Students returning to Interlake High School on Tuesday were greeted by a new pedestrian -activated flashing light sign system on the crosswalk on 24th Avenue north of school. Due to the outstanding efforts of a dedicated  Sherwood Forest Community Club team and the City of Bellevue, this new solar-based flashing light system will now greatly enhance the safety of pedestrians crossing 24^th  Avenue at all hours. Do you have ideas for Sherwood Forest improvements ? Are you interested in participating on one of the SFCC committees ? – If so, get involved – send an email to the SFCC Board at pelkie123@msn.com – Real change can happen as we can see above.

Walgreens has provided the Sherwood Forest Community Club drawings of their new store construction at the former Uwajimaya site. Walgreens is the only officially store known for the building at this time. (drawings are provided to SFCC use only and are not authorized for publication).

Also, SFCC and two other Crossroads area concerned parties met with and submitted letters to the Bellevue City Planning Director to ensure the Angelos property retains its Commercial Business zoning as part of an earlier Crossroad area agreement. This zoning is similar to other Crossroads area properties and prohibits structures greater than 2 stories. Will keep you posted on the City’s repsonse.

Puget Sound Energy has begun it’s work to build a new substation at 15335 NE 24th St. in Redmond (across the street from O’Reilly Auto Parts and next to Ethan Allen Furniture).  The substation was originally planned for a space in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood, but community pressure influenced PSE to move the location.  

Work on the substation is expected to disrupt traffic on Bel-Red Way and NE 24th street from now until the end of the year.  Transmission lines will be built in the spring of 2012, with the entire project completed in fall 2012.

A statement on the PSE website explains the need for the new substation:
“PSE needs to build a new substation and reconfigure existing transmission lines to meet increased demand for electricity in the south Redmond/northeast Bellevue area. The Ardmore substation will increase system capacity to accommodate future growth and improve electric reliability for our customers. Extensive residential and commercial growth in the south Redmond/northeast Bellevue area has resulted in the electrical load approaching the capacity of existing substations and transmission lines. PSE will design the substation so that we can expand electric capacity without expanding its footprint, which will help accommodate the long-term plans of the cities of Bellevue and Redmond to increase land use densities in the Bel-Red corridor and Overlake area.”

For more information about the project, visit the Ardmore Substation page on the PSE website here.

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