Surprising Newcastle: visions and opportunities

The little town of Newcastle, population around 10,000, has some big dreams for itself as a livable, picturesque American city, and, by gosh, it might just make it.

Squeezed between Renton and Bellevue, Newcastle voters incorporated a decade ago as a way of not becoming Renton. Like similar communities of that era, incorporation — of Sammamish, Kenmore, Newcastle and others — was felt the better option to being part of the sometimes indifferent King County government or getting a postmark by annexation.What became of Newcastle in the following years was not much, except for a couple of very big things that now look like real assets: one of the finest golf courses in the region sharing views by million-dollar homes, and an almost accidental greenbelt around the city that gives it the leafy character of a postcard.

There's nothing to write home about sitting in the Newcastle City Hall, a warren of corridors leading to a meeting room right above a machine shop. But inside City Hall, plans are emerging toward a unifying planned community with cottages and shops sitting just beneath the Golf Club at Newcastle.

"We have a plan," said Newcastle Mayor Ben Varon, "and that ties to a vision of a very livable city with a downtown core of attractive shops and interaction of pedestrians and community."

To back that up, Newcastle passed some interesting zoning changes in 2007, which are atypical of many suburban solutions. For example, Newcastle's new zoning does not put a limit on multifamily dwellings in the downtown section and mandates 50 percent pedestrian-friendly uses of the main streets. The new Newcastle also stops all future drive-throughs, in favor of more walk, less ride.

John E. Starbard, city manager, also notes that the new King County library building will be the first dual-use library and condo/retail building on the West Coast. He thinks it will be the model for how small cities adapt public buildings with private interests.

"Besides," Starbard said, "if the library wants to expand, they can push down a wall and take some retail space."

It's clear Newcastle is starting from behind on some issues. The City Hall is an embarrassment, and while the city is paying $100,000 a year to live above a noisy machine shop, the new plan for a people-friendly City Hall is still without funding or a building site.

But in the labyrinthine growth of community identity in the region, there certainly will be a place for a redone Newcastle. It has a solid home and real-estate base, and the community currently has opted to stay away from big-box retail and strip-mall driving destinations — although that's about what it has now.

Starbard says the natural geography of Newcastle, a close commute to Seattle and Sea-Tac Airport, and the permanent green buffer around the city will work in its favor.

The city planner is also enthusiastic about attracting developers for cottage living. That's housing of about 1,000 square feet appealing to retirees and singles. It can be put in the cleverest configurations to offer another choice between codes and typical homes on a larger lot.

Will any of this work? Hard to say with a difficult housing economy, but a visit to Newcastle is also a visit to a place of experimentation and expectations. It came of age in a different time; an old Newcastle flourished when miners pulled coal from its ground. That yesterday is barely visible today and at first glance, there is nothing very special about a town with cul-de-sacs and the standard retail outlets on Coal Creek Parkway.

But near-in suburbs are the laboratories of adaptation of how people will live in greater density and with small-town atmosphere. That has happened most successfully in Kirkland, thanks to a waterfront, but also in Renton and in the treasured neighborhoods of Seattle such as Green Lake, Wallingford and West Seattle.

So it might go with Newcastle, born in 1993, ready to shake the coal dust off its shoes.

James F. Vesely's column appears Sunday on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is: seattletimes.com">jvesely@seattletimes.com; for a podcast Q&A with the author, go to Opinion at seattletimes.com