City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you for being here to engage in the work of our city. The council is returning from its annual summer recess. We have a lot of work to do as we consider a wide range of issues including the adoption of our biennial budget later this year. Your guidance and input are key to the work of the city and we appreciate all of you joining us. Before we continue with tonight's meeting, I'd like to take a moment to recognize that Friday marks 25 years since the World Trade Center attacks of September 11th, 2001. For those of us who remember that day, 25 years ago can also seem like yesterday. We remember where we were. We remember the images and the uncertainty. And above all, we remember the nearly 3,000 whose lives were taken and the extraordinary courage of the first responders and ordinary people who ran toward danger to help others. A quarter century later, a generation has grown up with no memory of September 11th itself. That makes our collective responsibility to remember and retain that history even more important. We honor those we lost not only by remembering the tragedy, but by remembering what followed. Americans helping neighbors, strangers caring for one another, and communities coming together in a spirit of service, courage, and shared purpose. Those moments reflected some of the very best of our country, our resilience, our compassion, and our belief that even in the face of terrible loss, we stand together. As we approach this anniversary, I hope each of us will take a moment to remember those who were lost, those whose lives were forever changed, and all those who served our nation in the years that followed. Thank you. Before we move on to our agenda items, as you can see, the mayor is not with us this evening. He will return next week, but for tonight, can I have a motion to excuse his absence? So moved.

Second.

All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That carries. Thank you for that. Also, just want to mention, as I think most of you in the gallery can see, Council Member Sumitawirya is joining us virtually this evening. With that, City Clerk, if you'd call the roll call, please.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor Hamilton.

Here.

Council Member Bhargava. Here. Council Member Breyer.

Here.

Council Member Newenhouse.

Here.

Council Member Robinson. Here. And Council Member Sumidoria.

Here. Okay, great. Okay, with that, Council Member Bhargava, would you please lead us in the flag salute?

The flag of the United States of America. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. We have three proclamations tonight. Council Member Sumida Wiria is going to read the East Side Welcoming Week proclamation. And Miwa Lyke, if you would come up to the table, we'd love to hear from you once Council Member Sumida Wiria is finished.

Thank you. Whereas Welcoming Week has been celebrated in solidarity on the East Side since 2016 with the cities of Bellevue, Issaquah, Kirkland, Redmond, and Sammamish, seeing this as an opportunity to honor the history, achievements, experiences, struggles, and the contributions of immigrant and refugee people to the social, economic, educational, artistic, and civic life of our country. And whereas we recognize that many immigrants and refugee communities continue to face systematic barriers, shifting policies, and discrimination, and we commit to fostering a community where all community members can feel safe, supported, and fully included. And whereas East King County is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse regions in Washington State, with 37% of our residents coming from places outside of the United States and 40% of residents speaking in a language other than English at home. And whereas immigrant and refugee community members have historically faced significant challenges in building a new life in the United States, often navigating limited resources and the systematic barriers along the way. And whereas immigrant and refugee community members are especially impacted by the current federal regulatory environment. facing fear, harassment, uncertainty, and trauma, regardless of their legal status. And whereas Eastside community organizations report that more than 80 immigrants and refugees have been detained in the past year in East King County. And data from the University of California shows roughly 700 people were detained in statewide in July alone, and whereas federal policy changes are also affecting many human services programs, limiting vital resources to immigrant refugee community members and many other people in need, impacting their education, employment, income, food supply, housing, and well-being. And whereas it is important to counter many of the negative stereotypes regarding the contributions of immigrants and highlighting that 36% of the new businesses are immigrant owned, that American agriculture relies heavily on immigrant labor. and that undocumented immigrants paid over 96 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022 alone. And whereas despite the ongoing challenges, Eastside Welcoming Week will continue as part of the region's annual celebration, honoring the contributions of immigrants and refugees, and highlighting the vital role communities play in fostering equity, inclusion, belonging, and a sense of welcoming. And whereas there are many ways to celebrate Eastside Welcoming Week, including amplifying the voices and experiences of immigrant people, uplifting them to share their stories or attending Welcoming Week events. Visit Eastside for All for the list of all regional events. Now, therefore, I, Claire Suma Deware, on behalf of the mayors of Bellevue, Issaquah, Kirkland, Redmond, and Spanish Washington, jointly proclaim September 10th to the 19th, 2026, as Eastside Welcoming Week, and invite the community to engage in opportunities during Eastside Welcoming Week, and be on to learn, connect across differences, and take joint action to achieve a welcoming, equitable, and inclusive community.

I want to sincerely thank the Bellevue City Council for allowing me to accept this proclamation on behalf of this wonderful community. My name is Miwa Lyke. I've lived in Bellevue for almost 30 years. I know our different cultures, languages, traditions, and experiences are what make Bellevue stronger. I'm honored to accept this proclamation on behalf of a community that continues to grow and evolve while making space for everyone to feel seen, valued, and included. This proclamation gives us an opportunity to think about belonging, not just as an idea, but as something we can actively create. Bellevue's Cultural Conversations program, organized by Kara Iwazaki, is a wonderful example of what belonging can look like in practice. It's a space where people can come together, share their experiences and cultures, and have meaningful conversations that we might not otherwise have the opportunity to have. Being part of the 2026 Cultural Conversations cohort and having the opportunity to help create authentic experiences for our community has reminded me just how much love and care exists within Bellevue. When we take the time to listen to one another, learn from one another, and celebrate what makes each of us unique, we discover just how much we have in common. Bellevue is an incredible city built upon the shoulders of people who care. You can see it in the way we welcome one another, connect with one another, and take care of one another. I can think of no better words to describe our community than Bellevue welcomes the world. Our diversity is our strength. Thank you for this proclamation and thank you for giving us another opportunity to celebrate what makes Bellevue so special.

And if you would stick around, we would love to get a picture with you when all the proclamations are done. Okay, I'd like to invite Scott Walleen and Tammy Waddell up to the desk. And Councilmember Robinson is going to read the Hunger Action and Awareness Month Proclamation.

Whereas food insecurity occurs when individuals and families lack reliable access to sufficient, affordable, and nutritious food, and it continues to affect thousands of people in Bellevue and throughout King County, and whereas access to food remains a significant need for individuals and families seeking assistance from social service providers across King County, and whereas food insecurity does not affect all communities equally, with persistent disparities experienced by communities of color, people with disabilities, and other populations facing barriers to economic stability and access to healthy food. And whereas children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of food insecurity, which can affect their health, development, academic achievement, and overall well-being, and whereas ensuring reliable access to nutritious food strengthens the health and stability of individuals, families, and the broader community, and whereas Bellevue is committed to a future where everyone has access to healthy, culturally responsive, affordable, and sustainably produce food, and where no one in our community goes hungry. And whereas the city recognizes and commends the food banks, meal programs, farmers markets, volunteers, faith communities, social service organizations, and community partners working every day to address hunger and support neighbors in need. Now, therefore, I, Lynn Robinson, on behalf of Mo Malekoutian, Mayor of the City of Bellevue, Washington, and the City Council, do hereby proclaim September 2026 as Hunger Action and Awareness Month in Bellevue, Washington, and encourage all residents to take action against hunger in our community through food or financial donations, volunteering, advocacy, and other efforts to ensure everyone has access to the food that they need to thrive.

Welcome.

Thank you very much for the privilege to be here to accept that proclamation, to acknowledge it's really well written. I love it. With Nourishing Networks, we've been around since about 2011 as an offshoot out of Hope Link. And an idea was to harness the volunteer energy in the communities to put them to work and to see how we could knit the community stronger together. And we started off in Kirkland as our first nourishing network venture. We developed a nourishing network model, and we extended to Redmond, Bellevue, and then out to Issaquah, Sammamish, down to Renton, up to Woodinville, Kenmore, Bothell and Shoreline. So pretty much the whole region here and now out in Bremerton. And what we've been able to do is harness that great volunteer energy that we have in this region together with the great resources that we have in this region to get those resources to the people that need them. And there's a lot of need in the community and we're happy that we're able to make those connections. And we'd invite you all to our NourishingNet Workshop in September 26th at the Together Center in Redmond at 9 o'clock to 1 o'clock. So sign up, nourishingnetworks.net, and thank you very much.

And all I want to do is say thank you. The proclamation is beautiful. It does touch on everything that we all do together because we are stronger together than separate.

Thank you, and if you'd stick around as well. We'd love to get a picture with you all right like to invite Katharina Goodwin and Julia up to the desk if you would and councilmember Breyer is going to read the National Service dog month proclamation With pleasure, thank you so much, and I'm fighting every urge to come and hug and kiss your dog, so I will Okay, thank you so much deputy mayor

Whereas the Americans with Disabilities Act recognizes the important role of service animals, dogs individually trained to perform tasks for people with disabilities and protects the rights of individuals who rely on them to access public spaces and participate fully in community life. And whereas service dogs provide essential assistance to people with disabilities, supporting greater independence, safety and confidence at home, at work and throughout their communities. Whereas in Bellevue and throughout our region, service dogs support adults, children, veterans, and seniors by performing tasks and helping their handlers navigate daily life with greater independence. And whereas their partnership between a service dog and its handler can expand opportunities to participate in education, employment, volunteerism, recreation and civic life and whereas greater public understanding of service dog etiquette including respecting a working dog's focus and recognizing the access rights of its handler helps create a more welcoming and accessible community when whereas national service dog month provides an opportunity to recognize the extraordinary work of service dogs raise awareness about the role and celebrate the partnerships that help people disabilities live more independently Now, therefore, I, Council Member Noreen Breyer, on behalf of Mo Malakoutian, Mayor of the City of Bellevue, Washington, and the City Council, do hereby proclaim September 2026 as National Service Dog Month in Bellevue, Washington, and encourage all residents and organizations to recognize the essential role service dogs play in advancing independence, accessibility, and full participation in community life for people with disabilities. Thank you.

My name is Julia. My name is Katharina, and I want to thank the City of Bellevue and Council Member Breyer for this proclamation recognizing service dog months in Bellevue. I also want to thank all of the hard-working volunteers and puppy raisers and everyone that put their time and energy into raising puppies and getting them to become working dogs that help handlers like me. I am not the only type of handler that you will see. I am recently impaired with a guide dog, but there are many other configurations of service dog handler teams you will see in the community. You will see psychiatric service dogs helping people with PTSD. You will see medical alert dogs helping type 1 diabetics or people with epilepsy. You will see immigrants, you will see people of color, you'll see a low-income community and others who have service animals. We come in many shapes and forms and all we wish is for us to have access in your community. There are many ways to welcome us, if you will, into your species. You can, you know, don't pet a service dog when they're working, as mentioned in the proclamation, and you're able to ask a few questions. I always joke that if you're nice, I might be willing to answer a couple more. You can ask, what is a service dog and what task do they perform? Are they protected under the American with Disabilities Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Rehabilitation Act? without those legislations that continue to be under pressure from various entities, we would not have those, we would not have the access that we do today. So it's always imperative to continue to allow us access and welcome us into our spaces. Thank you very much for your time.

picture with you and Julia as well if we could all right let's do it Okay, great, thank you. Okay, moving along, do I have a motion to approve the agenda? So moved.

Second.

It's been moved by Councilmember Newenhouse, seconded by Councilmember Robinson. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, the motion passes. All right, City Clerk, do we have anyone signed up for oral communications tonight?

