City Council - Regular Meeting

For being here. Welcome. We are so happy you are here taking the time and engage in city of Bellevue work. Your voice does matter to us, and we are glad to hear from you. City clerk, are you ready for the roll call?

Thank you. Mayor Melakutian?

Here.

Deputy mayor Hamilton?

Here.

Council member Barkava?

Here.

Council member Breyer?

Here.

Council member Newhouse? Here. Council member Suma Doria? And Councilmember Robinson will be joining us shortly.

Thank you so much. Councilmember Borgabo, would you please lead us in the flag salute?

Yes, of course. Please rise if you can.

Thank you. We do have two proclamation. The first one is day of no rules, and council member Breyer would read that. I will invite doctor Afshin Bidari to sit here from Alephah Group. And after she's done, we will hear your comments. Please come up to the table.

Thank you, mayor. Nodos, which in Persian means new day, is an ancestral festivity based on the solar calendar marking the first day of spring and symbolizing nature's renewal, celebrated on the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, and whereas Nodos is celebrated as a central secular holiday by more than 3,000,000 people around the world across a wide, excuse me, across a wide array of ethnic and cultural groups, including but not limited to, Afghan, Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Chechen, Hazara, Kazakh, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Leskin, Pashtun, Iranian, Tatar, Tajik, Turkmen, Uhr, and Uzbekistan's people, each bringing unique customs and traditions to this joyful occasion. And whereas Nauru is celebrated through centuries old tradition symbolizes a time of personal renewal and harmony with nature and an opportunity for families and communities to come together. And whereas Nodo excuse me. And whereas Bellevue is home to many who celebrate Nodos and who are valued members of our community making meaningful contributions to our city's cultural diversity, economy, and civic life, and whereas a holiday that reflects on leaving behind the challenges of the past year while embracing the hope for the future, the spirit of Nodos inspires compassion, unity, and peace within our community.

Now, therefore, I, council member Noreen Breyer, on behalf of Mo Malakoutian, mayor of the city of Bellevue, Washington, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim 03/20/2026 as a day of nodos in Bellevue and encourage all members of our community to recognize and celebrate nodos by attending local events and learning about the diverse cultures that enrich our city. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you, councilor Brouillard. Please, doctor Bidari.

Thank you.

Good evening,

mayor, council members, and distinguished guests. It's truly an honor to accept this proclamation from the city of Bellevue, recognizing Nowruz, the Persian New Year. On behalf of our community, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for this meaningful recognition. Nouruz, which means new day, marks the arrival of spring and has been celebrated for more than three thousand years by millions of people across many cultures and regions. At its heart, Neoruz is celebration of renewal, of nature, of community, and of hope for the year ahead.

Families gather around the half seen table, share meals, reflect on the past year, and welcome the new one with optimism and gratitude. This recognition from the city of Bellevue is deeply meaningful. It affirms that the traditions and cultures we carry with us are valued and respected as part of the diverse and vibrant fabric of this community. Proclamations like this reminds us that belongings grows when communities make space for recognizing and celebrate one another traditions. Nowruz is also a time that brings people together through cultural gathering, music, poetry, and shared meals.

These celebrations invite everyone to experience the universal message of Nurus, renewal, kindness, friendship, and peace. On behalf of our community and Alefpa group, thank you to the city of Bellevue for honoring Nuruz and for supporting the cultural diversity that makes this city such a welcoming place for all.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Please stay around after the second proclamation. We take a picture with you and everyone else who wants to. Thank you. You can go back to your seat, and we have this is the second one. The second proclamation is the twenty fifth anniversary year of the International Ballet Theatre and Academy. Councilmember Njoenhaus would read that. I will invite Vera Altunina, artistic director of International Ballet Theater. Please come to join us at the table. And after councilmember Njoenhaus is done, you we can hear from you.

Wonderful. I was honored to read this proclamation this evening. Whereas the International Ballet Theatre and Academy or IBT was founded twenty five years ago with a vision to bring world class dance education, performance, and cultural enrichment to the East Side. And whereas over those twenty five years, IBT has grown into a cornerstone of Bellevue's arts community, grown nurturing thousands of young dancers and providing high quality training that inspires discipline, creativity, and confidence. And whereas through its annual productions, including beloved classics such as The Nutcracker and Dracula, IBT has introduced generations of Bellevue residents to the beauty and power of ballet, enriching the cultural life of our city.

And whereas IBT's commitment to artistic excellence has attracted professional dancers, choreographers, instructors from around the world contributing to Bellevue's reputation as a vibrant center for the performing arts. And whereas the academy fosters a welcoming and inclusive environment where students of all backgrounds can explore the art of dance, develop their talents, and build lifelong skills, and whereas International Ballet Theatre and Academy has helped cultivate Bellevue's vibrant art scene by providing opportunities for students and audiences to experience dance through education, through performance, and community engagement. Now, therefore, I, Jared Newhouse, on behalf of Mo Malakoutian, mayor of the city of Bellevue, Washington, and the city council, do hereby proclaim 2026 as the twenty fifth anniversary year of the International Ballet Theatre and Academy in Bellevue and encourage all residents to join in celebrating their remarkable contribution to the arts, to our youth, and to our cultural vitality of our community.

Thank you, councilman Neuhaus. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good evening council members, distinguished guests, and members of our community. I first would like to thank thank thank you for incredible work you do for our wonderful community and for the city of Bellevue. Thank you very much. And I wanted to say a special thank you to council member Jared Newnhouse for this continuous support of the art and his belief in the power to strengthen our community.

Thank you. Today, I would like to briefly share a journey that began twenty five years ago, One that has deeply interwound my life with this incredible city and the people who live here. I founded International Ballet Theatre and Academy in 09/11/2001. At that of great uncertainty, I remember I wondering that they whether the arts could thrive in such a wounded world or if they even even needed. But by my surprise, people came to the open house many more than we expected.

In that moment I realized something very powerful. Art is not a luxury. It is a necessity especially in times of hardship. It brings people together through emotions, story, and shared experience in the most beautiful and heartfelt way. Over the past quarter century, the International Ballet Theatre has become a cherished tradition within our community.

Each season at the Maidenbauer Theatre, we welcome families from across the East Side, Seattle, even visitors from Canada. Our annual production of Dracula has become a Halloween cult classic while The Nutcracker has delighted generation of family this past twenty five years. For nearly every production, we featured principal dancers from around the world who came to share our stage and share their artistry with our community. At the heart of our mission is the International Ballet Academy where we train students beginning of age three years old and our oldest students is 70 years old. Ladies and gentlemen, it's never late.

So our international faculty reflects the diverse spirit of our community with artists from faculty and teachers from France, Russia, Ukraine, Japan, China, England and of course United States. And one of my greatest joy of seeing former students return years later and bringing their own children to dance. It's really special. So beyond this stage, we remain committed to serving our neighbors through outreach performances and programs for local public schools, Bellevue Square, retirement communities, and one of the very special Seattle Children's Hospital. As we look forward to the future, we continue building a vibrant cultural institution that brings the arts to our community through the dance education and timeless productions.

I would like to use this opportunity to invite all of the guests and all the council members to celebrate our twenty fifth anniversary on the March 21 right across the street at the Maidenbauer Theater. We're doing big performance and the beautiful social reception. So welcome everybody. We'll be happy to see you. We have more information at the concierge. So I wanted just to say at the end and lastly, thank you for being part

of our journey.

Thank you so much. We take a picture right now with you.

Thank you.

City, approve of agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda?

Move to approve the agenda. Second.

It has been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by council member Neuhaus. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. City clerk, are there any speakers signed up for the oral communication?

Yes. Thank you, mayor. This evening, there are eight preregistered speakers on our list. So before I start calling names, I'll go over a few of the rules that the council has in place. So the total time of oral communications is for a period of not more than thirty minutes and all topics must relate to City of Bellevue government.

People speaking to items on tonight's agenda will be called first and then if time remains, speaking to items not on tonight's agenda will be called. The presiding officer in both of those categories is authorized to give preference to those who have not spoken to counsel within the last sixty days or who will be speaking on topics that will come in front of the council within the next sixty days. Each speaker is allowed to speak up to three minutes and only three speakers are allowed to speak to any one side of a particular topic. And one final reminder that in complaints with Washington State campaign laws regarding the use of public facilities, no speaker may support or oppose a ballot measure or may support or oppose, a candidate for an election which includes one's own campaign. If you do begin talking about these topics, we will ask you to stop.

And with that, I'll call our first speaker who's Norm Hansen.

Welcome.

Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm here for the Royal Trails Community Club regarding the Evans Plaza application for the comprehensive plan map update. Can you hear me alright?

If you talk to them live more, then I think everyone can hear

me. Yeah. Okay. I'm here for the Evans Plaza application for the comprehensive map plan update. This could potentially allow for zoning of next use low rise two, which could result in buildings up to 85 feet allowing for seven, eight, and nine stories.

In evaluating the proposal by the Bartle Trails Community Club Land Use Group, it was determined that it clearly does not meet the threshold criteria e for significantly changed conditions. The properties adjacent to the property to the north, south, east, and west have not changed for many years. To the south is another sub area, Bell Red, and that's general commercial. All other adjacent properties are also limited to two stories. Some are office.

Additionally, the recently approved Bellevue comprehensive plan did not result in a change to the plan map on Evans Plaza. The proposal is also not consistent with threshold criteria g regarding our neighborhood character described in the Broil Trails sub area comprehensive plan. Our 3,000 multifamily units already built are also mostly two and three stories. Therefore, we have a recommendation. Deny further threshold review considering the above and the limited city planning resources to allow eight or nine stories would leapfrog the Bell Red sub area zoning of two stories, which is along Northeast 20th and create sprawl.

There appears to be plenty of capacity for the increased density of mixed use in Bell Red that should be developed first since it already has been updated for higher density. Already buildings have been demolished in the Bell Red area on the South Side of Northeast 20th and Ross Plaza with the loss of neighborhood businesses. This land has been vacant for several years and does not help neighborhood livability. Evans Plaza has been part of and served bridal trails for well over fifty years. It is currently, a thriving neighborhood business, and I might mention that the bridal trails community club.

Mister Hansen, I'm sorry. Your time has expired. I do encourage you to email the rest of your comments to counsel.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Jessie Clausen.

