University Community Urban Center
Sounding Board----------------------
Meeting Notes
University Heights Center for the Community
Thursday, April 20th, 2000----------------------
Present were: John Deeter, Jorgen Bader, Jeannie Hale, Cathy Dampierre, Janine Brackett, Matthew Fox, Susan Freccia, Glenn Harris, Hans Aschenbach, Deirdre Grace, Patty Whisler
Updates:
1. Jorgen reported that the City council will soon announce the fate of Ravenne Creek. It may be daylighted in the park, then run underground across NE 45th.
2. The Sound Transit workshop on the 25th may define plans for the south end of University Heights property. A construction shaft has been proposed on the site as the ST Northgate leg goes into design.
3. A Council hearing on the Sound Transit Noise Variance will be held in May at University Lutheran Church.
4. Richard Conlin's committee is looking over the station area planning matrix. The hearing is also coming up in May.
5. The SEPA hearing on the Blakeley project is set for May 9th at University Heights.
Neighborhood Plan Implementation
Deirdre distributed the Northeast Sector Implementation Plan and discussion followed. The matrix is a two year work plan serving as the basic document to reflect city action on the neighborhood plans. A major concern is how to track and monitor it when there's so much to follow, from design guidelines to land use and parking, not to mention transportation and open space. A loose stewardhip structure, such as the Sounding Board, makes it even harder. John suggested that we should start now preparing the next two year phase of implementation.
Jorgen stated that there seems to be a glitch in approval of the North End Merchants design guidelines. It's not clear if DCLU will stand on its agreement with the merchants. It was noted that Brian Ramey's 7th Ave street end project should be included in the matrix. Jeannie suggested that a review of the matrix should be made to the NEDC.
Transportation Issues
Repaving of NE 50th will be delayed until early 2001 to avoid conflicts with Seahawks traffic. Bids on the project will soon be out.
The Ave project is launched with Makers as the urban design consultant. Timing of construction in 2001 will be a problem with other projects underway.
Richard Conlin has recommended funding ($250,000) for a University area transportation study.
Organization
John questioned his being the sole, responsible party for the agenda. Dierdre noted that other stewardhips organizations have specific groups to track issues such as land use. Someone should be checking the GMR regularly given the flood of projects coming our way. Hans mentioned that we shouldn't continue to depend on Phil Thiel as our one person land land use committee and should all share the load. Jeannie said that Laurelhurst is following the University Village Master Plan closely and has retained a lawyer to help. She added that these kinds of issues can be brought to the district council.
The possibility was raised of forming working groups that could keep on top of the information and report to the SB on a quarterly or even an annual basis. Matt said that committees would be fine for tracking and reporting but not for taking positions. He said he would also support setting up a three person steering committee to set agendas and do leg work. Two of the current pressing issues are design guidelines and parking. Deirdre will check on progress with the guidelines but thinks they have been pushed up to the Council's calendar next month.
UDPA Parking Garage
A City 1/4 mile overlay prohibits an increase in rental parking around station areas for the next six years.. University District Parking Associates planned garage addition to the lot at 11th NE and NE 47th was denied on that basis. UDPA believes its application was made before the overlay went into effect. We agreed to ask Mike Chartray to come explain the UDPA plan to us next month.
More on University Village
A 100,000 sq. ft. extension is planned for the NE corner of the Village, in the Storables area and in back of Bartells. A parking garage will take up a major part of the footage. This incremental, phased development can be termed "grandfathered" and is seen by some as not needing the blessing of a master plan. Wrong. Jorgen urged calls and contacts to Judy Nicastro protesting the avoidance of master plan completion.
Next meeting: May 18th.
Notes by P. Whisler.