unique um just a really unique natural set of features all throughout the Bell Red area.

And it would be a shame if the very first park becomes sort of something different than that.

Um, but again, I understand their constraints, and I I know that's not something that can be guaranteed at this point.

Um and I do echo the uh the I think it was Elizabeth that said um pointed out the the value of an off leash area here.

Um I do think that this is a point where as much as I talked about the stick earlier, the carrot does become much more uh of a of a realistic thing.

And I'm not saying we need a massive um off leash area, but I think that when we were looking at Woodlawn Park, uh way back when we were we're planning that uh board member Hamilton, Hamilton at the time actually pointed out that there's some pretty good research that a quarter acre um is more than sufficient for most off leash um areas.

Not that more wouldn't be better um if if the space were readily available, but that a significant amount of value can be had for that, especially with folks that are dog owners inside of uh the multifamily uh that's already there and is is coming there as well.

So um I think that was the sum of my comments, but um this is is definitely exciting.

Looking forward to uh seeing this take shape.

So yeah, thanks again for coming.

Thanks, Paul.

Any more comments?

I'll I'll share a few comments then.

Um thank you, Wyatt and Zaryan.

It looks like uh a fun project.

Uh lots of uh things to navigate, like with the utilities and everything.

Um looking back at how some previous park um community inputs uh have taken place.

I really uh loved in past park designs that um you all went to uh like neighborhood block parties to try to connect with people.

I think in one instance you had a table at a grocery store, I think was that one.

I thought I thought that was really neat to uh see different creative ways to get in touch with the local community and to continue with that.

I think would be awesome.

Um I think with the last park, uh, I don't think there was an online Zoom meeting for one of the community meetings.

So if possible, if we could have an online option for uh some of the community meetings, I think that would be really helpful to I think I heard like some parents who have like young kids and they make dinner uh can attend.

So I think that would be really helpful.

Um I'm looking at the space.

So I know the area is pretty like concrete area, so I think it'd be cool to get some more green, I guess, in the region.

Uh, so that's something I I'd be excited about.

I'm really excited about uh hearing how this feasibility study goes with the stream day lighting.

Um I'm curious about the topography.

Is it a pretty flat area or is it hilly?

It's hard for me to tell from this picture.

It's relatively relatively flat.

Um it kind of rages up on the north end and slopes towards the south, but relatively flat.

Okay, cool.

Would it be possible for us to tour?

I don't know if that's asking too much.

I know it's under construction, but that might be a fun field trip to see it in person if possible.

Um sorry, I'm just full of requests.

Um that's actually everyone else sort of asked similar questions I had.

Um so yeah, I think very excited about this.

Any other final comments?

I can speak to the uh you mentioned um about uh with our last park with Eastgate um participating in some of the tabling events they do have.

Um there is a uh like a uh arts uh celebration uh in Bell Red that they had last year and they're having that again this year.

And um I have reached out uh to them and um there is an opportunity in September uh for uh for tabling at that event.

So um yeah, I'm gonna uh try to do something similar to uh to get get the word out and uh at that point in the design, we might have um some um some alternatives to look at too.

So that uh I think that'd be a good opportunity.

Awesome.

Great to hear.

Does anyone oh uh Paul, go for it?

Yeah, I did wanna I know I was echoing a lot.

I wanted to echo one more thing about um pedestrian and bicycle access because we have a we have a challenge throughout the city and bike bellevue struggles with this to uh to figure out how to make bike paths go from point A to point B in a city that's already been largely built up in Bell Red.

We have a great opportunity though to provide bike access and pedestrian access in a way that isn't just a sidewalk.

Um the most requested feature that we've seen over and over again in in uh in resident uh feedback has been trails.

And so if we can especially looking ahead to where future sites might be, if we can sort of rough map out where we might have egress from this park into trails, um bicycle and or pedestrian multi-use trails, preferably, especially if they can if they can run along streams.

That might be too much to ask, but that would be uh certainly the the the best of all worlds, I would think.

Um if if we can if we can as much as possible sort of preload that into any park design.

Um I really do think that's important.

So that was it.

Thanks.

Paul.

Any other final questions, comments?

Uh if we have any further questions about this, do we email you all?

Or yeah, I guess we'll we'll email you both.

And I guess we look forward to finding out when that first community meeting takes place.

I'm sure all of us will uh want to attend.

Okay.

All right.

All right, thank you so much.

All right.

That we'll move on to the next item on the agenda, which is new business, and we'll turn it over to Cameron.

Okay, so um looking forward to the March meeting.

Um the agenda for that meeting has been a little dynamic lately.

So I don't have much to share this evening.

Um, but we are so um working on continuing our presentations on um different department uh programs and facilities, and then um have uh some lines out for some of the um also the citywide planning projects that are underway that I want to stop by as well.

So I think confirmed tonight, but uh we'll definitely have something for you to do.

March BT.

Yes.

Yeah, I guess we'll see how anyone thinks they'll have the word.

Um yeah, so okay.

If anyone thinks they'll be remote, the March 18th meeting.

Um speak up now or send staff and us an email.

The calendar.

Okay.

Um we'll go to the next item, which is uh we've completed all the items on tonight's agenda, and so I'll the meeting adjourned.

Can I miss something?

No, okay.

Yeah.

Thanks, Paul.

Uh good to see you.

See you everyone.

See everyone next month.

Thanks.