UW Bothell, Cascadia partner to develop new campus master plan

By Catherine Krummey • March 3, 2017 1:30 am
The University of Washington Bothell and Cascadia College map shows the current status of the campus. The schools are working together to determine how to accommodate more academic space, residential space and parking as part of a new campus master plan. Contributed art
The University of Washington Bothell and Cascadia College map shows the current status of the campus. The schools are working together to determine how to accommodate more academic space, residential space and parking as part of a new campus master plan. Contributed art

University of Washington Bothell and Cascadia College are partnering to engage with the public as they develop a campus master plan to increase the academic, residential and parking capacity of both schools.

UW Bothell Assistant Vice Chancellor for Government and Community Relations Kelly Snyder and Cascadia College Vice President of College Relations and Advancement Meagan Walker recently gave a presentation on what the options are for the campus master plan at a Greater Bothell Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Currently, the campus has 683,500 square feet of academic space, 74,200 square feet of residential space and 2,272 parking stalls. The schools have developed three possible scenarios to expand the space. All three options would create a total of 1.5 million square feet of academic space for the campus, with the residential options somewhere between 165,000 and 330,000 square feet in total and the parking stalls possibly expanding anywhere from between 3,700 to 4,200 stalls.

Walker said the final campus master plan would likely involve some combination of the “Institutional Identity,” “Grow Along Topography” and “Develop the Core” scenarios. “We’re going to choose bits and pieces from all of them,” she said.

Information about all of the scenarios, including maps of the proposed expansions, can be found online at uwb.edu/campusplanning/master-plan or cascadia.edu/discover/about/campus/master_plan.aspx.

Snyder anticipated that the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) would be ready for the project later in March, and that will help the colleges develop a single preferred plan for expansion. A final EIS should be ready in May, and the resulting campus master plan will require approval from the UW Board of Regents, the Cascadia College Board of Trustees and the Bothell City Council.

Snyder emphasized that actually adding new buildings to the campus would be a long process. She said it would take UW Bothell approximately eight years to get a new building, and 10 years for Cascadia.

“It’s not going to happen overnight,” she said.

In the meantime, the schools plan to hold more public meetings on the project. The next meeting is scheduled for 5:30-7:30 p.m. March 27 in Husky Hall, room 1160. A full schedule of meetings can be found at the master plan webpages for both UW Bothell and Cascadia. Both pages also give members of the public the opportunity to submit comments and questions related to the master plan.