Managing Growth in Redmond

Redmond is no longer a bedroom community. We must shape the growth around us instead of allowing the growth to shape us. A proactive vision of the city and services we want will help ensure we enhance our quality of life. This is not a vision to encourage growth, but a vision to manage growth to keep Redmond great.

One measurement of a successful city is a place where you can live happily for all phases of your life. This means providing housing, transportation and recreation choices. At different ages, you need different options. Out of college you need an apartment. A new family may need a single family house with a yard for the dog. Once your youngest child graduates, you may choose a condo so you can travel without worrying about yard work.

To allow these housing choices to be affordable, the city needs to increase the supply of housing units and implement the proper transportation infrastructure. The first place to start is to focus density in our urban centers. I am concerned that the City is spreading density evenly throughout, like peanut butter on bread, reducing housing choices, making everything the same, and diminishing the character of our neighborhoods.

Matching land use with transportation infrastructure is another important action needed to maintain the quality of life. That is why I want to match downtown Redmond with a Sound Transit stop.

Using transit to connect key sites on the Eastside will improve usability. Currently, I can get to downtown Bellevue or Seattle during rush hour, but anywhere else is a major challenge. Most of the congestion on the Eastside is from people traveling from one Eastside destination to another.

We need a regional mass transit system. I am supporting the transportation package this fall. I am disappointed it does not go all the way into downtown Redmond, but light rail will be closer to the City than if the package fails altogether.

For Redmond to increase the housing supply, we need to catch up with our infrastructure needs so the private sector wants to build here. For example, Redmond zoning calls for five story multi-use buildings in the downtown. The City Council shows great vision here. However, the City’s water system only has the capacity for one story buildings. Currently a developer would have to build the whole water system for the downtown core to construct one building in downtown. As Mayor, I would install the water pipe that matches the land use plan and use debt and hook up charges to finance the project so that growth pays for itself.