Welcome everyone.

I call this meeting to order.

Can I get a motion to approve the agenda?

I motion.

And move.

Do we have a second?

I second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion carries.

Um, can I get a motion to approve the minutes from the April meeting?

I make a motion to approve the minutes.

It's been moved.

Do I have a second?

I can second.

Okay.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

And then do we have oral communications?

Yes.

We do.

We uh call forward Mr.

Zimmerman.

Very efficient.

For all disabled men is good.

Yes.

Oh, I'm going to read the script while you're getting set up in compliance with Washington state campaign laws regarding the use of public facilities during an election.

No speaker may support or oppose the ballot measure or support or oppose a candidate for an election, which includes your own campaign.

Any speaker who begins to discussing topics of this nature will be asked to stop.

In addition, there are new rules adopted by the city council limiting the topics about which the public may speak during our meetings.

Under ordinance 6752, the public may now 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 arts commission.

Additional information about the new rules of decorum governing conduct of the public during our meetings can be found at ordinance 6752.

And with that, Mr.

Zimmerman.

Yeah, thank you very much.

My name is Alex Zimmerman.

Yeah.

I want to speak about something, what is I speak for last 10 years.

Number one, what is I want to speak?

Yeah.

This is my official statement about your committee.

You know what is meant.

And I come to this meeting for 10 years.

I don't come to you because you look to me like a dirty damn Nazi fascist bastard.

You know what I mean?

I come speak to people of Bellevue, 150,000.

So first I try to understand why you cannot show these faces.

Go for many years, and I complain in every meeting.

Not only yours, in every meeting, because five people, five meetings in this room, 13, don't show faces.

I never see like this before from Tacoma to Seattle in Everett.

I speak more than 5,000 times to a dozen city.

Everybody show faces.

The only one who don't do this.

You know what is mean another dirty, damn Nazi fascist bastard.

You know what is meant.

What is known about this?

And they don't do this.

It's number one.

Number two, Mayor Robinson 12 years ago cut a statement for speech.

You know what is meant before we can speak without limitation.

But Mayor Robinson did this, and I I bring his paper to you.

Yes.

And she did this, and Council supports them.

So for 12th year, I talk and we need to stop in this.

This Nazi Gestapo, fascist buster, a map.

A bandita, what is don't want what this people speak.

Limited this in totally cut us constitutional right, freedom of speech.

In council this present too.

You see, this is not first time, but as I talk to her, and she not react.

Why?

Because it's an ordinary Nazi Gestapo, fascist bastard.

A map and bandita.

Why council not doing this?

Why they don't give a chance?

Speak to every city.

150,000.

It's a big problem, what is we have?

It's number two.

The number three.

The last week expired three year trespasses.

What is Mayor Robinson give to me because I'm gonna do that against her?

She acting like a criminal in council, support her.

You cannot stop in somebody who go against you, candidate who goes against you, use your power, forecast me totally for three year right of speech and cut my statement for election.

It's never happened before in state Washington.

You know what it meant?

You guys, very quiet about this.

Why?

Because you're creating her in bandita.

You are Nazi bandit.

It's exactly who you are.

And I repeat this in every meeting in this room, not only to you.

Viva Trump, Viva New American Revolution.

Stand up slaving happy cow.

Guys, we need to stop on this right now because situation about this we have right now.

Critical.

You steal a billion and billion dollars from people.

You're done.

Time is up.

Super.

Thank you very much.

It's for you again.

Do we have any more oral communication?

All right.

Here we go.

All right.

Hello, I'm Bailey Fuentes.

Uh I'm returning back from May.

We missed that meeting for May.

I only have three minutes, so I just gotta be very quick about it.

Um I'm ready to go for the project.

I went to the site.

We we talked about it.

Um, it's down there in the red barn where the utility vehicles are.

The city doesn't want us to do the whole the full building.

And I think that's what I had suggested at first was we're gonna do the full building.

They just want us to do the doors.

So uh the doors that you see on the uh south facing side.

So as you're taking the light road that goes across the spring district, it's right there in the middle.

It's a park, um, that they're gonna turn it into a park.

And so uh the idea is uh to get started on that as soon as possible.

Um they asked me to have insurance for that, so we've got the insurance, um, and so now that we've got the insurance, we've got the money to do it.

I've got the the two grand that they gave me up front for it.

So we've got that money, um, and then we're gonna use that the remaining amount, uh, the 2,000 that they gave for the uh Bell Red art grant, the project grant.

Uh, we're gonna use that now.

So um just over the next few months going forward, that's what we're gonna do.

We're just gonna get uh going on the supplies, get everything organized, and then just start the work.

Uh, I think that's where we are with it.

And um, and that's that's really all I have to say about that.

I did apply for the Bell Red.

They've got another project separately going on at the Bell Red Art Studio, um, and it was for like eight grand.

So I applied for that, and they're gonna do a uh panel for that to see who gets it.

Um there's no guarantee that I'm gonna get that, but I did apply for it.

Uh other than that, what else do I really have to say in my minutes?

Um, I think this whole thing has been great, just doing the project, um, just talking people.

I think just hitting walls with the business was like the hardest part was just like we had that private business um that was that we were working with, and then they kind of just like pulled out on us last minute, and so we were just left with our hands in the air, um, not really sure what to do.

So I think this whole red barn is a good idea.

It's right there in the area.

I mean, they're gonna tear the building down anyway, or do something else.

So I think if with the amount of time that I have, um this mural should be good.

It should be excellent.

I think as soon as you see it, everyone's gonna love it when they when they take the light rail.

So as soon as you're taking the light rail from the Bell Red Art District into the Spring District, you'll see it, and and we'll do uh with my last 30 seconds.

Um, we'll just do like a ribbon stepping.

I just want to do a ribbon, like a really big red ribbon, a bunch of people show up.

There's like a giant pair of scissors, and then we just snip it and then like say hurrah, and everyone cheers.

Yeah.

And uh, but yeah, that's that's where we are with that.

Great.

So that's thank you.

I have a question for staff.

Um, if if he's being restricted to the doors, is there a thought that they might be salvaged and reused if the building is demolished?

And that's just a question.

The art resource, you know.

It's certainly something we can look into if it's something smaller like the doors.

We could talk to our peers in other departments.

Um, we're having a similar conversation with a mural that's coming down right now about what part we might be able to salvage.

So, yeah, I would I would maybe put that in your notes as to think long term about if this is part of a building to be demolished.

I think that's great.

So would I, I think that's a great idea.

Well, thank you for the update.

Of course.

Any other questions for?

Just a simple question: do you have do you need anything from us?

Um, no, just show up for the ceremony.

I think if it would be great just to have like public facing there, just to kind of like see how the whole thing has gone through.

I've been showing up to these meetings um consecutively.

So, like just to kind of see the end result of it, just so you're like aware of how the project turned out.

I think that's the only thing I would want from you guys.

Other than that, we're we're set to start on it.

All right, so action items, discussion items first on the agenda is new commissioner.

Welcome.

So after six months, uh we and I uh we found a lovely new member for you all.

I'd like to welcome Brendan officially.

Uh, do you want to share a few words about yourself and why you might be interested in serving, why you applied, and what you're excited about.

Sure, why not?

Uh so my name is Brendan.

It's nice to meet all of you.

Looking forward to uh meeting with you guys uh routinely.

Uh I wanted to join because I'm very passionate just about the arts in general.

Uh goes from you know live theater to museums to uh like open spaces, uh activating parades, things like that.

And uh I've been following the arts commission for quite some time and just the arts uh kind of in general with Bellevue.

So I'm excited to try and be a part of that.

Welcome.

It's great to have the seat filled and to have us a little more balanced gender-wise.

So really the thinking that.

Yeah.

Really glad you're great.

Next item on the agenda, Great Neighborhoods Eastgate and Factoria Neighborhood Area updates.

Good evening.

My name is Zachary Luckin.

I'm senior planner with the comprehensive planning division and community development.

Um, so good evening, Chair Aldridge, and the rest of our um our members here and council member Bargava, um, and members of the public, those who are online.

Uh tonight we're excited to uh share the progress for the great neighborhoods program in Eastgate and Factoria.

Uh we launched the work program in August of last year uh with council and uh updated the to update the neighborhood area plans for these two neighborhoods.

Uh over the past eight months uh we've talked to over 1,200 people at 31 events who have shared their vision and ideas for the future of Eastgate and Factoria.

That feedback was used to create a draft uh neighborhood area plans that laid the foundation for neighborhood improvements.

The policies uh tonight were shared with the public earlier this month, and we're in the process of hearing from community, boards, and commissions prior to returning to planning commission uh later this month on the 24th, uh, to share the full draft plan and updated policies.

Next slide, please.

Uh so this meeting is information only, although we certainly invited discussion about how the draft policies support art, identity, placemaking, uh, and for both neighborhoods.

Uh, a formal recommendation is neither requested nor required.

But feedback from the study session will be shared with planning commission uh as they consider different inputs and we provide um inputs when providing staff to update the plans.

Next slide.

Um, so this is our uh agenda for this evening.

Uh I'll do a brief bit about the neighborhood planning process, go over the scope of the plans, talk about our community engagement to date, and then we'll go through each plan first the Eastgate policies and implementation concepts, uh, and then the same for Factoria.

