One Step Closer to the Waterfront Park.

Bellevue reviewing draft plan for park on Meydenbauer Bay

By Lynn Porter, Journal Staff Writer, via djc.com 

image courtesy of City of Bellevue

...The city of Bellevue is one step closer to creating a new park along Meydenbauer Bay that would connect the waterfront with downtown...

The shoreline of Meydenbauer Bay is mostly privately owned, with housing and leased moorage fenced off to the public...The park will give the public more access to the water and provide areas for picnics, swimming or walking on a boardwalk with views of the city.

Bellevue has included the park in its comprehensive plan for two decades, and has been acquiring property for it since the 1950s. It now owns about 10 acres, which includes three piers where it leases out slips, 11 single-family homes, 51 apartment units and three duplexes, some of which it rents out.  

(The draft master plan is being presented this week.)

The draft plan calls for:

• Removing two of the three piers. The remaining pier would be expanded and connected to a proposed L-shaped floating boardwalk. The boardwalk would mostly run parallel to the shoreline, allowing habitat there to be restored.
• Expanding the swimming beach and relocating it to the center part of the park.
• Creating a grand entry where 100th Avenue Southeast is now, with viewpoints and terraces.
• Daylighting a native stream.
• Creating an elevated walkway from the grand entry to the shoreline.
• Building two underground parking garages.
• Creating a community building with a glass front overlooking the water, and the back built into the hillside. It would have an elevator connecting the upper and lower park.

The area just upland from the planned park, east of the grand entry, is mostly 1950s apartment complexes, some of which have been converted to condos, said Cole. The steering committee recommends incentives for redeveloping that area, including increasing density from 30 multifamily dwelling units per acre to 60 and reducing setbacks, but not increasing heights.  

In return, the city wants to have wider pathways to the planned park from downtown, Old Bellevue and other amenities.

For more information, visit the project Web site at: http://www.bellevuewa.gov/meydenbauer_project_intro.htm 

or contact Robin Cole at (425)452-6195 (rcole@bellevuewa.gov) or Mike Bergstrom at (425)452-6866 (mbergstrom@bellevuewa.gov).  Full article can be found here. (paid subscription)