Newport Hills Community Faire part 2

Sean and Mike Bristow (ukelele player extraordinaire) go over stage logistics

Glen Patrick Doggett on stage

Kenny from the Mustard Seed hands out free water bottles

The grinding of the corn

Audrey and Piper in charge at the face-painting booth

Michelle works the crowd

Checking out the home-baked goodies and other hand-crafted wares for sale

Newport Hills Community Faire: First Ever!!

The stage was set.

The Tumblebus was booked.

The flyers were mailed out.

The day arrived: a perfect late September morning, sunny, warm, clear. After days of rain it seemed like a gift from the weather gods.

The kids began arriving, and flocked to Mike Intlekofer's amazing emporium of farm implements.

Jason and Erin Leach visit Sandi Tampa and Dorothy Bracken at the Newport Hills Community Club membership table.

This year's Community Club president Lisa Vierick displaying some of her
ice skating moves.

Nobody works a crowd like Farmer Mike!

Carol Murphy works the table for Sustainable Bellevue.

To be continued...

Art in the Neighborhood

Some very professional graffiti has suddenly appeared at Stod's, opposite the Red Apple and home to a longtime local batting-cage business. This is the cruddiest blank wall in the neighborhood and with its lovely southern exposure I've long thought it would be the perfect place for a mural or community garden. I don't mind the graffiti, although I know its days are numbered. And local residents will think we're in the midst of a major crime wave. They might even try to blame the skateboarders.

Somehow the fact that someone cared enough to paint something on the old grocery store wall (a wall which is in the center of the neighborhood and we all pass by on a daily basis) proves there's still signs of life about. Stod's wall has been looking ever more uncared-for since the Red Apple closed and to me the graffiti is something of an improvement. Just look at those happy bare feet! Not sure whose tag it is...my neighbor Steve knows all the gangs hereabouts so I'll check with him.

Stod's Update

Last August I wrote about the Stod's Batting Cages redevelopment proposal put forward by Pallis Properties. This was before astroturf took over my life! Aah, those carefree days!


click here to read the August post




People have been asking about whatever happened to the plan to build a Fitness Center there, state-of-the-art, with a coffee shop and room for a large daycare facility...sadly, as we were informed by Dorothy Bracken at the Candidate's Forum meeting last month, the deal has been withdrawn. There was an audible gasp from the audience--it had seemed like a definite go. Neighbors were starting to feel ownership of the community's center again, and just like that it slipped through our fingers.

Kudos to Dorothy, Dan and Alex who shepherded this project on behalf of our community and let's hope we can continue to find projects with as much promise.

Economic Development Meetings in Newport Hills

FOR SALE: BGN Properties Inc. Stod's. Built in 1969. 1.72 acres/75,100 square feet. Appraised value: $1,180,000.00

(From an earlier post)


Last March, A PROJECTED TWO-YEAR planning process got underway at a meeting at Newport Hills' Bank of America. Mayor Grant Degginger was in attendance, along with the City's Neighborhood Planner Cheryl Kuhns and Economic Development Director Bob Derrick as well as Bellevue City Council member Conrad Lee.

In the audience were about 40 or 50 concerned neighbors and merchants. Newport Hills Community Club ran a great presentation, with special credit going to President Cheryl Nygaard and Vice President Julie Rossman for encouraging inclusiveness by asking for written questions from the audience and using a large aerial map of our neighborhood business area to keep our focus in mind.

In his opening remarks, Mayor Degginger cited the new Newport Heights Elementary as a "game-changer," It puts Newport Hills on the radar and gives us a central focus. The City of Bellevue, he said, will now facilitate the neighborhood's community-building efforts by involving the community in future development decisions.

Degginger goes on to say that Newport Hills is now at the "top of the list" of six or seven similar neighborhood business centers in desperate need of an overhaul, and "now is the happy time" for Newport Hills to achieve theirs.


Step 1: The mayor's first suggestion was to come up with a neighborhood working group who could identify a shared vision to present to prospective developers. The city is more than ready to work with us at this time.

One model to watch is Lake Hills' neighborhood business center, pictured below, following the end of a lengthy 10-year planning process and the subject of a previous entry in Red Apple Elegy. The developer there is Cosmos, and the record of ups and downs the neighborhood has gone through with them is lengthy, and instructive.













The Follow-Up
There was never much of a follow-up effort to this meeting until the personable, patient, diligent and articulate Dorothy Bracken stepped up at the 4th of July barbecue at Newport Hills Park. She's shown here giving me the thumbs up.




There she polled neighbors queuing up for burgers about what they'd like to see at the Red Apple: Trader Joe's, PCC, hardware store, etc. as well as programming: swapmeets, community events, farmers market and sustainable gardens. A little like Crossroads, but not so big. There was a lot of mention of Third Places and Third Place Books. Both are subjects of previous blog entries.

Enter Pallis Properties
A few weeks later: Pallis Properties met with the newly-activated Newport Hills Economic Development Task Force composed of Dorothy, Dan Nygaard and Alex Golan. The big surprise is they want to develop Stod's, not the Red Apple.

NH Economic Development Task Force Meetings
The following week I attended two meetings held by the Task Force: one with Tom Boydell and Dan Stroh from City of Bellevue Econ Development and Long Range Planning, respectively. The atmosphere was cordial, albeit with a topdown meets bottom up dynamic.

The second meeting, on August 4, was before a larger group and included Pallis Properties and the two tenants, Thrive (a fitness center) and Kids Country, a daycare facility. PP goes public with a rendering. At this point I'm going to limit my comments to the ideas inspired by the rendering.

