OPINION: PART II: The City Council Meeting of 11/17 was a Big Show. Emigrant Slavic (mostly Russia) and Egyptian citizens turned out in record numbers. It was standing room only at City Hall. Egyptian citizens were asking to extend a sewer line on church land not annexed by the City; the Russian citizens came to protect their "Limited Edition" office park from being destroyed by a Public Works project.
The City has a grand plan to build an gigantic underground regional stormwater treatment facility in Overlake. It would the size in volume of two city halls! The Sears parking lot is probably one of the best locations for the facility from a stormwater engineering perspective. However, in my opinion, the city is now looking at the Limited Edition and seven other sites should the Sears deal fall through. Doubtful.
In any event, the Limited Edition Slavic office owners and workers stormed City Hall to plead their case. They've even brought along an engineer and planning/policy experts to assist and persuade Council.
The eighteen Limited Edition buildings are individually managed by 13 owners. The office park has 32 businesses and generates 400 jobs. The park has two churches. "Elana" described her Russian church as costing $700,000 to change the use to a church and $2M for remodeling. They rent the building to a Spanish Church and may rent to a Taiwanese Church. A language school for kids operates out of their community center. A couple of doctors gave their case about losing their practices. Of significance, a Russian woman said their "only competition was a parking lot." I think this speaks volumes. What do you think?
In all it was an emotional display by an immigrant minority that I never knew lived, worked, and played in Redmond. Did you know about this Slavic enclave? I can't ever imagine the City Council would allow these small businesses to be uprooted. Certainly not Councilmember Pat Vache' - an avid proponent for small business. What do you think?
A public Community Meeting is tentatively planned for the third week of January. Contact the mayor's office mayor@redmond.gov for the exact date, location, and time.
Bob, perhaps you should review the staff's presentation to City Council, along with their presentation to the Planning Commission. There is much more to this issue than you bring up. Of even greater threat to this small business location is the East Link Light Rail line that will go through Overlake. Depending on the final alignment chosen, any sort of stormwater facility may be the least of their concerns.
ReplyDeleteChange can be hard. Today, Overlake is a name without a place. People don't seek out Overlake as a destination. The future that is laid out in the Overlake Neighborhood Plan that has been in the works for five years requires big changes. I would love to see some new development come to our neighborhood, along with mass transit. If the City were to condemn property, they would pay more than fair prices for property, including relocation for businesses. There would be no losers in that. I asked if the City would be interested in our property, but we were ruled out. I would welcome the chance to move to new digs, especially in this economy when property is available. I see lots of vacancies in the area. When rail does come, buildings will start going up all around us. We'll have more customers, places to eat, places to be. Overlake will become a destination.
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