News and Analysis

Here are two things I’ve worked on this weekend – first, an excerpt from the weekly newsletter that summarizes the HOMA item on the Planning Commission agenda on Wednesday night. This is only part of the newsletter, which this week also covered the Human Services Commission agenda, Council’s consent calendar, the Hazard Mitigation Plan, FIFA World Cup plans, mandatory minimum, NAP for Eastgate and Factoria, Affordable Housing Strategy, Curb Pricing, and the Transportation Facility Plan Update. Please sign up for the newsletter using the link in the upper right if this sort of thing interests you.

Second, a letter to the Planning Commission. I probably should have titled it Medium to Large scale HOMA opportunities, since there are also a lot of even smaller parcels that will likely be affected and will need a different approach. I will try to add references here, such as the link to childcare recommendations, in advance of the meeting on Wednesday. I should also caveat that I haven’t talked to anyone about most of these ideas, such as curb-sharing, microvotes, or commercial space occupancy requirements. I also see value in copying other jurisdictions and past projects, so that we can have more confidence that an experiment will work, and I have more legwork here before I expect anyone to be convinced, this is just my vision.

Newsletter Excerpt

Housing Opportunities in Mixed Use Areas: Bellevue has adopted a target to create 5,700 affordable housing units between 2026-2036. The agenda memo has a rundown of the past Council and Planning Commission discussions that have led to this point, and also points to the economic analysis which was done. Lowrise development was the only housing type that would have favorable market conditions that allow feasibility. Positive conditions for lowrise development can almost entirely be attributed to its utilization of surface parking rather than structured parking. One change in the proposed rules is an alteration in lot coverage that would disincentivize surface parking but still allow density. It is interesting to see in the analysis how parking spot construction costs increase with depth. In a prototypical 250 unit building, the Middle Housing changes reduced the parking requirement from 338 to 250 spaces, and a further decrease will come soon with ESSB 5184 implementation. 

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Bellevue is offering an opportunity for community members to weigh in on how they feel about Bellevue and how they access information from city government. The survey will be open through October 5th for people who were not able to attend the meeting. What do you think of Bellevue and our city government? How do you seek information about Bellevue? What types of information are you likely to look for? How do you communicate to the city staff and leadership? 

Some of the ideas I had for improving outreach:

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Updated with WFDW quote and an application example:

TLDR: Please consider writing in to the Planning Commission either by 11am on Tuesday (in order to be included in their Written Communications pdf that’s sent out a week before the September 24th meeting) or prior to the meeting (though I’m not sure how far in advance you have to comment for them to see it).

One of the things that had been expected to moderate the impacts of the recent middle housing upzone that passed in June 2025 is the “development intensity factor” that would reduce the potential number of housing units in proportion to the percentage of the site that’s a critical area. Unfortunately, the current version of the Critical Areas Ordinance update would eliminate this factor.

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A density factor like this is a common feature in other cities’ codes too. For instance, Seattle’s wording says: “Density on lots with Environmentally Critical Areas (ECAs) would be reduced in portion to percentage of lot that contains ECAs”  This means that if your lot is 50% wetland, you can build 50% as many housing units.

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This video covers transportation history like the mosquito fleet and Curacao’s historic bridge, and has great Lake Washington flyovers, a visit to the inside of a pontoon, and lots of dramatic music. Did you know the I-90 bridge has only 38 pontoons?

As we prepare for the Housing Opportunities in Mixed Use Areas (HOMA) virtual presentation on September 8th and the Planning Commission meeting on September 10th when HOMA will be on the agenda, you can see the impacts of similar changes to zoning in the Pinnacle North project, for which a Notice of Decision (link to 251 page pdf) was posted recently in the August 28 Weekly Permit Bulletin. It is likely that people will feel more impacts from the ways HOMA adds height to Neighborhood Centers, but HOMA could also dramatically change the feel of new buildings being added to Downtown Bellevue, and we have an opportunity here to make our near-term growth more livable, with more community amenities – we shouldn’t pass that up!