The drawing supplied by Pallis Properties shows the original Stod's, but now made unrecognizable behind a sort-of suburban stripmall facade. The parking lot is exactly the same, with some container plantings accentuating the stalls. I want to inject some ideas to consider before we lock in this look.



NW Regional Neighborhood Retail
Fuller/Sears Architects who have designed neighborhood retail in the Pacific NW Regional style all over Washington.


















Pickering Place, where Pallis Propertiespallisproperties.com did Trader Joe's and UW Physicians deals.

Chris Pallis has said he's interested in a coffee shop/kiosk and will look in to PCC.





Mixed Use
How about a PCC below and condos above at the Red Apple? Adding density in a sensible, appropriate way will win the neighborhood transit points. Or at least that's the theory....



Award-winning Design in the Neighborhood
BLRB, the architects of Newport Heights Elementary, itself the subject of a previous Red Apple Elegy blog entry and the object of praise by Mayor Degginger. It's stunning design is environmentally friendly and a building the whole neighborhood has begun to take pride in.


http://www.blrb.com/

(From their website)
Inspired by its heavily forested site, Newport Heights Elementary School draws from the surrounding palette to create a canvas of environmental expression. Landscaped courtyards connect buildings and act as learning gardens, roof forms act as rain collectors, continuous windows in corridors enable connections with the outdoors, and an outdoor amphitheater employs surrounding trees as a backdrop for school performances. Blurred lines between outdoors and indoors enable students to experience the natural beauty and environmental intrigues of the Northwest.
...This layout breaks down the school's scale to ensure a more intimate setting, uphold relationships between facility users and maintain the residential feel of the neighborhood. To retain a sense of community, a large gathering plaza near the entry encourages socializing and outdoor team teaching. The exterior building form, comprised of masonry, glass and metal paneling, creates a traditional setting with a northwest architectural expression.

Old growth conifers were retained to perpetuate wildlife habitat and plant biodiversity. The Northwest native plant palette and drought tolerant species ensure reduced water consumption throughout the site. Rainwater diverted from the butterfly roof structures into the storm system showcases the reuse of rainwater as an exciting water feature.

Suburban Contextual
And of course, there is the beauty of the original Stod's, unique to this neighborhood's history and it is, in its way, honest and familiar:

New Tenant at Stod's

Stods' new tenant

Gone, Baby Gone

Red Apple Elegy mourns the loss of yet another neighborhood institution:


Before


After

Leaving Eff Stop to contemplate the arrival of--wait for it--the ladder of mystery!

Bug Update

Bug Update: Blue Bug is still there.

On April 25 this will be the site of the 1st annual Blue Bug Swap Meet and Earth Day Fair.

A Meeting with the Mayor: Wanna Buy a $6.5million Red Apple?

FOR SALE: BGN Properties Inc. Stod's. Built in 1969. 1.72 acres/75,100 square feet. Appraised value: $1,180,000.00






FOR SALE:
Newport Hills Shopping Center plus two "line stores" and "DQ" drive-in. Rainier NW University LLC. Built in 1963. 5.24 acres/228,400 square feet. Appraised value: $6,543,900.00





A PROJECTED TWO-YEAR planning process got underway last Thursday night at a meeting at Newport Hills' Bank of America. Mayor Grant Degginger was in attendance, along with the City's Neighborhood Planner Cheryl Kuhns and Economic Development Director Bob Derrick as well as Bellevue City Council member Conrad Lee. In the audience were about 40 or 50 concerned neighbors and merchants. Newport Hills Community Club ran a great presentation, with special credit going to President Cheryl Nygaard and Vice President Julie Rossman for encouraging inclusiveness by asking for written questions from the audience and using a large aerial map of our neighborhood business area to keep our focus in mind.


In his opening remarks, Mayor Degginger cited the new Newport Heights Elementary as a "game-changer," It puts Newport Hills on the radar and gives us a central focus. The City of Bellevue, he said, will now facilitate the neighborhood's community-building efforts by involving the community in future development decisions.



Degginger goes on to say that Newport Hills is now at the "top of the list" of six or seven similar neighborhood business centers in desperate need of an overhaul, and "now is the happy time" for Newport Hills to achieve theirs. One model to watch is Lake Hills' neighborhood business center,pictured below, nearing the end of a lengthy planning process and the subject of a previous entry in Red Apple Elegy. The developer there is Cosmos, and the record of ups and downs the neighborhood has gone through with them is lengthy, and instructive.





A lot of questions were answered at last week's meeting and will be answered in the Newport Hills Community Club website blog. A lot more remain unanswered.

Chiefly, how will the city assist in this planning process? As voiced by the Economic Development Director it appears to be to lure developers with promises of density allowances. He says there are four serious proposals on the table, now that Stod's is on the market as well. All of these involved mixed use, four stories of residential above base retail and office.


This is what would pencil out for the developers. Is this something like The Renton Landing? (See photo, right) We don't really have any other visual model to go by. He pointed to developments in the Bellevue CBD (Central Business District) and proposed development in the Bel Red Corridor, both of which inhabit a much larger footprint.

The neighborhood's focus is much more on tenants: Trader Joe's, PCC, hardware store, etc. as well as programming: swapmeets, community events, farmers market and sustainable gardens. In short, a Main Street model. Even thriving Crossroads Mall is set up on a "Main Street" pattern.


At busy West Seattle Junction, a classic model for Main Street, there is only one floor of residences above a row of shops.


Step 1: The mayor's first suggestion was to come up with a neighborhood working group who could identify a shared vision to present to prospective developers. The city is more than ready to work with us at this time.


This means that in a couple of years we'll have the beginnings of a plan.