Thank

you. Mayor, deputy mayor, and council members, my name is Jessie Claussen, and I'm speaking in support of docketing the Evans Plaza comprehensive plan amendment. The proposal meets the docketing criteria including the changed conditions criterion. Since this comprehensive plan was adopted, city policy has evolved to more clearly encourage mixed use development in neighborhood centers like this one, particularly in transit accessible locations that support walkability, housing choice, and efficient land use. That policy shift is a meaningful change condition that warrants further study.

This request is also appropriately limited in scope. It does not propose redesignating the entire Pineview neighborhood center. Rather, it seeks to include a single property, the Evans Center, Evans Plaza as eligible for mixed use consideration. Given its close proximity to light rail, the site is well positioned to provide future flexibility and optionality consistent with the city's long term growth strategy. We agree with the Planning Commission's and staff's recommendation that this amendment be docketed.

Docketing allows the city to carefully study the proposal and evaluate potential future impacts including height, bulk and scale, neighborhood character, traffic, and compatibility with surrounding development. It does not predetermine zoning or development outcomes. It simply enables future study and thoughtful data driven analysis. This site also represents a strong opportunity for future housing and any specific zoning decisions can be addressed through subsequent processes. For these reasons, this proposal is well suited for inclusion on the docket for future study, and I respectfully urge the council to include it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Tim Motts.

City Council, mayor, and our incredible city staff. I'm here to share tonight some exciting updates from the Boys and Girls Club of Bellevue. My name is Tim Motts. I've had the pleasure to be the president and CEO for the past seven years, see many friends up here and and to my side. But this evening, I would like to share about our seventy five years of impact and what that's culminating in coming up very soon here.

So on behalf of the Boys and Girls Club staff team and the incredible team over at the Bellevue School District led by doctor Kelly Aramaki, John Harrison, Kelly Taylor, and so many others, Starting next school year, the Boys and Girls Club will be expanding into every single elementary school in the Bellevue School District as well as every preschool location. So for context for you all, that's an additional six elementary school sites and we'll be going from one preschool to 14 next year as working families in Bellevue continue to have need in the childcare space. As we expand to serve every single elementary school, I want to emphasize that this growth is rooted in partnership around quality, access and most importantly equity. We are working closely with the district leadership to ensure each preschool site is fully licensed, appropriately staffed and aligned with school communities. A goal is not to grow simply, but to grow responsibly with high standards, safety protocols, and staff training that families expect from the Boys and Girls Club of Bellevue.

And that's what we've been doing year after year with the 18,000 youth that we currently serve. We are also committed to access in ways around financial assistance and inclusive programming. It's been often shared that we provided over $2,000,000 in scholarships this past year. We plan to expand those services next year and also ensure that licensing funds will be able to be secured for Bellevue's families as well, which becomes absolutely critical. And we're working closely with board member Tonneson to make sure that's a reality through DCYF as well.

We often talk about childcare deserts in the state of Washington, and that's been discussed a lot in Olympia this past week. We wanna make sure that no such deserts exist in Bellevue, and we'll continue to work to close that gap, especially for our families that are millennials who report nine in 10 families, millennials report that child care is the number one cost that they have in their homes beyond even their housing. I wanna stress the fact that we work through the Working Connections child care program and any other statewide initiative to ensure that families in Bellevue get the same resources that every other resident in in Washington does. Child care is obviously essential infrastructure for working families and healthy communities. As Washington lawmakers finalize the budget, maintaining strong investments in programs like the WCCC and youth Services will help to ensure that children have safe spaces to learn and grow while parents work.

Our club is committed to work with you all, the city, the city council for the committed support of our organization for all the ways that we can help working families in Bellevue, We know we can accomplish that with your partnership and ours. Thank you all very very much. Thank you all.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Noriko Fujita.

My name is Noriko. I'm here to address my concerns about the forthcoming safe parking program. It's very hard for me to speak spontaneously due to my old age in a limited time allowed. So I prepared the following statement ahead of time, which I would like to read out to you. I live right next to the church parking lot, and I feel I'm the most affected by this project.

I've observed and experienced numerous unpleasant incidents each year. Most homeless people don't follow or care about common rules such as, keeping their pets on the leash, don't pick up their feces, dump cat litter on the church's green area, intrude into my fenced premises looking for their pets, even ask for my help. I was informed by my neighbor that someone came into my backyard with a flashlight in the middle of night. They throw trash around. I'm the one who ends up picking them up.

Wouldn't it bother you? It happens almost every day. Two years ago, there was a woman who occupied the entire area of the church kitchen door. She made an enclosure around her van. She connected that cord to get electricity from building to use her computer, fan, TV, etcetera.

She also connected the hose to get the water to shower and do the laundry. She washed her car every so often. One day, she neglected to close the water faucet. Water ran throughout day and night until it's discovered by a church member the next day. This cost the church to pay $4,500 water bill that summer.

I've heard some loud arguments between homeless people or even with passersby. This was quite a disturbance to me. I feel the residents will have difficulty distinguishing those who live in the parking lot from suspicious outsiders. As you can see, I've been tolerating these unpleasant happenings for some time, but 20 families moving into the site is absolutely out of question. I'm very concerned and distressed by the intrusion and disrespect to my privacy.

And now fear even more for my safety with the increase in the homeless population in my neighborhood. I have little confidence that the church will be able to do something to manage or address these issues as they haven't been able not to do so so far. Extremely unhappy and disappointed if this project goes forward in the near future.

Thank you. The next speaker the next the next speaker on our list is David Spaniard.

Welcome.

Good evening, mayor and, council members. I thank you for the opportunity to address you. My name is Dave Spaniard, and I live in the, Newport I live adjacent to the Newport Presbyterian Church in Greene's Crest. I'm here just to raise a concern about this forthcoming safe parking program. I'd like to briefly speak about site compatibility and infrastructure considerations related to the proposed safe parking program.

Our neighborhood is a small residential area with several physical constraints that are important to consider when evaluating whether this location is appropriate for a program of this scale. First, our neighborhood has a single street for entrance and exit. This creates potential challenges for traffic traffic flow, emergency response access, and evacuation during an incident. Current parking from the three Sunday services overflows onto adjacent streets resulting in blockages such that only one car may drive down the street at a time. Emergency and fire crews would not be able to pass.

The addition of up to 20 safe parkers in the lot would only exacerbate this problem. Second, the surrounding streets have very limited pedestrian infrastructure. Many areas do not have sidewalks. Children in our neighborhood walk along these streets daily to reach the school bus stops at the bottom of the hill, often before sunrise with sparsely placed streetlights. Any increase in vehicle movement or unfamiliar traffic patterns raises legitimate pedestrian safety considerations that deserve careful evaluation.

Homes are located immediately adjacent to the church property with essentially no buffering between the proposed parking area and residential yards. Missus Fujita, whom you've already heard from is but one resident who has had difficulties even with the current much smaller program. From what we understand, the new program may involve up to 20 vehicles potentially representing 60 or more individuals. Programs serving vulnerable families deserve locations where infrastructure, safety planning and operational supports are clearly aligned with that scale. We also understand that safety planning is still being developed.

At this time, it's unclear whether there will be professional twenty four hour security on-site, how incidents would be managed overnight and how communication with nearby residents would occur if concerns arise. Equally important is clarity around accountability. If something goes wrong, who holds operational responsibility, the city, the nonprofit or the church. Clear governance frameworks are essential for both participant safety and community confidence. This site differs significantly from the program's prior location in a commercial district, which has clear physical boundaries and different surrounding infrastructure.

We respectfully ask the city to pause and complete a thorough review of site safety, infrastructure capacity and operational planning before proceeding at this location. We believe Bellevue can support families experiencing homelessness while also ensuring thoughtful site planning. Tonight, we are simply asking the city to slow down and get this right. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Do the next speaker The next speaker is Charles Wong.

Council members, mayor. My name is Charles, and I also live in Greenwich Crest, a small neighborhood of 200 families. We wanna reiterate that we share the city's goal of helping families in need, but the goal, how it's implemented matters just as much as the goal itself. When the city first engaged our neighborhood on February 25, a city representative informed us that the permit was mostly finalized before any meaningful communication with the community has taken place. Our questions, concerns, firsthand experiences felt like an afterthought.

It was only through a tremendous effort by the residents in the following days that we learned that the two temporary land use permits are actually still under review. Our concern is not about the mission of the program, but whether the specific site has been fully evaluated and the surrounding community has had meaningful engagement before decisions move forward. A program like this depends on the community around it. You can place a program in the middle of a compact enclosed neighborhood and expect it to succeed without the people who live there. We are not your adversaries.

We are stakeholders. And our impact shouldn't be treated as an afterthought. My neighbors tonight have shared what this site looks like and some negative experiences that we live through. None of that had a formal channel to be heard, mainly because the permitting pathway doesn't allow for it. Our request tonight again is simple. We respectfully ask the councils to support a pause and the permitting reviews onto our structured community engagement process has taken place. Taking the time to get the right site and the right safeguards in place will ultimately strengthen the program and increase its chances of long term success. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Now we are at the report of the city manager.

We're not done yet.

Oh, you're

not done yet. Sorry.

Sorry. You're good. Okay. Our final speaker is Tim Hay, but I will call out that that was our third and final speaker. We'll be able to hear an opposition or sharing concern regarding the Newport Presbyterian Church parking issue. Mister Hay.

Thank you.

Tim, your time is moving fast. Do you want to just start? Yeah.

I didn't know when it started. It is time to revamp how the city uses the word stakeholder. Our city's planning staff seems to have restricted their use of the word stakeholder to include only property owners, developers, and professionals. But then the staff expanded that grouping to include members of these 14 community groups upon which the staff relies for both professional ideas and social discourse. These groups were formed to advocate for high density housing.

By using these literal community groups who are mostly from Seattle, Our staff has expanded its use of the word stakeholder to now include community groups. In spite of the many requests from the neighborhoods to be included in the very early discussions of new planning for land uses, the only effective response from the city has been to allow access by these types of community groups to the planners and to their early planning. Could this be to avoid staff discomfort? Seeing the access to the city's early on discussions involving land use by these groups, some residents are wondering if the neighborhood community groups shouldn't be afforded some equal protections. So here's our ask.

The neighborhoods insist that the city formally redefine the use of the word stakeholder to include neighborhoods. The neighborhoods will provide a contact list and expect the city staff to notify neighborhood leaders prior to a contact with any members of these types of groups. And regarding the word protection, the words equal protection of the laws are to be found as you know in the final two lines of section one of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of The United States. Thank you for your

Thank you, Tim.

