Catching You Up On the Neighborhood Planning for 35th Ave NE

It's been awhile since we've updated the blog on what the 35th Ave NE Steering Committee has been doing.  Nevertheless, we have a lot of great progress to report.

Back in October 2012, members of the 35th Ave NE Steering Committee performed an business inventory of the 35th Ave NE business core, from NE 68th Street to NE 87th Street.  Business district inventories are a suggested baseline data gathering step that Theresa Barreras with the Office of Economic Development (OED) suggested during the Coffee Talk 1.  As it turned out, the data gathered was really helpful.  Based on our analysis, the central business district is comprised of 71% service-focused businesses (e.g., accountants, lawyers, dentists, etc) and 24% retail-focused businesses (e.g., coffee shops, boutiques, grocery stores, etc.).  The remaining businesses were government-based establishments (e.g., Post Office, NE Branch Library).  A graph of the results follows.

With this information in hand we met with Councilmember Richard Conlin in February to share the results of our business inventory and explain to him that business districts such as 35th Ave NE and those similar in size merit attention so that they can provide the resources and business types to support the residents who use and live near the business district.  We wanted to make sure that Councilmember Conlin for the following reasons:

• We wanted to provide him an update on our grassroots neighborhood planning process and share the results of our business inventory.
• Councilmember Conlin stated that all 37 Urban Villages had developed "neighborhood plans" and that his goal was to now move forward with implementing these plans. While this is fantastic for those urban village communities, we think there is now an opportunity for arterial commercial districts such as 35th Ave NE to be considered.
• Conlin is Chair of the City Council's Planning, Land Use, and Sustainability (PLUS) Committee which will be reviewing proposed amendments to the City's Comprehensive Plan.  We think there is an opportunity to include arterial commercial corridors to be made more of a priority by the City through the Comprehensive Plan update process.

Following our meeting with Conlin, we met with Marshall Foster and others at the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) in March.  Mr. Foster is the Director of Planning and is helping to oversee the Comprehensive Plan update and manages the DPD's work plan for 2013.  Our meeting with DPD was intended to convey the same message, which was to allow an opportunity for arterial commercial corridors, like 35th Ave NE, to have the opportunity to help shape their future.  

Since our meetings with Conlin and DPD, we have been working on a survey for users of 35th Ave NE which we will be making public shortly.  The survey is modeled after surveys completed by the OED to better understand who is using the commercial corridor and whether or not it is meeting the needs of the users.  Stay tuned for more news on the survey!

A Neighborhood Walk Down 35th Ave NE - Saturday, October 6th

35th Ave NE Neighborhood Walk

Saturday, October 6th, 9-11AM

Meet in front of NE Branch Library

Back in August, the 35th Ave NE Committee toured six neighborhoods throughout Seattle and Kirkland to see what we thought worked well and not so well.  We took with us the knowledge gleaned from the 7-part Coffee Talk series and looked at what makes other neighborhoods great.  This Saturday, October 6th, from 9AM-11AM, we'll walk down 35th Ave NE to inventory business-types, discuss what works, what doesn't work as well, and where we think are high priority locations.

All are welcome to join us during this walk.  We may also have to stop in some of our local purveyors of edible goodness as part of our business-type inventory.  If you plan on joining us, please come dressed appropriately for a 1 mile-ish walk, bring a camera and note pad to document your thoughts, and come a willingness to discuss your thoughts respectfully with others.  

See you Saturday!

Trade Offs of Land Use Planning - A Coffee Talk Recap

Over the past 7 months, we have been super lucky to have had presentations on a variety of land use planning concepts by a host of brilliant and local planning professionals as part of the Coffee Talk series.  The Coffee Talks were sponsored by the Community Planning Assistance Team (CPAT), which is part of the Washington Chapter of the American Planning Association.

The final (seventh) of these Coffee Talks was presented on August 23rd by Bill LaPatra with Mithun.  Bill's presentation neatly wrapped a bow around the previous six Coffee Talks and brought many of the concepts together.  His presentation touched on the benefits to businesses, walkability, transportation, and livability from land use planning.  He also touched on how increased density and how it can be done well so it complements, as opposed to competes, with local character and desired outcomes.  There are trade-offs though that come along with these benefits.

If you missed, the last Coffee Talk, a video is below along with a PDF version of Bill LaPatra's presentation for your viewing pleasure.  If you missed any of the previous Coffee Talks, you can link to and watch them all HERE.  As always, the video is of terrible quality...my apologies.