Thank you Deputy Mayor. There are three pre-registered speakers tonight. So first I'll start by saying the Council does appreciate everyone's comments and contributing their perspectives and the Council does support everyone's right to express themselves. But comments given by individuals during oral communications are those of the individual speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Council or the City. So I'll go over a few of the rules that the council has in place. So the total time for oral communications is for a period of not more than 30 minutes. And all speakers must be speaking to topics related to city of Bellevue government. People speaking to items on tonight's agenda will be called first. And then if time remains, people speaking to items not on tonight's agenda will be called. The presiding officer is authorized in both of those categories to give preference to those who have not spoken to Council within the last 60 days or who will be speaking to items that will come in front of the Council within the next 60 days. Speakers are allowed to speak up to three minutes and only three speakers are allowed to speak to any one side of a particular topic. Then one final reminder that in compliance with Washington state campaign laws regarding the use of public facilities during elections, no speaker may support or oppose a ballot measure or support or oppose a candidate for election, and that includes one's own campaign. So with that, I will call our first speaker, who is Patrick Harris. Sorry, Patrick Hanks. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Hamilton and members of the City Council, for the record, my name is Patrick Hanks with the Bellevue Chamber. The Bellevue Chamber through our plush committee has supported the parking reform LUCA since our January 13th, 2026 letter to the Council. And we followed up with written comments and testimony to the Planning Commission this July. We are grateful for the work of the Council, Commission, and city staff in this effort and your willingness to listen and address industry concerns. Parking requirements add significant personal costs that undermine project feasibility, particularly amid high interest rates and construction costs. Eliminating excess parking requirements is one of the most direct tools the city has to support housing delivery. and economic competitiveness. After reviewing the current draft, we had some concerns about vertical parking requirements for below grade parking and visitor parking flexibility. Through conversations with staff, we believe these issues are being addressed. If the minimum heights required for below grade parking do not exceed what is required under the Washington State Building Code, and there's flexibility on visitor parking requirements. We believe this update will improve housing feasibility over the current code, which we support, and we thank your work on this effort. Thank you very much.

Thank you. The next speaker is Julie Kopp.

Julie Kopp. And I've been here before, and I'm here again. I don't know if anything helps. I don't even know why I'm coming. Number one, before I start, the bicycle, the line bicycles coming down Belvedere Way, there were three just dropped along the sidewalk. So I know this is something you're going to revisit. I think you said January. And in process, Paris has banned rental bicycles. And I can't tell you how many have been killed in Paris. And then other cities are following along, something you might want to look into. My concern is our street. And we have 10 houses. And we have had one new build, another owner remodeled. We've had three lots that are empty. They are empty because a developer has purchased the lots and now they rent them out. I don't think they have permits to tech Renters and the lot that was so beautiful, you could eat off the dirt. That's how clean the previous owners had. Now it's just overgrown and we look like a desolate city street and. The house that they're building on, I said, was four townhouses. I have called. I don't get a response from Riley Pittman, but his supervisor called. I went, well, I'd really like to talk with him. I've called about construction site, the equipment being on the property. That's what it's permitted for. And I talked with Trevor Gillis. He said they had three weeks. Friday I called and I said, we have construction equipment on the road. A man called Tim Roan is an inspector. He called me back and he said, oh, well, they now are going to be permitted to be on the road. Anything I do, it's like they give an exception. And I said, well, are they getting exception? No, they're going to have to pay to rent the road. But that's not what the original permit said. Therefore... how can I trust the city of Bellevue? Because they always make an exception. And I still have the two more houses have put themselves up for sale. Another house is selling. So maybe Bellevue needs to get a permitting together and say, let's not over, build on one block. We have 10 houses that's now gonna be raised to 20 houses. We have two more houses that are gonna go up for sale because they don't want to live here because they've trespassed the builders, they take over their property. I don't know what to do. I've called people and I just get the run around where they don't call back.

Your time has expired. Thank you. We come to our final preregistered speaker and that's Alex Zimmerman.

Hi, my name Alex Zimmerman. I'm president of Stand Up America Party. I want a little bit to analyze what has happened with Bellevue for the last eight years under supervision of Mayor Robinson and Mohammed. Number one. Two weeks ago, I go to budget hearing, and, well, your budget, $1.2 billion. You know, one guy from back talk to deputy, budget deputy, you know what it means. We need fix this, this, this, and budget deputy talk. No, we don't have enough money. Yeah, $1 billion, not enough money. My question to you right now, very interesting. Bellevue GDP, $150 billion. I repeat, for people like you, because you have counsel for many years, GDP of Bellevue, $150 billion. But what does Money City have? It's only $1 billion. A little bit more, 1.2. My joke to you is very simple. It's not a joke, you know what I mean? It's very interesting because how is this possible? Who has this $149 billion? Amazon? Microsoft? or 120,000 slaves who come from different country. That's number one. Number two, somebody here talking about immigrant, but Bellevue don't have immigrant. Most people who in Bellevue come for working visa. This means they contractor. They are slave by definition. So about immigration, it's a big problem, what we have in Bellevue. But my opinion straight, you know what it means, because I live here 40 years, I am immigrant. No, I'm a refugee by religion and political. I come to America for freedom. What is it? I don't have freedom in Bellevue for 40 years. Probably Bellevue Police Department is so big. I'm so sorry for my joke. But as we have about immigration, it's absolutely strange situation in Bellevue. And I don't want to go to detail, but what I want to explain to you, we have 30,000 white and zero black community. Can you explain to me how this is possible? This is genocide. And because I'm a Jew, I forgot my start. Next time I will bring you my low start. Yeah. This is a Holocaust. How is this possible? Why American citizens don't have more privilege? What is people who come with working visa, you know what it means? Have more privilege than American citizens. Why? This Trump changes, you know what it means? Bring everything to normal, common sense. Viva Trump, viva new American revolution. Stand up, slave, and happy cow.

That is the end of our preregistered list. So at this point, we do have some time left. So I'd ask if there's anyone joining us tonight who would like to make a comment to the council. If so, please raise your hand. I don't see any hands. Deputy Mayor, I'll turn it back to you.

OK, great. Thank you. We will move on then and move to the report of the city manager, please.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor and Council Members. Good evening.

We have a presentation tonight, so I'm going to invite several of our directors up to the table. And while they're coming up, I also want to make a few call outs on your consent calendar this evening. First is consent item L. That is a labor agreement with our police support employees. And over the course of about a year, the union leadership and our city labor negotiators worked to develop the terms for this three year agreement that's summarized in your packet. And it was ratified by the employee group this summer. So I want to thank our police support union leadership and our department leadership with the police department and human resources for working out a good outcome. um for this agreement and then the second item is item m on your consent calendar this contains a contract between our police department and axon enterprise for a pilot program for drones as first responders it will also include some work with our fire department and their response and you'll hear a little bit more about that in the presentation today So we had a very busy summer, lots of activities. The team in front of you today includes Meredith Pettit, our Director of Parks and Community Services, our Chief of Police Wendell Shirley, and then our Fire Chief Dave Tate. And they're going to give you a little bit of an overview of the success of these activities, the work that went into putting these all on for the community. and just a lot about the coordination that occurs between the departments to make sure that they happen successfully as well. So with that, I'll turn it over to Meredith.

introduction city manager good evening deputy mayor city council as the city manager mentioned we are here this evening to provide a little bit of reflection this evening on a very active summer in bellevue and i'm sure many of you participated in those activities and definitely highlight some of the city services the planning and the coordination that made it safe and successful And this presentation this evening is not intended to be a comprehensive report on everything that occurred this summer. Instead, we'll just kind of illustrate through example how Bellevue is becoming increasingly active, more connected, and some of what happens behind the scenes. So these numbers give you a sense of just how active Bellevue was this summer. We welcomed more than 68,000 people in Bellevue Downtown Park for the Bellevue Family Forth, over 45,000 visits to our guarded beach parks, and hundreds of thousands of participants and attendees through various special events and park permit uses. All of these of note are higher numbers than the previous year. The new dimension this year, of course, was the increased regional connectivity through the light rail system. And on July 4th, the downtown Bellevue station recorded nearly 7,300 boardings, which is about three times a typical Saturday. We also saw that connectivity work in the other direction as well. So on Seattle's FIFA match days, boardings across all Bellevue stations averaged about 80% higher than comparable days, with more than 22,000 boardings throughout the city on the busiest match day. So Bellevue wasn't only just a destination this summer, but we're increasingly seeing connectivity through major activity throughout the region. And importantly, despite the increased activity, overall impacts were manageable. Our parks are one of the places where seasonal increases in activity are particularly visible. And to meet that demand, Parks and Community Services significantly scale up our workforce each summer, particularly for services focused on safety, education, and prevention. Our park rangers provided more than 8,000 hours of summer coverage and made more than 55,000 visitor contacts. Their work is largely about visible presence, education, assistance, and addressing issues early. And similarly, 76 lifeguards provided more than 7,400 hours of coverage at our six guarded beaches. And one statistic I particularly think adds value here to this service is the 4,100 preventative actions compared to just seven rescues. These are just two of the more visible examples of how we scale up for summer. Across parks and community services, we hired more than 160 additional seasonal employees that support a wide range of services, such as our summer day camps, our recreation programs, and then some of those less visible services like additional custodial and maintenance support needed as the use of our parks, facilities, and restrooms increases. I want to take particular note, too, that this seasonal workforce doesn't just appear at the beginning of summer. Recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and training that volume of employees starts months in advance and requires a significant partnership with human resources as well as other internal service teams. I think it's a good example of how even the services residents experience directly depend on a much broader city operation behind the scenes. I'm gonna turn it over to Chief Tate and talk a little bit about how fire prepares for the summer activities.

Good evening. With the projected increases in the region with FIFA, the 4th of July falling right in the midst of that and the opening of Sound Transit, it was clear that planning and preparedness were going to be key. And as part of that, anticipating risks, ensuring appropriate capacity, monitoring the actual conditions and then being flexible enough to make adjustments as we went along and we learned what we didn't know was coming. With FIFA, initially, we had our emergency manager, Carl Lunak, lead a citywide team of representatives from each department in the city, providing weekly updates on what they learned and how the planning was going. We increased our staffing. We activated the Emergency Operations Center for every local event. And we coordinated closely with King County emergency operations center with the 1st event we found with some staffing. We found that there was minimal operational impacts. We were pleased that call volumes remain steady. So we adjusted back to normal and to quote 1 of the fire chiefs from the region who was down at the King County emergency operations center. They said. They felt the impact much stronger with the Taylor Swift concert than they did the first match here. So we were relieved to hear that. With the 4th of July, the projected large numbers, we realized that with 68,000 people in the park. We increased our staffing for that event, again, activated the EOC program. And prepared for the increased demand, and if you heard a giant sigh of relief at the end of the night, when everybody got on the train and left the city, or went home happy and healthy at the end, that was me. It was really I'm proud to report on behalf of all the city departments that we had a safe and successful experience that night. In terms of regional readiness, with FIFA and the World Cup, the City of Bellevue sent firefighter paramedics, hazardous materials technicians, as well as police officers over to Seattle to help out with their events. For wildland response, we averaged approximately five members at any given time throughout the summer and supported 10 different locations in the Pacific Northwest for wildland response. We provided emergency medical services, radio communications, and fire suppression around the region, and our community risk reduction team provided a toolkit for wildfire safety and home assessments and presentations as well. Behind the scenes, utilizing the Bellevue Family Forth as an example, it's a strong example of the coordination that occurred between the city departments. There were nine months of advanced planning with over 150 city employees involved. Hundreds of staff hours, including special event review, permitting, coordination, on-site operations, walkthroughs, and administrative support. Parks led the event production, site operations, coordinating vendors and onsite services. Transportation managed the transit and traffic management. Police handled public safety and supported traffic. Fire prepared for emergency responses and life safety. And we specifically worked with parks and police for 12 child reunifications that night. And I'm happy to say one minor medical emergency the entire evening related to the park, which was incredible. And I'm also very proud to say for the 2nd year in a row, we did not have structure fires in our response area. And I will attribute some of that to our fire prevention division. They did a lot of targeted signage using data from where we've had problem areas and put signs in the right places. And I think that helped. I will now hand it over to police chief. Shirley.

