The MBNA has made great progress over the past several years with working in partnership with the city of Bellevue on a number of issues affecting Meydenbauer Bay.  While we've had some great success, the work clearly isn't done.  Since inception we've spent over $150,000 in legal fees to Protect the Future of the Bay and expect the need to ensure Meydenbauer Bay is a great place to live will continue on.  Will you please consider giving a tax-deductible donation to MBNA as part of your year-end giving?   Donate at http://www.mbnabellevue.com/donate.   If donating by check send to:

MBNA
227 Bellevue Way NE, PMB 278
Bellevue WA 98004

From our families to yours, a happy and wonderful holiday season and 2014.

MBNA Neighbors – from our families to yours, the warmest of holiday greetings.  Your MBNA Board wishes you all a safe, happy and relaxing holiday season.

There’s been some progress on the Meydenbauer Bay Park.  The city has hired Robin Cole, who was involved in the initial park planning dating back to 2007, to be the contract administrator for the new park construction.  The city is asking for proposals from prospective design firms for final design work on phase one of the park, which will start in 2014. We are monitoring this closely with our MBNA attorney, Charlie Klinge, to ensure provisions of the park master plan are followed, along with the implementation principles adopted by the city, when the plan was finalized.  See an excerpt from our MBNA attorney's recent letter to the City Park planners as an example of the MBNA representing the interests of Meydenbauer Bay area residents whether along the waterfront, in the uplands, or the condos around the bay.

As some of you may have seen, the City has almost completed the 14 boat temporary visitor moorage at their dock # 3 at the foot of 100th. The plan is for this to be open soon, and will include temporary portable toilet facilities for use of visiting boaters. There will be a time limited stay of probably 4 hours, and the facility will close at 9pm daily. During the season, the city will have a park ranger or other attendant on duty at this location, to greet visitors, control activity, and provide security. They will have back up from Bellevue Police as necessary.

We need your support 

Though we are volunteer-led, MBNA has spent over $150,000 in legal fees to Protect the Future of the Bay, and anticipate more as the Park implementation progresses..  We operate strictly on donations and ask you to consider a year-end tax deductible donation to the MBNA.  Donate at http://www.mbnabellevue.com/donate.  If donating by check send to:

MBNA
227 Bellevue Way NE, PMB 278
Bellevue WA 98004

Thank you for your continued support and again, the very happiest holidays to each of you. 

Ray Waldmann
President

I think it is important to highlight to you that according to the Implementation Principles, the design phase is required to consider options to many specifically named elements.  Although it seems as though this Phase 1 deals with issues that were less sensitive to the community, this Phase will address a few elements mentioned in the Implementation Principles as needing consideration of options including the curved pier (should not be too far into Bay) and associated parking.

I expect that the team chosen will in fact need to look at options as that is a typical part of any project design, and the RFP specifically states that there will be consideration of design strategies and, as Robin’s email notes, that there will also be meetings with neighborhood groups. 

However, I did see one item in the Question and Answer attachment that was possibly a bit off track in that regard as follows: 

Q2. Significant public involvement was part of the master plan process. What is the City’s expectation for public involvement during the design and construction phase? What City Public Involvement resources will be available to the consultant, if any?

A2. Public involvement is an element in the project, but it differs in intent from the master planning process. Having an adopted master plan, our responsibility is to keep the neighborhood and the public at large informed of the project plans and progress. There will also be required public meetings as part of at least one permit process. City staff and facilities will be available. The consultant will be asked to prepare graphics for presentation and attend those meetings.

The Implementation Principles, No. 6, addresses the need to “re-engage with the neighborhood and greater community.”  The clear intention of the Implementation Principles was to “re-engage” the community to discuss the options and other issues needing further consideration as expressed in the other Implementation Principles and otherwise.  Answer 2 could be misunderstood to say something different in describing the scope of work as limited to keeping the public “informed of the project plans and progress.”  The answer to the Question: “What is the City’s expectation for public involvement during the design and construction phase?” might have been better stated as: “With respect to the design phase, the City’s expectation is to ‘re-engage with the neighborhood and greater community’ (see Master Plan Chapter 9, Implementation Principle No. 6) in order to get public input on the various design options, especially as to matters spelled out in the Master Plan Implementation Principles No. 1-5.”  Also, Answer 2 in making reference to permit process public meetings could also be read as a bit different than the meetings with neighborhood groups referenced in the brief scope of services.   

So, once the process gets started, one focus will need to be to involve the community in looking at options at a point in time when input can be meaningful.  Another consideration that MBNA will be very interested in is the process for deciding on the final design.  While there is a Master Plan, there will be decisions made on many issues that require further consideration including input from the public.  MBNA will be very interested to learn how that process will work—how do those decisions get formally made i.e. directly by the City Council, with or without input from the Park Board, or in some other fashion.

We hope and expect that the City will make it clear to the short-listed firms and successful firm that while there is a Master Plan, the design approach is not finalized for all elements, and that it will be important to involve the community in the process of considering options for those unfinished elements.  This process may very well be the standard approach the City uses in all park design projects.  However, the MBNA has not been involved in other park development projects, so it has no experience in that regard and can only make known its concerns.