Coffee Talk 7: The Trade Offs of Land Use Planning from Wedgwood Community Council on Vimeo.

Coffee Talk 7: The Trade Offs of Land Use Planning

Coffee Talk 7: The Trade Offs of Land Use Planning

Thursday, August 23rd, 7-8:30PM

Wedgwood Presbyterian Church

Some say that the only constant in life is change. If this is true, change is sure to come to 35th Ave NE. Thanks to the Community Planning Assistance Team(CPAT) from the Washington Chapter of the American Planning Association, for the past six months we have been hosting land use planning presentation on various concepts related to improving 35th Ave NE.   We learned about the conditions necessary for businesses to thrive, improving walkability, architectural design standards and principles, successful streetscape features and placemaking, the benefits of density, and incentivizing successful development.

However, through the discussion of some of these concepts it is clear that changes to 35th Ave NE could result in unanticipated impacts to the surrounding community.   These impacts are often those things that are considered trade offs in development.  This Thursday evening, at our FINAL Coffee Talk,Bill LaPatra with Mithun discusses some of those trade offs that come along with land use planning and ultimately a more successful commercial corridor.

As always, a special thanks to Top Pot Doughnuts for providing delicious goodness for these events.

Incentivizing Successful Development, A Recap of Coffee Talk 6

About 10-15 years ago, the City of Kirkland began the process of revitalizing their downtown.  The City developed a strategic plan to identify those things the City could do themselves and those things the City wanted to encourage private development to accomplish.  Some of the City's targeted improvements included improved transit, creating public gathering places, and improving traffic circulation.  However, with all of these potential improvements, the City still required private development to come in and bring the types of projects and amenities that were important for improving the vitality and success of the downtown core experience.  To do this, the City in part turned to incentives to encourage these things.

Gathering place created at a focal intersection in exchange
for a 'bonus floor' as part of a new development in Kirkland.

While downtown Kirkland may not be the same scale and type of commercial corridor that we may aspire 35th Ave NE to become, the principal of using incentives to achieve those things important to the community may be something for us as a community to consider.  In order for a development to occur, the financial reality of development is that it must "pencil out" (e.g., result in a reasonable return on investment to the developer).  In this capitalist environment, economics generally wins out.

The question in these capitalist conditions is what is the appropriate "give and take" relationship in order to achieve not only a successful project economically for the developer, but also a successful project for the community.  At our most recent Coffee Talk at the end of July, Ellen Miller-Wolfe, the Economic Development Director for the City of Kirkland shared some of the projects  and methods they've used to encourage successful developments.  Some of those incentives Kirkland has offered developers include additional height (a bonus floor) and reduced setbacks to incentivize such things as residential uses within the business core or including shared public parking.  Now, the City is trying to incentivize specific types of retail uses including a grocery store downtown and movie theater.

Safer pedestrian environment created as part
of a new development in Kirkland.

As we move forward with the 35th Ave NE neighborhood planning,we might ask ourselves,

What are those things we most want along 35th Ave NE and what are we willing to give up in order to get them?

One place we can begin to look to for those things of most value to the community are those business types and features called out in the Wedgwood Vision Plan community survey results.  Another place to look may include those things that other neighborhoods have done within their commercial corridors that we may want to replicate.  The 35th Ave NE Steering Committee has begun to tour other communities and are getting ideas.

Our FINAL Coffee Talk is next Thursday, August 23rd, at Wedgwood Presbyterian Church from 7-8:30PM. Join us to learn about the trade offs of land use planning.  For more on Incentivizing Successful Development, relive the magic of Coffee Talk 6 and Ellen Miller-Wolfe's fantastic presentation on what Kirkland has done.

Coffee Talk 6: Financial Realities of Development. Incentivizing Successful Development from Wedgwood Community Council on Vimeo.

Field Trips to See What Others Are Doing

The 35th Ave NE Steering Committee (35th Committee) has been a sponge throughout the Coffee Talk series.  From learning what makes safe, walkable commercial corridors to the conditions necessary for our local businesses to survive and thrive, the 35th Committee has been learning about what can be done.  Recently, the 35th Committee went on a field trip to three commercial corridors that have interesting things going on and provide a variety of ideas to consider bringing to 35th Ave NE.  Below is a review of our field trip and a brief discussion of what each commercial corridor had to offer.