Thank you. Good evening council. From a police standpoint, as it relates to our community presence during World Cup, we increased our staffing on match days during that time period. We also sent officers to Seattle to assist them as well. Bellevue Family Fourth, we... coordinated and planned behind the scenes and deployed over 80 police officers to the family forth and we're happy to say that we only made one arrest for a warrant and some other issues during that event. Lastly, as it relates to our third annual summer camp that we started, one for middle school, one for high school, three days each. We had over 140 applications for 30 to 40 slots in each, and we're very proud of that, and it worked out well. From a respondent to community concerns as it relates to traffic enforcement, there's 3 things that we're doing now safe roads initiative. We've created this where we basically hotspots in the community where we know there are a lot of complaints as it relates to speeding, loud exhaust racing, you name it and we are zeroing in and focusing on those areas on a regular basis. The East side safe street task force, something 1 of our captains came up with in concert with Redmond Kirkland and where it's like a task force. So we go to each city and we kind of deploy in hotspots in those cities. And that's proven to be very successful for us, especially a car meets and things like that. Lastly, pipe down training. This training is designed to train our officers how to identify, measure with a specific meter and be able to enforce loud exhaust across our community, which we firmly believe will enhance the quality of life as it relates to Bellevue residents. And as you can see here, August results, this is a year to date. You can see overall citations that we've increased over 24%. We're going to continue to do that throughout the year to enhance the quality of life for our community. And lastly, upcoming investments, we are looking and working hard to enhance our current drone program that we've had since 2021. We believe this enhancement drone as a first responder will be a force multiply for not only the police department, but all city departments, fire, utilities, you name it. We'll be able to get a drone to a location in approximately a minute and 20 seconds and be able to assess that emergency and see what type of resources we need to deploy and deploy them safely. So we're looking forward to hopefully being able to move this forward.

All right, thank you.

Well, as we wrap up this evening, I think there's just a few things that the summer demonstrated for us. First, the connectivity. We're increasingly becoming more and more connected as a community with light rail, and that's changing in how people can access Bellevue, and we anticipate that to continue to grow. Secondly, the successful outcomes that we've talked about tonight weren't accidental. They're the result of advanced planning, visible presence in the community, preparedness, and the ability to adjust resources as conditions change. I think most importantly, what we want to underscore tonight is the result of coordination, that no single department delivers the successful outcomes alone, and that they rely on a lot of people working together. And as we look ahead, we wanna make sure that we continue to be a welcoming and safe place for our community and our visitors to visit. And these enhanced activities, larger scale community events, I think will be increasing in our community. And there are operational requirements that come with those activities. What we have noticed this summer and demonstrated is that we do have strong systems in place. We have very talented staff and effective partnerships in place. And so maintaining that capacity requires thoughtful approach, and we will want to continue to deliver a safe and welcoming place for people to visit. And with that, we thank you for your attention and allowing us to come tonight and share with you some of the success stories from this summer.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And council members, if you have any questions about any of these, please let me know and we'll get further answers for you.

Great. Thank you. That was awesome. I don't think I remember a more positive or impressive city manager's report. So well done to all of you. Thank you. Okay, moving on. Do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar? Second. Okay, any discussion? All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, the consent calendar is approved. And with that, we will move on to our public hearing.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor, Council Members. You heard about this topic, which is a development agreement with Bridge Housing in our Bell Red Arts area. This is a partnership with Bridge, and you heard about it on August 4th at the meeting before going to recess. The purpose of tonight's meeting is to hold a scheduled public hearing, which you directed on August 4th, and that would be for the development agreement with bridge housing staff will give you a brief presentation and then hand it back to you deputy mayor for the public hearing and we have jay kesselgeser our acting director of development services and leticia walgren our housing and special projects planning manager and with that i will hand it over to jake

Great, thank you City Manager Carlson, good evening Deputy Mayor, City Council members, great to be back with you again talking about the Battle Red Arts Development Agreement, a public-private partnership agreement, also with the acronym of P3DA if you're tracking those at home. Tonight, staff are asking council to hold the public hearing on the Bell Red Arts Development Agreement and following the public hearing, consider adopting the ordinance authorizing execution of the development agreement. We have just a brief agenda here. Talk a little bit about background. including where the project is located there next to the 130th light rail station, talk about the proposed modifications and the public benefits that the project is seeking to deliver, and then we'll conclude with a look back on the schedule and turn it back to you for Council to consider action. In terms of background, just rewinding for a moment here, back in March of 2025, the city did issue an RFQ to develop 100% affordable housing development with an arts component to it. In July of 2025, the city selected Bridge Housing to partner on that development. IN JUNE THE CITY COUNCIL TOOK IN JUNE THE CITY COUNCIL TOOK A VERY IMPORTANT ACTION A VERY IMPORTANT ACTION APPROVING THE PRE-DEVELOPMENT APPROVING THE PRE-DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT SETTING THE CONDITIONS AGREEMENT SETTING THE CONDITIONS BY WHICH THE CITY WOULD WORK BY WHICH THE CITY WOULD WORK WITH BRIDGE AS WELL AS THE DRAFT WITH BRIDGE AS WELL AS THE DRAFT GROUND LEASE. GROUND LEASE. IN AUGUST YOU ALL DIRECTED US TO IN AUGUST YOU ALL DIRECTED US TO INITIATE NEGOTIATION OF THE DA INITIATE NEGOTIATION OF THE DA WHICH IS THE NEXT STEP IN THE WHICH IS THE NEXT STEP IN THE PROCESS AND THEN FOLLOWING THAT PROCESS

Good evening, Council. So the slide before you should be familiar. It was the one we presented at the August 4th study session. And so just to, I won't go through it as comprehensively as I did before. However, you do have within your agenda materials, a draft development agreement with an attachment which does contain the comprehensive list of modifications. Those modifications were divided up or nested under the four categories that you see on the left side of your screen here. Just to quickly highlight some of those kind of high level modification requests. Under the dimensional requirements, the FAR and the height were probably the highest impact modifications that were requested. With respect to the building and site design, probably the most notable modification request was the addition of an item arch spaces to the ground floor uses. The commercial parking reduction, we already allow for zero parking stall for affordable housing. So this really would be the modification of 0.5 would really be just for the ground floor uses. And then the allowed ground floor uses are essentially modified not to eliminate the currently allowed ground floor uses, but to add art spaces to those uses. I will also note that the list that's contained within your draft development agreement is the same list that was presented to you in the August 4th study session. And I'll hand it back over to Jake.

Great. So I'll just conclude us here. Quick summary. Council did provide feedback and direction back on August 4th. What we heard was large support for the modifications and public benefits this project would be delivering. We did receive one written comment under the SEPA review that was from the Duwamish tribe, really asking for public notification once the entitlement permit comes in, which we do as part of that public process, as well as the opportunity to visit the site if any cultural significant items were found. The DA is consistent with the local project review act and the land use code is outlined in the agenda memo this evening and then bridge housing of course has reviewed and worked very closely with us in the office of housing in reviewing and approving that finalized draft DA that's in front of you this evening. And so with that, again, staff are seeking action from the council to hold a public hearing as well as to consider adopting the ordinance authorizing the execution of the DA. And with that, we'll turn it back to you, Deputy Mayor.

Thank you. Could I get a motion to open the public hearing?

I move that we open the public hearing.

Second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the public hearing is open.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. There are three pre-registered speakers for the public hearing. I'll call our first speaker, who's Brady Nordstrom.

Greetings Deputy Mayor, Councils. Good to see you this evening. My name is Brady Nordstrom and I am the Associate Director of Government Relations and Policy at HTC. HTC is here in strong support of the Bridge Housing Development Agreements in the Bell Red Arts District. It's been said before, but I think a lot of this is worth repeating, but this is a model for the collaborative use of Bellevue surplus land. And it shows a lot of the responsive, innovative governments that Bellevue prides itself on, especially the use of the development agreement to add project specific flexibility in exchange for this public benefit. So in addition to providing the housing overall, the project is poised to provide strong public benefit with affordable housing, family-sized units, housing for households with disabilities, TOD, or transit-oriented development, and artist-focused housing and community space. Staff and you as council have also demonstrated your value to efficiently move through this process and take advantage of an affordable housing opportunity when it comes up. so ultimately the bridge housing da serves a purpose beyond the project specifics and that's in this larger bell red neighborhood as a catalyst um and the departure it really shows the sorts of things the ma that the modification requests show the sorts of things that can help with the overall code um this includes this bold density near transit larger floor plates um this flexibility with development right size parking and prioritize community benefits and in this case that's affordability, and artist housing, and then artist community space. So we strongly support this project, and thank you for providing the clarity to move it forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Maria Lau Hui.

Dear Deputy Mayor and members of the Bellevue Council, on behalf of the Bellwood Art District Community Alliance, I'm here to express our support for the proposed development agreement between the City of Bellevue and Bridge Housing and the Council's adoption of Ordinance No. 6939. Our mission is to cultivate a sustainable and vibrant creative district that celebrates a diverse community and meaningfully connects everyone through arts, culture, and innovation. We see the project as an important opportunity to advance two goals essential to Bellwether's future, housing affordability and long-term cultivation of an arts and cultural community. The approximately 4,000 square foot ground floor creative space is especially meaningful to us. This space will create an important connection between project residents and the Board of Bellwether community. We recognize that achieving these public benefits require flexibility. The development agreement provides targeted modification to existing development standards that allow substantially more affordable housing while preserving the project's public benefits. And the city's estimated that the agreement could result in approximately 60 additional affordable homes that would otherwise not be feasible under existing code. For the community alliance, this is more than just a development project. It's about the kind of community we are building in Bellwood. As the district grows, artists, families, workers, and people of different incomes should have the opportunity to live here, create here, and participate in shaping its identity. For this reason, the Bellwether Art District Community Alliance strongly supports the project development agreement and urges the city council to adopt ordinance number 6939. We appreciate the city's continued commitment to affordable housing, arts and culture, and the long-term vision for the Bellwether Art District. Thank you.

Thank you. Our final pre-registered speaker is Mary Jane Jagodinsky.

Good evening, Deputy Mayor, council members, and staff. I'm Mary Jane Jakaczynski. I'm Senior Vice President of Development with Bridge Housing, and I'm obviously in support of this development agreement. I really want to thank you and your staff for being thoughtful and working very hard and collaboratively on bringing this to this stage. This is a development of what we're estimating as 172 apartments, no studios, one, two, and three bedroom, which really works with most family sizes. In addition to that, as the last speaker indicated, a ground floor designated space for arts commercial uses, as well as being open and having a preference for artists. Bridge is a 43-year-old nonprofit, and providing affordable homes is what we do. But the other part of what we often do is we help to build and provide catalysts in communities. And I sincerely believe that this will be a catalyst and a cornerstone to the Bell Red Arts District. One update to you. We have another project that is nearing completion in the Spring District. It's now called the Briar. Two buildings, 234 units. The first building of that already received TCO and is under construction. under lease right now. The second building will be completed by the first part of the year. So with that kind of interdepartmental collaboration, that really helps us to work together to deliver homes for people we need and helps build sustainable neighborhoods that strengthen the community. So we appreciate your support this evening. Thank you.

Thank you. We do have one final pre-registered speaker, and that's Alex Zimmerman.

Yeah, my name Alex Zimmerman. I'm president of Stand Up America Party, and I want talking with you about what as I see exactly for us eight year under Mayor Robinson and Mohammed. I start slow, one by one. We have 20,000 apartments in Bellevue. Only 40,000, 40 apartments, 40. From 20,000 belong to people like me, low-income senior citizens under SSI. 40 from 20,000. Yes. Affordable housing. That's exactly what you're approving. When I see this word, housing, you know what I mean? About this, it's good for everybody. And exactly for people who make 100 grand per year, you know, you give discount to them. It's very interesting for me. Yep. Affordable housing, what I see, I think understand who's criminal, who's bandita, who cheat us, you know what this mean? Why they steal money from us? I cannot understand. So I give you another interesting situation. I totally agree with this because it's a fraud, 100%. It's a crime. People who doing this trick, and I spoke before about this publicly, yeah, many times, possibly go in jail. It's number two. Number three, what is very interesting, totally support in situation what is I have experience. I'm not corporate guy. I'm sorry. Represent only myself. Approximately 15% empty apartment right now in Bellevue. No one city have this percentage now. Apartment, I check many complexes for understand where is problem. Many complexes have 20, 30, 40 empty apartments who stay in for years. You're doing nothing about this. Can you explain to me? Why is it happening in Bellevue? It will be worse because many buildings are built right now. One, two, three, five, seven buildings, what I know, only for the last couple of months. A few months, you know what I mean? How is this possible? Fifteen percent of empty apartments. Why do these people keep these prices? So I demand to you stop and terrorize people. You know what this means in Bellevue. All terrorize, everybody who runs this, because it's a pure terror. You are a bandita, a criminal. That's exactly who you are. I demand decision about this. You don't... Change price, falling price, doing something, controlling this. Establish a committee, you know what this means, what will be controlled, this 15% HMT apartment. Why? Viva Trump, viva new American revolution, stand up slave and happy cow. When you stop and treat people like a bandita, like a criminal, it's exactly who you are. Thank you very much.