Thank you. We do

you have Can please not clapping hands? I was respectful to your excitement, but it's going to be out of control. So you can all wave hand if you wanna support the speakers. Appreciate you all. Please.

Thank you. We do have one final registered speaker, and that's Maria Hudson.

From the onset, I'm gonna request a meeting with the mayor and the city manager. We're gonna go backwards from the documents I submitted, number three. That is an email between Jimmy Hung and your court liaison. It covers case number 2364175. At the top, your court liaison notifies the prosecutor's office did not get referred to the prosecutor due to lack of investigative leads.

If we go to number one, you guys have a full copy of this and so does your police department. You will see that it there is a recap from the next day of my daughter's child forensic interview that I sent to Bellevue Police Department. Ashley Elliott responds and she notified me that the interview the first child forensic interview was uploaded into Q Tel. Again, twenty three sixty four one seventy five. I in that recap in part point out my point BSD knew about, knew and should have known of our reports and students named in yesterday's interview.

Okay? I'm getting to the point that your police department concealed child forensic interviews and evidence from the prosecutor's office and are still concealing it. When we go to number two, out of order, Lieutenant Quigle of the of the Kirkland Police Department investigated a situation at Juanita Beach involving those same purse perpetrators from the same case number. You'll see that it says, speaking with detective Alexander Schleser of the Bellevue Police Department. Your police department hid, perpetrators and leads in their Q Tel system and falsely sent out case notes saying there were no leads and suspects.

Not just to other police departments but to the prosecutor's office. So there were several incidents in Seattle on Aurora and there were incidents in an abandoned Safeway parking lot down the street from Children's, we need to have a conversation about the criminal concealment of child sex trafficking of your officers. And we need to have a conversation about you inviting another jurisdiction to investigate what happened in this case because 02/10/2026, if you look at the date '23, we are three years into your officers still concealing child sex traffickers including 10/02/2025 at New Castle Beach Park. So when I asked for a meeting I actually meant it because I actually expect you to give the jurisdiction to King County Sheriff's Office, Washington State Patrol, or the FBI for the criminal actions of your officers that have been proven so far by prosecutor Jimmy Hung confirming nothing

Hudson, was sent to that is the end of your time. We do still have a few minutes remaining of oral communication. So at this point, I'd ask if there's anyone else joining us this evening who would like to make a comment. Please raise your hand. I see you, miss Myers. I just wanna do a reminder that it cannot be regarding the safe parking program. Okay. Thank you.

Welcome.

Thank you so much.

I just wanted to talk about a couple of different things related to some of the up zoning that seems likely in the city. First of all, I do think the a question of changed conditions is not met for Evans Plaza. But when we consider the rest of Pineview, if we allow this, it will mean that there will be change conditions for that the Dunn Lumber site can point to. And some of the other businesses in the area may be affected as well. When you think about the amount of additional height, it is a lot of housing capacity. But

I

think as a city, we should look at all the ways that upzoning is happening and consider whether we really need that. I'm also concerned about the HOMA approvals. It's very concerning to me that neighbors, especially near the neighborhood centers, haven't been informed that they may lose the small businesses they depend on. I also don't think the immediate neighbors have received an explanation about the impacts, such as setback changes, that could affect how much their properties are affected. And I really believe the community should participate in a process of deciding which amenities justify an increase of height.

People may want space for small businesses, continued access to groceries and childcare space, and so forth. And the community should be contributing to that discussion about what's important at each location. I also think it puts our grocery stores at risk. So once the home up zoning Bellevue is working on takes effect, the QFC in Northtown, the S Mart in Newport Hills seem likely to be redeveloped because the allowable building heights there are being tripled to 60 feet. In Crossroads, the Indian Metro hypermarket and the grocery outlet could be redeveloped to 10 stories.

The Walmart by one hundred fiftieth could be replaced by eight stories. The TNT supermarket and Target and Factoria and the former Amazon Fresh could be replaced by a mix of sixteen and ten stories. The QFC there could be replaced by five stories. The Southgate Oriental Grocery by 10 stories. Eastgate Plaza's Safeway, QFC, the extra mile, the Jackson's food store there, could be replaced by 10 story buildings.

IFP Market by the Lake Hills Library could be replaced by eight stories. And that is a lot of pressure to put on these sites towards redevelopment. And I think as a community, we need to have more guarantees that we will have access to food and we won't become food deserts in the future. I hope as you move forward with the HOMA process that you'll give careful consideration to that. I know there were some potential sweeteners that were considered that maybe the Planning Commission decided not to go with. I'm not sure what is tailored to what we actually need, but I know many of you have the planning experience to take a really close look at what we need to maintain grocery access for the residents of Bellevue. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. I don't believe I saw any additional hands. Mayor, I will turn it back to you.

Thank you so much, and and thank you for all of the comments. We appreciate you all. Now our city manager, any report for us?

Thank you, mayor, deputy mayor, and council members. Yes. This evening, I wanted to call out, an item on the consent calendar just to highlight that we are bringing two agreements related to development for mixed use affordable housing project on a city owned land in Wilburton. This is resolution one zero five nine o. We are expecting to that this development will bring approximately 127 units, 40% which will be family sized.

And these agreements follow a request for proposals that process that we issued last year. We were looking for city development partners department development partners to work with the city on the land. Bellwether Housing was selected as a partner in this case out of 10 applicants. And the consent calendar item tonight that we're seeking approval for would approve the execution of predevelopment agreement and a future ground lease agreement. And that sets the stage for Bellwether to seek their land use process and proceed with the the development on that property.

We do look forward to providing counsel with updates as the project furthers itself. So thank you.

Thank you for the update. Do I have the motion to approve the consent calendar?

I move to approve the consent calendar. Second.

It has been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by council member Neuhaus. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No one. The motion passes. We have our public hearing. Can you please introduce that, our city manager?

Yes. Thank you, mayor and council. This is a somewhat routine public hearing to solicit input on proposed release of an existing utility easement located in the plat of the Maryhill addition, which happens to be near downtown. Jamie Robinson, our assistant director in finance and asset management, is here tonight to review the specific property and the proposed easement prior to the public hearing and seeking your approval post public hearing. Jamie?

Our staff report this evening is on a request to release a utility easement on the parcel located at 11040 Main Street. On February 10, council declared the utility easement as surplus to the city's needs and set today as the date for the public hearing. The purpose of tonight's hearing is to allow the public an opportunity to comment on this release. The property is located on Main Street between 110th And 112th Avenues directly across the street from Main Street Park and less than two blocks from the East Main Light Rail Station. The property owner is redeveloping the site into a three fifty unit residential building with a mix of market rate and affordable units.

Shown outlined in red, the easement was reserved for the benefit of the city in the original 1955 plat. However, no utilities were ever installed. The developer is pursuing modifications to the plat, which is necessitating the release of the utility easement. The easement does cross into the adjacent property owner, which is owned by a church. And the church has agreed in writing and on file to the release as well. Following the public hearing, staff request council action on the proposed resolution authorizing the release of the utility easement. And this ends our staff report. We'll be available to answer any questions.

Thank you so much. So we opened the public hearing. Do I have do I have a motion to open the public hearing?

I move to open the public hearing. Second.

It's been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by councilor Newnhouse. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. No opposed. The motion passes.

At this point, there are no preregistered speakers for the public hearing. So I would do a call out for those joining us in the audience and then those online as well. If you would like to make a comment during this public hearing, please raise your hand. There are no hands, mayor. I'll turn it back to you.

Do I have a motion, please, for for closing the public hearing?

I move to close the public hearing. Second.

It has been moved by the deputy mayor and seconded by councilor Neonhaus. Any discussion? All those in favor, aye. Aye. There is no opposed. The motion passes. Any discussion? Council member Smadevrio, any anything to say about this? No. Otherwise, we move to the actual, motion.

No. I don't have anything to say. Thank you.

Please. I move to adopt resolution one zero five nine one authorizing the execution of documents necessary to release an existing utility easement located in the plant of Mary Hill addition that has been declared surplus to the city's needs and is no longer required for providing utility

service. Second.

It's it's been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by councilman Newhouse. Any discussion? All those in favor, aye.

Aye. There

is no opposed. The motion passes. Thank you so much. We are very efficient, and we are going to move to our first study session. Our city manager would

The introduce first study session is to have you consider the annual comprehensive plan amendment work program. Under the Growth Management Act, as you may know, the city can amend the comprehensive plan just once per year. Council has already initiated two amendments this year, updates to the Eastgate and Factoria neighborhood plans through the Great Neighborhoods program in August 2025. And tonight, council has the opportunity to consider two additional potential amendments to the work program based on the threshold review. The first is transportation conformance, which became necessary when the council updated the mobility implementation plan.

And then the second is a privately initiated amendment for Evans Plaza. So joining tonight, we have from our staff of community development department, Tara Johnson, the planning director, and then Kate Nessie, our conference of planning manager, and from the planning commission, vice chair, Johnny Liu. And with that, I will hand it over to Tara.

Thank you, city manager Carlson. Good evening, mayor, deputy mayor, council members. So tonight, we're bringing forward two comprehensive plan amendments, for your consideration, in order to add to our 2026 work program. As, city manager Carlson mentioned, you've already initiated work on both the Eastgate and Factorio comprehensive plan updates to update the neighborhood area plans and you'll be receiving a written update on those plans actually at your next meeting. So tonight we have we're requesting council to consider providing direction for staff to add these two amendments to our 2026 work program and we'll be describing both of those in detail.

The first is the transportation conformance CPA and then secondly is the Evans Plaza CPA which is privately initiated. So we'll start off and I'll start off and provide an overview on our annual comprehensive plan amendment process. We'll go into more detail and describe the scope for each of the amendments. First we'll cover the transportation conformance CPA. We'll pause, ask for council direction and then we'll move forward and describe the Evans Plaza CPA as well as the Planning Commission's recommendation.

So, to provide a little bit of context, under the Growth Management Act, we're allowed to amend the comprehensive plan just once per year. In Bellevue, under our land use code, it stipulates that we have a two part process for amending the comprehensive plan annually. CPAs are considered by the Planning Commission and then they return to council at the end of the year to really look at all the comprehensive plan amendments so that will include the great neighborhoods work as well as anything that's been added to our 2026 annual work program. The city however can initiate a CPA at any point in time and council has already initiated two CPAs as we know. Once council initiates a CPA, it goes directly to the final review step of the two step process.

