BELLEVUE, Wash. — The city of Bellevue is moving forward with plans to transform nearly 28 acres of Bellevue Airfield Park, on top of what used to be a landfill.
The landfill operated from 1951 to 1964, according to the city’s parks department.
Glenn Kost, the manager of capital planning and development for city of Bellevue Parks, said there will be challenges in repairing the old methane system, maintaining the groundwater monitoring system, and handling the differential settling.
“So there are a number of challenges that go along with a landfill that are unusual to a piece of property,” Kost said.
Currently, there are sticks in the grass marking spots where methane gas is being extracted from the trash below. Kost said after 50 years, there’s so little methane that there’s not enough to maintain a burn system. Instead, the methane goes to a nearby building and gets filtered before it’s expelled.
To further address the methane, Kost said there will be much more than the current dirt fill.
“We’re going to cap it with a clay layer to make sure that water doesn’t penetrate into the garbage, in effect drying it out – in what I think landfill people call ‘killing the landfill,’” he said.
On top of that clay will be sand, then the synthetic turf for athletic fields.
He said the city of Bellevue acquired 14.5 acres from Boeing in 2002, the majority of which was the landfill. Then they acquired 10.5 acres from Bellevue Public Schools.
“There are simply no other properties of this size that could be used for a large piece of park and open space,” he said. In particular, there are no more spaces that aren’t bordered by residences, making this parcel a prime location for a lighted athletic field.
Across the country, the practice of turning landfills into parks is popular for urban settings where land is scarce.
The trend started in Seattle, when the old Rainier dump became part of what is now Genesee Park.
But certain park-goers, including Don Osborne, said, “We want a place for our dogs."
A regular group of dog owners said they want to keep the space as is, so their dogs can run off leash.
Bellevue’s parks department has instead decided to expand the off-leash area at nearby Robinswood Park.
“I like that it’s wide open. The dogs can kind of run around and stuff. But I like the idea of putting fields out here. We have three boys,” said Brian Taibel, who lives nearby.
The design phase of the project could take two to three years.
The project will be paid for by a 2008 levy, and may cost around $20 million by the time it’s done.
KIRO