So the Great Neighborhoods program was initiated by City Council in 2018 to update all of the 16 of Bellevue's neighborhood area plans, many of which have not been updated comprehensively for several decades.

The primary objective is to develop neighborhood plans that are relevant, community-driven, and reflective of citywide and local priorities.

This planning process is done by engaging community members who live, work, play, and learn in these communities so their inputs shape the plan outcomes.

These plans serve as a guide for decision making and informs how the city will partner with others to realize a 10 to 20 year vision for the neighborhood.

Uh we completed several neighborhood plans already and are currently working on updating Eastgate in factoria.

Neighborhood area plans are part of Bellevue's comprehensive plan, which is the city's guiding policy document for how the city grows and develops over the next 20 years.

The vision goals and policies in the plan describes what the city wants to achieve, balancing clear direction and flexibility to respond to changing conditions within the neighborhoods.

There can be several ways to implement policies, such as investing in new facilities, creating new regulations or ordinances, or supporting programs and partnerships.

A policy around arts, for example, can result in public art installation or establishment of public spaces for cultural events.

Next slide.

Eastgate and Factoria as planning boundaries, follow the I-90 business corridor, which historically has our highest concentration of mid to large size employers and hotels outside of downtown.

The Eastgate neighborhood area includes areas both north and south of I-90.

It's a large geographic area made up of many different uses, including lower density residential areas, apartments, light industrial, retail, parks, offices, and Bellevue College.

Bordering Eastgate is Factoria, bound by I 405 and I-90.

It's predominantly a commercial employment center known for Factoria Mall and the T-Mobile headquarters, as well as numerous professional services, retail, and restaurants, many of which are international.

Beyond these commercial areas, there are pockets of residential neighborhoods to the southwest, southwest and up the hill to the east.

The neighborhood area planning process is divided into four phases as shown here.

In previous phases, we worked with the community to identify the values and priorities that they had and develop a draft vision and policy priorities that should be the building blocks of this draft plan.

We are currently in the refine phase and we are developing where we have developed the draft plan policies for community review.

We anticipate returning to planning commission in June for an initial review of the full draft plans that includes the plan policies, narratives, and maps.

We aim for a final review and adoption of the plans with city council by the end of the year.

Neighborhood area plans are organized into five sections, and relevant policies for this commission can be found in several of these sections.

The first is neighborhood identity.

These policies strengthen the physical and cultural elements that anchor the neighborhood and make it unique.

Mixed use and neighborhood center policies support the evolution of our mixed-use centers so they are convenient to get to, attractive to be in, and have unique offerings for the community.

Community gathering space policies support developing, enhancing and connecting people to indoor and outdoor gathering spaces.

Mobility and access policies inform future capital improvements around streets, sidewalks, bicycle facilities, trails, and transit infrastructure.

And lastly, the environment, these policies support enhancing natural areas.

As mentioned previously, we've had extensive engagement to date during the Discover phase that took place in late of last year.

We focused on identifying those values, opportunities, and challenges.

The team engaged communities through events and platforms that reach residents, business owners, students, and others in the Eastgate community and factoria as well, with the emphasis on groups less likely to participate in the planning process.

Activities included tabling, questionnaires, workshops, walks with the community, and more.

These events are summarized in the engagement reports that were provided in your agenda materials.

Moving on to the defined phase, this is uh this took place earlier this year and focused on developing a draft vision and a set of urban design and policy priorities.

During this phase, we held a workshop with a range of hands-on activities, providing people of all ages with the opportunity to identify public space improvements and provide feedback on our vision statements and draft policy moves.

To support the workshop, we also held smaller workshops and tabling opportunities in the community throughout both neighborhoods.

I'd like to use this photo collage just to really emphasize that this plan is shaped by community.

We've heard from many diverse voices and perspectives in many different settings from classrooms to apartment common spaces, and even some intersections of our main arterials too.

So in Eastgate, we've learned that the community members value a safe, natural, diverse, and economically prosperous neighborhood.

Neighborhood assets include mature trees, which largely define Eastgate's residential areas, streams, and open spaces.

Another asset is its parks, community parks that border Eastgate, such as Eastgate Park and Robinswood, can be directly accessed from the neighborhood and draw people in from across the city, and there are number of neighborhood parks within the area as well.

People also appreciate the convenience of being able to access transit, grocery stores, restaurants, and coffee shops in the neighborhood while also being close to the wilderness features like hiking trails and streams.

Lastly, people really care about their neighbors, and it's common for them to encounter them while going walks throughout the neighborhood and connecting with people.

Based on these values and assets, the team developed a vision statement of what Eastgate will look and feel like in the next 10 to 20 years.

It focuses on opportunities for Eastgate's diverse communities to thrive and connect, enhance Eastgate's natural recreational and commercial assets, and create hubs for communities to gather on both sides of I-90.

This vision statement for Eastgate is the foundation for the draft policies around arts and culture.

And I'll read it briefly here.

Eastgate is a convenient, safe, and welcoming neighborhood where its diverse residents, businesses, and student population can thrive and build connections with one another.

Its tree-lined and well-maintained residential areas are the heart of the neighborhood, and people from all stages of life are seen walking, biking, and taking transit to experience the area's natural beauty, outdoor recreation, and retail and entertainment offerings.

Mixed use areas on both sides of Interstate 90 as well as Bellevue College anchor the neighborhood as vibrant hubs for living, working, gathering, learning, and fostering community.

So now we'll take a look at some of the policies, which again are in your agenda memo.

I'm just going to summarize them broadly in terms of some of the main themes that we've seen here, and then we can have a brief discussion after each section or after each neighborhood.

Policies in the neighborhood identity section seek to enhance Eastgate's distinct qualities as a convenient, green, and welcoming neighborhood.

From an arts standpoint, this highlights the neighborhood's opportunity and role in economic development and the goals outlined in the economic development plan update.

This includes recognizing that Eastgate has the second highest concentration of hotels, and part of its revitalization strategy is increasing opportunities for having more things to do for visitors in the area as well as its residents.

This is also achieved through placemaking that celebrates and promotes the neighborhood identity and through streetscape and threshold enhancements.

And thresholds, which we'll talk about a little bit later, are those natural entrances into the neighborhood.

Policies in the mixed use and neighborhood centers section seek to help Eastgates centers evolve into places where people can easily access transit, housing, shopping, places to gather, and services.

And through these policies, this is done through building partnerships that improve the business environment in Eastgate.

Moving on to our community gathering spaces section, this seeks to provide a variety of indoor and outdoor gathering spaces to serve a growing and diverse neighborhood.

This is accomplished through coordinating with organizations such as churches and schools and private development to increase opportunities for recreation and cultural programming.

Also in this section, we have developing new accessible parks and outdoor public spaces for recreation and community events.

And then we have policies in our environment section, which focus on enhancing national natural assets by integrating trails into natural areas and supporting environmental education opportunities.

In addition to these policies, a key element of the neighborhood area plans are the concept maps uh that locate and visualize opportunities to improve gathering spaces.

Improvements are supported through policies and community feedback to help it inform where these opportunities could be as the name indicates these maps are conceptual they're not potential project lists but instead guide project identification and partnerships for other departments going from left to right and top to bottom some of the improvements that are explored through community spaces uh include enhancements to natural features new neighborhood parks neighborhood markers such as public art and signs improvements to streets paths and trails to connect these destinations together and so this is our gathering space concept map for eastgate um and it really pulls together and creates a cohesive vision for what these community gathering spaces might look like and how they are functioned how they function and are connected the back one would you go back just for a minute to that previous map this one the next one that we can zoom in oh so I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna talk through it yeah so the green bubbles indicate potential new park space south of I 90 and are informed by policies recognizing the need for neighborhood parks in areas that lack walkable access currently the orange cogs dotted throughout the map represent destinations where community um in the within the community where people would like to see opportunities for both indoor and outdoor gathering spaces including shopping areas community facilities schools and campuses the purple circles are what we call our thresholds as I mentioned before and these are mark entrances into the neighborhoods from the freeway and adjacent neighborhoods and our key opportunities to highlight neighborhood identity whether through art signage or some other visual element and then tying together these elements together are those blue dashed lines throughout the neighborhood which are high which we highlight as opportunities for improved walking and biking connections to safely and comfortably travel between these destinations and so as we move on to the discussion in the next slide my my one prompt and I'm open to other feedback specifically is where are the entrances or some of these natural thresholds in the community that we should be prioritizing.

We can move on so opening up to discussion here in addition to some of those thresholds do these draft policies for Eastgate provide adequate direction to inform the development and implementation of arts and cultural projects and investments to support the neighborhoods are neighborhood areas vision.

Yeah so we're this is our discussion around Eastgate and then once that concludes we'll move on to factory and walk through those policies well as a resident of Eastgate I would say I was I think your map is the most instructive thing to see you know how you are implant thinking to implement the policies.

And I think I think you're dead on that they that more parks and trails are needed in the neighborhood and more gateways or and more public art.

I understand we have a call out for public art at one of the places you've marked I think it's Factoria Boulevard and 136 right there by ourselves jewelers so seems we're already moving in that direction.

So I think I think you've done a good job as as a resident I would say.

