ONE CITY BUDGET PRIORITY IS: "VIBRANT & CONNECTED:"
Under the "Vibrant and Connected" budget category, the city will spend over $110 million for the design and construction a "Maintenance & Operations Center." This redevelopment will be over twice the price of the new "Senior & Community Center." Vibrant and Connected? Not quite. The Center will be located in the SE Redmond Industrial Zone unconnected with the neighborhoods and downtown. Of course, the Center will be anything but vibrant: a forklift scooting by; warehouse workers chatting over a sandwich; the bang of small shops. I don't understand why our elected would classify Maintenance & Operations in the "Vibrant and Connected Priority." It's misleading and disappointing.
City Finance Planning Manager Narra wouldn't give: 1) the acreage of the parcel(s), its location in SE Redmond or 3) how it would be funded.
-- Opinion by Bob Yoder, 12/12/2022
"The Maintenance & Operations Center campus encompasses fourteen major and minor building structures including administrative offices, crew support spaces, centralized warehousing and storage, fleet shop, small shops, covered fleet parking and storage, decant facility, fuel station used by all City departments, surface parking, and Parks maintenance office. The current estimated cost for phase 1 and 2 is $100 million over a 7-year period (2027-2033). The M&O Master Plan, which will be conducted in 2023-2024, will provide a finer scope and updated cost estimate for the project."
--Haritha Narra, C.O.R.
Assuming "SE Redmond" does not mean Marymoor Village, then it seems possible that this could be located near Costco, perhaps on Cadman property. Cadman has been selling slices of its property recently, and perhaps has more to sell. The area already has facilities for Fedex and Microsoft vehicle fleets. Just a wild guess. Or perhaps it will be in the vicinity of the existing MOC at 18080 NE 76th St, south of UPS and west of Amazon's Project Kuiper facilities.
ReplyDeleteThat’s obscene! How can the city get away with something like that? Please Mayor Birney, council members, planning commission…. chime in!!! So the city comes to us to dig into our pockets to provide for our basic safety, but builds an over-the-top maintenance and operations site and tries to hide it?? So disappointing, so not the Redmond that I had come to respect. Can we just be honest folks? Call it what it is, be proud of it or don’t do it! Don’t try to hide it and bury it!
ReplyDeleteThere's definitely a need for the redevelopment, but at what cost with inevitable change orders? Will the city be disciplined to build frugally within their means? "A Silver Cloud may be just as effective and efficient as a Marriott." Please Facebook people,make your comments be heard at the Master Plan Hearing. In-person with our elected is much more effective than social media banter.
ReplyDeleteCami - The city may be quiet about the location because they are negotiating the land. But, that's not much of a reason. As taxpayers, we should be given an mention of the origin of the funds. Grants? One-time construction taxes? Councilmanic bonds?
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