Although Pinnacle North originally submitted its plans in 2021, it was revised in response to the incentives created in the 2023 Interim Official Control (IOC) ordinance,* and extended in 2024. The IOCs created a temporary sweetener to build taller since large projects were stalling due to high interest rates, and in some cases this also increased the number of affordable housing units that are planned (Pinnacle North is only one of four multi-tower projects that is leveraging the IOC incentives). It applied to most Downtown areas shown on the second map here (not perimeter overlay A-1 [immediately adjacent to Vuecrest and including the Polynesia] or the DT-OB district [Old Bellevue], but otherwise all of Downtown). 

Some implications of the IOC for this project: 

Buildings are allowed to be 25′ taller than would otherwise be the maximum, and the increased floor area ratio (FAR) may allow an actual addition of more than two stories because the buildings aren’t hitting the cap on maximum sqft.  

The two buildings where the affordable units will go are increasing their number of units by 99% and 96%, and the other buildings will be larger too. 

Buildings are now tall enough that the tower rules with greater setbacks would normally apply, so they had to ask for a variance that would allow the edge of a balcony on one building to be 32′ from the windows of the opposite building, and 33′ for another set of buildings. There is a 60′ requirement that is supposed to apply where privacy might be an issue, but these are 40 and 41′ apart if you do not count the balconies. 

The averaged floor plate area of the floors above 80′ exceeds the maximum allowed, though only slightly. 

The only amenity they’re counting toward the amenity point requirement is the plaza space, which includes a water feature. On page 240, you can see the list of other potential amenities that are not being provided, such as childcare, enhanced streetscape, active recreation areas and dog runs, street corner canopies, sustainability certification such as LEED, public art, and community meeting rooms/non-profit space. 

The IOC gives an advantage to large projects with multiple types of zoning/building types. If all three buildings in the first phase (with the affordable units) had maximized their usage of the affordable housing bonus, they would only be able to have about 60 units of affordable housing. By using part of the potential incentives for the other buildings too, they will be able to put 85 units in two buildings, and extra height for market rate units is being added at the 25th and 26th floor to the tall towers (where different zoning rules apply), which presumably is more profitable than putting the bonus space in the 14 story buildings. 

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No meetings this week, but check out the classes that are available as the school year starts! (Bellevue School District starts on September 2nd, Bellevue College starts on September 22nd)

Bellevue Recreation  https://bellevuewa.gov/city-government/departments/parks/connections All ages, locations all over the city, sports, outdoor activities, learning about animals, dance, swim, music, art, farm events, etc. See the event listing below for some open houses in the next couple weeks where you can find out more about specific programs. 

Bellevue College  https://www.bellevuecollege.edu/ce/ Languages, Art, Culinary Arts, Digital Skills, Health and Wellness, Music and Performance, Storytelling, and more (all adults)TELOS, the 55+ program, is having a coffee event on Sept 11th to share information about their programs. bellevuecollege.edu/ce/retiree-programs

Library  https://kcls.org/locations/bellevue Makerspace, Digital skills, Career support, Book groups, etc. Bellevue Botanical Garden 

https://bellevuebotanical.org/events

Scroll down to the bottom for the full list of events and happenings.

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Fun and educational events:

8/21 Free Scavenger Hunt at Downtown Park, 6:30-8:30pm Max team size 4, at least one adult per team (link)

8/21 Spring District Summer Market (3-7pm) Reptile Show (6pm), Face painting (6pm), and Movie Night: Inside Out (link)

8/22-8/24 Arts in the Garden at BBG, with Master Gardener Plant Clinics and NW Perennial Alliance plant sale (link)

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Last week, BSD sent out an announcement that the start and dismissal hours for the upcoming school year have been posted. See inside for the details!

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Look inside for this week’s event listings.

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I had written a previous post on co-living, boardinghouses, and SROs, but now I’m hoping for your input on what is worth doing for Bellevue in the next few months before co-living is implemented here (as required by HB 1998).

There’s a nice webinar video explainer produced by Commerce here. Note: The image below from their presentation shows a 1/4 mile radius, though the 6 unit allowance is actually based on walking distance.

For the parcels that allow 6 units by right or are in mixed use areas, owners may create any of these co-housing types starting in January 2026.  

1) House retrofits

This is the most straightforward way to add households to existing homes. You just need to put a lock on the bedroom doors, and bedrooms already have to be at least 70 sqft, with at least 50 sqft per person living in it (video, 28:51). There would be a shared kitchen, shared bathrooms in some cases, and possibly other shared living spaces, but it seems likely that living rooms and dens would also be converted to be rentable. 

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