Any other comments from Sandra if you want to speak online we see your hand and can you hear me?

Oh, just a second.

We can't hear you.

Want to go ahead and try again now, Sandra.

Can you hear me?

No.

No.

Hello.

Give us a sec.

Do you mind if we come back to you in just a moment okay.

The audio is on.

Should I speak while we're waiting for Sandra to set up?

Hello.

Yeah.

I think you guys have done well.

I think with the survey.

I can see that it's quite extensive and accessibility convenience for people is something that seems to be a requirement.

And also the need for more places where people can gather.

We are like a city and a park, but more places where people can, I guess, very intentionally come together, is what it seems like is coming forth in this.

Would you guys be doing like more surveys and follow-ups, or this is pretty comprehensive and we're done with that?

So we're pretty much at the conclusion of the process from here on out.

We're just gonna be um, you know, we've got our draft plan out for review and public comment and boards and commissions, but um the the bulk of the community engagement is concluded.

And in addition to the surveys that we did, we had online tools.

So we had a similar mapping tool to this online where you could drop a little pin that described the type of improvements.

So maybe we wanted to see placemaking, maybe we want to see better sidewalks or parks, and so we kind of took and distilled that information from both online as well as our in-person workshops.

Um, you know, we we went to the Eastgate Housing Campus and engaged our folks who are struggling uh with with homelessness.

We went to uh a senior's home.

We went with taught a bunch of classes in Newport High School.

So we were really all over the place uh to get a a good you know array of of community voices.

No, I think that's great.

I can see that it's pretty comprehensive, and you do have um uh even voice business voices and um retail spaces.

I think that all sort of also ties in for serving as um serving twofold, you know.

They can also be gathering spaces and places where businesses thrive, and I think communities thrive when small businesses do well.

So I think I just want to say good, good job.

Yeah.

Sandra, would you try again now?

Hello, can you hear me?

We still can hear you just a second.

Joydeep, as a test, would you say something?

Yeah, I can hear Sandra, and I can hear all of it.

It's us, okay.

Problems in the room.

Sorry, we're gonna keep working on this.

Type in the chat.

No chat.

Oh, I play it through.

I don't know what's going on.

Sandra, you can try speaking now.

Hello, yeah.

Sandra, I can hear you perfectly well.

Yeah.

Do you want to stick with me?

Yes, Zoom is working.

I know that Carol also, I can hear you, Sandra.

Yeah, it's a problem since the beginning, isn't it?

It's a problem in the room.

I'm so sorry.

Um, we can hear you through my computer, so go ahead.

Okay.

So I have a question related to some specific policies that you were mentioning.

For example, the S E G and one.

Um, talking about, I mean, it mentioned something like this recreation and tourist destination by increasing opportunities for cultural and sports facilities and entertainment.

Um we have been this kind of discussions that uh we don't want to have, I mean, the distinction between culture and art and entertainment.

So I'm a little bit uh like confused of what do you mean about this?

Because you are mixing like a lot of things in this in this first uh draft policy.

You are putting the recreation tourism, cultural things for facilities.

So maybe in another opportunity you can go and explain a little bit that because uh if it's the first one related to with art for me, that it'll be like too much things into the same policy.

Oh, if you if you can talk about it right now, yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, I I uh I I appreciate that.

Um, we've we've heard some similar feedback from community members as well.

Um, and the intent of this is really responding to feedback that we've heard of there needs to be more things to do within the community.

People want things nearby, again, entertainment.

So, um, right now I think it kind of feels like a catch-all, but we want to acknowledge that there's an array of experiences that we want to be able to provide for folks.

Um, and we are we've I think we're gonna be revising this policy a little bit to be focusing more on those mixed-use areas north of I-90.

Um, so those that are accessible to transit and near like some of the hotels and other amenities.

Um, so certainly open to feedback of how we can further refine.

Um, but I think this is really based on we just wanna we don't want to leave something out in terms of the types of as much comprehensive for people because we've we've heard that people want a lot of different types of things.

Um, so you know, theoretically you could put them all in separate policies, but we wanted to try to you know be somewhat broad and and consolidate them in one, but certainly open to feedback.

Yeah, yeah, because we have been having the discussion in the arts commission about the difference between art, culture, and entertainment, and in between entertainment, you can see all the things, and sometimes people confuse it with recreation.

So I'm going to a lot of things, so yeah, something that we can improve.

The other policy that I was uh, and I found it very much interesting, the number and six that talk about cultural diversity that they're talking about development of public spaces, community facilities, and public art.

Can you develop a little bit more about it?

If we're gonna see something like that in the map, like spaces for cultural diversity, or we're gonna leverage the existing ones.

And because I'm not clear about how many, how much of this current um public spaces do we have there in the Eastgate area?

So is the question where they would go or or how are we?

I love the map that you show was that you have all the things related with parks and everything, but I don't see that much clear about these public spaces that we're gonna use to develop the cultural diversity that you are mentioning in policy number and six.

Okay, I think this is again when we talk about highlighting the the neighborhood history and cultural diversity, it's like through art and placemaking.

I mean, I think this could be implemented in any other number of public spaces.

Um, and also again, I think we're adding community facilities in there.

For instance, we want like performance spaces or places that can acknowledge the like the cultural heritage of the area.

Again, it could take many forms.

Um, and so we don't identify specific projects, we're just saying this is a a value and a priority for the community, um, and then departments such as the parks department or uh economic developments and arts folks could then take that interpreted that into various uh programs, projects, capital investments.

Um, so we again wanted to leave it somewhat high level, but I I do want to recognize um that maybe having it a little too inclusive of all of those things in one policy uh might make it worth breaking out a little bit.

Okay, and my last question.

Sorry, I'm taking too much time.

It's related to the policy number in 23 that you are involved in the Bellevue College.

Do you have something about it that you can tell us?

What is your expectation about the involvement of the Bellevue College with the with the arts and the culture?

So just we were thinking that we could collaborate on hosting events, um, and as they expand out and develop more connections within the community.

Um, we feel like that they could be better connected and representative of the surrounding community.

I know right now they feel a little isolated.

Um, and they are in one of our mixed-use centers, and so as we build that out, we want to make sure we're developing those natural connections and kind of leveraging some of the community assets um to make it you know more of an institution that is connected to the surrounding neighborhood.

So again, that could take many forms.

We're just acknowledging that there's future opportunities for collaboration.

Uh, I think having it as an advanced space uh is certainly probably one of the top ones for that.

Okay, okay, thank you.

Thank you.

I would just make a comment that we had uh one of our grants, our big development grants, was for belt uh Bellevue College Theater, and part of the conditions we tried to establish when we issued that grant was that the theater space would be more available to the community in recognition of the desperate shortage we have throughout Bellevue for performance spaces.

So I think maybe we as a commission could look for more opportunities to you know um provide asset to Bellevue College, but also demand more public access as as a consequence of that.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

I don't know if this is all completely off topic or not, but these individualized neighborhood plans, I see that tremendous benefit to having the neighbors in that neighborhood help guide how they want their neighborhood to go from your personal opinion.

If if you have one or you can decline, um how do you how does the city balance the wants and desires of a neighborhood with the wants and overall vision or wants and desires of a of the entire city, right?

Because I could sort of just visualizing a neighborhood saying we want to have big purple flags on every street corner, let's say very distinctive, uh recognizable, memorable.

Um, but would this does the city have an overall?

I'm thinking from the arts point of view, does the city have an overall vision of how the city wants to be seen uh and it's in the symbology that the the city uses.

How do how does how how would you propose the city balance?

Yeah, so so we have our the comprehensive plan.

There's volumes one and two.

So volume one is citywide policies, volume two is those neighborhood level plans and policies.

Um and so what we do when we through this neighborhood planning process, we take volume one, and that's that's kind of the foundation.

So we want to make sure that everything is in alignment with the citywide policies and goals, and then we kind of pull from those our neighborhood priorities so we can localize citywide policy.

So citywide policy, maybe you know, we want to, you know, develop better placemaking and public art across the city.

And then through this, we say we want to celebrate cultural diversity as part of our placemaking, or we want to celebrate the history of Eastgate or the history of Factoria.

And that's kind of we can take that larger policy and localize it.

Um, and again, this is still identifying priorities.

So for instance, you know, there was a recent uh exercise in Eastgate where they want to send neighborhood signs.

So we can say, oh, we know that you know, neighborhood signage and placemaking is a priority, and then we can go and work with that neighborhood to work on designs, and then we go through still like various boards and commissions review.

So there's still the traditional like, you know, review and design process.

Obviously, we still have to adhere to, you know, our our sign code or or whatever else.

So there's still some confines, but I I think the the thing that we kind of start with is a foundation of volume one.

We got our citywide policies, and how can we then make those applicable?

So we're not kind of pulling pulling things out of left field and say this is totally in conflict.

Everything needs to, you know, kind of be consistent between volume one and then get a little more specific with each neighborhood plan.

But we certainly want to, you know, acknowledge that alignment and consistency across the city is is certainly our our goal in this.

Yeah, I get you.

Thank you.

Shall we move on to uh some of this might be a bit pedantic, so you know, forgive me for that.

Uh one of the things when we talk about the year round, I saw in the in the map, which I think was great.

We had like the it's like in the circles and as like the orange dashes, uh, which I think is great.

