I, like many others, attended the May 4, 2010, Woodinville City Council meeting to find out more about the plans for downtown. I realize the planning has been going on for a very long time and I have not been an active participant in voicing my opinion.

I don’t live here, so I use that as my excuse. From the sounds of it though, most of the people living here haven’t voiced their opinions either. There are a few who are very actively involved. My only real say in the matter comes as a downtown Woodinville business owner.

I’ll tell you why I choose to live in Bothell though.

I moved to downtown Bothell recently instead of downtown Woodinville for a few reasons.

I can quickly and easily walk with my kids to a library, a grocery store, restaurants, a fabulous park and the Sammamish Trail, Pop Keeney and more. I can get in a work-out on Main Street and quickly get home to shower before heading to work.

There are unique stores selling clothing, gifts, flowers and furniture – most of which are locally owned. My son takes a City of Bothell class at the Lytle house at Bothell Landing. I can walk him there.

Bothell has a vision and has just started a large construction project to reach that vision. I am actually really excited about it.

Construction will impact my normal route to and from work, but there are other grid roads I can take to my destination.

I listened to so many people talk about what they want for Woodinville’s downtown. I agreed with many. I heard the concerns of R-1 zoning in the residential areas. I agree – if I owned the Wellington area home I grew up in, I would not want to see my neighborhood turned into massive housing.

I am a business owner and a single parent. Could you imagine if I lived in an apartment and worked in the space below and could walk to all the rest of the things I need? You may have no idea how fabulous that sounds to me – it would make my life so much easier! It is why I picked downtown Bothell. It was the closest alternative.

Do you want to attract people like me? People who spend most of their money in the community they live and work in?

As a business owner, do you want to keep me downtown?

For a small business owner it’s difficult to afford rent right now and there is no way to find half the businesses in Woodinville. With the many sprawled-out strip malls with poorly designed parking lots and buildings, this downtown is not appealing. If you can’t get people to your business and the City doesn’t help bring them into downtown, why be downtown at the high rates?

I listened to the proposed "no big box stores downtown" desire over and over again. The wording potentially used in the zoning would basically force Molbak’s out – really?

Molbak’s is critical to Woodinville’s history, tourism and one of the main draws into downtown if they live outside of Woodinville.

Why don’t we quit focusing so heavily on the "threat" of that big giant scary store coming to town and create a desire for small, unique stores to come to town.

Why can’t we work harder on the train transportation system to get people from the tourist district to downtown? The tracks are already in place. Could the open property by the skate park be turned into parking with a train/bus depot? What about a train stop by the intersection near Barnes and Noble and back out at Columbia Winery? There are so many options for the future of Woodinville. Think outside the "big box."

Who is going to sit down and create a complete vision for all of Woodinville which should bring Woodinville full circle? Maybe downtown and the tourist district should not be thought of so differently. Sometimes I feel like those of us downtown are forgotten. There isn’t much reason to come here – let’s change that!