That is the end of our pre-registered list at this point. I'd ask if there's anyone else joining us tonight who would like to make a comment under this public hearing, please raise your hand.

It took me 30 minutes to get down here. It's five miles. I went down Bell Red Way. You're going to build 2 more apartments with 237 people. You're going to have 1 apartment with 172 units. Redmond has. 2, 7, 7 story buildings. How long will it take me to get down to. here to talk to you guys. All those cars in the road, and I was going against the traffic. That is a concern. And I agree. How many apartments are not full? So we're just filling our city up. In my case, it's our neighborhood. But I also had the inspector tell me to go take a nap when I said, about keeping the trucks on the construction site. And now they're going to lease the city street. And he said, why don't you just go take a nap? And I said, I don't nap, thank you. But this is the kind of response I'm getting from the city people. It's discouraging. That's all.

Did not see any additional hands raised so mayor I'll turn it back to you Can I get a motion to close the public hearing?

Close the public hearing second any discussion all those in favor say aye Any opposed? Okay, the hearing is closed I So yeah, Jake and Leticia, thank you for being here. I saw Bianca is here with us as well. So a lot of really good work has gone into moving this project forward. Appreciate all of the input that we've gotten from community members and stakeholders. I think we're all pretty familiar with this project, but if any of my colleagues have any comments or questions, we could take them now. Councilmember Robinson.

Thank you Deputy Mayor. I'll be brief. I just want to really praise this project. You know, we've been working on affordable housing since 2017 and this is exactly what all that hard work has envisioned and planned for to allow this type of a development to happen I just want to go over some of the things that it's really amazing about this project first of all, we're using surplus property that the city owns and Actually, it was purchased by for by soundtrack or for sound transit, but we weren't sure what we're going to do with it and The city manager had the courage to partner with bridge housing to make this project happen And I'm really proud to be a city that I think Is taking the lead on on actions like this? We are going to get all this affordable housing while retaining that property as an asset and I feel really good about that The affordable uh... housing program that we have been supporting at the city has for 100% affordable housing development and expedited permitting and fee waivers and it's taking advantage of those two things as well as others. So just really excited to see this in action. It's really a great example of some of the innovative policies that we've come up with as a council and as a city and so I'm grateful to staff and to you as well. So thank you.

All right. I think we're good with that. I just wanted to add a couple of brief comments myself. I would just like to ask that we do everything we can in our power to help Bridge move the project forward as soon as possible. I think you being here right after, just as we pick up from the recess, you were here right before, certainly a sign that already We're working in that direction to do what we can. I'm aware that the deadline for closing requirements, including the final approval of the development agreement is July 30th. If there's any way to speed that up, I'd love to see that happen. I just think the sooner our community can reap the benefits of the project, all the better. So thank you all. And with that, I would like to get a motion, please.

I'll make a motion. I move that we adopt Ordinance 6939, approving and authorizing execution of the development agreement pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 20.30c WC and Chapter 3.70b RCW to enable the Bellred Arts Multifamily Project in the Bellred Land Use District. Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the motion carries. Let's get building some housing. I think with that too, we're just gonna keep the momentum up and ask our friends from King County Library to join us and city manager, if you would introduce our next topic, please.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor and Council Members.

As one of the thousands of users in Bellevue of the King County Library System, I'm very happy to have the representatives of KCLS here back to share with the Council some of the activities that the library system has been undertaking in the city of Bellevue over the past year. We're very pleased to be partners with the library system and they work hard to meet our community's diverse needs. So welcome back to David Frappier, the regional manager. Welcome to Angie Benedetti, director of collections and John Scheller, the Government Relations Manager. And to kick it off we have Katie Halsey, our Assistant Director of Intergovernmental Relations. Katie?

Deputy Mayor and Council Members, it's great to be with you after a nice August recess. I'm going to hand it straight over, but before I do, I want to point out a ongoing theme that I've heard today. Busy and increasingly connected Bellevue, scaling up, and making investments. So with those breadcrumbs, I'm going to pass it over to John. Thanks, Katie.

Thank you Deputy Mayor, council members. Here to give you a brief overview of 2025 for the King County Library System. And then David will share how his team embodied our mission for the residents of Bellevue through the services at the Bellevue Libraries. So our mission to inspire the people of King County to exceed through ideas, interaction, and information. We've got 50 libraries in the King County system. Last year, we circulated over 23 million items. 12 million of those were digital. This is the first year that our digital checkouts have surpassed our physical materials checkouts. That is a nationwide trend, but our hard copy book lending is still very, very strong, and we work to continue that. We were number two in the U.S. for digital checkouts, number four in the world. We've got a 42.8 household market penetration. We track not only individual cardholders per capita, but also households, because we find that often there's one card that's more heavily used per household as a parent is checking out books for their child or helping keep track of the items and when they're due. With that, I'll turn it over to David.

Thanks, John. So as you all are aware, the city of Bellevue is fortunate to be home to four of our KCLS locations. That is the most of any single municipality in King County. Visitors to our Bellevue, Crossroads, Lake Hills, and Newport Way locations this last year of the 23 million items that John mentioned were responsible for checking out 2,760,197 physical and digital items. which reflects a savings for our library card holders of over $18 million. We currently have over 54,000 active patrons within our service area for the city of Bellevue. And all in total this last year saw about 900,000 individual library visits through our doors, which is really remarkable and continues to represent a resurgence and increase from our pandemic closures and disruptions. Over the next few slides, I'd like to take a few moments to highlight some of the incredible events that we've hosted over the year that give you kind of an insight into how we've been letting our mission really guide the work and lead to a resurgence in information literacy and language programming throughout the city. So starting with the Abelby Library, We continue to see the amazing impact of our community court and resource fair, as you are all well aware. This partnership between the City of Bellevue and our district court have helped over a thousand visitors to our resource fair get referrals to critically needed information and support resources, including mental health, substance abuse counseling, and housing security. The court itself has also had a 100% success rate so far, and I'm sure they will be happy to come talk about that coming soon. I'd also like to build upon something I came to talk to you about last year, which was our Mellon Grant funded memory lab project. As I mentioned last time, we were just kind of getting off the ground in terms of collecting the stories of our community with a focus on our residents and the descendants of those who were unjustly incarcerated during the Second World War due to their Japanese ancestry. As of today, we've recorded over 40 distinct stories from both individuals and families and various community groups about their experience and about the lasting impact that that incarceration had on them. And soon we'll begin our collection of stories of recent immigrants to King County, which is our other real big focal point. This last March, we started, we are one of the five locations in King County to reboot our tech tutor program. And I don't know if you're aware, this was one of our most popular programs pre-COVID. So it's wonderful to be able to bring it back. This resource provides one-on-one tech coaching to those in our community who have a information need when it comes to their digital literacy. As you know, that most often falls upon the shoulder of our older residents. So this is a remarkable opportunity to really help bridge that divide and ensure that everyone can be successful. And to finish up with Bellevue, I also wanted to invite you and talk up our One Bellevue, One Book reading program that we are starting this fall. This year, building on last year's inaugural success, we'll be reading Intemperance by Sonora Shah. The program runs from September 16th to November 7th, but I'd particularly like to highlight a author talk by Professor Shah at the Bellevue Library on October 3rd at 3 p.m., if you are available to attend.

I'd like to call your attention to

Bellevue as a destination library, the downtown library of the 900000 visits to all 4 of your libraries that 1st, data point, they have 1Million visitors. It's just the downtown Bellevue library. Not everyone who visits checks things out. They. come to the events and activities. They look at the artwork. They enjoy Ashwood Park and Kids Quest. But we do see people from all over King County come there. And I included the top 10 borrowers. You can see it's a real regional draw. People come. They spend time there. They look through the collection and use it very heavily. So we're really excited for the future of Ashwood Park too because we see possibilities of doing more partnering with the amphitheater and some outdoor programming. Thank you.

turning to our Crossroads location. while it is our smallest, it is actually our second busiest of all four of our locations in the city. Historically, it's served largely as just simply a connection point, bringing resources to our patrons, whether that's technology resources through our computers or providing a place for them to be able to pick up their holds. This last year, we've been investing more heavily in our programming to the Crossroads and Bell Red communities, and that's been reflected in some of the amazing work that we have here. So one great resource that we've just started up is our new Welcoming Center, which is offer services in Mandarin and Cantonese to our newest residents to King County. One great thing about this project that also reflects the continuing partnership we have with the city. And while we're looking out for each other, we deliberately scheduled this particular drop in session so that it is after many city halls closed. So you really extend the length of time that our residents can gain access, whether they can show up to many city hall during the day or if they can come to the welcoming center in the evening, which is great. I'm also very proud of our summer reading party that we hosted at the beginning of the summer that really reflects our commitment to literacy and literacy development in the city. This program, which was a partnership with our Bellevue School District, designed to combat the summer slump, drove hundreds of students to Crossroads Park on a beautiful sunny day and allowed them to sign up for our ever-popular Curious Creatures summer reading program, which was very fun. Looking to our Lake Hills location, this last year we focused heavily on our English language learning and language development programming. We have just started a new series that's gearing up for the fall called Confidence and Conversation. It's an ELL learning program very much focused on both beginner and intermediate level learners. We found that this is one of the most in-demand programs that we see and have a request for from our residents here in Bellevue, and it's Very exciting to be able to kind of double down and invest even more resources to be able to offer this in the evening so that residents can stop by and continue to gain their confidence and proficiency in English. We also continue to build upon or we've expanded upon our talk time programs. If you're familiar with those, talk time is an opportunity for volunteers in our community to meet with residents for whom English is not their first language and they might have some hesitancy around it. And the entire point of the program, it's not as structured as a class. It is literally just conversation practice. have a conversation with their neighbor and really get to know them a little bit better. And that really reflects our placemaking as well as combined with our language accumulation skills. To wrap us up, I'll talk about our Newport Way Library. this uh last year uh we have two really big programs that i'd like to highlight uh one that's upcoming actually but this last uh summer we hosted the second year of our eastgate block party which once again uh brought residents of the eastgate and newport way neighborhoods together to really celebrate community and connect with information resources about what resources exist in the community, whether that's creative or various human and social services resources, all while, you know, enjoying some ice cream and connecting. But perhaps the program that I'm most excited for is the one that is coming up this month, which is our Civics 101 program. This is a project that we developed in partnership with the Secretary of State's office. And it's really designed to help bridge some information gaps for our residents around what are the responsibilities of good governance and what are their rights as residents, both on the local level, the state level, and the federal level. And as a fun conclusion to this series, on the 6th of October, we'll be hosting a little civics trivia event at the Newport Way Library, which will be very fun. I now like to hand things over to Angie to talk a little bit about some other fun, larger opportunities that we've been experiencing.