I think you mentioned that it's like indoor outdoor space.

Uh, but specifically when we also like talk about parks, ensuring that it's also like year-round available, obviously being the Pacific Northwest.

Uh, you know, it's something that it's a bit of a challenge, or you know, some people like, you know, I'll wait till I wait till summer.

You know, everybody comes out during the summer.

So just keeping, you know, some of that in mind.

I think that may have been covered when you said year round, but just wanted to call that out specifically.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that.

And then at uh another thing for, and I don't know if this is the right time or what have you, but it's a thought that I uh thought about as I was, you know, preparing and reading through the uh report that you guys put together.

But a lot of the things I saw, you know, a lot of people really appreciated like the community center, the South uh Bellevue Community Center.

And I just learned about the South uh the community center like a few months ago.

And I think one thing that would be really good is if we also like focused on like marketing.

Yeah.

And so again, I don't know if that's okay, great.

And I I think that's one of the things when we talk about uh wayfinding um and signage.

So like people know, oh, you know, when they come over the bridge across I-90, or there's a pedestrian bridge, or you know, various or like our active transportation, walking and biking.

People can say, oh, there's a community center a mile away, and they have, you know, some wayfinding to help them get there.

Um, I certainly think again, that's part of the economic development plan is really focusing on being able to better market the assets that we do have.

So that's that's certainly a priority.

Um, and maybe that's something where we can be a little more specific around not only developing new assets, but better promoting the ones that we do have, in addition to kind of the wayfinding piece for how you get there.

And then one last thing on this.

Um, and this isn't any action uh, you know, going forward because it sounds like you've already uh gone through the and done the community outreach, uh, try to hit like a lot of different, you know, demographics, which I think is great.

Uh one thing I was reading it, it was hard the Imgar people, uh, specifically for Eastgate was a bit like underrepresented.

Yeah.

Uh, you know, which is, you know, natural when you're trying to get surveys and things like that.

I noticed that we went to the college and and high school once, but it might be good to like repeatedly go back, you know, to some of those places just because that's such a concentrated group of the demographic that we did.

Yeah, we actually we were at Bellevue College twice.

Um, and so the first time we did like a neighborhood walk with some of the students.

So we we took them kind of down um some of the trail system over by Robinswood and down towards um like the the coffee shop at last frontier and kind of down and around.

Um, and it was it was really interesting because uh being a commuter campus, a lot of the students they have no idea anything that's outside of campus.

They're like, oh, I could walk to a coffee shop, I could walk to you know, somewhere to grab food or or a nearby park.

Um, so that was really informative.

And again, going back to our kind of wayfinding and and signage and just better integrating Bellevue College within the community, just kind of building that awareness they're working on developing some housing.

I think that'll really help too.

Um, and then we went back later on once we had those high-level policy moves and we put up our boards in the cafeteria.

Um, but I think I think it's an ongoing challenge, and I think as they have, you know, more student housing on campus that can we can try to get better engagement with them is like people just aren't really feeling connected to, you know, sometimes not even just that neighborhood, but Bellview as a whole.

You're coming from, you know, Renton or even farther away, spending a couple hours on the bus.

Um, and so sometimes it's kind of it's a it's a challenge to relate to them like why this is important to them, um, and certainly an opportunity for for improvement for us.

So I appreciate that.

All right, factoria.

Factoria.

All right, thank you.

All right.

So in factoria, uh community members valued safe, diverse, accessible, and affordable community.

Neighborhood assets include its diverse and international retail options, and many people from across the city and the east side uh and across the lake enjoy factorious diverse cuisine and shoppings.

Uh another asset is this convenience.

Factoria has many places to work, eat, shop, and access services.

And so people can meet most of their daily needs within the neighborhood.

It's also has great access to highways and the mountains to sound greenway trail, making it convenient for drivers, transit riders, and cyclists to get to.

So Factoria's vision statement focuses on fostering a global, vibrant and walkable residential and commercial community that brings together a mix of people, new housing, and retail opportunities.

Like Eastgate, there's an emphasis on parks, open spaces, and gathering spaces, which are notably lacking in Factoria today.

So our vision statement is Factoria is a locally rooted, globally connected neighborhood and major employment center that welcomes people from around the world to live, work, shop, and learn.

Centered around its vibrant commercial core, Factoria is anchored by a strong network of local businesses and diverse retail offerings with affordable housing and nature-oriented gathering spaces that bring people together of all backgrounds.

A walkable pedestrian oriented design complemented by strong access to transit and transit and regional transportation networks, support Factoria as a connected and thriving community.

So policies in our neighborhood identity section seek to enhance Factoria's distinct qualities as a convenient green and welcoming neighborhood.

From an art standpoint, this is achieved by establishing and promoting neighborhood identity through art and placemaking and improving the pedestrian environment.

Policies in our mixed use and neighborhood center section seek to focus on Factoria's center and help it evolve as into a place where people can easily access transit, housing, shopping, places to gather, and services.

And this is accomplished through integrating plazas and flexible public spaces within the mixed use center.

Policies in the community gathering spaces section seek to provide a variety of indoor and outdoor gathering spaces to serve a growing and diverse neighborhood.

And from an arts perspective perspective, this is accomplished through collaborating with community partners to provide gathering spaces and host community and cultural events.

So again, my prompt to you as we look at the gathering space maps, um, is are there any specific entrances or those natural thresholds within the community that we should prioritize or additional spaces that we should look at for arts and placemaking improvements?

I think I want to say here that there was a point you did mention about using Factoria Mall more frequently, or I guess um, you know, in a more um deliberate way as a gathering space.

It already is um a huge gathering space.

I see, I think it was Chinese New Year or something, correct me if I'm wrong.

Yeah, it was great because you see so much of the community show up there.

Um, so is that something that Factoria Mall, like the owners or whoever they are, is that something you're also doing?

Are you talking with people, you know, who were the owners of the mall and are they open to this?

Is that part of the scope of what you're doing?

So we we had two conversations with Kim Co, who's the the folks who who own the mall.

Um, and they are certainly open to hosting more events.

I think it might require a little shepherding from the city or other community partners to move some of those things forward.

We certainly acknowledge they do have some events.

I think what we've heard the community from the community is there's an opportunity for a lot more.

Yeah, and considering that this is essentially their only public gathering space.

There's the school, but like having events, community events at the school is like pretty limited.

Um, and so if we can, you know, connect the folks at the mall to local artists, cultural groups, or find ways to better leverage it just for other events in general.

I think there's a lot of opportunities in space that can accommodate the types of things we'd like to see.

Um, another one is when we heard from our youth community, they didn't really feel like there was much there specifically for them.

Um, and that's you know, one of the things kids like, well, they want to walk down from the mall after school, and the main attraction is fast food, not because that's their favorite thing to do, in some cases it is.

But that's what there is.

But that's all there is to do.

Um, so if we can not only, you know, we've had some great cultural events, there could be more, but just finding events for people of all ages too.

I think that would really, you know, serve a larger swath of the community.

And again, in terms of like what makes a factoria an attractive place to live, and we see, you're gonna see a lot of growth there in the future.

I think that's something that we should try to accommodate for.

Mm-hmm.

So you have specific small businesses within the mall as well that you're speaking with, or just Kim Co.

at large.

Uh so I did uh a business, what we call business walks.

So I visited every business in Factoria door to door-to-door.

Um, and so I got some relatively you know targeted feedback from them.

A lot of it, I think, you know, as you can imagine, it was more focused on some of the challenges of running a local business or challenges of being um, you know, holding space in the mall or not having enough foot traffic or something like that.

Um we didn't we're not to the point where like we're talking about okay.

So what how can we partner with you to implement some of these things?

I think that's kind of where we hand it off to our other departments for the implementation, but in terms of understanding like what are their needs, what are the challenges, what are the opportunities that they see, um, those are some things that have directly uh informed some some of the policies and as well as some of the plan narrative where we talk about you know the makeup of the neighborhood and the challenges that folks experience.

Good.

I think it's a good starting point.

Oh, there we go.

Um, I think we had art events occur in Factoria Mall.

There was both uh exhibition as I remember, and there was also school district, also and there was also a DigiPen, something combined with DigiPen with students again, and I think we've been involved with that through some of our project grants.

So, you know, I've definitely remember at least two grants that that centered activity, and you know, we're we're happy to continue that because there's a dearth again.

I go back to the dearth of publicly available space for events for arts events of all kinds.

Um I'm also curious, though, because when I think about you talked about having public plazas also associated with it.

In fact, Tori has, you know, mall has a great amount of interior space, which is what makes it so desirable in our climate.

But when I think about exterior, it's all parking lot.

It is and it would be really wonderful to encourage more than just parking lot there.

I I mean, I would agree.

We certainly, you know, we we have a policy on flexible outdoor gathering spaces, temporary spaces, so farmers markets, events, you know, concerts, whatever that might be.

Um, and I think again, just kind of from what I've heard from community and some of our earlier conversations with some of the business owners in that area.

Um, if there was a partnership or a program where the city could work directly with the mall owners as kind of an intermediary, I think maybe like some of our local artists and performers haven't had success or maybe feel a little intimidated going like directly to the mall and try to organize things.

So if there was a program that could kind of facilitate those, with the residency or something.