For privately initiated CPAs, however, the city has to consider whether to add it to the work plan and this process is called a threshold review process. There's also a deadline tied to that which is September 15 of the prior year and so as part of this year's cycle we received one application which is the Evans Plaza request. At this current stage, the proposal is not evaluated on its merits, we're simply reviewing it to see if it meets the threshold review criteria under the land use code. Really, we're evaluating it to see if it should be included in our annual work program if it moves forward through the threshold review then the Planning Commission evaluates it based on the criteria and the code and then makes a recommendation to counsel which is why we're here tonight And then counsel will review the Commission's recommendation and the merits of the change and then makes a decision whether to incorporate it as part of our annual work program. So with that, I'm going to turn things over to Kate.

She's going to walk through some of the components of the transportation conformance CPA. So the first CPA is a city initiated CPA. Last year,

Council amended the mobility implementation plan creating level of service standards for pedestrians. This made the pedestrian and bicycle plan obsolete. The proposed amendment would update references to the pedestrian and bicycle plan and change those to the mobility implementation plan and conform to the structure and standards that council has set up in the MIP. There's no policy changes proposed as part of this CPA. It's really focused on ensuring all of our plans reflect the same process and standards.

So first, we're asking counsel to provide direction add the transportation, whether to add the transportation conformance CPA to our annual 2026 work program. The second comprehensive plan amendment tonight for your consideration. Apologies, mayor. Would you like us to pause before we move to Evans Plaza?

Would

We you like

can do that. We just talk about this, make a motion, approve that, then we move to the the other one. That's a good place to do that. Great. Great. Any thank you for the first one. Any discussion? Raise your hand if you wanna talk. I am not going through each of you. Councilor Rasmad De Virea, raise your hand or wave at us if you wanna talk.

Okay. Great. So then can we have the first motion, please?

I move to direct staff to add the Transportation Conformance CPA to the 2026 annual comprehensive plan amendment work program.

Second.

It has been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by council member Breyer. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. We move to the next one. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. The second amendment for your consideration to incorporate in within our 2026 work program is the Evans Plaza. It's a privately initiated proposal, and we're going to go into more detail. It's a site specific request from a property owner to change the future land use map in the comprehensive plan. With that, I'm going turn things over to Kate to walk us through the criteria and the scope.

So according to Bellevue's land use code, privately initiated CPAs have a two step process as Tara talked about a few slides ago. The first step is to consider basically whether the CPA should be part of the city's work program and should be analyzed and considered on its merit. The code lays out five criteria for including the proposal in the work program, which you can see above. Planning Commission reviewed the proposal against these criteria and determined that the proposal meets them. The proposal from the property owner of Evans Plaza is to change the future land use from general commercial to low rise to mixed use.

The change in the future land use does not automatically trigger a change in zoning. The property owner would need to apply for the zoning change at a later date, so the zoning will continue until a property owner applies to change it. The current zoning on this parcel is also called general commercial and that zone allows for the style of development that is currently there, single story commercial development. I want to note that the HOMA land use code amendment is, creating the zone that would fall under low rise to mixed use. It doesn't currently exist, there's no zone.

The zone that would be created under HOMA or through the HOMA land use code amendment is associated with low rise to mixed use is mixed use eight story or MU eight zone. If this future land use change were adopted, the applicant would have to apply for the rezone at a future date after the changes to the land use code are made through HOMA. I also wanted to note that HOMA does not impact general commercial, so if the change is not made, housing would still be prohibited on this site as it's prohibited in general commercial. Evans Plaza is located in the Pineview Neighborhood Center. Neighborhood centers are areas that have been identified in the comprehensive plan as places, to focus future growth at a neighborhood scale in the city.

They're meant to be mixed use centers where people in the neighborhood can meet their everyday needs as well as having more dense housing. The Evans Plaza site is about 10 acres, and it's primarily a single story retail. The Planning Commission recommended to include that corner parcel highlighted in lime green, and that corner parcel is a gas station that's owned by seven eleven so that the entire block can be considered together. The proposed site abuts SR 520, and there is also an entrance to the 520 bike trail at the southwest corner of the site. The parcel is to the west that looks kind of wooded is owned by PSC and is undeveloped, and otherwise it's surrounded by commercial parcels.

The site, including 711, is currently, has a future land use of general commercial. The parcels to the east also that I think it was noted that that's Dunlumber over there have general commercial as their future land use designation as well. The parcels to the West and North are currently low rise office mixed use, and they are zoned for office. Under HOMA, office will allow for the development of housing if they were to redevelop. The parcel that's kitty corner with the future land use designation of large lot residential is currently developed as a church.

SR 520 is a very strong visual and mobility barrier between this neighborhood center and the Bell Red neighborhood to the South. Staff is engaged with the community in a variety of ways so far, and if this moves to final review, we anticipate further engagement with, the community. There have been two official notices, the notice of application and the notice of public hearing for threshold review. Those notices go to all parties of record, which include, everybody within 500 feet of the proposed site. They all get a postcard in the mail, and, people who have commented on the proposal are also considered parties of record.

Everyone who commented at the public hearing held by the Planning Commission is now considered a party of record, and others can become parties of record by sending comments to the city or just saying, please add me as a party of record. There is opportunity for comment throughout the process, and there will be additional study sessions and a public hearing for the CPA if it moves to the final review. I'm going to turn things over to Vice Chair Liu to discuss the Planning Commission's recommendation.

Sounds good. Mayor Malikutian, deputy mayor Hamilton, council members, it's great to see you all. Happy to be here to represent the Planning Commission and to talk a little bit about our context and some of the discussions that we had. As you can kind of tell from earlier, this is a very criteria driven conversation that we had. We really focused on, I'd say, two aspects of it.

One was the geographic scope, that little apparently, I'm color blind because I thought that was yellow, but that lime green box that was shown up there, that was the first part of our discussion. The second one was really what they mentioned before already, which is does this pass the threshold for adding it into the staff plan to evaluate for later discussion and analysis? So, you know, not really on the merits of the actual application, but on whether or not it it passes the threshold. I'm I'm proud to say our our commission had a really robust discussion. I think we covered both ends of the spectrum.

And I'd say I'm kind of proud to say we didn't all agree, and I think that really kind of showcases how we went kinda both ends on both the geographic scope as well as the threshold review. And so our our conversations really covered all that. And at the end, the majority decided or we recommend that it does pass threshold review to add to the staff packet and to kinda take a deeper dive into what exactly is being proposed here. So, you know, happy to answer any questions about the discussion that we had. Thanks all for listening. I'll turn it back to Steph.

So thank you, counsel. We're now seeking direction from from you on the Evans Plaza CPA based on the threshold review criteria. And of course, if counsel accepts the Planning Commission's recommendation, then the CPA will pass the final review. Staff will be doing additional much more detailed additional analysis and discussion with the Planning Commission as we've described through both study sessions as well as a public hearing and then recommendation.

Thank you so much, Tara, Katie, Emil and the whole team. Thank you, Vice Chair and thank the planning commission for all of the effort that they do for all of these very complex topic. Again, raise your hand if you have any question. Councilman Newnhams, please.

Thank you, mayor. First, okay. Tara. Thank you for representing the planning commission so so well, Johnny, tonight. I appreciate it and for all the great work that they do. Just a couple of quick questions that I had. I would be interested in knowing a little bit about the conversation that happened on the planning commission. What was the vote as well? And what were some of the themes in terms of pro work on?

Yeah. The, it was a five to two vote on it. I think a lot of the themes that we discussed were, have there been enough conditions to justify taking a deeper look? I think also a lot of it was clarification on, are we actually talking about the merits of the application itself? Are we talking about, should we study this more to see what the different options are? Mhmm. I think ultimately where we landed was or where the conversation end of veering was, we would like to see more options. It's not necessarily what's presented in front of us, but I think it's worth adding to the work plan. We thought it was worth adding to the work plan to say, you know, here's a couple different possibilities. You know?

And there's also the decision to to not go with it. But I think it's a our conversation ended up just going towards the direction of might be a disservice to not do an evaluation of whether or not this could be a good idea. I think I that's what I anything else from you guys? Don't remember.

We we can go into more detail, but the bulk of the conversation was as vice chair Luz described Mhmm. On the geographic scope as well as the significantly changed conditions, whether it met that criteria. So the commission spent a great deal of time evaluating that piece and then also distinguishing whether we're evaluating the merits of the actual application versus including it in the work program.

So talk to me a little bit about the significant change conditions. It was interesting to hear some different perspectives on that during oral communications and some of the emails that I've seen and the conversations I've had. You know, is it so loosely defined that it could basically apply anywhere? Or in this case, does

it

still meet this threshold review exercise? Can you just walk me through the and and to be clear, this criteria so does all eight have to match or okay. So it is all eight. Okay. Thank you.

Except for the last one. It's just if it's required by state.

Just Right. Right. Thank you. So can I get just a clarification on on on the definition?

Yes. Kate, do you wanna walk us through the significantly changed conditions?

Yeah. So as you recall, you updated the comprehensive plan in 2024. Part of the update to that plan was establishing neighborhood centers, which are areas to focus more mixed use development, so more residential as well as commercial. This is reflected not only in the narrative, but also in the policies. However, the council took a very light touch to the the future land use map when updating the comprehensive plan as far as the neighborhood centers were were concerned.

There were a couple of changes in some of the neighborhood centers, but in general, the update to those neighborhood centers was sort of part of the update to the neighborhood area plans. Bridal Trails neighborhood area plan is not on the the work plan, for the city. Although, it will be updated sometime in the next ten years, it's not currently on the schedule. And so it's not part of our work plan, but there is a discrepancy between what the policy says in the comprehensive plan and what is reflected on the map.

Yeah. Okay. And then lastly, just on outreach. So there was two notices, 500 feet. Mhmm. Did we directly notify the Bridal Trails Neighborhood Association that is directly impacted by this?

Yes, we did.

We did.

And staff also attended their community meeting as well, and I believe did a follow-up conversation with them. And we've we've offered to do future future touch points with them as well as needed.

Great. Thank you. Thank you so much, council member Newnhams, and thank you for your responses. Council member Robinson.