Hello, Deputy Mayor and City Council. My name is Angie Benedetti and I am our Director of Collections and Access. In addition to that, I am also responsible as a Public Services Director for overseeing the Bellevue region with David here at its helm. And I have the pleasure of reporting out about our library materials sorter. You may have seen that make the news most recently last month. So we, as David had said, we circulate 23 million items and 11 million of those are the physical collection. And in order to do that, we need to sort 25,000 items a day in order to stay on top of that, to make sure that those items get from place to place and to your hands as people who use our libraries. In order to achieve that, we have a library sortation system. We had one for 20 years. that was out in our Preston facility. That extended about 10 years past the life that it was supposed to have had. And I will share with you, as the person whose department is responsible for keeping that up, that in the end, we were buying parts on eBay in order to keep that thing going. It was a real MacGyver action, sometimes with chewing gum and bailing wire and that is how we did it. And we kept that going for 20 years and long enough to move to a new sortation system in now Oaksdale facility, which is a commerce park in Renton. Our goal is to sort up to 8,000 items per hour with the sortation system. That is an improvement of between 3,000 and 5,000 items an hour over the old system. It also means that we are much more reliably able to get those materials out to you and faster to people who are waiting for them. We know how important it feels to have that book come for you. and that great feeling that we inspire in our patrons is made possible by this sortation system. It is the largest such sortation system in North America. The second largest is housed in, believe it or not, it serves New York Public Library and also the Brooklyn Public Library, both library systems. So we have a larger sortation system than the city of New York, which is amazing and impressive. So you'll see the image there of our director. It is amazing technology. It combines the movement of materials on these conveyor belts along with a robotic arm that picks up the bins and puts them on the sorter. And then at the end of it all, those materials go out to our trucks and out to you. So we anticipate that this is going to really improve service and delight our patrons. We hope to be able to open it to, we have just opened it to, we've just opened it in its ribbon cutting. I hope that someday we will be able to open it to tours as well so that you all would be able to see it. So it's quite impressive. And as we said, the ribbon-cutting was last month on the 19th of August. We had our directors and trustees, as well as King County Councilmember Stephanie Fain, Renton Mayor Pavone, and our Renton City Councilmember, along with Renton City Councilmembers Carmen Rivera and Ed Prince, and the KCLS project team who put this order together. There is a video tour available for you to be able to watch on your own and see it in action. It's quite impressive. Okay, so I also get the joy of getting to talk about one of my other favorite things, which is our outreach and mobile services. I formerly held a role in the library system where this was a department that I managed, and it gave me great joy every day to see its work. So you may have heard of a little thing called the bomb cyclone, and three of our vehicles were destroyed. as a part of that. And we have recently been able to replace all of those vehicles. The last one with the help of a foundation campaign to raise money in order to be able to purchase yet another fleet vehicle. You'll see one of our newest fleet vehicles on the slide. our mobile and outreach services largely serve two audiences first are our daycares and early learning centers where they bring the buses to have kids come aboard and pick out their own books and then also we serve senior centers and senior living residences where we will bring a selection of materials for residents to be able to browse and have that great relationship with librarians who really care about the work that they do and the people that they serve. We also will bring these to community events. Sometimes you'll see them in a community parade. And in addition, we do direct delivery to homebound individuals who are not able to come to the library. So all of this is done out of our service, the mobile services team. And so if you see one of these great vehicles riding around, I want it to bring you joy. And with that, we will take any questions.

Great, thank you. And thanks for all the enthusiasm. You guys are so positive and happy. It's wonderful to see all that. So, yeah, David, Angie, John, Katie, of course, thank you all for being here. Thanks for sharing the update. It's clear you understand how important the King County Libraries are to Bellevue residents. I'd like to just go around the dais if anyone has any comments, starting with Councilmember Sumida Wiria.

Well, thank you for the presentation. I'm so sad I couldn't be there in person. I think I was so excited and ran into hugging you all. This library is such a special place. Number two in the US and then number four in the world. I think that the fact that we have so many type of languages, it just bring people so much closer. I still remember when I bought my immigrant friends who from all over the world, the first time we went to a library and they went to the bookshelf, they can find a book that's speak the mother town where they couldn't speak english yet how close they felt they part of this community and knowing that here we welcome them and they are part of the community because we care this is just priceless and i love um the part you were talking about it brings joy for their outreach and mobile services yes and that's i am so grateful for that because I think without books, we cannot be connecting with each other. And even though when we don't speak the same language, amazing books tend to translate so many different languages. So we can always know the same story. Any part of the world wants a really great story. Thank you so much.

Yes, thank you so much. Number two in the US, number four in the world. I'm just blown away. And a public library is a pinnacle of any educated civilization. I mean, I walk into the Bellevue Public Library, the one in downtown, just because it resets my nervous system. Something about walking in there just really calms me, and smelling the books, and people watching, which is weird. But you should try it sometime. And I can't believe that we also have like the biggest library sortation system in the U.S. ahead of New York City. Mom, Donnie better watch out because we're doing it so much better. I want a Netflix documentary about the work that you're doing. I mean, seriously, you guys are all celebrities. And it's so personal for me, the English classes. I remember being seven and my parents were refugees and they were like, Translate the Social Security document for us like what is Social Security and I was like, I'm seven I don't know what Social Security is and I learned eventually but had they had just had access to those classes It would have been so much easier and I just I can't imagine I Can't imagine what things would be like without you. So just thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything that you're doing Thanks deputy mayor

Really impressive stats, and when I think about the Grand Connection Crossing and the access that Wilberton residents will have to our downtown library, I anticipate there'll be even more visits. So I'm really excited to see you thriving like this and serving the community as well as you do. Thank you.

Councilmember Newhouse. Thank you Deputy Mayor. I don't know if I can say it better than my colleagues already have but I really do appreciate the update and the service that you provide our community. I think the data points speak for themselves that you continue to do such an amazing job for our community and certainly, you know, again the data speaks for ourselves that there's a need for this and our residents are certainly taking not only our residents but the regional are taking advantage of everything that you are able to provide so thank you so much. Councilmember Bhargava.

Yeah, no, I just want to say thank you and pile on the appreciation for on behalf of the whole community really Both my kids grew up in Bellevue, and I think we have just a tremendous amount of appreciation for the value and the kinds of services that the library system provides here. It's really remarkable. Some of these things I didn't even know, having lived and gone to the library with my kids so often that you have Tech tutors, which is quite amazing. Civics 101 sounds amazing. Mobile services, that's great. Community court, of course, is a great addition to the community. So thank you for that. 2.7 million checkouts and 12 million digital checkouts in total. That's really remarkable. And I have to say, sortation system, 20 years overdue. That's a lot, Chewing Gum. Thank God you have it. I'm really proud that we're so far ahead of so many cities and doing really well. So just appreciation for all of your work.

Yes, and I just all add on that I know folks in Bellevue are very proud and supportive of our libraries here in KCLS generally. I know how important our libraries have been to my family. Just with the end of summer here, I'm reminded of one daughter who was particularly enthusiastic about summer reading. We were down there that first day and she went through all the things and she tracked all of her reading. We got down there at the end of the summer and I don't remember what she was able to take home, but whatever it was, was worth its weight in gold. She's now a teacher in Highline School District, but I guarantee you that a lot of what got her on her path started at the Newport Way Library. So I appreciate that. I also appreciate the way my family... the enjoyment of the library has changed over the years and how well you have done at keeping up with the way we've changed and grow, and you've grown and changed with us. Also, just have to thank you so much for your partnership with our TIF funding, for the Grand Connection Crossing, and one of my favorite things, one of the proudest things that we do in this city is our community court, and we're really lucky that the community court has found a home at the Bellevue Library. And it's always good to kind of get some of your financial information and hear how things are going. And I appreciate that you take a similarly careful approach with your fiscal management as we do. And I hope that you'll just keep us informed and keep coming back and let us know how we can continue to support all of the great benefits that you provide for our residents. So thank you. All right. With that, we will take a 12-minute break and come back at 7.45. Thank you.

recommendation from the Planning Commission on Parking Reform Land Use Code Amendment. This is partially as a result of multiple bills that the state legislature adopted that changed how cities regulate our parking. That includes some new standards for parking design, caps on minimum parking, and limits on areas near transit, certain transit stations. So this land use code would implement these state requirements, but also advance some of our comprehensive plan policies. It's been through the planning commission process, as I mentioned, and tonight the chair of the planning commission Johnny Liu is here to introduce their recommendation. But first, we've got Nick Whipple, our Code and Policy Director, to give you an overview. And with that, I will hand it over to Nick.