Right, yeah, exactly.

I think that would probably be, you know, what one of the the big things that could kind of bridge that gap for people and help us, you know, realize uh factory mall as an asset for arts and culture.

Right.

I would also just make the comment something that to me is made a huge difference.

There is the TNT grocery coming in.

It's incredible.

And you know, that was, I mean, Walmart couldn't survive in that space, which yay, you know, Bellview or that one.

But I mean, I really feel like that's a regional draw to that neighborhood.

And I think we need to figure out how to build on that because that is hugely activated that whole end of factorium all in a way that really reflects our community.

And that's saying something because Walmart couldn't say something.

Sandra.

Thank you.

Yes.

So we're looking at the map, uh, I would like this for all of us to not forget that they iSchool has a great potential for a cultural space because of the theater that they have there.

And I know that we are talking about it and it's an ongoing activity that the city is working on, but it would be worth to have it like in in the plan to mention that they have uh a cultural space at the other that that'd be used also for the community in the future.

Yeah, we and we certainly recognize that as one of the biggest assets within the community.

Um, and we'd we highlight partnerships with community organizations, private property owners, um, and you know, to the extent that that's feasible with the school.

Um, we didn't have direct conversations um regarding the use of Newport High School, um, but that's something that I think could be explored in the future for some programming.

But my point is to mention that in the policy, as you mentioned the Bellevue College, that as Lydia mentioned already, uh they are like open India space for the public to be used, and I was uh and I um and I went to uh an Indian festival that was great, and it was held there in the Baldwin College.

But going to this point, my point is to mention it like um explicitly there.

I don't know, something to be considered please.

Thank you.

More comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And so I'll just go over our next steps here.

Um, so staff will consider and incorporate the input that we've heard from you all today as part of our final uh draft policies, and then these policies for both neighborhoods plans uh will be reviewed by planning commission as I mentioned starting in June.

Um, and again, I really appreciate your time and your insights.

Thanks for looking over all the materials.

I know it's probably a bit of a dense packet.

Um, but this is you know, uh it's a good check for us to make sure that we're on target and some final refinements.

Um, and we appreciate your perspective.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Excellent presentation.

Like the maps a lot.

I like the surveys.

Yeah.

So moving on, we have partner presentations.

Is that correct?

We can do that because it's nice and happy.

So she does it's up to you, and tell you cook.

Yeah.

Okay.

Tell me, do you think it's beautiful?

Once upon a time, someone they're listed there, probably not to have them.

Um, thank you.

So Bellevue Farms Market.

Um, I'm Barbara Hughes, I'm Board President and Phyllis Weiss as our board treasurer.

Um that was a small um, you know, clip, not very great quality of a few of our musicians.

Um, but it gives you an idea.

We have some great musicians come to the market, and we really enjoy it.

Um, so good afternoon.

Thank you for the opportunity to share how Bellevue Farms Market um benefited from the arts grant, which we received from you last year and also this year.

Uh many people know the Farms Market is a place to purchase fresh local food.

We sell Washington State food and Washington State produce and craft artisans from Washington State.

But we see the market as something much more.

It's a weekly public gathering space where food, culture, music and community all come together.

An Eastside Arts Programme grant helped us strengthen that vision by turning the market into a more vibrant and accessible cultural space.

It allowed us to bring live arts programming directly into a setting where people already gather, shop, volunteer, and spend time with their neighbours.

That's an important impact of this grant.

It did not support a one-time performance isolated from daily life.

It helped integrate the arts into an ongoing community tradition that reaches Bellevue residents, workers, families, senior youth and visitors throughout the season.

We're in our 23rd season this year, 23rd year in Bellevue.

Bellevue Farmers Market serves as a free and accessible public space open to everyone.

Our mission is to support local farms and small businesses while creating an experience that nourishes, educates and connects people.

Each market day brings together families, seniors, workers, and residents from across Bellevue in an intergenerational and multicultural environment.

Arts and music play an important role in this experience.

They help transform a shopping trip into a place where people slow down, stay longer, interact with one another, and experience Bellevue as a lively and welcoming community.

The Eastside Arts programme grants supported that live music and arts related programming throughout the market season.

This includes diverse local performers, musicians, and family centred creative programming.

I think that was the Theatre 33 we had up there at the end.

Through this investment, Bellevue Farmers Market was able to provide paid creative opportunities for both emerging and established performers while offering public exposure and direct community engagement.

Music is intentionally located within the heart of the market, so it becomes part of the shared public experience, creating atmosphere, encouraging interaction and giving artists a meaningful stage.

The grant also helped reduce the financial pressure on the market as a small nonprofit.

Without this support, arts programming competes with our core operational needs, such as permitting insurance, sanitation, marketing, vendor support and site logistics.

The grant made it possible to keep arts programming free to the public while still compensating creative participants and maintaining a welcoming, well-run market environment.

The impact of this support was significant and it reached several parts of the community at once.

During the 25 season, Bellevue Farmers Market supported approximately 115 individual creative participants and performers through paid and public arts opportunities.

That means the grant directly helped create opportunities for local artists, student performers, youth musicians, and community grace based creative groups to be seen, heard and valued in our public setting.

Thanks to the city's East Side Arts Programme grant, we were able to continue this format for most of this 26 season.

In 25, the market welcomed approximately 30,000 individual in-person visitors with additional community engagement occurring online and through social media.

Because the market's free and open to the public, this programming reached people who may not otherwise attend a ticketed performance, concert hall, gallery, or formal arts venue.

The grant also strengthened the market's economic impact.

Live music and arts programming help make the market feel more like a destination, not just a transaction.

When visitors stay longer, return more often and bring their friends or family.

That additional activity supports farmers, food producers, prepared food vendors, artisans, and the nearby businesses.

For Bellevue Farmers Market, the grant created a multiplier effect.

A one-time investment supported artists, improved that visitor experience, helped sustain those small local businesses, and strengthened a free community gathering space.

The intergenerational benefit is very important.

Children's parents, seniors, downtown workers, and long-time Bellevue residents experience the art together in an approachable setting.

The market becomes a place where creativity is visible, shared, and woven into everyday community life.

One of the most meaningful outcomes was how arts programming shaped the atmosphere and identity of the music.

The variety of music and creative programming increased engagement both on site and online and gave visitors more reasons to make the market part of their weekly summer routine.

We received very positive feedback about the diversity of performers and music styles represented throughout the season.

This matters because public arts programming can help people feel that the market reflects the broader Bellevue community, not just one audience, one age group or one cultural experience.

The arts help create a stronger sense of place.

They encourage people to gather, linger, socialise, take photos and share the experience online, and experience Bellevue not simply as a place to shop, but as a place to connect and belong.

In this way, the market functions as both an economic and cultural gathering space for the community.

The grant help make that possible by supporting the visible human-centered elements that turn an outdoor market into a memorable public experience.

On behalf of Bellevue Farmers Market, thank you to the Bellevue Arts Commission and the City of Bellevue for investing in local culture and community.

The grant helped us support artists, strengthen public gathering spaces and make arts more accessible within everyday community life.

It also helped us deliver a stronger public benefit by connecting arts access with our small businesses, local food and community placemaking in one free weekly setting.

As we look towards the future season and new opportunities, including continued community and cultural programming, we hope to build on this partnership and create continue creating arts experiences that enrich Bellevue for everyone.

I would also like to add on here and scripted that without this grant, we wouldn't be able to have live music at the market.

It's very costly for a very small non-profit, which we are putting on a weekly event.

And we certainly were at the stage before we received the grant where we had to cancel music performances because we couldn't pay people any longer.

And we do get a small number of musicians, such as student groups, will come to us and do it in exchange for volunteer hours, which we sign off, but most of our performers are paid.

So it literally wouldn't be possible to do this.

And without music, our vendors don't feel that they're able to sell, and the small businesses, it's very hard for them to earn a living because the market feels rather dead without live music in there.

So it's super important to us.

Okay, so we're happy to answer questions.

Phyllis has prepared a large uh cheat sheet of answers so far away.

And we've been practicing.

We may not do very well, we've been practicing.

It just feels very heartening to see that the grant is being put to good use, and the fact that all the businesses that are there at the market feel the value of the music that's there.

I think music is a great addition, even at Crossroads when we go there for a farmers market.

They have not always live music, but yeah, music does add value.

So Crossroads Farmers Market has the supported, they are part of the mall.

Actually, with fairly one full-time staff member that there are two, but it's not really even almost a full-time job because it's very costly to run a farmers' markets, because we don't uh, like all farmers markets, we don't wish to charge farmers a huge fee to be there or the small businesses because they're trying to get the businesses up and running and they can't afford to pay.

So, very reliant on grants and sponsorship.

Um, crossroads is very fortunate to be backed by the mall.

It's a great market.

Yeah.

I'm curious with your artists that our grant has brought through.

Were you able to keep a roster of who those artists were?

Yeah, we do have that.

Yeah, you can send it to you if you'd like.

Yeah.