Okay. Thank you.

Welcome, So

Yeah. Thank you. Sorry. It was late. So just to clarify, this direction would give staff an opportunity to do a deeper dive on how best they might let this site develop?

That's accurate.

Yes. Okay. So how many and don't know if you have the answer to this but how many vacancies do we have in that shopping center right now?

It is a very well used shopping center. I've been to a couple of the restaurants. There's a grocery store, like a chef's store a restaurant supply, I guess I should say. It's a very well used shopping center. Would be surprised if there's any vacancy.

Yeah, me too. Okay, so does HOMA have a program to help retain those businesses if it was to

develop? One of the incentives under HOMA is the affordable business space. So if it were to redevelop, that is an option that they could use. We also have an economic development team that works with small businesses well, all businesses, but particularly on finding space and relocation. So yeah, anything you want to add, Tara?

I believe the recently adopted economic development strategic plan also has actions in there that addresses how our economic development team works with businesses.

It kind of alludes to it, but doesn't show actual action items. And this is something we talked about at our retreat that we wanna see. And so I think that that's gonna be a big part of exploring the best way to utilize this property is how we can retain some of those valued businesses. So I don't know if that can be added to the direction, but and I don't know how my colleagues feel, but I would sure like to include that in the package of evaluating how best to to allow the site to do reach its full potential.

Yeah. That is absolutely something that staff will be looking at and evaluating as part of our more in-depth analysis should should this advance to final review.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Baragaba.

Yes. I had set of questions on significantly changed conditions, actually Council Member Newnham's question, some of that was answered, but I still have a couple of clarifying questions. But I do want to respond a little bit to Councilmember Robinson's question a little bit. This is more procedural for me, and I'd love to get some guidance. Current, what we have the motion we have in front of us today to consider is about the threshold review for inclusion into the work plan.

The details of what that work plan will include for this side or others, is that typically part of our scope for this motion or would it be outside? I'm not totally clear. Just tell me if you don't the question is clear or not, I can go into further.

I believe the question is clear.

Okay.

So the threshold review process has the criteria we just displayed on one of the slides. And then the final review process also has a discrete set of criteria. And so it's alignment with comprehensive plan policies, the goals under GMA, pretty broad. And so there's definite opportunity for us to be evaluating. Does it align with all our comprehensive plan policies?

Maybe it's worth going back to that slide that shows the

The eight criteria?

Yes. Would you like to see the criteria?

That would be great. Yes. Please bring it back to the

Actually, the

to answer council member's question is the, the one where it says threshold review, final review, and then council direction. Because I think that's that'll show the different touch points that we have. Yeah. So we're we're at step one right now, and then it'll come back.

Did you get your answer, council member Bhargava?

I wanna ask one more clarifying question on that. So so the idea of what goes in, what the appropriate zoning is, and what strategies or tactics need to be part of what gets approved in the next set of reviews in terms of alignment for the economic development plan, align alignment with the comprehensive plan are all factors that are going to be considered at that stage. And that is sort of part of the process as I understand it

at least. That's that accurate. Yes. That will be evaluated as part of the final review process.

Okay. That's helpful. I got my answer. Two other really quick questions. On the significantly changed conditions in the geographic scope, on the geographic scope first, did you consider anything beyond that footprint of that particular block that has very similar land uses and they may have the same discrepancies with the comprehensive plan intent? And how did you establish that boundary and not anything beyond that?

Yeah. We we definitely discussed expanding it to that area east.

Can you bring the map, please? Yeah.

Of the of the kind of designated area. Now this is also one that I think there was, you know, some quite a bit of discussion within the commission on. We ultimately decided that it the I think there's one of the criteria that says the minimum necessary amount to make this change, and we felt that expanding it just to the little parcel there to make it a complete kind of overall parcel made more sense than expanding it beyond that just because we don't know the impacts of having it on that area across the street on the east side of it. So we definitely did discuss that and we ultimately came down to a majority of let's keep it within this as the minimum necessary.

And to expand on that regarding the the land use code and the way and sort of the reason that people can bring forward comprehensive plan amendments is because there isn't we don't have in our work plan at the moment something to address their concern, and so this allows the property owner to address their concern. If we had a you know, if we were considering the Bridal Trails neighborhood area plan, we would consider it as part of that neighborhood area plan update. But since we don't have that on our work plan for at least a few years, this is allowing them to come to the city and say, consider my particular parcel.

Yeah. So that that's really helpful clarification. And the only thing I'll just state is my understanding of what you're saying is also that part of the discussion for just that little geographic scope increase and not beyond that is this is a privately initiated CPA coming from that specific landowner and not a larger neighborhood area plan, and that is why it's sort of the way it is. Is that fair?

Exactly.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Police, councilwoman Breyer.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you so much for the thorough work conducted. I have a clarifying question. So this does not trigger zoning changes immediately to Pine View and other nearby areas. I think it was slide maybe nine or 12 that had discussed that or yeah. We're on 12. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That that that was unclear to me.

That that's accurate. So there's a multistep process for zoning to change. Yeah. For for the the next step in the process, of course, would be if council advances this as part of our work program, it'll be evaluated for that next stage, which is final review. And then should it advance or should it move forward and counsel provides takes action to amend the the land use change

Mhmm.

That would be the first step. And then the next step would be a zoning change. So the applicant would have to come in and apply for a rezone.

Okay. Perhaps this is a more ambitious question, or maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. But do you think this decision would scale or set some precedents for the new precedents, excuse me, for the nearby areas at all?

It could. And that's something we would be evaluating as part of the final review process, but we have not done that at this point.

Okay. I'd like to second what council member Robinson brought up about the retention of small businesses. We do have some areas that allude to this in the economic development plan, but I really like to see some concrete guarantees, I guess, for lack of eloquence. I'm really worried about some of the resident concerns surrounding small business retention and and, you know, businesses that have served residents there for for decades now. I'm also worried about, better for worse, the the neighborhood character there.

I've heard a lot in support and in opposition to this. So what I'd like to do is direct staff to include this in the work plan so we can understand if this really does meet the criteria that it set out and understand the impacts of this and how those would impact our residents as well. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you so much. Councilor Smadeviria, I see your virtual hand up. Thank

you, mayor. I I I love the, small business displacement prevention on there and also to protect in the neighborhood. So I live really close to that neighborhood. One thing I just wanna by the way, thank you for this presentation, and then I think my colleagues asked all the really great questions already. My one question I wanna ask because on the Northeast 24th, that street is usually pretty congested with, you know, school drop offs, a major artery to 520.

When we're doing when we're doing the further study, is there any way we can look into, like, the the impacts on the infrastructure? Because that is a major street connecting from the neighborhoods to the Highway 520. Is there any space for us to do study about, I guess, traffic regulation or traffic prevention? I'll make sure the infrastructure around the the area actually can able to support the growth of that lot.

Yeah. That is a very integral piece of our analysis. There's environmental review that's required, and so we have to assess the all the transportation impacts and infrastructure impacts.

Okay. Thank you. And then is there any room for this lot to have more for affordable housing, do you think?

Well,

under the HOMA HOMA proposal, if if this does move forward with a comprehensive plan land use change, whatever the zoning zoning requires would would apply here.

Okay. Thank you. And I I'm I'm supporting to do further study for the this this lot. Thank you.

Town cue. Councilwoman Smadeberia. Deputy mayor.

Great. Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate the presentation. Glad you're here. Good to see you. Vice Chair Lu, appreciate the threshold review work the Planning Commission has done. I believe that the privately initiated comp plan application should be considered as part of the 2026 annual comp plan amendment work program. I think the community engagement work that you've done so far has been very good. Obviously, lot more to do, and I think we'll learn a lot from that effort as the process moves forward. You mentioned about being becoming a party of record.

Just wondering if you could be a little more specific on if does someone email you, Kate? Or exactly how does someone become a party of record?

So anybody that has emailed counsel about the proposal or emailed Planning Commission, emailed staff about it, they become parties of record. You could just talk to me out in the hall and tell me give me your contact information and say that you want to be a party of record. All you have to do is communicate that you want to be a party of record, we'll add your name to the list.

And if somebody wanted to do that by email, what would the proper email address be to do that?

You can email me, KNESSE,@BellevueWA.gov.

Okay. Great. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, good work so far. Please keep it up. I look forward to finding out what we learn as the process moves forward. I'm in support. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you so much. I think there was a great conversation. I appreciate you all. The threshold review step is not deciding whether a proposal is good or bad. It is deciding whether it's appropriate to study in the annual work program.

It seems we all agree that can go there. I appreciate the outreach, as Councilman Neuhaus asked you, including meetings with bridal trails, community club and conversation with resident. And of course, this proposal has generate interest and concern that is normal whenever land use changes are discussed. And I think you are going to hear more from community and stakeholders when you are doing your actual final work. So thank you so much. We can I have a motion, please?

I move to direct staff to add the Evans Plaza CPA to the 2026 annual comprehensive plan amendment work program. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by councilmember Robinson. Any discussion? All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. Thank you so much. Let's just have a quick break. It's 07:26. Let's come back at 07:40.

Great.

We are back. City manager, please introduce our next study session.

Thank you, mayor, deputy mayor, and council members. Very happy to bring staff from our development services department here this evening to give you an overview of work that they are proposing to undertake related to preapproved plans for DADUs and cottage housing. This is a council priority, and I think they have a good proposal to share with you about how they're planning to approach the work and involve the community in some very exciting ways. So with that, I will hand it over to Nick Whipple, our code and policy director. He's joined by Jake Kesselgesser, our business services director, and Greg Schrader, our building official. Nick?

Great. Thank you, and good evening. Mayor Malikutian, deputy mayor Hamilton, members of the council, we are excited to hear excited to be here tonight to talk about the preapproved plans program and how we're scoping this. This is for information only. We wanted to provide an update. This is a council priority. The priority is aimed at simplifying the permitting process for detached accessory dwelling units or DAUs and cottage housing by offering preapproved plans. For our agenda, we'll cover background and context around how we got to today. We also have broken this out into a few phases, so we'll touch on those. There's a pretty heavy engagement process that we have planned for this as well, so we'll talk about that and then the schedule.

So first, touching on some of the context here. So this is, as I mentioned, the council priority. The priority is around simplifying permitting for these two housing types with that emphasis on, reducing some of the regulatory barriers, providing more predictability, and really encouraging this housing type in the city. So the policy foundation has been building over a number of years. That first action was when the comprehensive plan was updated in October 2024, adopted by council to allow middle housing and DADUs.

