Jointly released by King County, the City of Redmond, and the King County Housing Authority
Redmond — King County Executive Ron Sims, Councilmember Cynthia Sullivan and a
wide range of public and private partners today celebrated the start of construction at
The Village at Overlake Station, the first development of its kind in the U.S.
that links affordable housing, a day-care facility and a park-and-ride transit
center on a single site near the Eastside’s high-tech employment centers.
The project is part of the Executive’s SmartGrowth initiative and one of
King County’s Transit-Oriented Development projects aimed at encouraging better
land use, increasing transit use, and creating stronger communities.
The transit-oriented development, located at the site of the former Overlake Park and Ride lot next to Eastside Group Health Hospital, will combine:
- 308 units of workforce housing
- a 4,500 square-foot childcare facility and
- a Metro park-and-ride transit center
— all within a stone’s throw of the Microsoft campus and other major Eastside employers.
“At last, it will be possible for families who work in this community to live in this community,” said Redmond Mayor Rosemary Ives, who hosted the celebration. “Because of the skyrocketing costs of housing on the Eastside, we’ve been struggling to find ways to keep our city affordable to our teachers, medical assistants, clerical workers, and service workers. This project is a bellwether in real estate development.”
King County Executive Sims agrees. “This development represents the intelligent use of County-owned land. We’ve tripled the use of this valuable space by thinking “up” not “out” - building affordable housing and a childcare facility on top of a former park-and-ride lot. And we’re making it easier for Redmond residents to use our County-wide bus system by putting their housing and jobs where the transit center is. The idea is completely eco-logical.” Sims said the County is sponsoring several other such projects, making use of Metro Transit's convenient routes and success at getting people out of their cars and onto the bus.
“This is an important model,” said King County Housing Authority Executive Director Stephen Norman. “Partnering private capital with public resources allowed us to create a new approach to appropriately accommodate this region’s growth.”
KCHA administers a range of quality affordable rental housing programs for residents of King County, as well as providing homeownership opportunities to lower-
income working families. The Authority serves more than 12,000 households, including families, the elderly, disabled persons, and other special-needs households.
Transit-oriented development, also called TOD, refers to pedestrian-friendly land development activities that are built within easy walking distance of a major transit station.
The Transit Oriented Development Section of the King County Department of Transportation has been working on bus-related TOD joint development projects since 1998.
Ground was broken in July on a Renton project that will blend apartment living, a park-and ride garage and a bus transit center in the same location. Additional King County projects are being pursued in Auburn, Burien, Convention Place, Kenmore, Kent, Northgate, and Shoreline.
