Bothell staff outlines downtown subarea plan outreach, selects 24 ambassadors after 40+ applications

Senior planner Cameron Colvin updated council on community engagement for the Downtown Subarea Plan, reporting that the city received just over 40 applications for a downtown ambassador work group and selected about 24 volunteers to advise the project. “We ended up receiving just over 40 applications, which exceeded our initial goal of about 10 to 15 participants,” Colvin said.

Colvin said staff and consultants held two public walking tours (one in February with about 15 participants and a March evening walk with about 35 participants), and assembled roughly 160 photos from ambassadors to identify topic areas. The dominant themes from outreach were housing and development, transportation and mobility (notably parking availability and curbside management), and public space and activation including public art and event programming.

On transportation, Colvin said the city will coordinate a forthcoming discussion on curbside management and parking enforcement and incorporate that feedback into the plan. He also described outreach tactics used to reach diverse downtown stakeholders, including door-to-door visits to businesses and apartment buildings as well as virtual options for those who could not attend walking tours.

Council members pressed staff on accessibility for walking tours and on coordinating with property managers and other departmental outreach. Colvin said virtual route options and combined outreach with housing-action-plan efforts helped capture residents who could not attend in person; staff agreed to share best practices for property-manager outreach and to consider a council walking tour in the future.

Staff said an initial draft plan is anticipated before summer with a public charette and open house planned for July, and an aim toward plan adoption later in the year.