35th Ave Committee Releases a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) To Hire a Planning & Urban Design Consultant

We shared the news earlier that we were lucky enough to be awarded a Neighborhood Matching Fund grant from the City's Department of Neighborhoods (DoN) to develop a streetscape plan and zoning recommendations in 2014.  Over the past few months, we have met with both the Seattle Dept. of Transportation (SDOT) and Dept. of Planning and Development to refine the project scope and schedule as well as finalize contracting with the DoN.  Now, we're ready to hire a consultant!

We have released an RFQ to solicit responses from interested and qualified consultants to help the 35th Ave Committee complete this exciting new step for the 35th Ave NE business district.  The RFQ can be accessed from the "RFQ" tab at the top of our website.  The deadline for responding to the RFQ is Valentines Day, February 14th.  After that point, we intend to have selected a consultant by February 21st.

SDOT Proposes a Cycle Track on 35th Ave NE

UPDATE: Last week, the City and those along Westlake Ave North who sued to stop the Bike Master Plan update reached an agreement. As such, the Bike Master Plan will continue to move forward under Council for review and adoption.

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Over the past couple of years, SDOT has undertaken an update to the City's Bicycle Master Plan (BMP). The BMP is a document with a 20 year planning horizon and is intended to guide policy and budget direction.  The City had a huge public engagement process to gather input prior to issuing the Draft BMP in mid-2013. The Draft BMP included a variety of bike facilities, including neighborhood greenways and cycle tracks. Cycle tracks are bike lanes that are separated from vehicle traffic.

35th Ave NE (from NE 65th St to NE 125th St) was identified for a cycle track in the Draft BMP, as was a NE 65th Street.  The Seattle Bike Blog does a nice job of describing the original draft HERE.  Once the Draft BMP was issued and the extent of bike facilities was identified, there were concerns raised by some business owners and residents near NE 65th Street. SDOT has since revised the Draft BMP, including the configuration of bike facilitates on NE 65th Street.  However, it has not pleased everyone.

Recently, we were made aware of a flyer (PDF) passed out to businesses along 35th Ave NE by a person/group identifying himself as the "35th Ave NE Committee."  This flyer explains that a cycle track is proposed on 35th Ave NE, describes what this person believes would happen to 35th Ave NE should a cycle track be developed, and advocates for the business owner to contact the City to voice their concerns.  The flyer was handed out by one of the people responsible for organizing the opposition along NE 65th Street.

The 35th Ave Committee has not taken a position on the cycle track on 35th Ave NE.  We are not advocating for or against it, but have been aware of SDOT's plan.  PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS LETTER IS NOT FROM OUR COMMITTEE AND DOES NOT REPRESENT OUR COMMITTEES GOALS OR OBJECTIVES.  

Earlier this week, a lawsuit was filed against the City by a group of business owners on Westlake to delay the adoption of the updated BMP.  At this point, it's unclear when/if the BMP would be updated given this recent legal wrinkle.

The Ravenna-Bryant Community Seeks a More Pedestrian Friendly Neighborhood!

Earlier this year, the 35th Ave Committee undertook a survey to learn how the 35th Ave NE Business District is used and what its users seek in the future.  The results of that survey (see here and here) have shaped our planning efforts, including the scope of the grant we were recently awarded.

Shortly after we completed our survey though, the Ravenna-Bryant Community Association (who has endorsed our group and planning effort), put out their own survey for the NE 65th Street Business District. Part of the reason for th The boundaries that they included for their survey extended into the 35th Ave NE Business District planning area.

Recently, the RBCA summarized the results of their survey which showed some interesting differences and similarities.  However, in their summary of the results, the RBCA writes that:

"More than two-thirds of survey respondents said that development is good if the area becomes more walkable and streetscape is improved."

They also go on to report that 54% of residents plan to walk and 19% plan to bike to the new Roosevelt light rail station once it's open.

While the complete results were not published (at the time of writing), it appears that many respondents had similar concerns to our survey results as well.  Namely, people are concerned with the current and future vehicle traffic and parking availability, safety, and other similar concerns.

Kudos to the RBCA for taking on such a wonderful survey and doing such a marvelous job in summarizing the results.

The 35th Ave Committee to Develop a Streetscape Plan and Zoning Recommendations in 2014

Over the last several months, the 35th Ave Committee has been discussing how best to build on the 35th Ave Survey, along with more community feedback, to create the conditions necessary to achieve the future 35th Ave NE that so many hope to see.  A business district that is more walkable and supports the types of businesses that people want.  Through discussion with the Department of Planning and Development (DPD), we determined that the best "next step" is to hire a consultant to assist us in the following:

• Develop a streetscape plan to define the pedestrian environment and frontage experience desired by the residential and business community that use the 35th Ave NE business district.  
• Prepare zoning recommendations, based on survey results and community feedback, for the 35th Ave NE business district to be given to DPD for consideration.  

