The Neighborhood Enhancement Program empowers residents to propose and select modest, city-funded capital projects to enhance their neighborhoods. The program rotates through the city's 16 NEP neighborhood areas over the course of seven years, serving two areas each year. The $5 million program allocation is distributed among each of the neighborhood areas, according to the number of households in each area.
Downtown/BelRed NEP Kicks off January 29th!
Downtown and BelRed residents - mark your calendars to join your neighbors and City staff to learn about NEP coming to your area.
Tuesday, January 29th
6:30-8:00pm
Bellevue City Hall, Room 1E-108
450 110th Ave NE
Bring your ideas and brainstorm about projects you'd like to see funded with the $491,000 in funds available to your neighborhood.
Projects in Northwest Bellevue
Thank you to Northwest Bellevue residents for your participation in the Neighborhood Enhancement Program. Two two new capital improvement projects will be funded from the $315,000 Northwest Bellevue allotted budget, thanks to the 472 ballots that were submitted during fall 2018:
1. Bellevue Way Landscape Enhancement
This project will provide for the beautification of the Bellevue Way streetscape on the west side of the boulevard that currently consists of common turf between curb and sidewalk and a mix of aging shrubs in right-of-way back of sidewalk. This project will remove the water inefficient turf, improve the soil and irrigation, and design and implement a landscape of plant combinations that will unify the streetscape of Northwest Bellevue. Opportunities on the east side of Bellevue Way such as the Northtowne Park frontage will be researched for upgrades.
Project Managers:
Tom Kuykendall (425-452-7924); TKuykendall@bellevuewa.gov
Scott MacDonald (425-452-4852);
SMacDonald@bellevuewa.gov
2. 100th Ave NE and NE 18th Raised intersection
This project will install a raised intersection at 100th Ave NE and NE 18th St to improve visibility of pedestrians crossing the street and encourage motorists to drive at a slower speed. The raised intersection will include high visibility school crosswalks and enhanced street lighting to improve safety at this key connection point for students walking to and from schools located on 98th Ave NE.
Project Manager: Reka Aczel (425-452-6133); RAczel@bellevuewa.gov
A Northwest Bellevue NEP Newsletter was mailed to each household in your area with complete voting results.
The Northwest Bellevue NEP kicked off in April of 2018 with 81 resident-identified project ideas submitted. Those projects were then reviewed for accessibility, feasibility, cost, timeliness and maintainability to determine which were eligible to become ballot projects. 17 projects were chosen and voted on by area residents. The top two projects receiving votes (listed above) will be installed over the next 3-5 years.
The NEP program is a commitment from Bellevue’s City Council to provide residents with the opportunity to enhance their individual neighborhood areas through city-funded, small capital improvement projects. In 2015, the Council approved $5-million for the program over a seven-year period to serve two NEP programs a year. The budget is distributed among each of the NEP neighborhood areas, according to the number of households in each area.
For more information about the specifics of the city’s NEP program, contact NEP Coordinator, Theresa Cuthill at: tcuthill@bellevuewa.gov
Projects in Bridle Trails
Three projects where chosen in August 2018 for the Bridle Trails neighborhood area:
- Enhanced walkway on Northeast 40th Street between 140th and 146th avenues
- Cherry Crest Elementary School intersection improvements
- Cherry Crest mini park improvements
The Sequence
When the NEP comes to your neighborhood area, it follows a sequence that includes the following steps.
- Solicitation: Residents submit project ideas (mail, website or kick-off meeting).
- Scoping: Staff review project ideas using screening criteria and generate ballot projects.
- Preview: Residents review and comment on ballot projects (open house or website).
- Voting: Households in the neighborhood area receive ballots to vote for three projects of their choice.
- Implementation: The city implements projects that receive the most votes within five years.
