The City of Seattle Department of Transportation and Department of Planning and Development hosted a meeting with the Ballard Partnership for Smart Growth on May 7 at the Leif Erikson Lodge. Their goal was to hear feedback from the community for ways to shape the development in the Ballard Business District and address transportation issues.

Amid murals of Scandinavian folklore, over 50 attendees filled the hall to hear words from city representatives. Five stations displayed critical issues the city plans to tackle: light rail station location, parking, street infrastructure, greenways and building standards. Attendees were encouraged to write comments and submit new ideas on sticky notes. They place the notes on large maps of Ballard. Citizens voiced opinions about what could be done on a multitude of issues and were as specific as naming a street sign pointing the wrong direction on NW 17th Avenue to larger issues, like choosing a light rail corridor.

Ballardite, Joel Creswell, was at the meeting to comment on bicycle infrastructure. He said he was very concerned about the bikability of the Ballard Bridge and bicycle parking. He explained that bicycle parking on Ballard Avenue is scant, especially during the Farmers Market on Sundays. He said building a bicycle corral would remedy the problem, especially at the low sacrifice of one vehicle parking spot. Creswell also mentioned there is still much to do in Greenway development and increasing awareness of where those routes are.

“I live here, so I’ve kind of learned the way you bike through Ballard, and there are a few key routes that are safe, but if you don’t know where those are it’s hard to find your way around. I wouldn’t call Ballard ‘bike friendly,’ it’s more ‘bike-able.’”

Indeed, but bikeability is just one segmented of a larger, integrated transportation plan.

Chris Yake with the Department of Transportation, is heading the Move Ballard Plan, which is associated with Mayor Ed Murray’s Move Seattle Transportation Plan. Yake said that to have a more integrative transportation approach the City needs public feedback for all the plans they have in the works. He asked citizens to decide if the “lines on the map” from each plan are to their liking.

“We took all the modal plans that have been adopted – the Bicycle Master Plan, the Pedestrian Master Plan, the Transit Master Plan – and brought them here tonight. Those are just lines and we want your input: Are those lines in the right places?” said Yake.

“The impetus of this (Move Ballard) was to have an integrative approach with DPD in the land use and that’s more and more the thrust of the city – is to better integrate land use, and that’s what we are doing here tonight.”

Yake also said a major driver of Move Ballard Project is the Ballard to Downtown Transit Study that was conducted by SDOT and Sound Transit on 2014. He said that the City is moving forward with a package in 2016 and that feedback for where the light rail station might be located — if it comes to Ballard — is essential to the planning consideration. Four possible station locations in Ballard were identified in the study. Locations mentioned were at 14th to 15th avenues and Leary Way NW, NW 24th Avenue and NW Market Street, NW 17th Avenue and NW Market Street or NW 15th and NW Market Street. Yake said the City is looking for feedback for station locations and ways to better access the station by pedestrian, bicycle and bus transit routes. Take advised one consideration for citizens giving feedback: think how a potential light rail station would fit with the existing transit infrastructure in Ballard.

The city plans to host another similar type of meeting in the fall after the feedback has been analyzed.

Building guidelines and standards were also discussed at the meeting.

David Goldberg, Senior Planning with the Department of Development who heads the Ballard Partnership for Smart Growth, said that the meeting is essential for gathering public opinion for action during the unprecedented rate of growth in Ballard.

The meeting was the third where the City talked with the public about development standards in Ballard.

Goldberg said that some of the major building standard considerations the city is looking at right now are building length restrictions and set backs on upper levels. The idea is that by building up and out with intermitted breaks in building length, the feeling on the street is less “canyon-like.”

“We are still looking at what are the standards and what are the details, but the big thing is what we are hearing is that people feel there is too much development without any relief in the upper stories,” said Goldberg. “What people say is ‘we feel like there’s a canyon,” and that the development is closing in, and they don’t want to continue to see that through 2024.”

Goldberg also mentioned the City could implement recommendations for building aesthetics for a more unified aspect through limited, simplified material use.

“We don’t tell people what exact materials they use to build their buildings, but we can suggest ways to think about material choices.”

Citizens are encouraged to send feedback to an online questionnaire at http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/moveBallard.htm