Renton eyes the future of Cascade Village, Benson Hill revitalization

Published 7:30 am Friday, May 22, 2026

Renton’s community plan for the Benson Hill neighborhood uses a feedback-focused approach to developing the city’s most recent major annexation.

During the May 11 committee of the whole meeting, Renton Planning Director Matt Herrera and Redevelopment Manager Paul Hintz provided a comprehensive update on the Benson Hill Community Plan in the first formal update since the plan’s adoption in 2013.

The neighborhood south of City Center and the Cedar River was largely incorporated into the city of Renton in 2008.

“Community planning differs from our comprehensive planning efforts as it’s more of a bottom-up, instead of a top-down style of planning,” Herrera said. “What we’re able to do with the community plan is go straight out to the neighborhoods and ask them what’s important to them.”

Hintz said the most common public need was to enhance Cascade Village, a small shopping center located on 116th Avenue just north of Petrovitsky Road that was once “the hub of commercial activity in Benson Hill.” The community said they had cherished the bowling alley, grocery store and other great businesses that had been in the shopping center.

The efforts to create a community focus in the heart of Benson Hill have led the city to support small businesses in marketing. The city has used events to make the businesses more well-known in the community.

“While economic development conditions at Cascade Village have improved over the years, we have yet to see any new development since the plan was adopted,” Hintz said. “While development is really market-driven and a major financial decision by any landowner, we can possibly incentivize redevelopment through zoning amendments or rezoning Cascade Village altogether.”

The plan recommends attracting an urgent care facility or a vocational school to fill Benson Hill’s service gaps.

Multimodal transportation is also an emphasis in the plan driven by community feedback for better and safer connectivity throughout the area. 116th Avenue SE bisects the Benson Hill area and runs almost the entire length north to south. However, the road lacks the city’s standard frontage improvements.

“Our public works peers continue to find funding to make those incremental improvements, but it is very dependent on those funds,” Hintz said. “Every once in a while we do see new development occur on 116th Avenue and therefore we see new frontage improvements installed.”

New businesses in the area, such as Slice of Italy, Wendy’s and Chipotle, have worked to make the environment more pedestrian friendly with outdoor seating and the drive-thru in the rear of the building.

“So using the Benson Hill Community Plan as a nexus, we’re able to actually do site-specific conditions when we’re doing land use permits, point to that plan, and add conditions if needed,” Herrera said.

Hintz said since the area was annexed from King County, most of the areas that do have sidewalk or bicycle lanes are insufficiently sized and don’t meet city standards for an urbanized area. Sidewalk or bike lane improvements currently in the 2025-2030 Transportation Improvement Program include 116th Avenue from SE 162nd Street to SE 160th Street, and SE 168th Street.

The upcoming King County I-Line Bus Rapid Transit line will travel through the Benson Hill community, connecting the Renton Transit Station and the Auburn Transit Station. Hintz said the line will provide the neighborhood with increased frequency of buses, expected to begin in 2027.

The plan requests the city to improve access to parks, recreation and natural areas, which Hintz said they will do through the creation of new parks or redevelopment of existing parks. In terms of trail development, the city is working to formalize the Tapeworm Trail network, a long-established network of mountain biking trails that were actually built by users on Puget Sound Energy’s property located just next to Philip Arnold Park.

“These are actually cherished routes and offer really technical rider experiences for mountain bikers,” Hintz said. “Trails like this help to improve local economies, boost environmental stewardship, and even reduce crime in areas that are often unseen.”

King County is nearing fruition on the missing link of the Soos Creek Trail, which is outside the city limits but offers Benson Hill residents more opportunities for recreation and connections for non-motorized transportation.

The city’s plan to improve safety in the Benson Hill neighborhood includes expanding support for neighborhood cleanup efforts to maintain property values, continue forging personal relationships between police and residents and business owners, and continue police representation at events. Hintz cited the mural on the Benson Bruin containers as an improvement to the physical conditions.

“This kind of revolves around what we call placemaking, which is creating identity, ownership of a place, and making sure that there is a sense of pride that can be instilled in the community,” Hintz said.

Herrera said the city is currently in the planning stage for the Valley Community Plan to implement this community-focused planning in the southwest neighborhood of Renton.