University Community Urban Centre Meeting Notes
Courtesy The University Park Community Club
20 April 2000
(as sent out via the UCUC mailing list)
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University Community Urban Center
Sounding Board
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Meeting Notes
University Heights Center for the Community
Thursday, April 20th, 2000
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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.
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