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 re

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.

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 me

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

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 ta

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.

It's been moved by Councilmember Newenhouse, seconded by Councilmember Robinson. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Okay, the motion passes. All right, City Clerk, do we have anyone signed up for oral communications tonight?

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.

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

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

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

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 ho

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

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.

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 th

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

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 fo

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 Di

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 m

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

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 hav

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?

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?

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 eve

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 bi

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

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 wh

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

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?

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 t

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 lov

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? 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

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

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 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. 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?

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

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' prefe

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.

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.

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 wo

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

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

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?

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

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

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.