Good evening Mayor and Council. My name is Rosemarie Ives, former Redmond mayor 1992-2007, and I am here to provide comment and some history relating to the Town Center Amendments on tonight’s agenda. Although I would like to comment on Tree Regulations, four minutes is hardly enough time for such important issue. Such a full agenda precludes the public from giving any substantive testimony on more than one item. I hope that Madam Mayor would consider my making a few remarks after testimony from others is concluded.
I was on the Planning Commission when the first conceptual plan for Town Center was presented in preparation of the annexation of the beloved, treed 120 acre property into the City and the heart of our downtown. The Planning Commission worked for 18 months in 1986-1987. I was an opponent of “the enclosed mall that was initially proposed while the late former councilmember Richard Cole was a proponent. Once the land use decision was made, together Mr. Cole and I authored the 39 conditions that constituted a compact with the community and that were eventually placed on the development. In 1987, Mr. Cole and I were elected to City Council….Together we led the council through much of its process of deliberation over the next two years. In 1992 when I was elected mayor, Town Center owners proposed a new open air, pedestrian and downtown oriented design incorporating the 39 conditions encouraging redevelopment and revitalization in the adjacent downtown. that was approved in 1995 in Development Guide Amendment 94-004. Construction began in 1996.