Yeah send it through um I'm just curious have those artists been told about the east side artists roster so that we can give them information about other opportunities yeah that's a good idea we should make sure that um we pass that on to all of them yeah we can send you the list we do look at who else you're giving grants to because obviously we're constantly looking to see if many of the artists approach us but also like constantly looking right artist vendors crafts people right yeah but yeah that's a good idea the city maintains what we call this uh east side artist raster or ear for short um and there are we ask people to select are you a visual artist or musician is one and I think we can do a good cross pollinating make sure they're on the roster it's all east side so east side King County um so it wouldn't be any Seattle um or Westside um but I think uh if you're looking for more people and we're looking at yeah yeah definitely we'll we'll uh do that yeah thank you I love farmers markets they're uh they're the you know a central community spot for any any city that that hosts them if you had a vision of of what utopia looks like what what a the perfect farmers market would be for your organization what would it look like oh well I've said this many times we'd like to be in downtown park oh to me down a farmer's market we've already been told no many times but a farmer's market in downtown park would be wonderful even just the roundness of the space but we could have so many you know live performances in there and expand and so on um yeah like live music is actually really really critical to the farmer's market and I've personally had to cancel our music before and stand there and you know with everyone directing complaining vendors in public to me to explain because many people um many people in Valve you come and support the farmers market.

They will come and buy from the vendors but it costs us as a nonprofit a tremendous amount of money to put the market on.

We have insurance we have permits we have tents to buy even fire extinguishers are you know so on so to me a um a bigger space would allow us to have more shoppers spending more and therefore more of a community event so more opportunities for music.

So you know that would be kind of more would be the answer similar to what Brendan was saying about the South Bellevue community center you didn't know it's there really until you happen upon it and yeah the same over the Belprez parking yeah where it's a more centralized location say that um you have to have a good balance because um you need shoppers and you need them to sort of look around and be interested in the vendors um and you need more if you have more vendors because you know people tend to have a limit on what they can spend and um so if we had a bigger place we can expand with more vendors and if we could be seeing um in downtown uh that would increase our uh population or a consumer base and that would benefit the vendors and in that way we could become more self-sustaining rather deep than depending on sponsorships um you know, our goal is to become self-sustaining, more self-sustaining.

Because everything we do comes at each market season with nothing, right?

We have to go out and sell ourselves, and we never know whether someone will give us or grant us zip funds or whether they'll just say no for that year.

So we had several this year that, you know, they're cutting back.

Can I ask?

What are your major costs?

Stuff.

Even though we pay our staff very um modestly, but uh our major costs like many organizations is staff.

Yeah, we also have to pay for a bookkeeper, of course, as CPA, you know, it's just uh in insurance is huge.

Washington state to be a farmer's market, we have to be a member of Washington State Farmers Market Association, um, so we have to pay them um five permits, can county health permits.

I I can talk to you for hours about what our costs are that absolutely mind-blowingly huge, and what the public sees is we set up the table, the music's playing, and it's great.

The sun is shining.

What's Phyllis and I see is 24's dining table or my kitchen counter and uh a lot of bills, so yeah, that's our biggest cost of stuff.

Yeah.

The SNAP program, the market match, that takes an incredible amount of.

You know, I think there's an opportunity another connection we might be able to make.

I'm thinking about our new, we're just in the art planning for the essentially the Highline equivalent.

I forget, yeah, help me with the name.

The Grand Connection, the Grand Connection, and that's going to provide a lot more space and a lot of covered space and a lot of places.

And I know the Grand Connection is looking for programming for all of that.

Um, so it's not immediate, but it definitely I think would be worth talking to that project and the artist, because like I said, I know there's all sorts of hopes for programming, and that cuts right through the middle of everything and connects with Eastgate.

You know, it connects a lot of things.

So it might not be downtown park, but it might provide you with a new opportunity that was very exciting.

Thank you.

We um are in discussion.

Um, we we have been awarded a grant commun community programming fund grant um to pilot a one day market on 106th Avenue Northeast and Northeast Sixth Street, which is about eight weeks out, and causing us a lot of work.

Um, but yeah, um we're not totally certain at this second whether that will go ahead, but we're treating it as if it will.

Um, so 106th Avenue Northeast, right um, where Northeast Sixth, um, it's kind of the arts fair side, for those of you who know that.

Um, but it means closing closing the street down.

So it's a tiny nonprofit already stretched running our current market.

This is a big big project for us.

Um, so that will be on August the 8th, assuming it goes ahead, and that's a pilot for us.

Um, there are many costs involved in shutting down the city street, and that would uh I'm so glad we have council member here tonight because that would be quite a discussion as to um, you know, the the permanence of um farmers' market for Bellevue because that's not something those those permit costs that we could afford out of the money that we take.

Um, or uh, you know, maybe another large sponsor might come along.

I don't know.

We're always hopeful, but thank you.

So I want to give you some of the gravity of you know what this does for us because we didn't have a much increase in traffic um in terms of what we expected.

Um but you know, our numbers are off because we we use clickers, but um it's not an accurate now.

Um, however, just having the entertainment and people staying longer enjoying allowed for about $15,000 more for um in consumer um in our revenue um from sales.

That's an incredible amount because we don't charge the vendors very much, you know.

You know, it's less than 10%.

Um, so I mean it could be seven percent each vendor.

Um so you know, for small businesses, it's a low cost risk, and um we do all the work for free.

You know, we're volunteers, so five minutes, okay.

Any other questions, Sandra?

I did see you had your hand up at one point.

I just wanted to tell you both that I love this Bellevue Park and Market.

I can walk there from home and I always come back with a bag full of fruits and vegetables, so I love it.

Thank you very much for having this.

Thank you.

What's the reason uh that the city's saying no for the downtown park?

Sorry, I missed that.

What was the reason for for why the city's saying no uh about using the downtown park?

Um well, I think it's just uh no.

The uh what I get told is many of the groups would also like that.

So I don't know.

I don't know.

Don't know.

Um we did discuss with um um the city um you know saying we wanted to we would want to pilot trial a downtown site and we were given three options, that not including the downtown park, but um 106 was the largest site because for us we would like to grow.

Mercer Island has a farmers market twice the size of Bellevue.

Issaqua has a farmer's market twice the size of Bellevue, and we would like to be twice the size in the towntown because we believe I mean we're obviously Bellevue residents and we just believe it's critically important that Bellevue has its farmers' markets and we believe Belleville can support that.

And we are a true farmers market, you know.

We have 50% of sales just from produce, fresh produce.

Most of that them are um don't have pesticides on it.

So even if they're not certified organic, they are very helpful types of growth growing.

We're um it's really good for you know those that cannot normally receive it because of the SNAP program and the women and infants child and children program and the seniors as well.

I have a question.

Laura, do you think that's uh if it's downtown?

Is that a special events committee?

Right?

So it'd probably be park scheduling office.

Um it would depend on whether or not the attendees were over 500 people per incidence.

Then it would go to special events, but either way it'd be the park special office would be where they'd start.

Yeah, we're working we're going through the special events committee right now, which is taking a while, for a hundred and six.

It's not yet progressed, but we're going through that process right now.

Um, and we don't uh we've based our anticipated attendance on what we see regularly where we are now, because we have no other way to think of it yet, and it's under five thousand, so yeah.

Once you hit five thousand, you need a medical unit on standby and it becomes a whole more even more expensive thing.

It's five hundred.

So yeah, once you go over five thousand, I think is further.

You need a medical unit on stun, but there's a further tier and hugely increased fees.

We don't deal with the over five thousand as frequently.

Yeah, that would be a great day over for the happy farmers if we got five thousand, but yeah.

Okay.

So as long as I think as long as the process being shared to which department go to, because I think council will be the last step.

It's more policy, yeah.

We're talking with Anthony Gill at the moment and Emily um Sherman.

Emily Sherman, yeah, that's who's uh helping us through the process.

Well, let us know how we can what you know what it might be.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you so much.

We do have to move to the next panel.

Thank you so much.

We really appreciate it.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, Carol, you're up.

Um I'm gonna have to unfortunately pay you through my computer, but hopefully you can screen share if you want to try that out.

I'm gonna try because if I screen share, then you can actually hear the snippet that I want you to hear.

Let's see, screen.

I don't know.

I haven't been able to on this device, but um I don't know.

Let's see, let's keep our fingers crossed.

Uh no, it's not working.

So I'm gonna have you um says I'm screen sharing.

Um, but uh can you see white sec.

That looks good.

You see it?

Yeah, all right.

So here's just a um little less than a minute uh of a snippet of an a cappella joint chorus song, and I think you might be surprised at what you hear.

Begins to face in the time to figure out how to chase my loss all the way.

Oh, oh, dance is somebody.

So what do you think?

Not your typical barber shop, right?

Um capella joy and uh for short, we're known as Ajoy, is an award-winning chorus that sings without instrumental accompaniment in the barbershop style.

We're a chapter of Sweet Adeline's International, who actually just changed their um branding to now be called Sing United International, and it's the world's largest music education organization for females and people of marginalized genders who can sing in the triple range.

So Ajoy, I just have to tell you a little story about that.

We we came up with Ajoy when does anybody remember Arod?

Alex Rodriguez uh in the Mariners.

They were calling him Arod, and we went, Oh, hey Joy, okay, and it stuck.

We we're dedicated to musical excellence, committed to inclusiveness and diversity, and are determined to bring a fresh fun approach to a traditional American art form.

Ajoy has more than 60 members.

Uh we refer to ourselves as young singers of all ages.