And then following adoption of the comp plan, the council updated the land use code to allow middle housing and legalized DADUs and cottage housing on lots in Bellevue. So why DADUs and cottage housing? So this is a more modest scale housing type that has a lower relative cost to single family homes, so potentially more attainable price point for residents. It also aligns with goals that are looking to expand some of the housing choices and diversity within our neighborhoods, and it's well suited for standardized plans. The population that this is intended to serve, a lot of people that are in the d a d u or cottage business are typically homeowners that are interested in just adding a mother-in-law unit in their backyard or smaller scale developers that are looking to take on this type of housing.

So this is really broken out into three phases. We are really looking forward to being able to build some excitement and momentum around this program, with the community, and then making sure that we have a really community led process in developing this program. A lot of buy in from community, I think, is really important to make sure that this is a well utilized program and is really successful. So making sure that we're getting community informed decision making, and we'll get into that detail here, and then making sure that we are able to deliver some technically sound plans that are available for residents to take advantage of. So we'll start first with the phases, and I'll pass it over to Jake for phase one.

Good evening, mayor, deputy mayor, and council members. Really pleased to be here this evening and share a little bit about, what our phase one engagement will look like. This is what we're dubbing the engage and imagine phase. So this is where we'll be engaging with the community. We haven't included a couple of tactics here.

The first being a hackathon style event with our partners at Govstream AI as well as our information technology department and subject matter experts here at the city to explore ideas that really could layer on top of this preapproved program using, for example, GIS and zoning tools to explore site feasibility, application guidance throughout the permitting application process, early stage resources to identify financing options and tools for implementation, and perhaps some other seed ideas that we haven't thought of. So really an opportunity to lean into innovation and identify some tools and strategies that could complement the preapproved plans that we would be hosting for the community. Tactic number two equally or maybe more important here is really to gather some community informed criteria. And what I mean by that is selection criteria for the plans that we would be selecting to host and offer to the community. So thinking about things in this phase, applicability across all Bellevue lot conditions.

So thinking about also the community's interest and architectural characteristics of of homes as well as compatibility on usability or preferences or sustainability options. Those could all be factors that the community may bring to us. And Nick will talk a little bit more in a bit about what that engagement strategy looks like with the community. And this will lead us right into phase two, which I believe Nick will cover.

Yeah. So the phase two is when we start to call for designs and make some decisions. So the important factor here is we're wanting to empower community to help us select what are those top designs based on the criteria that Jake just mentioned that community is going to be developing. What are those priorities? What are the values that community wants to see in these preapproved plans?

And those will help inform that call for designs to the development community. So, we would like to be able to propose, or have people propose designs for us to be able to review, and then share the criteria so that the design community also understands how are we gonna be ranking these plans that are being submitted. And then we want to get community involved in the actual review. So we are envisioning a volunteer review panel, and this will be the panel will be made up through an open process. We are not expecting people to be technical experts at all.

We really want the community to be able to apply the criteria that they have created through that phase one outreach approach. It's important that we look at some geographic diversity, getting some members of the community from different neighborhoods to participate in this, and to be able to really identify what are those top ranked plans that should be forwarded on to the department for technical review. We'll be doing some betting too, but we're really hopeful by having kind of a community led process that's more extended that we're able to build that excitement momentum and have a good set of plans that are submitted when we make that call for design, so that we'll be able to begin advancing to phase three where we're gonna start approving them.

Okay. Thanks, Nick. Good evening, mayor, deputy mayor, council members. Pleased to be here. So for phase three, whichever, designs the volunteer review panel has prioritized as best meeting the pre approved community criteria.

Those will move forward to technical review by the development services department. That cost will be entirely subsidized. And once that's completed, the next step is to launch the program when we'll publish those plans for purchase and really have a kickoff with public announcements. Like other cities, we would like to have an agreed on fixed price that designers would charge homeowners for the design, but homeowners might also need to hire a designer to help with any land use or utilities issues if there are a few things to resolve with that. So then they would pay the designer for that time, but there would be a savings on both the cost of the design, and we wouldn't charge our normal review fee.

So we're timing the launch to be after 05/02/2027, which is the state's mandated implementation date for the new construction energy and fire codes. And we're doing that because we don't want the designs to be outdated shortly after this evaluation and selection process. And Nick will cover the last few slides.

Great. So just to wrap up on engagement and schedule. So as we noted, phase one is really gonna be about expanding some awareness that this program is getting initiated. We really want community to be involved and participate and provide some values based input. We have a couple of outreach modes that we plan to use.

We did stand up a web page just last week, so that we have all of this project information available for folks. And we'd like to begin engaging with people through surveys, through different outreach modes, whether that be tabling events or really leveraging the hackathon that's envisioned for that phase one effort and just try and gather input from folks and priorities. Phase two is where we get into some more structured engagement. So that's where we're going to have that open process to get our volunteer review panel. We'll begin onboarding them with what is their task and responsibility.

And, again, we wanna put an emphasis that this is an open recruitment. We do wanna be able to have some balanced representation throughout the city. And then moving into phase three, as we are beginning to kind of turn the switch and making this available for folks, that's really where we wanna hit kind of the full press court and be able to make sure this is really getting out for folks to be aware of. We're also hoping we kind of create some community ambassadors through the program so that they're able to really advocate to their neighbors as well that this is a program that's available and that they really bought into the designs because of the process here. So that gets us to our schedule.

So our phase one, that engage and imagine where we've got those two tactics that we're planning for, this is really going to be envisioned as taking us through the end of the year. So that's where we're really hoping to get some community buy in and then begin developing that criteria so that we're in a good position to then publish that RFP or provide that call for designs in our phase two. And that'll start towards the end of the year and then move us through early twenty twenty seven. Again, we're keeping in mind that May 2027 deadline for updating our building codes and wanting to make sure we're not asking for designs too far ahead of what those new codes are gonna look like so that people are in a good position to design to the new codes that we'll have adopted by that point. And then phase three is when we get to open the program for public use.

We are envisioning that happening again after that 05/02/2027 deadline, and there is that work for the department to do the prereview. That's all subsidized work. And then we are planning to have a pretty user friendly web page where we can catalog the different plans for people to purchase. So with that, this is information only. We'll turn it back to you, mayor.

Thank you so much, Nick, Jake, Greg, Rebecca, where she is, and the development service team. This is great that you are all Rebecca is here. Great. This is great that you are here because when we adopted the middle housing last year, the goal was not just to change the code, but it to make it possible for people to actually build this home. So appreciate your help. Please raise your hand if you have any comment or questions. Councilman Barga, we start with you.

Okay. Thank you. Love it. Oh, say it again. Love it. I love the innovation and the idea of being able to do so many things, you know, innovatively and quickly. I love the idea that you're gonna get faster permitting through this process, and it's going to do, you know, things for improving the amount and diversity of housing that we have possibly. That's a really important outcome. And I love the fact that you're talking about lowering costs across the board, which I think is really great. But there is sort of what I and I'm gonna just it's not really too many questions.

This is just feedback and thoughts to think about as you go through this process. What would be really not a great outcome would be what happens to many such programs potentially that there is very limited adoption, and that would put so much of this great innovation to not great use. And some of the challenges that we might come up with as I was thinking about this is monotony in the design and architecture within our neighborhoods. You know, if everything looks the same because they have the same plans, that's a risk that we have to be thinking about. And there's also the challenge that no matter what we do, if we have very limited abilities for configurability to different lots and great conditions like we have in Bellevue, that can lead to low adoption.

So I'm really concerned about those two things. I do have a few suggestions that I was thinking about that I'll just lay out here. One, think about multiple designs, which you are already thinking about, but it should have architectural styles that we want to see. So we have to nudge people in a direction, and this give us a chance to balance the cost of what these look like versus, the design elements we want. Some of the feedback we've heard from stakeholders and communities, at least I have, is that many of the redevelopment opportunities that are happening at the residential level at single family lots are maximizing the development footprint and making really value engineered buildings.

And this gives us a chance to sort of change that outcome while balancing cost. I think this is a really sort of, for me, a really important opportunity. That's why I wanna highlight that to you early in this process. I also think we should be thinking about multiple variations that include things like offices or live works opportunities for folks where it's not just the know, attached detached dwelling unit or something, but it actually if I want a small office that I wanna make, then this these plans allow for that use variance as well. I think that would be useful.

You talked about sustainability. I love the idea that you talked about financial support. So projecting costs, if you pull this up, but also finding lender partnerships that might be really good. I think you already mentioned that, so I just wanna appreciate that. And then you talked about one thing that now there is a bit of a question here.

You talked about these reviews happening through community members, etcetera. Now I'm an architect by training, and so I do believe, and others may agree, that architecture is a process that you have to be trained and qualified to design buildings. And so my suggestion is that you have maybe guided charrettes where you actually bring in professional guidance and bring some guardrails. I know there's technical review after that, but even for the design development and the selection process, some guardrails and guidance around those parameters that are important to us, I think, will be really, really helpful. And, that's it.

Thank you so much. Councilman Robinson.

I'm so excited about this. You know, when we first started talking about affordable housing and we saw Kirkland do preapproved plans, I was so hoping we could do this in Bellevue because I wanted to make it easier and less expensive for people to do detached dwelling units or cottages. I wanted to engage the community as much as possible in, kind of deciding what these should what form these should take in their neighborhoods, and also to, have some kind of a design competition. Those were my three goals, and I feel like you hit it all in what you're offering here. You know, you're engaging with the community.

We they get to look at the possibilities and weigh in. I think are you doing a design competition? Or am I just reading that into it, Mia? I'm just so excited.

I I think you could characterize it that way. They have to narrow the submissions down.

Okay. There we go. And, I mean, I've seen that done in other countries. We saw it in Sweden. And it it's just it's really exciting to bring innovation into our city and see what's possible because we just don't know until we start asking people who really have the expertise.

And as much as I would love to add other parameters to it, I think just streamlining it, you know, like, most of these will be in people's backyard. So if everybody has the same one, I have no problem with that. But I think that the idea of maybe extra points for sustainability or extra points for a more affordable design, I think just came back from Palm Springs where they had all the mid century modern homes and knowing the history of that and how that was a goal to make housing easier to build and less expensive. And and that whole mid century design was designed to lower your utility costs so you didn't need as much light and make it more livable with fewer walls. So it's kinda interesting what you come up with when you open this up to the experts.

