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Bellevue Airfield Park - Master Plan Update - Survey #3
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Bellevue Airfield Park is a nearly 28-acre park located in the Eastgate Neighborhood, near Phantom Lake and within walking distance of Robinswood Park. Historically, the site was used as a private airfield as well as a landfill. The landfill was closed in the 1980’s and has been monitored for gas and leachate since that time. Today, the undeveloped park site includes a large open field on the southern part of the site, over the historic landfill, and the northern portion of the site is densely wooded and includes a pond that collects and cleanses stormwater. The park is surrounded on the south and east sides by office parks and on the north and west by residential areas. Steep slopes separate the southern open area from the lower, wooded zones to the north, creating access challenges on the site.
The city began a community led process to create a vision for Airfield Park which led to the 2012 master plan and included athletic fields, play areas, picnicking, a splash pad, trails, and other park amenities. The park has remained undeveloped, but recent interest has increased including consideration of using a portion of the site for a community center and aquatic facility. In response, the city has begun a new planning process, to revisit the community’s priorities and update the vision for development of Airfield Park.
In 2021 the City Council, recognizing the need to provide an aquatic facility to serve Bellevue, directed an update of the Bellevue Airfield Park Master Plan to both hear Bellevue community’s development preferences for this community park and to evaluate the impacts of an aquatic facility on the site.
A master plan update offers an opportunity to address the growing aquatic needs of Bellevue. The only public aquatic facility in Bellevue - the Bellevue Aquatic Center - is reaching the end of its useful life. Built in 1970, it has served Bellevue’s approximate 150,000 residents for over 50 years. Its age, capacity, and inability to provide a full range of aquatic programing make it inadequate to meet the current and future demand for swimming facilities in Bellevue. The Bellevue Airfield Park site is the only undeveloped City-owned site large enough to accommodate the recommended Aquatic Facility Concept plan (10-11 acres).