News and Analysis

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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Here are some reasons builders might choose Bellevue if they’re looking to put two homes on one lot. 

In Seattle, you don’t get a reduction in setbacks until you put three homes on a lot, but in Bellevue, you only need to build two homes to get the “Middle Housing” setback reductions of 10’ to the front and 10’ to the back, plus side setback reductions in some cases. If each home is 60’ wide and three stories tall, that could be an extra 1800 square feet of potential building size for each, and it’s not uncommon for new construction here to sell for upwards of $1000/sqft. 

FAR allowances in Bellevue wouldn’t necessarily allow you to maximize your use of that area, but unlike many other cities, we don’t count the ADUs toward that allowance (see page 12), and we give each home and each ADU an extra 300 sqft that may be used for storage or garage space. ADUs are allowed to be at least 1200 sqft, but can exceed that if they are all on one level. 

Redmond has a payment-in-lieu to provide funds for affordable housing, and in 2027 it will be $30 per sqft, starting at the first unit. If there are two 3000 sqft homes and two 1500 sqft ADUs on a lot that’s approximately 10k sqft, the Redmond homes will be $270k more costly to build (though Redmond’s fees are lower in 2025 and 2026 as the policy is ramped up). 

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This is the longest list of fun events to be featured in the newsletter so far. I hope you’ll check these out, and consider signing up for the newsletter with the link in the upper right.

8/1-8/3 Seafair Weekend (link)

8/1-8/3 First of three weekends for A Fairy Modern Midsummer with Bellevue Youth Theatre (link)

8/5 Primary Election ballots due 

8/5 Multigenerational Pinwheel and puppet-making at Highland Park, 12-3pm (link)

8/5 National Night Out at Crossroads Park, 4-7pm (link)

8/5 Art on the Avenue guided tour 5:30-6:30 (link)

8/5 Downtown Movies in the Park: Cars Entertainment begins at 7pm and the movie at dusk (link) 

8/6 Abridged Romeo and Juliet at NWAC Theatre on the Green, 6:30-7:30pm (link)

8/7 Lunchtime Line Dancing at City Hall Plaza, 12-1:30pm (link)

8/7 Fraggle Rock Crew breakdancing showcase at The Eight (new building) plaza, 5-6:30pm (link)

8/7 Crossroads Movies in the Park: An American Tail Entertainment begins at 7pm and the movie at dusk (link) 

8/8 Scrap Cooking Club, 12-1pm at BBG (link)

8/9 $5 Yoga in the park (link)

8/9 Watercoloring postcards with live flute/cello music, in Spring District Plaza, free, 10am-noon (link)

8/9 free Archery Tag Adventure at Ashwood Park, 4-7pm, ages 8+ (link)

8/10 Free Plyometrics class at Robinswood Park 6:30-7:30pm (link) also 8/17, 8/25

8/12 Startup425: Startup and Small Business coworking in Bellevue (link)

8/13 Aesop’s Fables at NWAC Theatre on the Green, 6:30-7:30pm (link)

8/13 free Multigenerational Fabric and Twine Flora Crafting, Ashwood Park 12-2pm (link)

8/14 Northwest Pops Orchestra at City Hall Plaza, 6-7pm (link) 

8/15 Bracelet making, North Bellevue Community Center 1-2pm (link) 

8/16 Nike and TruFusion HIIT class (link)

8/16 Salsa Social at City Hall Plaza 6-9:30pm (link) 

8/17 Storytime for Kids at BBG (link) 

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

8/22-8/24 Arts in the Garden at BBG, with Master Gardener Plant Clinics (link)

8/23 BelRed Arts Night Market, 3-9pm (link)

8/26 Seattle Steel Pan Project at Bellevue City Hall Plaza 11:30-1pm (link) 

8/28 Spring District Summer Market (3-7pm) Magic Show, Face painting, and Movie Night: Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (link)

8/29 Open Mic night at Third Culture Coffee, 7-9pm (link)

8/30 free Boxing for Belonging workout series in Downtown Park, 1-3pm (link)

8/30-8/31 Ganesh Ustav at Crossroads 

9/13 Keep Bellevue Beautiful Signature Streets cleanup (link)

Recurring events: Flowers, produce and music events 

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