So I'm really looking forward to seeing what ideas we get and to see if we can get more accommodations built ease more easily and with less money for people. So I'm excited. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Councilor Moon Newnhams. Thank you, mayor.

I think we're judging a little too quickly on the design standards. They have not seen my daughter's design. Uneven floors and leaky roofs are part of the charm, so let's not rush to judgment on some. I'm kidding, of course, but I agree that some design sense would be good. However, how are we gonna get to consensus around some of these designs, and how many designs are we potentially looking at?

I mean, this you know, I I love the fact that we're, you know, we're we're open to the We're gonna have a lot of different options, or hopefully, the community has a lot of different options to choose from. But getting consensus is gonna be a little challenging. And then getting consensus in terms of what house matches what neighborhood, that could also be an unintended consequence from this, in some neighborhoods more than than others. But what do the guardrails look like for that, Nick?

Yeah. Probably gonna need some facilitating some facilitators to help us with this. In terms of the volume, I mean, it's hard to judge. The program that we're envisioning, we're really trying to get that awareness out there. Seattle, just as an example, has their DADU universe.

When they did their call for designs, I believe they had over 150 submissions. And their task was to narrow down and approve, I believe it was 16 plans or somewhere in that kind of range. And so that will be the challenge, I think, once we receive those submissions. I think that's a good problem to have. But then figuring out maybe how do we do a first pass, see what's maybe clearly, within the bounds of the criteria, and then have that volunteer review panel really engage on that too. We also wanna make sure we're clear with residents what the commitment is because that could be a pretty big commitment to have to kind of go through that many designs.

Absolutely. So And by design, are we also talking, like, aesthetics, like the color?

Not necessarily the color. It's more the architectural style. And then as we were noting, there might be criteria that's really important to community. If if there's sustainable features, maybe that's get gets weighted higher. And that really maybe narrows the submission pool as well. Yeah, try not to get into shades, colors, shingle style. Really focus on the design and is it fitting within the community and, you know, yeah, that kind of feature.

And so the review panel is going is a one time. Right? And then they approve x number of designs, and then the review panel goes away. Correct? It does not continue to operate and continue to take in new designs. Is that correct? Yes. Or will there be an opportunity, maybe at a later date, after maybe a two year period, we reexamine or take another look at some other submitted designs? Is that possible? Yeah.

We've given that some thought as well. What we are feeling we're able to do is support 10 designs getting through that pre review. But we know there's probably gonna be more than 10. There's nothing that would prevent them from going through the review process and us potentially being open to hosting them on the web page as well. But maybe it's a lower priority because they didn't quite kinda make that first cut. But yeah. Then the other piece is maintaining those plan sets. That's been the challenge we've heard from other jurisdictions. Building code cycles, they change the requirements, and we don't want outdated plans on our web page. So then it's really the onus is on the developer of those plans to update their plans.

There's probably a couple of ways we can look at that, but that might kind of drive the decision about, do we need to kind of get another review panel, open this up again, If we're starting to get plans dropping off because of the lack of interest to re up their plans, that's when we might need to make that decision.

Okay. That makes sense. We're very excited about this program, too. I think anything we can do to make it cheaper, make it faster. And as long as there is a design that hopefully everyone can find relatively that they enjoy and want on their property, I think it's a great thing. So thank you, Nick, Jake, Greg. Great job bringing this forward, and, yeah, I'm all in. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Do you wanna go? Please.

Yes. Thank you so much for the incredible work. I think there's a lot of efficiency gains here, which is really exciting. I think echoing what council member Bhargava had mentioned that architecture is a substantial discipline. So despite how many hours council member Nguyen Haus' daughter may place into design work, it'd be important to have some appropriate guardrails that are established. And so those are my only comments. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Great. Thank you. I appreciate the presentation. I appreciate you being back here so quickly, to get an update on our request just to simplify permitting. This is kind of the year of simplification here, and I think that's great.

I certainly share much of the enthusiasm, especially expressed by Councilmember Robinson. So I think the community engagement approach looks really robust, so appreciate that. I think the time line that you've laid out gives everyone a lot of opportunities to provide input and a lot of chances for you to consider all of that and make some really good decisions moving forward. One thing I wanted to mention is that maybe in and maybe this is step two with the designs. But looking at designs that can be that can really support some privacy because it's a kinda housing, style.

If you go to buy it and you have a neighbor that is immediately next to you, it's a little bit of a different decision. And I think some of those buyers find that to be a little more we're able we're to sure style of housing a little bit bit more more attractive. Attractive. So So I I just just wanna, want to make throw that into the mix. But otherwise, thanks for being back here so quickly. Love what you have so far and ready to move forward. Thank you, mayor.

Great. Thank you so much, deputy mayor. I shared everything that my colleagues mentioned. I think if we have some preapproved plan, hopefully, successfully, that will save time, reduce design costs, and make the process more predictable. I love the phased approach and involving community, architect, designer, and builders.

One thing that I I think I talked to Nick about that is the preapproved plan is great and what is part of the story. So when we are doing that, because our goal is to reduce costs, reduce time, it just and again, I love the hackathon because maybe address all of these concerns. The real delay and cost can still come from somewhere else, can come from utility connection, drainage, tree issues, grading, coordination across departments. So if we can magically make all of them go smoother, I think that would help staff and also our customers. For homeowners, I think it's important that they feel that we are reducing costs and we are reducing time.

So if compared to the custom design. So if we can prove that in the pilot phase or when after we are doing that, some metrics that we can show that, I think that would be great, and that's the goal of this. I love that in your hackathon, you had financing piece, as Councilwoman mentioned, this ADU and the attached ADU and cottages have harder time to be financed. So that would be great if we can address that. And great, I shared all of the excitement. Happy you are all here. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank City

manager, would you introduce our last study session?

Thank you, mayor, deputy mayor and council. Yes, this is our last last study session item for the night, and it is an information session. Tonight, staff is bringing to council a proposal to work with our business community to simplify the city square footage tax, and also to move to a one time, move from one time business license plan to an annual business license renewal program. The team will cover the goals of these two efforts, and also how they plan to engage the business community to help shape the proposals. And those proposals will come back to council.

So we're joined by our chief finance officer, John Risa John Riscia, Michael Chandler, our controller, and Troy Lucas, our tax manager. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to John to introduce the item.

Thank you, City Manager, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council Members. What a privilege to be here tonight with the theme of simplification. We have long heard from our customers, the taxpayers, about our tax code and the approach to it. Not so much about interest in not being part of it, but really how to make it simpler. Tonight, we're bringing forward the start of a process, and I'm gonna turn it over to mister Chandler and mister Lucas to take us through.

Thank you, John. Mayor Malakutian and deputy mayor Hamilton and members of council, It's my pleasure to bring you this topic before you today. It's an information only item. So tonight is about bringing awareness of the efforts that staff are undertaking to update two areas, the square footage tax and a proposed, business license update, and then also discuss the planned outreach that we have with the business community, related to those proposed updates. Our agenda, reiterates those three topic areas. And with that, I'll turn it over to Troy.

Alright. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, mayor, deputy mayor, council members. It's good to be here tonight. To talk about my favorite subject, taxes. So I went too far. So the first slide here is just a quick overview of the business and occupation tax structure in Bellevue. Two components a gross receipts tax, which is based on a state mandated model ordinance for all cities with the P and L tax rates and thresholds. We're here tonight to talk about simplifying the square footage tax. Only a handful of Washington cities administer the tax.

And Bellevue's calculation is unique and complicated. It's also worth noting that the structure of the current code has not been updated since inception in the 1970s to reflect the current e commerce business environment. So the issues we hear we have a low compliance rate. And what we hear from our businesses day in and day out about the square footage tax code, There's multiple confusing steps. Information required to calculate the various deductions exemption and are time consuming and specific to Bellevue.

Businesses don't keep the required information in their regular books and records. The calculations change every filing period, causing rework and valuable time spent on one city's return. City staff does provide a multi page document to explain the steps, but this business still need our guidance walking through that. So the simplification goals are straightforward, easy to understand calculation. And going through this process, the goal is not to generate additional revenue or reduce revenue.

And we'll check and adjust as needed as we go. Main goal is to reduce the overall compliance burden concerns that our business community has expressed to us day in and day out. The approach definitely make it easy to calculate. Some of the options we'll be looking at, one calculation, total square footage times rate, consistent with what other cities are doing. Simplify the exemption formula, dollar for dollar exemption based on the amount of grocery seats tax paid at the city.

And no change to current gross receipts tax rate. There's a couple other tools we can also use to make it revenue neutral and business friendly. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Mr. Chandler.

Thank you.

So the next topic, the business licensing updates. This is the slide talks about the current state of our business licensing program. So currently, all businesses operating in the city are required to obtain a one time license. The cost of that license is the same for all businesses regardless of shape or size. Stated differently, we have a perpetual license. So it's for life of the business. And currently no renewals. And so that's the current state of our licensing program, and Troy is going to walk us through the proposed updates.

So again, the issues that we receive from our business community, A perpetual license with no required renewal creates the following issues inconsistent communication with our businesses, outdated information and backlogs of potential closures and relocations impacting our outreach, delays in providing support and engagement to our businesses because of that outdated address information, missed opportunities to provide critical information regarding city services or safety. And interestingly, we have received phone calls about why business would need to license in Bellevue if they're not required to license with the state or if they are below our gross receipts minimum threshold. So we definitely want to address that. So the goals of the business license, annual license, is aligned with economic development plan goals to increase communication and partnership with our businesses using the annual license renewal, improve accuracy of information, and improve city responsiveness to help businesses engage in not only tax filings and licensing, but other city services and programs. So the approach that we're proposing moving to an annual license renewal, but more importantly, minimizing operational burden on our businesses.

Options we'll look at addressing small business needs around minimum licensing thresholds and fees, streamlining the application and renewal process using electronic filing methods, utilizing a tiered fee structure based on gross receipts that's sensitive to business financial needs and impacts, partnering with other city departments to provide better support and services to our businesses using current information, and through the entire process, listening to our businesses and gaining their feedback. I'll turn it back over to Michael.

Thank you.

