We've Selected A Consultant! Introducing Makers & SvR.

You may recall that the 35th Ave Committee was awarded a Small & Simple grant by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods to hire a planning and urban design consultant to assist us with developing streetscape guidelines and zoning recommendations. You may also recall that we released a request for qualifications (RFQ) to solicit responses from qualified consultants.

We were privileged to have had 3 very qualified consultants respond to our RFQ for our review. Ultimately, we selected a consultant team of Makers Architecture & Urban Design and SvR Design. You can review the consultant team's response to our RFQ by clicking on the image at right. Both firms, Makers and SvR, are exceptionally well regarded and have a lot of experience working on similar projects. Makers worked with the Wedgwood Community Council on developing their Vision Plan in 2010.

Since making our selection, we have met with the consultant team and met with the City with the consultant team to refine scope and expectations. We are currently working to schedule three upcoming community workshops in the coming months. Stay tuned!

Are Pedestrian Retail Areas Coming to 35th Ave NE?

The City's Department of Planning and Development (DPD) has begun a Pedestrian Retail Areas evaluation to identify suitable retail areas which warrant greater pedestrian-friendly design requirements.  As part of the evaluation, they've mapped existing and potential pedestrian retail areas to define the study area and developed preliminary recommendations for parts of the 35th Ave NE Business District, which include: Wedgwood North and Wedgwood South.  The preliminary recommendations for both of these areas is to designate them as a "pedestrian area."

Along with the mapping and designation of pedestrian retail areas, the City is looking at additional design requirements for these areas to encourage and enhance pedestrian uses, including:

• Require wider sidewalks, 
• Require overhead weather protection, 
• Limit driveways from crossing sidewalks, 
• Restrict parking facilities from the front or sides of parcels,
• Require a minimum floor area ration (FAR) for new development.

It's important to note that this process is a City-driven planning process that's separate to the streetscape design process that the 35th Ave Committee is just beginning.  However, there appears to be a lot of shared goals between both of these planning processes.  It's also important to note that the City is just beginning its public outreach and engagement for this planning process and is soliciting input.  TAKE THE CITY'S PEDESTRIAN RETAIL AREA SURVEY HERE (it's really quick!).

The City's plan is to finalize their recommendations after receiving feedback on their preliminary recommendations between April - July 2014.

For more information, check out the City's Pedestrian Retail Areas website.

Polygon Northwest Unveils Early Design for the Children's Home Society Revelopement on NE 65th Street

The Polygon Homes Northwest team has unveiled their early design review package for the "Bryant Heights" redevelopment of the Children's Home Society of Washington site, located north of Assumption on NE 65th Street.  You can download their design review package here.

The Polygon NW design team presenting at the
 Jan. 13, 2014 the Early Design Guidance Meeting. 

There are three zoning designations on the former CHSW property: NC1-30, LR2, and SF-5000.  Due to the commercial zoning on the south side of the site, along NE 65th Street, the developer has to undergo a public design review process for that portion of the redevelopment. They held their first design review meetings for this part of the property last night, at the University Heights building.  The City will complete their own internal "streamlined" design review for multifamily housing proposed in the middle section of the site, which is zone LR2.  The northern limits of the site, which is zoned single family, does not require a design review.

Preferred "massing" with three buildings along NE 65th ST.

Last night, however, was the early design review meeting for the project before the Northeast Design Review Board and about 35 members of the public who attended.  The team presented three "massings" of the commercial site although focused on their preferred design: three buildings along NE 65th Street with an interior 18-20 foot courtyard, commercial spaces at the corners, live-work units in between, and a setback frontage to activate the NE 65th Street pedestrian environment.  In general, the members of the public appeared pleased with the design concept and the thoughtful consideration that the design team conveyed.  However, there were some comments from the Northeast Design Review Board and public about preservation of existing trees (the design is configured around preserving a couple exceptional trees in the center of the site), balancing public space along the frontage versus the interior courtyard, considering future bike facilities on the NE 65th Street and 32nd Ave NE, architectural design style, parking, and other items.

Concept sketch of the preferred massing from the
southwest (Bryant Cafe at left).

The Ravenna Bryant Community Association has been coordinating with the Polygon Homes Northwest team.  For future information on the project and additional design review meetings, please make sure to follow the RBCA's website.  The Ravenna Blog also attended the early design review meeting last night and had a live blog of the meeting, which you can read here.

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.