Thank you and good evening Deputy Mayor, members of the Council. As noted, we're here tonight to transmit the Planning Commission's recommendation on the Parking Reform Land Use Code Amendment, or LUCA as we call it. At the top, I do also want to just quickly address a couple of public comments that we had received in response to the draft code. There was a dimension being thrown out in one of the comments of eight feet, six inches. and another dimension that we'll get to as well. That dimension, as public comment was noting, was to apply to all the parking levels of a garage below grade and above grade. And that was not our intent, and that was an oversight on our part. So initially, when staff was going through this code consolidation process and trying to understand what are the disparate requirements that we have in East Main, downtown, Bell Red, we were seeing different dimensions show up for what the parking garage entrance size should be. And those dimensions were seven feet, six inches, eight feet, eight feet, six inches. So we kind of landed in the middle at eight feet, six or sorry, rather. Let me back up. So eight feet, six inches is what the proposal says. The intention there was to be at the garage entrance only. What we intended to do though was apply eight feet as that dimension at the garage entrance only. I will also say, I think after talking with our building review staff, it's fine to eliminate the garage entry clearance requirement from the land use code altogether. Talking with our building staff more closely, the requirement is largely duplicative of the building code. So we don't believe having a separate dimension to dictate the entrance of a garage is necessarily adding value when we have a different dimension in the land use code, for example. So if Council prefers to remove it, the building code would still govern, we'd still have protections as to making sure that there's accessible entries at parking garages, because that is the charge of the building code. uh then the other piece there was some comments on language used as it relates to compact parking stall allowances and that was also something that we are happy to clarify the the language that the code uses is you would get a reduction or so you would rather get a certain amount of compact parking stalls based on the number of required parking spaces so in some examples where we require zero parking your percentage of compact stalls is then zero because you weren't required to put any parking in what we meant to say was that if you are proposing say 100 stalls but you're only you're not required to propose any then you get a parking reduction off of whatever you're proposing so it's really getting to the language of approved versus required our intent was to apply the COMPACT PARKING RATE TO WHATEVER YOU PROPOSE AND WHATEVER THE YOU PROPOSE AND WHATEVER THE CITY APPROVES. CITY APPROVES. SO ANOTHER PIECE THAT WE'LL BE SO ANOTHER PIECE THAT WE'LL BE HAPPY TO CLARIFY. HAPPY TO CLARIFY. SO I JUST WANTED TO PUT THAT OUT SO I JUST WANTED TO PUT THAT OUT THERE AS A RESPONSE TO WHAT THERE AS A RESPONSE TO WHAT WE'VE BEEN HEARING AS OF THE WE'VE BEEN HEARING AS OF THE RECENT DRAFT BEING TRANSMITTED TO Tonight we are looking for direction from you to ask us to finalize the LUCA for final action at a future meeting. Our agenda tonight, we'll talk about the objectives of this code amendment, the recommended components, our outreach approach and timeline, and then turn it back to you all for discussion and direction. So first and foremost, with the objectives, this was really intended to respond to some recent state law changes. This showed up through four different bills over the 2025, 2026 legislative sessions. And so this is providing direct compliance with those bills. We also took this opportunity as we were doing a complete rewrite of our parking requirements to consolidate our parking requirements across the land use code to help improve the clarity and ease of use. So onto the components. We separated this into four areas. We have location-based parking exemptions. We have other parking exemptions that are based on the specific use. Then we have some development standards that are required under code. And then we'll talk about the code consolidation component. First, with our location based exemptions, so this map here on the right is showing us all the locations where parking cannot be required under state law. So no minimum parking required. If you are within a half mile walking distance of a light rail station. So that's shown in that green color. And that is shown as a walk shed. And then the other area is the purple station areas. Those are bus rapid transit stops. If you are within one quarter mile walking distance of those areas, no parking is required for those projects. That is meeting the minimum requirements under state law. So you'll see in the slides, we've got kind of a green call out where we're providing direct compliance with state law. And then we've got a yellow call out where we are differing a bit from state law. The next category is our used base parking requirements. So two main uses that are brought forward with this parking update. So residential uses have an assigned rate under state law. So we cannot require more than 0.5 spaces per unit for a multifamily project. Our current code is varied. So we'll have zero parking required in places like downtown Bellevue and the core of our downtown. And in other places outside of downtown, maybe not served well by transit, you'll see a parking rate of one space per multifamily unit. That is shifting to 0.5 across the board, though keep in mind if it's in one of those transit areas, no parking is going to be required. And then for single family, one space per unit is what the state law requires. Our current code is two spaces, so you'll see a reduction there. And then for commercial uses, this is where we had kind of a bulk of our parking requirements. We had broken out parking rates based on the type of commercial use. If you were an office, if you're a dentist, retail establishment, a restaurant, you have a different parking rate based on that use type. So the state has clarified that commercial uses are going to be treated as a single use type and the rate for all commercial uses would be two spaces per 1000 square feet of commercial space. So our current requirements vary pretty dramatically throughout the code. And so this is providing kind of a reduction across the board for commercial uses. And this is to comply with minimum requirements of state law. The other use based parking exemptions are listed here. So this will get at more of the residential unit size or commercial space size. This is when no parking would be required if you have a unit that's less than 1200 square feet or commercial space that's less than 3000 square feet. If you're having an affordable housing project, you would have no parking required. Affordable housing is going to tie back to our definition of affordable housing. So that will vary depending on rental versus ownership. But generally 80% AMI if you're a rental, 100% AMI if you're ownership, then no parking would be required. Senior housing would also have no parking. This will also track back to the RCW. So it just clarifies it's for homes that are reserved for individuals that are 55 or older would meet that definition of senior housing. Childcare centers, no parking for that. And then ground floor commercial uses and mixed use buildings conversions. This is getting to the office to residential type conversion. No parking could be required for those types of conversions. And then the last 1 is the change of uses between commercial uses. So, when we have a restaurant that's going to a retail space, or vice versa, this would preempt us from asking what their parking rate is, because the code will allow them to make that tenant change without providing parking. Then the last area that we have is around our, well, a couple more areas. Another use-based parking requirement is our visitor parking. So currently in the city, we do have requirements for visitor parking stalls. These requirements apply in downtown and in East Main. And essentially, when you have a residential project, if you are exceeding a certain threshold, then the visitor parking kicks in. And that rate that we require visitor parking to be provided at is one visitor space for every 20 units within your project. So what we have chosen to do is take a look at that visitor parking requirement and decide whether it needed some adjustments and whether it makes sense to expand that policy decision. And as part of that commission discussion and deliberation, the choice was made to provide more flexibility in meeting that visitor parking provide more relief for those larger residential projects. So if you are a project that's over that's generating over 50 units, YOU CAN ASK FOR SOME RELIEF ON YOU CAN ASK FOR SOME RELIEF ON YOUR VISITOR PARKING YOUR VISITOR PARKING REQUIREMENTS THROUGH AN REQUIREMENTS THROUGH AN ANALYSIS THAT RELATES AN ANALYSIS THAT RELATES SPECIFICALLY TO YOUR PROJECT. SPECIFICALLY TO YOUR PROJECT. AND WITH THAT FLEXIBILITY, THE AND WITH THAT FLEXIBILITY, THE DECISION OR THE RECOMMENDATION DECISION OR THE RECOMMENDATION WOULD BE TO EXPAND THIS WOULD BE TO EXPAND THIS POLICY TO INCLUDE MULTI-DEVELOPMENT POLICY TO INCLUDE MULTI-DEVELOPMENT CITYWIDE. CITYWIDE. NOT MIDDLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS NOT MIDDLE HOUSING DEVEL OTHER AREAS WHERE WE'RE PROVIDING DIRECT COMPLIANCE WITH STATE LAW IS AROUND OUR DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS SO THE STATE HAS PRESCRIBED A MINIMUM STALL DIMENSION. CITIES CANNOT REQUIRE STALL SIZES THAT ARE LARGER THAN 8 FEET BY 20 FEET EXCEPT WHERE YOU HAVE ACCESSIBLE STALLS THAT ARE REQUIRED. And then we've also simplified some of our loading and drive aisle requirements according to state law and then have allowed tandem parking to count towards your minimum parking requirements and tandem parking is essentially a double parking and that can be allowed. And then the last area, so some of the Commission discussion was around the parking stall dimensions, noting that eight feet was a bit narrower than a lot of parking stalls that are provided elsewhere in the city. And so the Commission was really looking at ways to incentivize people choosing to stripe larger stalls that might be more functional for a lot of folks in Bellevue. So to provide us an incentive here, what the commission is recommending is that if 75% of the parking spaces are striped at least 9 feet wide, then a 10% reduction can be provided to the overall parking requirement. Or if you're a small site, which is 40,000 square feet or smaller, 15% reduction could be provided there. And then code consolidation, as I noted, we did have a lot of different rules that apply to parking scattered throughout the land use code. So the bulk of the strike draft is actually working to consolidate those requirements to a single chapter. And then we'll also note we have included citywide bicycle parking standards as part of this update. Bike parking standards were looked at as a means to address some of the impacts of having reduced parking. If this is ultimately about shifting behavior, the idea would be that we're providing some space for folks to get around with other modes outside of just a vehicle. The bike parking standards are not new to Bellevue. They've existed in downtown Wilberton. And then as part of Homa, they were introduced to the mixed use areas throughout the city. So this is yet another step to expand where bike parking standards would apply to make sure that this is paired with the parking reduction citywide. And with that, I will turn it to Chair Liu for Planning Commission.

Sounds good. Thank you. And it's good to see you all. Deputy Mayor Hamilton, members of the council. I see our mayor is taking time off, so that's good for him. I am Johnny Liu. I'm serving as the chair of the Planning Commission. It's good to be here with you all. So Nick mentioned a couple of these touch points that we've had, these study sessions. We had one on February 25th and June 24th. And a lot of our early discussion was actually around, do we do more than what the state minimum requirements were? And we had a good amount of robust discussion around that. I think ultimately where we shifted towards because we heard a lot of public feedback about worries about spillover parking, worries about not providing enough parking for residents at the multifamily developments. We shifted our conversation more towards kind of doing the minimum requirements from the state and seeing where that lands for both our community here in Bellevue and also for our development community. We just kind of felt that giving it a little bit of time to simmer and settle would be the right approach for Bellevue. And so once we kind of landed on this, let's kind of try and veer towards the state minimum here. We started shifting towards how do we address some of those community concerns again around spillover parking, etc. Uh, where we landed and what staff came up with, uh, with us was the, uh, extending that. Visitor parking, uh, from downtown Bellevue and East main to the rest of Bellevue for any of the, uh, the multi family, uh, developments and then, um, also, uh, looked at, uh. Give me a 2nd here, uh, also looked at, uh, making sure that the, uh, um, the parking standards for, uh, or sorry the, uh. looking at multifamily and encouraging more larger and more usable parking stalls. So we tried to go with that incentive rather than force anything on the developers. So after that discussion, we felt comfortable with the public hearing. We asked staff to schedule for July 22nd. And what you're seeing in Amendment A is kind of the results of our discussions and our recommendations. So again, happy to provide any type of commentary on our Planning Commission discussions. But with that, I'll turn it back to Nick.

Great. Thank you, Chair Liu. So we'll wrap up here. Just a note on public engagement. So we did have a pretty heavy push out with the community right after we initiated this, or after you all initiated this LUCA. So we began with some introductory information sessions, get folks oriented with what the mandates are and what the council direction was, and looking at those opportunities to go further. We also heard feedback from you all that our approach should be data driven. So we hosted some data walks, shared information about what we know in terms of some of the parking demand on curbs and what other cities are doing in terms of parking reductions and really display what we knew with the community to get some feedback. Those were held in person, both at City Hall and out at Crossroads. And then we also hosted a virtual lunch and learn to go over that same data with folks. Our LUCA schedule here. So one thing to note is that we are responding to some mandates. And so with that comes some compliance deadlines. So we're looking at January 27, 2027 as sort of our work back schedule with you all now having the opportunity to review and take action on this code amendment that's being presented tonight. So with that, Deputy Mayor, we'll turn it back to you.

Great. Thank you. Appreciate the presentation. Chair Liu, thank you and all of the planning commissioners for excellent work in preparing the recommendation. I'm glad you're here tonight. With that, we will start with Council Member Barkova.

Yeah, thank you Deputy Mayor and thank you Nick and Chair Liu and also the full Planning Commission for all the robust work the Commission does as well as all the work the staff does. Really appreciate this. This is an important piece of what makes housing and development possible and also makes sure that we're balancing the needs of the community for this sort of complex problem. Thank you also for the clarifications, Nick, for the percentage of the mix of bay sizes and the floor height. That's very helpful. I'm not going to go there. I think I have clarity there. Broadly, I'm supportive of moving forward with the changes proposed. I think we have a... clear set of requirements from the state that we need to implement and the proposal sort of appropriately balances compliance with also simplification and consolidation of what has become I think a pretty complicated set of parking requirements. So really appreciate the clarity there. I also appreciate the approach that has been taken. We had asked previously staff come back with more market-driven approach to potential reductions near frequent transit. The state legislation already actually pushes us to a significant reduction from Bellevue's existing parking requirements. I think there is value in implementing changes, collecting real-world data, and then determining whether additional reforms are warranted So this is a step in the right direction, I think. and positive, clearly laid out and positive steps. Ultimately, I do think parking is an area where we should increasingly allow market to determine what is really needed. It is behaviors and market-driven changes that will be truly where the rubber meets the road. Maybe some pun intended. But we should also pay close attention to what's actually happening on the ground, and we have to monitor that on an ongoing basis. This can't be a one and done. scenario because these are best laid assumptions that can go haywire as well. I have two questions. One more point before my two questions. Council has already established policy direction that we want more housing capacity near high-capacity transit, including allowing six units by right and half mile of light rail and quarter mile of bus rapid transit. Removing mandatory parking requirements in those areas that are transit served is consistent with the broader direction, so appreciate that. I would ask that we consider as you come back in the final, consider the half mile around the BRT and just as an analysis to see what the puts and takes would be towards that. Two questions for you. First question is how will we measure whether this reform is working on an ongoing basis? We make these changes in defect, and then, you know, we look at parking utilization, spillover is a concern that has been brought up that the Planning Commission also dug into, cost of development, housing production impacts. Like, we should have a list of measures that tell us whether our parking reform is working so that we can not just make changes here, but also make it part of what we need to advocate for at the state level if changes are needed, if it's not working. So I'd love your thoughts on that. I can lay out my second question as well, but it's not related. So maybe first ask you this one.

sure um and yeah i appreciate kind of the prompting on i'm trying to find out how um or trying to evaluate how successful this parking reform effort has been and those are all metrics that we'd likely want to track you know the emphasis behind reducing parking is to help minimize some of the costs associated with building housing and so certainly if we can kind of keep an eye on how we're doing in terms of housing production hard to pin it back to this change maybe is the the reason why we're seeing more housing production but certainly hope that that's one of the aims here and then also looking at some of the impacts of reducing the parking that was a lot of what the commission was wanting to take a closer look at as well as we implement these new minimums what's been the response of development the development community are they parking their projects at lower rates and is that creating any spillover impacts that we might want to then monitor and then deploy a policy solution around. That could be doing more of the residential parking zones. It could be just better management of the street parking in those areas.

If I may just nudge you on one more area to consider is I think shift in changes, mode shift, transit use, like the expectation for reduced parking is an uptick in transit utilization, maybe higher percentage of walk trips and bike trips. things like that and we need to monitor those mode shifts and changes in actual user behavior in addition to just housing cost production etc I don't I mean I'm not saying the ones you called out are not important I think they're important but I would just nudge you to think about those as well from mode shift standpoint and monitor those last thing for me is just want to talk about the visitor parking actually I generally support moving towards a market-driven approach, like I said, but visitor parking seems somewhat different because the market incentives to provide that may not be as strong as it is for resident parking. One of the things just to consider as you finalize this is whether eliminating visitor requirements could create spillover impacts at a higher rate than you anticipate. I just want to have higher confidence in that decision that we're making because the Builder incentives could be very different towards that. And when I think about visitor parking, sometimes we're trying to incentivize use of transit for people who live there because they're proximate to transit. People who come to visit people who live close to transit may not live close to transit. And so just... I'd love to have clear rationale on how we're thinking about that and how confident we are. And if I can take just 30 seconds more at the most is this risk, I see one risk on your call out for the nine foot parking bay incentive for a 10 to 15% reduction depending on the lot size. I'm a little bit worried about that, mostly because it is not just incentivizing large spaces. It is removing 10% of all spaces altogether. So if you're calculating your parking requirement based on some even reduced ratio, just the incentive creates a scarcity. Even though you can park more comfortably a larger car or just have... a lower chance that you can't park or too close, the reduction is not insignificant. So I'd love your thoughts on why you're comfortable with that recommendation.

