Planners, Architects, and Developers came together yesterday in Bellevue to hear WT Senior Associate, Mindy Black, present at the Washington APA conference. The session was a panel presentation about the South Kirkland Transit Oriented Development and included three other speakers: Gary Prince, King County Metro TOD Manager; Janice Coogan, Senior Planner with the City of Kirkland; and Paul Inghram, Comprehensive Planning Manager for the City of Bellevue.

The project was selected as a case study because the site is split between Bellevue and Kirkland, making it an especially tricky project that resonated with the conference theme of Wicked Problems Smart Solutions. Development of the site involved coordination between multiple stakeholders – the Federal Transportation Agency, King County, the cities of Kirkland and Bellevue, the community of Houghton, a master developer and an affordable housing developer – and conflicting  zoning codes that  posed a number of challenges. The project is not just a park and ride expansion, but is a revitalization of the neighborhood bringing  retail, market-rate housing, and low-income housing.

In addition to being a conference session topic the South Kirkland Transit Oriented Development has been co-awarded ‘Best Implementation’ in the 2013 PAW/APA Planning Awards. The other co-winner in the category is the City of Redmond for their “Digital Plan and Development Suite.”