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Residents press council to fund Pride Across the Bridge and protected bike lanes as sustainability staff outline progress
Summary
At a budget hearing Oct. 15 the Redmond City Council heard pleas from Pride Across the Bridge and transportation advocates for stable funding for community programs and protected bike lanes; staff also presented an ESAP progress report showing most near-term actions underway and previewed the 2025 update.
Dozens of residents told Redmond’s council Oct. 15 they want the city to invest more in community organizations and protected bike-lane infrastructure as the city finalizes its 2025–26 budget. The hearing also included a staff progress report on the Environmental Sustainability Action Plan and an update on Sound Transit construction in Redmond.
Axton Burton, executive director of Pride Across the Bridge, told the council the organization served more than 2,000 people in 2022 and about 4,700 this year and struggles to find affordable, accessible spaces. Several speakers, including the group’s co-chair James Webster, described mental-health and community benefits and urged the council to include stable funding for year-round programming in the biennial budget.
On transportation, Move Redmond and other residents urged the council to allocate design, construction and maintenance funding for protected bike lanes on arterial roads such as Bell Red Road and Old Redmond Road. “A strip of paint won’t save your life,” Michael Leach said; Bill King and other speakers cited close calls and accessibility issues and urged physical separation between bikes and motor traffic.
Sustainability program manager Jenny Liebeck presented the ESAP annual progress report, saying 92% of the actions the city committed to implement in the first five years are underway and roughly three-quarters of the plan’s 168 actions have been started. Liebeck said the city is seeing some KPIs trend in the right direction from the 2011 baseline but noted modest upticks in 2022–23 that staff attribute in part to pandemic rebound. The city plans a focused ESAP update in 2025 to narrow priorities and target resources.
Sound Transit and city staff updated the council on the Downtown Redmond Link Extension: the project includes an elevated guideway of about 3.2 miles and two stations; staff said construction is nearing substantial completion, pre-revenue testing will begin through winter, and revenue service between Downtown Redmond and Bellevue is expected in spring 2025.
What the council asked for: Councilmembers pressed staff on how community members can engage in the ESAP update, asked for additional staff capacity to build partnerships, and requested follow-up with the Lake Washington School District on MFTE (multifamily tax-exemption) impacts to student enrollment and levies.
What’s next: The budget process continues; requests for funding (for Pride Across the Bridge, protected bike lanes and maintenance for those facilities) will be considered during budget refinement. Staff will lead the ESAP public process and return with materials for the Committee of the Whole on Nov. 4 and an adoption timeline through 2025.
Quotes: “These organizations...work on a shoestring budget, and they do so much good for the community,” Milo Valentine said of Pride Across the Bridge. Jenny Liebeck said, “We need to accelerate action and really take a hard look and focus our efforts on initiatives that will drive impact.”