Sure, I think the I'll address the 2nd, 1 1st, that was a point of discussion within the commission as well, where we talked about. It does reduce the total number of parking spaces, but ultimately it came back to. A usability perspective, an 8 foot wide stall just does not provide a lot of space for you to get in and out of your car. We thought about some folks who some folks actually get comment about how they struggle to get in and out of a smaller parking space. I think. Maybe the Trader Joe's is a great example where that thing is always squeezed in there. And so I totally hear you on there is a trade-off that we make with that incentive structure, but ultimately having it be an incentive structure and having the market kind of decide where within that incentive structure things will fall, that's where we felt we were comfortable with the space modification there.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I just think it's still a little bit risky and maybe the incentive on allowing, you know, more development rights in some other way could have been, can be an approach to consider. So just I'll leave it at that. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Council Member Newenhouse. Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Really appreciate the presentation this evening. Thank you, Chair Liu and the entire Planning Commission for taking such a thoughtful approach on this as well as the great work by staff and really, really, really great work. And I love how you I mentioned the simmer and settle. Whenever we have these state mandates, I am one that prefers that we just do the minimum first and then see how it works and then adjust from there. I think that's a safe approach, a thoughtful approach, and it gives us flexibility to always go beyond the state minimum when we feel it's appropriate at that time. And having said that, plus one to my colleague about just kind of the metrics that we'll be tracking here in terms of what's working, what's not, how do we need to adjust, and when you're going to come back to council with some of those conclusions that you might be able to draw from that. That would be great. And, Nick, I don't know if you have a thought on that. I mean, would a year be enough time? Would it be a year and a half? What are your thoughts on that before we have some good data to look at?

Yeah, and the commission prompted that question as well. And one of the ideas would be we have another mandate we'll be responding to. This is the transit-oriented development bill that's going to require us to increase the floor area ratio around a lot of the BRT stations, the bus rapid transit stations. and then take a look more holistically at are we maximizing density around transit stops citywide. So it was kind of through that project that we thought we could also revisit the parking. It would be rezoning a lot of the same areas that the commission was sort of on the fence about whether they should reduce further parking, reduce parking requirements further in those same areas. Good overlap with that project. And the timing there, we'd be kicking that off with community likely next year. And we're working with a compliance deadline of 2029 and hopeful we'll have better data kind of to share as we get into that project.

Terrific. I just want to make sure I heard you clearly when it comes to that vertical clearance. So are we then defaulting to the current code of like 8.2 on ADA vehicles being able to get through an entrance and then all the lower floors would be seven feet? Is that what we're defaulting to now? Did I understand that correctly?

Yeah, if the council prefers to remove it, then the building code would govern and that is about what the building code will require.

Okay, terrific. I would be one in favor of that on the bicycle parking, which is thrilled that we're doing that. I think that makes a lot of sense and. encourages other modes of transportation as well, and modes that are already being used. Would this overlap at all with what we're doing with our bike share with Lime? Would this be additional parking that can be used for that as well, or would just be separate, more private, if you will, parking structures? How would that work?

Yeah, the parking that's required in the land use code is going to be for the project with some time-limited parking spaces being accommodated for within the amount that's required. But typically, those spaces are going to be on private property, which is not necessarily where you'd see those ride share, scooter share projects landing.

okay thank you for that um like the use of incentives on the on the large solves i think that makes it makes it makes a lot of sense and always appreciate the incentives versus uh mandates um and then um also just looking at market driven um in in terms of um you know parking uh or visitor parking um like a little bit of flexibility there for uh for developers to really kind of kind of to set that movement moving forward but great work overall look forward to this coming coming back and appreciate all the outreach as well that you've you've done around this especially during the summer and even before that this is this is this really good work and I feel confident moving this forward so thank you Thank You councilmember Breyer

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I really appreciate all the work and deliberation that's been placed into this. I'll start with a high-level overview of what I believe we should be comporting ourselves towards. So this is a state minimum proposal. I do think we could take municipal freedom to potentially increase the scope here. I want us to approach a city that is entirely walkable. Council Member Newenhouse mentions taking a more minimal approach in implementing the minimum that the state requires, and I generally agree with him, but I think in this particular case, I would diverge just a little bit, and I hate disagreeing with my colleagues because they're brilliant. But I am personally interested in exploring citywide eliminations of parking minimums. I think cities like, according to the research I did, cities like Austin, San Jose, Buffalo, had done this and seen a tremendous amount of economic boost as a result of that. So I do want us to be clear. I think if we did that now, it might cause a little bit of chaos. But I do want us eventually to see a city that is comprehensively integrated and allows end-to-end walkability as an effective mode of transportation for senior citizens, for young kids waiting at the bus stop, for any resident or visitor of Bellevue. The visitor parking point is a little iffy for me. I ideally would like to see the removal of it. I don't know if it's entirely necessary. And then lastly, following the North Star of having more walkability, I would like to see the increase of the walking shed surrounding frequent transit. I believe, I forgot which slide it was. It was the purple and green areas that you had presented as the walking shed, I believe you referred it to. I would be interested in specifically looking at changing the one half mile versus quarter mile to promote walkability there. And those are my comments for now. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Council Member Sumida, where are you?

Thank you. First of all, like, with my colleagues, I thank you for giving the timeline that that was actually 1 of my questions see the matrix of measure the performance. So, thank you. But, and also, thank you for Nick and to be here and also the commission to spending time. I just felt this is like, so much code. To move in such a short window and time is essence. Right? Something I want to really praise is I love that you're marking which pieces meet the state minimum, which goes a step further. It's just very visual, so it makes it super, it's more accessible for me to see the differences versus keeping playing in my head which one meets which one doesn't. And another place I really want to thank you for, because today we saw the communication from the Chamber House of Development community, i just thought like nick did such a wonderful job to like start the conversation really early and then keep it very open-mindedness showing them they're moving us we are we are moving to the good direction together so i appreciate that i don't i think overall i agree with um the commission i just have i think i have a few clarifying questions i just want to make sure that you know i want to understand fully in front of us is that okay can i answer those questions Yeah. Okay, perfect. So the first question I had was, with the city wide of the consolidation pieces, so when like downtown Bell Red or Eastgate, like parking section comes out, would they simply fall under the new citywide section? Or do they are they going to have carry their own standards for each pockets of the city?

so the idea is new development would have to comply with the uh consolidated parking section so it'll apply kind of going forward there's a number of exemptions though that capture some of those existing buildings that have been parked under prior code so then that would be a case-by-case discussion but generally if a project in eastgate is parked at a certain rate And there is now a exemption for them under the new code. When they are doing a change of use or have some other permit in, they can take advantage of the different requirements generally. That's kind of how that would work in practice.

Okay, thank you. And my next question is about the citywide elimination and also slash the visitor parking flex. Personally, I'm not a big fan of eliminating things because it takes up accessibility for some people not able to walk. So I think that as a city, we welcome everyone. It is important we have that flexibility for type of visitor parking we have for parking. So I think that what intrigues me is I love the willingness the staff is going to work through with the development community. Can you give me a little bit sense about what does it look like? the flexibility part right so when when it comes back is there like change to the racial modification process or like i think just like kind of enlighten me a little bit like what the process look like and what kind of conversation can be included in that dialogue

Sure. And just to clarify, the conversations around the appropriate amount of flexibility were had as the Planning Commission was forming a recommendation. So our conversations now is to really promote and share what that flexibility is to see if that really resonates with folks in the development community. So I'm not proposing or staff is not proposing a change at this time to the Planning Commission recommendation. Instead, we're just sharing with folks how we feel we've been responsive to their feedback and introduce more flexibility. And some of that flexibility comes with the size of the project. And we were hearing feedback if a project is providing 300, 400 units and having to provide 30 or so visitor parking stalls that are all time limited. It's probably out of alignment with what we are wanting to do. So looking to scale based on if you're at a 50 unit or above threshold, and then opening up the ability to modify that without trying to prescribe in the code what that looks like as you sort of get denser in your project. So it opens up a conversation for you to reduce the parking for visitor stalls on a project on a project by project basis so easy thing would be to comply with the code but we also recognize when you're a bigger project probably not the best thing so then having this departure path was really attractive i think for a lot of folks in the development community and what they felt encouraged by to get that flexibility that wasn't there previously in downtown.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I think having that dialogue, able to keep just able to listen and then figure out, because I think that every development could be very different and every neighborhood is different. So able to kind of listen to the needs will be really crucial. Like myself, I live in the townhouse community. So I would say if there's no visitor parking, somebody not able to walk a half mile, take the light rail, then nobody's going to ever visit me. i have a lot of elderly friends so i think it's really important to know that um i appreciate that i think the take of you know me to stay minimum first i i think whenever there's something changes in the policy it's always good to be safe and finding that balance versus just i think um making drastic to both changes that would be different thank you so much great thank you uh council member robinson thank you i'll try to be

Quick and not redundant here, so you answered a lot of my questions. First of all, I want to thank Chair Liu and the Planning Commission for all the work that you did and staff as well. Thank you very much. I have a question. When you were covering the visitor parking, did you get public comment on that and what was the consensus or what was the majority?

Sense on that we did, and a lot of the public comment, not even just for this specifically that we've received a good amount of public comment, honestly, throughout the summer about worries of multifamily development and the impacts of parking nearby in the neighborhoods. And so. You know, our, our recommendation to include that visitor parking requirement was a direct kind of response to a lot of what we heard there. The 1 to 20 ratio, I think, is the part that we. we felt was fair i think it's up to council to see if you want more flexibility than the 1 to 20. but ultimately there our discussion within the planning commission was we felt that it was fair that it addressed some of the worries that the community brought to us through both this luca and from other uh other comments as well okay so um nick do we have a baseline uh already for visitor parking requirements

In downtown and East Main, we do have a visitor parking requirement. I don't have on hand kind of how many visitor spaces have been produced with that requirement since it was implemented, but we certainly have one on the books.

Well, I'm just curious. Is it similar to the Planning Commission's recommendation? Yes. Okay, so we're kind of retaining what we have. So it sounds like we resolved the vertical clearance requirements, and I'm fine with removing them. if it's already in the land use code. So that's fine. So I'll continue with visitor parking, and then I want to talk about parking for seniors. So I live in a building. I live downtown in a building that has no visitor parking. And the reality is that everybody parks at the park. And we're going to be implementing a paid parking program. So that means if I want to get my upholstery cleaned, And somebody has to come like they can't take light rail with their machine And so if they want to come and and do work in our units I have to move my car and then I have to pay for Parking or if you know where they park illegally somewhere so and I very much agree with councilmember sumo to various comments on I you know, just the disability and requiring people to walk who are not able to walk. I mean, we have... people of all ages living downtown and we're going to have even more and more density more units and more people So I think it's really important to have the visitor parking. So I'm I'm all for the Planning Commission recommendation, but I also would encourage staff to maybe Think about What should that number actually be like? Let's do some analysis and look at how many visitor parking spots we already have. And do we have any public parking available to people? I don't know of any, but I do know other cities where they have a big public parking stall in the center of downtown, and then everybody parks there and then walks to where they want to go. So if that's something that we want to have instead of requiring parking, then we should talk about it. and plan for that. Let's see. I think that's, oh, and also I really encourage us, if we have not already, to consult with the Bellevue Network on Aging. Love to get their feedback on this proposal. Um, let's see in terms of senior citizens. Now this is a state rule. This, we didn't make this one up, but I'm thinking maybe we want to address this in our legislative agenda. Cause can you tell me, do they differentiate between independent living, assisted living or nursing care with parking requirements?