Uh it's amazing how singing keeps one young.

And we pride ourselves on our diversity and not just in ages, we have members who are 13 to over 80, but also ethnicities, gender identities, neurodivergencies, and we even have people who come from different various geographic locations to sing with us.

Um one comes from California, one's from um Alaska, locally, some come from Everett, Olympia, Squim, Seattle.

Oh, and of course, Bellevue.

The past 10 years have found us competing on the international stage in 2024.

We came in first, mid-place, mid-size chorus, but even more significant for us was winning the audience choice award for most entertaining.

Having won our regional division contest, we're headed this year's international in October in Columbus, Ohio.

Many quartets also arise from our ranks at this year's regional contest, Meadow Lork, which is the top one over there on the left-hand side of the screen, came in first and highlight, which are dressed like animals.

And they came in fourth.

These and smaller groups from our chorus, since it's very difficult to find a venue where 65 of us can go out and sing at one time.

Smaller groups perform locally at a lot of different venues.

So in Bellevue and beyond, so this past year, we've sung at Crossroads Mall, Bell Harbor Assisted Living, East Shore Unitarian, Bellevue Botanical Gardens, and not just necessarily one performance, but several performances.

And I added in downtown Bothel to that as well.

But we have a great time, and audiences just feel energized after listening to us.

One of our quartets, Highlight, which is over on the left-hand side there, they specialize in performances for youngsters.

As you can see, they were acknowledged as the most entertaining in the category of live music and entertainment in Snohomish County last year.

So they are have this unique niche where they will go out and perform to audiences of children.

Also, they are involved with our region, which from our the information that we send you ahead of time will show that our region comprises of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.

And they're heading up, two of the highlight members are heading up a youth program and going to be doing jamborees and festivals and teaching all of the choruses in all of the regions how to do that locally for themselves.

As I mentioned, we pride ourselves on our diversity and we're all about inclusion and creating a culture of belonging.

So two years ago we began sponsoring a rainbow room at regional competition with karaoke and a drag queen, Clam Chowder.

The response from our LGBTQ musical community was just overwhelming.

They finally felt seen and accepted into the region.

And with the Eddy Year Grant, we were able to continue this fun program this year.

So thank you for that.

Yeah, glam chowder is great.

We I'd also like to give you a brief history of the chorus, if I could.

We uh chartered as the Lakeside Chorus in 1958, a chapter in Sweet Adelines International that itself that itself started in 1945.

This began as a result of seeing men develop their own society of barbershop singers, and the women went, we want to do that too.

Lakeside had a successful run, coming in top 10 at international on a regular basis.

Things changed, however, in 1996 when the chorus' long-term director retired.

And with that retirement came a loss of vision for the chorus.

I actually was a member back then.

So yes, see, we keep young in this course.

From a chorus of 130 members at the time.

Membership dwindled very quickly.

There were, however, a group of us that believed we could find a new vision, a new direction and a new director.

So we took the time to figure out what we wanted to keep, what we wanted to let go of, and what we wanted to add to make this the chorus of our dreams.

This led us into some transition years.

1997 to 2003, we went through a series of directors, and with 19 on stage in 2001, we were beginning to get our chops back, and one in the small chorus category at regional convention.

But with that win, the director wanted to focus the chorus on his own vision and away from ours.

Without even having another possible director in the wings, we let him go and sought one who could help us build the future we wanted.

In 2003, down to seven members, and thinking we're not going to be able to achieve what we wanted, we decided, okay, one more week.

We'll give it one more week.

One of the members said, Oh, you know, I work with someone just finishing her master's degree in vocal performance from UW, and I'm gonna ask her to just come next week so she could move her hands in front of us, and she has musical knowledge.

Maybe you know, this will just keep us going a little bit.

That person was Nikki Blackmer.

He says, remember the space, right?

While she had no barbershop experience, we just knew and she knew this was the right connection to make this dream happen.

So the growth years, 2003.

We hired Nikki as our director in 2003, and have been growing ever since, learning, having lots of fun.

We soon changed our name uh to Acapella Joy to reflect our new vision.

And slowly, slowly it took time.

We grew in musical ability, slowly our numbers grew, and slowly we started being recognized for the vision that we had created.

Nikki Blackmer has been our director since then.

We've changed each other's lives in countless and positive ways.

Well, a trained operatic singer, she has become a barbershop expert.

She was the lead in a quartet frenzy who won international first place in 2017, and they call international quartet winners, Queens of Harmony, and um goes around with a crown.

I didn't put a picture of her in a crown, I should have done that.

But this opened many doors for her, and she's a sought-out coach for quartets and choruses all around the globe, and she never stops learning.

Um, with your grant assistance, we were able to support her going through an online certification program at NYU in vocology, which is um the understanding of how the voice works and how to make it more natural and understand the physiology of voice to help singers sing better.

And she went through that this past year.

So we are so grateful for the Bellevue Arts Commission support, which we only got for the first time last year and this year, and are able to expand our vision of a cappella joy to more people.

I'd love for you to save the date of Monday, October 12th, 7 30 p.m.

We rehearse at Temple Benay Torah in Bellevue, and we are having our friends and family night that night.

It's our dress rehearsal prior to competing internationally that month.

And we'd love to see you there and bring lots of friends too.

And if you're a singer, come any Monday night and just come and visit us.

Um, I hope this gives you a little bit of an overview of who Acapella Joy is, and we would love to count on your continued support in the future.

And I'd love to take any questions that you might have.

Has anybody ever heard of us?

Thank you for your presentation.

I appreciate it.

I have a question about where your um typical uh rehearsal space is.

Yeah, so we rehearse at Temple Bonai Torah.

Is that where you are?

Okay.

That's where we are.

We've been rehearsing there ever since uh the at the end of COVID because we during COVID, we lost our old rehearsal space, which was in Kirkland at the time.

And it takes a lot of time to find a place that can house our risers and um and host this many people.

So I was listening before to the idea that Bellevue College might have a theater being put up.

And I was very excited about it exists.

Maybe that would be some place too.

And I was just going to say that it uh, you know, your comment about having a group of 60 people and not having places to perform really resonates with what we hear again and again, and we are um encouraging any opportunity we come across to create more of those spaces in our community.

Wonderful.

Thank you for providing it.

Such fabulous entertainment for us.

And really, I would invite you to come anytime any Monday.

We have a blast, and we learn and we um yeah.

Every Monday is like an uh voice lesson with 60 other friends.

Now I'm gonna try to figure out how to get out of this, sharing my screen because I'm not the most technically uh efficient here.

Um I got it.

Got it.

Okay.

Okay, great.

Well, thank you for inviting us and um my one of my the person who's the the um uh management team leader had uh last-minute trip to make, so she couldn't be here tonight.

But umette, you know her more than you know me, um Arlene, and Arlene is actually Nikki's mother.

We have a lot of mother-daughter, mother, granddaughter um combinations in the chorus, and that's a lot of fun.

We want to get more kids understanding how Barbershop is um one uplifting to sing, um, enormously fulfilling, and it as I said in my intro in the materials, it's a it's a um uh an art form based in the black community, and there are fewer black people singing Barbershop than should.

So we would love to find ways of collaborating.

I actually have uh gone through the uh Seattle Area choir consortium, I think it is a choral consortium to find other core choirs that we might collaborate with and teach a little bit about Barbershop too.

So if you know of anything like that that we could connect with, love to hear about it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Don't hear any.

So it looks like we are moving on to bylaw adoption.

That is right.

Um I don't have any presentation prepared.

Uh the bylaws have not changed since the last ten minutes.

That was my question.

Um so let's see, uh there were a few changes made just as a reminder.

Um there was a section concerning membership, uh, one about decorum, another, actually two about decorum, and then some other formatting corrections.

Um in your packet, you had the red line versions and the final versions.

Um I am seeking tonight um a motion to adopt the final uh version, um, and then we're gonna sign them.

And just a reminder for the commission.

This is uh a return item.

You had an earlier presentation.

These um edits to the bylaws are also consistent with all boards and commissions.

So these are being at these are coming to us at the advisement of council.

Um they are uh like I say, standard across all boards and commissions.

There are times where we do look at the items in the bylaws that are more directly controlled by the board here too, things like even times.

These are a little bit more driven by our council.

Do I hear a motion to approve the bylaws?

I have a quick question for you.

How many other commissions have adopted these bylaws to date?

Uh I'm not entirely sure, but I know we are a little later than some.

So some have already.

Oh yeah, definitely.

No commission has declined to pass them.

All commissions will pass them at some point.

Yeah, but no one is kind of I don't.

Not that I'm aware of now.

So I make a we all have different attorneys, so interesting.

Okay.

I make a motion to pass the bylaws.

So it's been moved.

Do I hear a second?

I'll second it.

Moved and seconded, all those in favor signify by saying I.

Raise your hand.

Aye.

Aye.

Um for the minutes.

Uh I because the audio is so weird in the room.

Uh Joy Deep and Sandra both said aye.

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

Um, so now you can you sign them and Lori signs them.

Um our next item uh is elections.

I'll give you all a second.

Um, and then Lydia, you will be doing this, right?

You have a script.

Okay.

Oh, I keep that.

All right.

And we see.

Oh, it's hiding.