This scope was not only approved of by DPD, but has also been endorsed by the Ravenna-Bryant Community Association and Wedgwood Community Council.  The 35th Ave NE business district spans across both neighborhoods. 

In October, the 35th Ave Committee submitted a grant application through the Department of Neighborhoods for a Small & Simple Grant to complete this scope.  Today, we were notified that our application has been approved and we were awarded the grant!  We're all super excited!

What is a Streetscape Plan?

Example streetscape profile from the
Pike/Pine Streetscape Concept Plan

These are plans that have been approved by SDOT which define the design and character of the pedestrian environment within the business district.  They give the City and developers design guidance when determining what frontage improvements should be made along the business district.  

Some streetscape plans can include changes to travel and parking lanes; however, the intent for our streetscape plan is to only focus from the curb to the building fronts (e.g., pedestrian environment). This decision was made for a very practical reason.  SDOT has identified 35th Ave NE as a corridor suitable for a cycle track bike facility in its draft Seattle Bicycle Master Plan. If/when SDOT moves forward with a bike facility on 35th Ave NE, it would require the City to complete a design and conduct a public outreach process prior to constructing this facility.  Any such design would likely require some changes to the travel and parking lanes on 35th Ave NE.  As a result, we've decided to focus our time and resources on the pedestrian environment.

What are 'Zoning Recommendations'?

As part of the scope that we will be seeking from a consultant is the development of zoning recommendations.  What these recommendations are yet, we don't know.  We will be asking them to review what the community has voiced as their desired vision for a future 35th Ave NE business district through the 35th Ave Survey, NE 65th Street Survey, Wedgwood Vision Plan and Survey, and through direct feedback from community meetings to develop zoning recommendations.  These recommendations will then be provided to DPD who may implement some or all of them over the subsequent year(s).  

What's Next?

The 35th Ave NE will be preparing an open request for proposals to solicit a consultant around January 2014. We are expecting to co-host several community meetings with the consultant throughout 2014. There will be many opportunities for the community to share feedback throughout 2014 on the process and design. If you have questions or are interested in getting more involved, please email us.

Part 2: Why Plan for 35th Ave NE? Missed Opportunities.

If you follow the Seattle Department of Planning and Development's (DPD's) NE Seattle Land Use Information Bulletin, you'll occasionally notice bulletins for redevelopments within the 35th Ave Business District.  There have been two recent bulletins for redeveloping older homes along 35th Ave NE within our planning boundaries into town homes with or without live-work units on the ground floor.

One of these projects is the redevelopment of the old "Green House," located immediately south of the Sunshine Cleaners and north of the Rxtra Care pharmacy.  Another project (DPD Project No. 3014188) is located further south in the business district, north of Grateful Bread.   One could make a case that both of these projects are within the center of the business district and are ideal locations for additional retail space, should redevelopment occur as planned.

This is not intended diminish the merits of these projects individually, but rather to identify these as potentially missed opportunities due to the absence of a well thought out plan for the business district that describes a shared vision for the future of 35th Ave NE.  Had we had an appropriate plan and completed a review of the zoning for 35th Ave NE, developers may have selected a different outcome for these two projects that included increased retail space and provide a healthy return on investment for the developer.

35th Ave Neighborhood Planning Process Endorsed by Community Councils

The Ravenna-Bryant Community Association and Wedgwood Community Council are the two neighborhood community groups that represent the 35th Ave NE Business District, with NE 75th Street serving as the north/south boundary between the two. Over the past few weeks, the board of trustees for both the RBCA and WCC have voted unanimously to endorse the 35th Ave Committee and the neighborhood planning that our group is pursuing. Their support is no doubt due, in part, to the phenomenal response and show of support received through our 35th Ave Survey.

Thank you for the support of these two community councils! 

Part 1: Why Plan for 35th Ave NE? Change is Inevitable.

This is the beginning of a mini series on the reasons for working towards a neighborhood plan.

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A comment we periodically hear from folks or read in our survey results goes something like this, "Don't change a thing. 35th is perfect just as is."  Unfortunately, freezing time is not in our means and change is inevitable.

The Theodora is being sold by the Volunteers of America.

Recently, this inevitable change became exemplified with the listing of a 3.7 acre property at 3300 NE 65th Street owned by the Children's Home Society of Washington, which isn't on 35th Ave NE but is within the limits of our draft planning boundary. Change cannot be stopped and it comes when we least expect it. Today, the Ravenna-Bryant Community Association shared that the Theodora is being sold by the Volunteers of America. The Theodora property is approximately 1.49 acres in size and is located east of the CHSW of property. This means that nearly 5.2 acres of property is for sale and will likely be changing near the 35th/65th intersection.

According to our survey, 84% of respondents are comfortable with more development, 92% of respondents want more retail diversity, and 88% of respondents think that the business district is "underdeveloped." One way to interpret these particular results is that folks generally would like some type of change to occur to the 35th Ave NE business district. Our hope is that we can provide a community's vision for the 35th Ave NE Business District to help guide future changes for the benefit of both the community as well as business owners and developers.