Yeah, so senior housing has kind of lumped into a broader bucket of reserved exclusively for 55 and older. I can take a closer look if there's any nuance with assisted living facilities, for example. But my understanding is that it's all sort of lumped into the category of parking exemptions.

So I'd really like to see if we might want to make some recommended changes to the state. Because I mean, nobody's going to have service providers serve the seniors, nobody's going to get a visitor. And Silver Glen is our only I think our only independent, I guess there's one next to Emerald Court, but independent senior living and all those people have cars and most of them cannot walk that far. So they're staying connected to the community by having the ability to drive. And if we take the parking away, it's going to really limit people's ability to live independently. So I just, I would love to explore that a little bit and see if we want to make a recommendation on our legislative agenda to make some changes on that and Then just to clarify something Nick that you said I believe what you're saying is a requirement for two spaces Um, for every thousand feet, but it starts after 3000 feet. So if you have a 1000 foot retail space, there's no requirement. It's only after 3000 feet that you start adding 4,000 feet. Then you have a requirement of two spaces. Am I right?

Yeah, that's correct. Okay. I just have smaller spaces there still.

Yeah, I just wanted to clarify that. Okay, so I am very supportive of the Planning Commission recommendation, and I would like to, I don't know if there's any interest in doing more of a visitor parking analysis in our downtown, in our East Main, just to understand what we're dealing with. Can we, I'm seeing some head nods, but really, Deputy Mayor, you're leading the meeting.

Well, so before we take final action on it, you're saying, or just as a future work?

As a future, yeah.

Yeah, perhaps I would think something we should talk about. I don't see why not, but yeah, I guess everybody would need to weigh in.

Do I see one head nod? I think Claire, are you nodding ahead? Because it reflects I'm nodding ahead. I see council member new in house and Michelle. So, okay. I see enough head nods to ask that maybe in the future we can do a little bit of an analysis. Council member Briar, you had a comment.

Yes. Sorry. This was, I wanted to respond to, um, I think a misconstruction of what I had said earlier, if that's permitted to do that now or after. Sure, go right ahead. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I believe it was Councilmember Sumidurira who brought up a point about people with disabilities potentially being excluded by removing minimums. I did just want to clarify for the record that Austin, Texas eliminated their minimum parking and In doing that, they explicitly carved out exceptions for people with disabilities, and not only that, went further to include provisions for service vehicles so we're not having upholstered trucks come to the downtown areas, which would prove rather difficult logistically. So I just wanted to clarify that for those who are listening. That's great.

Great. Thank you. Thanks for the presentation. Appreciate all the hard work that's been done. So of course, we need to comply with the state law. So I'm pleased to see we'll be compliant by the deadline. Thrilled to see the code consolidation and establishment of consistent citywide standards. Just another example, I think, of the city continuing to streamline our processes and make compliance even easier. As has been mentioned by some of my colleagues, I like the parking stall incentive. I certainly hope developers use it. I know I would appreciate a little extra room to maneuver my car into some parking spots. talked about the kind of the participation and feedback that we received, and I'm inclined to view the atypical participation and feedback from the community as more a vote of confidence that we'll get these reforms dialed in just right than anything else. Of course, we always rely heavily on our public engagement work. I think the plan that you had was solid and well executed. As was mentioned, we conducted a robust process. We sent out a notice of application, a notice of public hearing. We held a public hearing. We held a virtual information session and answered questions and responded to comments to provide additional clarification that was needed. We held two open houses. We had a community data walk at the Crossroads Community Center and also had a virtual data walk. So I think we've collected a lot of information, a lot of data and gotten a lot of input. I think now is the time for us to weigh in and complete the process. But having said that, I don't feel like I'm in a position tonight to cast a vote and I would like to suggest some modifications at some point to the code and would appreciate a little bit of additional information so I can do that. And considering that we have appropriately aggressive housing goals and that many projects are struggling to move forward, I think we should continue to keep our foot on the gas. And I think there are some modifications we should consider to the final code so that we can't do that. And I'm just wondering if my colleagues would be open to maybe getting some additional information that could come back to us on October 20th that we could address before moving the code forward.

And if everyone's okay with that, I'm actually very comfortable with the planning commission recommendation and then the direction to get some further analysis on the parking. So that's, That's where I'm at.

Anyone else have a thought as far as just collecting a little bit more information before moving forward?

Deputy Mayor, I would appreciate an opportunity to get some staff analysis and perhaps have a few options presented to us in October.

Yeah, I'm comfortable with that.

Yeah, I would be supportive of the additional information on some of the areas that I have already expressed some of my concerns on. So that input actually will be helpful, broadly supportive of the planning commission work. But I think just a couple of areas where additional information will help so that we're making a really, really sort of high confidence decision.

Okay.

Council Member Sumida, where are you at?

We're comfortable to move forward, but have some more data will be good.

Okay. Is that good enough direction there as far as getting the additional information?

That is for the additional information. If you want to do a formal motion to direct staff to bring it back on the 20th, that would be great. Okay.

Deputy Mayor, may I just ask one clarification or ask Nick if he's clear on what areas that you're looking for those options to be developed on?

I think as long as there's an openness to doing that, I could just lay those out for you if that's helpful.

Yeah. Are you saying you would lay those out right now?

Well, I'm just I mean, I just have and I've kind of heard this from my colleagues, but I thought maybe if it was helpful, I could be just completely clear about what it is and that you could come back with some recommendations. OK. So I think as it relates to visitor parking, and we've talked about that, I don't think that visitor parking really should be eliminated by any means, but I'm inclined to think that our mandate should be eliminated. And I'm looking to Seattle and Redmond where they don't have any visitor parking mandate. So I think housing providers understand their customers' preferences and will build projects accordingly. This may be an area where we can follow the lead of neighboring cities and help ensure that folks who move here are not penalized. And I just think some additional information around visitor parking, why other cities don't do it, why we should. And again, not that it won't be built, but what should the mandate be? And do we have the right amount of flexibility So I think it would be helpful to get some information to come back about that.

Can I get some clarity here? I thought you were going to summarize what the council had brought up and now I feel like you're making your own personal comments. Yeah. So what are you doing?

I'm making some of my own personal comments. I think that they maybe include some of what the other comments were made.

But I hope you're not making direction to staff using your own personal comments right now.

Well, I laid it out. I just described what I'd like to see come back, and I just added a few thoughts on why. And just to provide enough context so that the information... Okay, you're one person. ...that they look at will come back in a way.

Okay. I just don't want to confuse...

Summary of what we said in direction with you know an individual council members personal comments sure well And I don't mean to speak for the entire council and so I hope if there's any other Clarification that anybody thinks they need that they would just bring that forward and I assume that they would so if What I offer is not what you also would like to see some additional information on I hope that you'll let me know we can come to you after that after I just lay these out I

Well, to be clear, you're asking for additional information. You're not necessarily directing on the actual policy, correct? Right. Okay. Yeah, exactly.

I just want to make sure you're not saying we want to remove visitor parking mandates.

Some additional information that would be helpful in making a final decision. That's how I phrased it.

Okay. Okay.

And then we've talked a little bit about vertical clearance standards. And again, I think we should do what we can to make sure that we're not an outlier city. It's been suggested that in its current form, this recommended code could make us the only city in the nation with such a drastic clearance requirement. And I just don't want to see our code penalize our residents, tip the scales in favor of projects in nearby cities, considering Redmond and Kirkland rely on the IBC to establish their standards. I'm inclined to think that that's what we should do. But again, some information from you would be helpful before making a final decision. And we've talked about this a little bit in the past, but I'm aware the staff evaluated expanding the walk shed in parts of the city served by frequent transit. I'm also aware that this is something we talked through during middle housing, but considering this is a budget year and transportation infrastructure is front and center, I would just like us to take another look and possibly reconsider our approach with some additional information. I certainly hope that we wind up with some additional transportation funding in the upcoming budget that will give us some ability to build safe and easy ways for folks to get off transit and get home without the hassle and expense of a car. So again, I think this is an area where the market will build the parking residents want. And just because we don't require the parking certainly doesn't mean it won't be built. It just means that we won't force folks to pay for something they don't necessarily need or want. I think it could be helpful to delay the effective date possibly of a potential change to these particular parking requirements, and I'd appreciate it if you could address that when you return with some options. So again, great work from the Planning Commission, great work from the staff. I think we should make some adjustments to the parking reform LUCA before moving it forward, and I look forward to learning more over the next few weeks so we can take a final vote. Okay, yes, Council Member Vargavel.

Yeah, I mean, I just wanted to add a couple things from my perspective beyond what's been said, and I'm sure others will have additional thoughts as well. Double click on the half mile, quarter mile for Pass Rapid, which I think is included in your list. Really would love to understand if there's an opportunity there for lower parking requirements. There seems to be support for some of that study. I'm hearing my colleagues. I continue to have some reservations about the incentive for the nine-foot stall and a 10% and 15% reduction there. So are there any alternatives that we could? This is in addition to what you listed out. So I would love to see some opportunity to evaluate a couple of options there. And visitor parking I think broadly covered but like I think what we're talking about from my perspective just to paraphrase to make sure that I'm understanding is that the opportunity to reduce, eliminate visitor parking requirements in certain scenarios, what some exceptions might be, what some requirements might be which may not be eliminating and what those scenarios look like would be the kinds of things that would be very helpful for me to weigh in on that issue.

move to whoever wants to win next councilmember Robinson just to clarify because your summary did not summarize for me my my Interest so yes to the visitor parking looking at more data and options that staff might recommend. I have no interest in expanding the walk shed at this point. We've made so many changes here, we have no idea what the impact's gonna be, so I would like to, I'm not interested in doing that. And then the clarifying the vertical requirements, I think we did that tonight, I think they, standardized I mean we're not talking about anything other than the entrance and then we just took it out and said let's just use the land use code definition so do you have a problem with that

No, I just think it's a topic that I would like some additional information on. And I'm particularly interested in comparing our code to the code of neighboring cities. And I just want to make sure that we're not an outlier. And I just hope that in this process, you could do a little bit of that analysis, Nick, and come back to us and then we could all vote. And I'm certainly not trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist, but I don't feel like I have enough clarity yet. That's just my perspective. Okay. Anybody else with a comment? Council Member Breyer.

Yes. Sorry. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Nick, can I just have you reiterate Is that allowed?

City Manager? The full list? Yes. Oh, sure.

And the full list being not that we all agree on that, but just options for those contentions.

Yes, absolutely. So some visitor parking information that includes some of the data and what's the baseline, and then what are some options that the Council might consider if we want to provide alternatives to visitor parking. Mm-hmm. The vertical clearance standard information that was an ask on looking at other jurisdictions, though, as comes from Robinson noted staff is fully willing and admits we've got some duplicative requirements. We may just take that off the list by just removing it. But also, if you feel you'd like some of that comparison to have the confidence in that decision, we can do that in October date. I heard the frequent transit network as another area to explore potential reductions. This is different than the bus rapid transit. Network, so the map that we shared with you tonight includes the stations and link light rail stations. I heard frequent transit network, which is a different term that is looking at areas that don't necessarily have fixed routes and fixed stations like a BRT stop, but they are getting good transit service, 15 minute headways. It would be a more expansive map and look at the city. It is something the commission looked at. So happy to bring forward kind of what that conversation was and the data around that. So you all. Can make some decisions whether you'd like to apply some reductions at the frequent transit network area. Then I heard the half mile versus quarter mile for stops and bringing back some more data and information around that. And then looking at some alternatives to the large stall incentive that we have developed as well.

There's also the living and senior housing clarification from earlier as well.

Yes. Was that as part of the legislative agenda or?

Well, yeah, I just wanted more information on it and then just decide whether we wanted to add some things to the legislative agenda.

All right. Thank you. Does that summarize it well for everyone?

Okay. Anyone, anything else to add? Okay. Very good. We have gotten through our entire agenda. And with that, I will declare the meeting over. Thank you.

John.