The opportunity is there. Now the ideas need to come together. Next Saturday, May 7th, the Pike/Pine Urban Neighborhood Council will hold a day of community brainstorming to help shape its push to lid more of I-5 and better connect Capitol Hill to downtown Seattle.

Never attended a charrette before? Here’s how the 2010 process worked to help shape the community priorities for development around Capitol Hill Station. The concepts that were formed that day in 2010 became the community framework for the City Council’s development agreement for the land around the light rail station. Over the coming years, that agreement will lead to the development of 418 apartments at the site with 38% of units to rent for below market rate for 12 years and another 86 units designated for “permanent affordable housing.”

There could be similar opportunities at stake in the I-5 lidding discussion. PPUNC has been making its case for lidding I-5 to connect Capitol Hill to downtown with green space, and possibly even housing. The money to pay for studying the ideas could be a public benefit required to be delivered as part of the $1.4 billion expansion of the Washington State Convention Center. Simpler visions like a lidded extension of the Plymouth Pillars Park dog run might also be part of the plan.

Need some more inspiration? Here’s PPUNC’s promo for the May 7th charrette.