Kirkland

Mixed-use development in Kirkland using terracing
 and setbacks to reduce sense of scale from the street.

Downtown Kirkland is a rapidly changing community with a variety of housing types and densities intermixed within both new and older commercial developments.  The City has the benefit of having Lake Washington and beautiful views which to plan around.  However, the growth of Kirkland over the past 10 years provided us an opportunity to see how new and old development can coexist together, how developers have used architecture to soften the scale and bulk through setbacks, terracing, and variable ground floor heights.  We also were able to see how recent development incorporated placemaking, streetscape features, and gathering places into their projects.

A mixed-use building in Madrona enhances the corner
and uses streetscape features well to create a gathering place.

Madrona
For such a geographically small commercial corridor with zoning (NC-30) similar to that around 35th Ave NE and NE 75th Street, Madrona packs a punch.  Madrona is not considered an "Urban Village" within the City's Comprehensive Plan, yet it has managed to create a successful commercial corridor that appears to serve the surrounding neighborhood well.  There are numerous eateries that function as destinations from the nearby single-family neighborhoods and a couple of key services (e.g., school, library, parks, deli/market, salons, coffee shop) which accommodate many of the other daily needs of nearby residents. The result is a small, neighborhood commercial corridor that has successfully incorporated a moderate degree of new development over the past 15-20 years while maintaining its character.  My personal take home lesson from this neighborhood is that business types really do matter in the success and vitality of a commercial corridor.

Wallingford
Our field trip transitioned from a non-Urban Village in Madrona to Wallingford, an Urban Village with codified growth targets.  While we weren't able to walk the whole commercial corridor, we did take a long look at a relatively new mixed-use building at NE 45th St and Bagley Ave N.  This building uses a variety of architectural techniques to soften the bulk and scale of the building, similar to what was seen in Kirkland, while also transitioning to the single-family residences to the south.  This is one of the projects touched on by Catherine Benotto during the Coffee Talk 5: Density and its Benefits talk, whose firm Weber Thompson designed.  Parking for this building is off of Bagley Ave N, south of ground-floor residences that open onto Bagley.  My personal take home message from this neighborhood is that transitional zoning is not required, although good design is, in order to achieve a respectful and thoughtful transition transition to adjacent single-family residences.


View Larger Map This coming Saturday, the 35th Committee will go on another field trip to the Greenwood/Phinney, Queen Anne, and California (West Seattle) commercial corridors.   Next Thursday, August 23rd, will be the final Coffee Talk of the 7-part series open to everyone.  The topic of this final Coffee Talk will be on the trade offs of land use planning.  Please join us from 7-8:30PM at Wedgwood Presbyterian Church.

Should "Density" Be Considered a Four Letter Word?

Coffee Talk 6: Financial Realities of Development. Incentivizing Successful Development - Wedgwood Presbyterian Church, Thursday, July 26th, 7-8:30PM (free doughnuts!)


Density. It's a four letter word to some and can strike fear in predominantly single-family neighbors like ours along 35th Ave NE despite its many different forms and means of measurement. While at the Seattle City Light's formal hearing last week on their plans to dispose of (sell) their 5 surplussed substations throughout NE Seattle, a frequent comment was something like this, "Whatever you do, I don't want more density."

Yet there are many benefits that density can bring to residential communities like ours, most of which were articulated in the Wedgwood neighborhood's Vision Plan.  Catherine Benotto, with the architecture and planning firm Weber Thompson, shared some of the benefits from increased density during our last Coffee Talk, which include increased neighborhood services, increased availability to transit (less driving!), increased walkability, more diverse retail, and more.

The fact is increased density is going to occur along 35th Ave NE based on the current zoning.  The question is how to encourage the types of development that support a more walkable neighborhood with the strong retail corridor that includes more restaurants, hardware store, and book shop like the community has said it wants?

Our upcoming Coffee Talk on Thursday, July 26th at Wedgwood Presbyterian Church from 7-8:30PM, will feature just this.  Ellen Miller-Wolfe, the Kirkland Director of Economic Development, will speak on the "Financial Realities of Development. Incentivizing Successful Development."  As always, the Coffee Talk is sponsored by our phenomenal neighbor, Top Pot Doughnuts.

Here is a terrible quality video of Coffee Talk 5: The Benefits of Density, featuring Catherine Benotto, for your viewing pleasure.


Coffee Talk 5: ”Density and its Benefits” from Wedgwood Community Council on Vimeo.