All right.

So the arts commission's bylaws state that there shall be a chair and vice chair elected at the first regular meeting in June.

The bylaws, however, do not specify a procedure for this election.

So utilizing Robert's rules, newly revised has been the arts commission's custom.

This process identifies that nominations do not require a second.

The current chair will close the floor to nominations when no other nominations are forthcoming.

Nominees will be voted on in order in which they were presented.

As soon as one of the nominee receives a majority vote, three votes, the current chair will declare that person elected.

No votes will be taken on the remaining nominees for the office of chair.

And commissioners must cast their vote either A or no for each nominee.

Failure to cast a vote means your vote will be counted in the affirmative.

Nominations for chair are now in order.

I'd be happy to nominate Bahabna as our next chair.

And I will nominate myself for another term.

Are there more nominations?

No.

All right.

So in order that we were nominated, Hutna.

Shall we vote?

Okay, yeah, sure.

I can vote for myself.

You can vote for yourself.

Okay.

I will do that.

I vote for Bobna.

I vote for Babna.

All right.

This is joining.

I vote for Babna.

Thank you.

Then you are the new chair.

Congratulations.

And do we and we also vote for vice chair?

Do we have a nomination for vice chair?

I would like to nominate Sandra.

Do we have any other nominations?

Yeah.

Shall we vote?

I will vote for Sandra for vice chair.

I will also vote for Sandra.

I vote for Sandra.

Three.

This was joined by Wolfra Sandra.

Sandra, you vote for yourself.

Yes, I do.

All right.

We have our new chair and vice chair.

Commission quick business next meeting date.

Yes.

That would put us at July 1st.

Usually because of July 4th weekend.

It's a little tricky.

This is not the worst, um, but if we feel like there's a conflict and July 8th would be better, let me know.

I can first works.

Yeah, online.

Any conflicts?

No, the first work.

Yeah, first rule for me to join the paper.

So I need to say, Joy Deep, did you say anything?

Sorry.

I said uh we'll get with 1st of July.

Okay, thank you.

All right, it sounds like the first is gonna be our next meeting.

Okay, do we have project updates?

We do, and I'm keeping an eye on that time.

Um so kind of direct you to your packet in your project updates, a memo, you will see a list of upcoming events that are sponsored by our arts grants.

And it's been keeping that list uh updated every month.

Please do check it out.

If you are looking at online, you can click the links as well to see um uh information directly from the websites.

Um in our planning projects, the Bell Red Arts District, we had an update.

The planning commission heard um update from the land use code amendment process this last week on May 22nd.

We are we heard that priorities for the land use code, which if you remember back, um we start with the policy.

So we just heard tonight about neighborhood policies for Eastgate and Factoria.

We did that neighborhood policy work for Bell Red a couple years ago.

What follows after the policy work is the code work.

And the code work is a lot of the tools we have to actually make that policy happen.

Uh so policy work or I'm sorry, code work around Bell Red is happening now, including the Bellred Arts District.

And you can see in the packet there and on your screen some of those priority areas.

Um staff will work with our land use code amendment team to maybe come get a presentation on that code here at Arts Commission as well and informative and presentation as they move forward with that work.

Um since we last met, the economic development plan was adopted by city council on April 28th, which is very excited.

Um within the economic development plan, we do have policies regarding creative economy, including some policy around the art district as well.

So there is some overlap with our work and the economic development plan.

Our cultural facility grant program is currently open.

We are accepting applications through June 15th.

If you have grandpans to make that space that we know is desperately needed here in Bellevue, get those applications in.

There was a weird formatting error.

This is looking really bad.

All right, just a second for the screen share people.

Oh yeah.

I don't know.

I think something funky happened in the PDF.

All right.

Um, under public art, we do want to highlight a couple things going on here.

Uh maintenance is ongoing for our public art collection, including we just recently completed the full by hand cleaning of Piloty that happens um once a year.

It's a really nice uh really nice.

If you go out there right now, you're gonna see Pilode at its best, ready for summer.

We are shiny and bright.

Um, unfortunately, 425 magazine took their photo of Pilode the week before our cleaning.

But if you do get a copy of 425 magazine, you can see this wonderful shot and then a future um a couple of further pieces on Pelode.

Somewhere here.

You're gonna have to just borrow my copy afterwards.

Um so our artwork is getting some good press there.

Um, on June 18th, we are going to have a ribbon cutting for our emerging artist artwork, River by Anna Melaski.

You will all receive like an email invitation with all the pertinence, but it will be June 18th at 3 30 at Crossroads Park.

We're gonna have the ribbons and some nibbles, an artist's speech, um, our counsel liaison will be giving us some remarks as well.

Um, and then we're gonna do a uh walking artist tour as well to all three pieces.

Uh going up right now in the Bell Red Arts District, you can see a hand raise.

Oh, and go.

Yes, um, have you have we already received the invitation or are we going to receive it for this?

The invitation has not come to you yet.

I'm hoping to get that up to you.

Oh, okay.

So, I understood.

I haven't seen that.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

Um, on the screen in front of you right now are images of our large is ever mural going up in the Ball Red Arts District.

Uh, this piece is by two incredible artists who are working together.

Um, and the piece it really focuses on what they call the ongoing negotiation between nature and how do they phrase that?

It was a really lovely phrase.

Um uh the work yes, coexistence.

The work, yes, there's coexistence, not in its idealized harmony, but as an ongoing negotiation, yeah.

Um, so the themes of like human interaction and nature.

The piece is over 10,000 square feet.

It will take over a ton, a literal ton, 2,000 pounds of paint, um, and has been going up over the last several weeks.

We have a lot of great video of the piece at different stages of completion.

We're looking for it to complete in the next couple weeks, um, and you'll hear more about it from then.

But do if you get a moment, take the light rail, experience it from the train.

We've talked before about this piece when we put it out about it being uh a little bit temporal and a little bit of a storytell, and as you go around that big curve on the train, you can never see the whole piece at once.

So you experience it as a story as you curve curve around.

Sometimes your train conductor will slow down because I think they're looking to.

Sandra.

Yes, I wanna this is the mural that you uh how do you that you uploaded to the Instagram that you were presenting on Instagram?

That you were saying they they were painting and all that is this mural, isn't it?

Yes, I I love it that you did it because I was following that, and I was like, oh, this looks great.

So I I really wanted to thank you that you put it on Instagram.

Um additionally, this summer we will see our uh creative crosswalks get installed.

So artwork is delivered from our two artists, um, Kenji Stoll and Nikita Aries.

Uh these works you see here on the screen in front of you.

Um we're a little bit like our parts kind of done-ish, getting close to being done, and so we're we're handing off to our partners in transportation.

The transportation team will now move forward for the install portion.

They work with uh commercial installers to lay down this thermoplast um in the four intersections.

Santa.

No, nothing.

Sorry, I needed lower.

Um, do you want to talk about box wraps?

Uh uh so this year we have the first box rap of the year went up.

This was a neighborhood um enhancement project.

Um, so not funded by the arts program, but in collaboration, um, we helped hire an artist to um develop this design for ViewCrest.

Uh Viewcrest had some historical historical documents uh promoting the neighborhood in the 40s um when it was being built, and so the artists used those.

That's why it has kind of a mid-century vibe.

Um, and that went up over a month ago.

Um, and then we'll have 14 more throughout Bellevue targeting um neighborhoods historically with low um levels of public art.

Um, another thing that I'm gonna flag that's not in your packet because it is recent.

The mural by Kenji Stoll, White Ashes number six, nine, white ashes number nine?

Um, that is currently on the Grand Connection on the side of what is the former dance theater.

Um, will be torn down this week.

We've known for many years.

When we even put it up, we knew that it was going to be temporary, that the building was slated for demolition.

We got extra five extra years out of that artwork.

Um, but the backhoes started coming out this week.

Staff is working to with closely with the construction company or deconstruction company um to time the mural's actual collapse so that we can get out there and videotape it for the artist.

Excited for the extra years, really sad to see that one go.

Um, and then uh the emerging artist program in Lake Hills Community Park and Lewis Creek Park.

Our application is closed.

We got 82 artists who applied.

That's a really robust response.

Um, seven member selection panel will select finalists to interview, um, and that conforms with our public art policies in terms of the composition.

Um, and then we will make a recommendation to this commission for your approval um at a future date.

The factoria public art call is currently open, it closes June 7th.

We have fairly robust um applications, even more since when we wrote these public um updates.

Oh, four minutes.

Folks are eligible to apply online or folks who are eligible.

We encourage them to apply online through submittable, and we're very excited to see the applicants we will get for that Factoria Public Art call.

I'm sorry, that was very fast project updates.

On the screen is the mural um featuring Honey Bucket.

Um, but yeah, but they're working on the north side of the building, and then likely tomorrow, half of this will come down.

And we're gonna try to work to preserve a chunk of concrete if we can get it.

Get our hands on one.

If we can just wiggle through that fence.

Do we have any written communications or other information?

Uh, there was one piece of written mail um that's in your packet.

Uh, other than that, um, we are collecting feedback on the appreciation event.

If you'd like to email that to me or just tell me anecdotally after the meeting, um, we are all ears.

Thank you.

And the uh June 2nd, 2026, W Arts Commission meeting is adjourned.