So now we will discuss our business outreach plans, and we're going to be taking the opportunity to bring the proposals to the business community and other stakeholders to engage and receive their feedback. Yeah. So what we have done to date is we've reached out to the chamber and the Bellevue Downtown Association, and we are gonna bring the information to them and receive feedback through multiple venues. Both of those entities have expressed interest in helping us reach the small business community, as well as being able to provide assistance so that we can reach through the property management companies to the individual business owners. Both will be very beneficial in our outreach efforts.

Then we also plan to utilize the resources of the state office of minority and women's business enterprises to reach that population. And then, you know, the it mentions there, we'll have both in person and virtual to provide a a myriad of ways that they can engage with us. And then what's not included here, a bit on the timeline of our outreach plans. As mentioned, the Chamber in Bellevue Downtown Association, we plan to engage with them beginning in April. And then spend about two months in our outreach effort to get a sort of comprehensive feedback, time to adjust and refine proposals before returning to council with anticipated time line of June with recommendations.

And with that, our presentation is information only.

Thank you so much, John, Michael and Troy, for being tax your favorite topic. I think it is I think if a tax system is so complicated that only about half of the business comply, that's a signal that I think we should do something about it. So I appreciate your all here. Let's just raise your hand if you have any comment or question about this topic. Councilwoman Robinson.

Thank you. Thank you, mayor. So having had a small business for twenty years and having had my one time business license, I was always curious why I didn't have to renew it, and I I I think that it's not a bad idea to do that. With the square footage tax code, totally makes sense, you said. And one of the goals of that is to reduce the tax burden on small businesses is what you say. But with the business licensing update, you're suggesting that we do an annual license renewal. Will that require an annual license renewal fee?

So that will be part of the feedback that we want to get from the business community.

Yeah, because that would actually be increasing the tax burden on small business. So I want to just make sure that that's up front when we're talking to our businesses, because most business in Bellevue is small business. And I wanna make sure we're not doing anything to discourage businesses from forming. Know, not everybody starts a business coming out of business school, and not everybody knows how to start a business, and it's just what's on the website. And so it can be, pretty confusing.

And I wanna make sure that we make it easier for businesses to be in Bellevue, and I I'm looking forward to hearing the the feedback from the businesses that you talked to, and I'm glad you're targeting small business and women and minority. That'll be good feedback. So I'm glad you're doing this. I'm looking forward to your next step.

Thank you so much, council member Robinson. Anyone else? Council member Newhouse, please.

Thank you. So a couple of quick questions, and I share council member Robinson's concern. I'm I'm completely okay moving forward to updating both of these. A, there's a lot of small businesses that are not members of the chamber or the BPA. So it sounds like the outreach will be much more robust than just counting on those two vehicles.

But you know, especially our, you know, recent immigrant restaurants and all the rest of it, they're you know, there's no way you're gonna reach them unless you actually go there and talk to them and have that conversation. I also don't think two months is long enough. I think for this to be really robust, it needs to be longer than than two months. And then I would love to see just a couple of scenarios as well once you get that feedback, which maybe is something you're already thinking about, but I I share council member Robinson's concern. I'd just like to see what that tax burden looks like once we switch this up.

And I want to make sure that during those conversations, they fully understand that as well so that they can prepare for that change potentially in their business in terms of being able to pay those. I mean, the last thing we want is the unintended consequence of making it harder for small businesses to start here, even though our intent is good, but we want to remain a place where when small businesses want to make Bellevue home, we wanna welcome them with open arms and do everything we can to make them successful here. So I'll look forward to that. You said we're coming back in June or somewhere around that time? Okay. Unless you spend some more time doing outreach, which I encourage you to do. But thank you so much.

Thank you. Anyone else? Councilor Borgavo?

Yeah. Thank you. Two two things I wanna touch on. One, on the square footage piece, maybe this is just for me to better understand. You say that it's 50% of our businesses are in compliance. If it were a 100%, would it still be revenue neutral?

Councilmember, that is a great question. But because we don't have the data and they don't report, we don't know. What we believe, as our Controller, Mr. Chandler, has suggested, when we get to that recommendation, we'll go forward if you are so inclined. And we would actually anticipate coming back to you to tell you how it's going in case we are over collecting. That is not our intention by any means, and we we wanna build in the check and adjust into that process.

I appreciate that because the where I was going with this is our intent, and you framed it as revenue neutral, should be compliance oriented rather is the suggestion I have because you want to create a process that's so simple or simplified to the point that you can get very high levels of compliance with a target of a 100% and then understand the cost neutrality or the revenue neutrality of that rather than start with the premise that you're going to stay revenue neutral. So that is maybe it's if you have a point of view on that, I would love to hear if you see it differently.

We appreciate that perspective. And that's why we're trying to do the best we can with the knowledge we have in order to update that system. And so it's a bit of chicken and egg in both sides of it. And that's what we're hoping to engage with large, medium and small businesses to understand that play, to be able to come back to you with recommendations, which aren't just about the annual business license, but also about the thresholds for the tax payment and looking at all of those pieces in flux to understand how best the community can comply. And we're not starting this from a goal of increasing taxes.

And I think that's the primary understanding that we're really starting from, that we are because of that, we're targeting revenue neutral, but it really is about compliance and making sure that folks have the easiest way to do it and get us great information so we have that ongoing dialogue with community.

Okay. Appreciate that. And the second comment I shared, the concern that council member Robinson and Noon has laid out about additional complexity and burden of an annual renew renewal process. But if the idea is to only to capture accurate information and to pass it along to interdepartmental impacts, etcetera, then we have to really balance that to see that the the process is so simple that, it allows for that. And then, you know, your piece on additional tax burden or complexity for the businesses needs to be thought about.

That that's a place where you could take a note in net increase to cost approach, and I would appreciate that if you say for businesses. And I would say, yeah. So we're going from here to here, but we are we're holding a bar at saying no net increase to cost to business. And then what can you do? Those are my two thoughts.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, mayor. I have a rather trivial question. Well, thank first, thank you for the incredible work that you're conducting. I think it's just fantastic, and I'm super excited about it. If the intention behind the annual renewal of the permit, which I support granted the concerns and caveats that council member Robinson and Newhouse and bark council member Bargava also brought up. If one of them is misleading information and infrequent communication, again, perhaps this is a silly question, but why is it not a direct channel to all of our small businesses? Is that over ambitious? I guess I'm trying to understand how those two are correlated with one another.

They could be, but if the business license was issued in 1972

Mhmm.

And we're having trouble even finding out if a family member is still running that business to be able to engage with them. That's part of

the challenge that comes with it. So

we are very much looking at how to improve that channel. So our only communication isn't just your tax filing for gross receipts on an annual basis.

So if it's not just your taxes, but also the annual permit review, which are the two touch points of communication, do you still think that's frequent enough for small businesses if you're trying to disseminate a whole number, a number of different items?

There is an economic development group who takes that portion on.

Okay.

Unfortunately, we are the tax side. Okay. It's out of scope. Sorry. We're we're we're the other side of the house Got it. That we work in concert with and being able to share that information so that they can do the good work in partnership.

I understand. Thank you for clarifying. Thanks so much.

Thank you, customer operator. Deputy mayor.

Thank you. Appreciate the presentation. All in favor of this. I think clarifying and simplifying the square foot tax makes a lot of sense. I think everybody benefits those who pay it, those who collect it. And I'm sure compliance is going to increase. And just my experience with small businesses is there is a general desire to pay the taxes that are owed to meet the regulatory requirements, but often, it's just so difficult to do so. And when you have so many challenges in running a business, to make this part of the business challenging is really counterproductive. So I'm sure you're going to see a good increase in that. And any time, too, I mean, the more complex it is, the more expensive it is.

And so I think when we simplify this, it's not only cheaper for the city to collect this tax revenue, but it's a lot easier for those who pay it to be able to comply as well. And then, too, bringing the city into alignment with neighboring municipalities. I think that makes it easier on everyone. If you've learned how to do it in Seattle, you know how to do it in Bellevue. If you want to pack up and move over here, that's great.

If you want to add another location over here, then that's great. So when it's when we're aligned, that just simplifies it for everyone. So I think, again, we're all about streamlining and being more efficient this year in the city and for those who have businesses here or visit here. So completely in favor of it and look forward to seeing what you come back with and appreciate all the comments I've heard so far. Thank you.

It seems you announced this year as simplifying here or something. It seems like it. Okay, we work on that. Thank you so much. I think I agree with everything has been mentioned.

I actually like that you are overemphasizing that this B and O simplification doesn't does any additional cost to businesses. I think that lens is very good, and I think, hopefully, you keep that. I understand why we need to do the annual business license because we want to have our records accurate and up to date and be connected to businesses. Just some small questions. You said the compliance is 50%, and council member Bargava said the target should be 100%. Do you guys have a goal that what that should be based on this simplification?

Mister mayor, if our if it's simplified and our businesses are able to, at the same time they're doing their gross receipts, actually have their square footage in a simple calculation, it should be 100%. If you're filing one, you've checked the other and make it very simple.

So your target is 100%? Great. One question about how simplified would that be. If a business owner who knows decent mathematic and knows have some common sense, can they do that on their own, or they still need to hire

accountant? Today?

No. In future? The goal.

Hopefully, if you know how many square feet you have times a number, compare that with against your gross receipts, and dollar for dollar credit of gross receipts would be as bad as simple as it would take. Currently, our 11 page simplification document provides guidance that needs the assistance of a state and local tax attorney to help understand it. And we really have heard from our community that we've got to think about not being that kind of simplification.

And I shared the whole that should issue the second piece of the annual license renewal should not feel like a tax. I think the communication should be clearly. This is a better data and alignment with other cities. And and I again, I'm not sure what would be your plan about not framing this as or not the businesses doesn't feel that there is a new tax is going to impose to them. The my last comment would be, can this renewal process would be a service touch point for these businesses?

Like, hey, these are the city resources that we can help you with. You're renewing, but, hey, this is a support that also are available if you need one. Can we do that also?

Mister mayor, that is actually part of your economic development plan and a very specific part of it, which is why they've been a key partner to us and have encouraged us and are gonna be helpful and supportive in that process. They wanna be right there in that space.

That's awesome. Thank you so much. Did you guys get what you needed from us? Perfect. Thank you so much. We have a written reports, our intergovernmental affairs monthly update of February 28. Is there great? And I think by that, we can adjourn the meeting and see you all next week. Thank you so much.