Manufacturing and Industrial Parks have been an important part of Redmond ever since 1936 when Horace Cadman acquired a gravel pit from Columbia Lumber Company to start up his concrete business.
Cadman and all industrial and manufacturing parks these days are feeling the squeeze of rapid residential growth, congested roads, higher land costs, scarce parking, and the higher uses of business parks. Software companies, R&D, retail, office and residential are all competing for downtown space and manufacturing parks are feeling the brunt of it.
On January 18, 2008, Mayor John Marchione held a Breakfast Forum to study these Manufacturing and Business Park issues. The meeting was run by staffer Sarah Stiteler and most planning staff councilmembers and planning commissioners were present. The Council chambers seemed almost full with many Chamber of Commerce members present.
One of the biggest problems is competition for land within the city owing to the relatively low cost of manufacturing parks (MP) in Redmond. According to an Overlake chamber member warehouse space costs only 70 cents/SF vs. $1.70/SF - $2.00/SF in Bellevue.
Some interesting factoids:
1) 7.4% of total land in downtown is zoned manufacturing - 737 acres. 2) 11.5% of total employment in the city is manufacturing, decreasing from 15% in 2001. 3) total business park space is 529 acres or 5.9% of the downtown. 4) total industrial space is 79 acres.
"Higher and better" uses discussed by MP businesses were, as follows:
- the Firestone and car care businesses on Redmond Way complained the area is "going retail". Traffic and parking issues arise from incompatible zoning.
- a commercial real estate executive in Overlake complained of rent increases and losing space to office, R&D, and software.
- Olympian Precast just wants to be "left alone" from housing and any encroachments.
- Overlake Church was upset with corporations using their parking lots. Microsoft is actually looking for land for a shuttle park.
- Cadman claimed the truck traffic to Costco (Taylor Park Development) will go past their business on Union Hill owing to nearby incompatable residential zoning. Rising construction costs make manufacturing projects unfeasable. Thus, the Taylor Development is appealing to Costco.
Some possible solutions? 1) zone to "bridge" manufacturing parks to business parks 2) charge for parking, 3) zone for business diversity, 4) limit residential near MP by building more units in Overlake Urban center. Councilmember McCormick was pleased Mayor Marchione encouraged this Forum. She said it had been years coming. I think the city will be developing a comprehesive plan for MP soon.
I wonder what the neighborhoods think? Or, do we even care?
The city has been aware of the need to examine uses in the MP zone for a long time, and it has been in the works for many months. The meeting that was held last week has been planned for a while, and is one of the first steps in this process. I believe the Planning Commission will be looking at this within the next few months, and then it's on to Council.
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