City Council - Regular Meeting

To 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, Mayor. I agree with what the Mayor just said. This is so gratifying to hear the results of, and I just want to thank everybody involved. I hear it from other cities and people who are applying for pre-admitting right now, and everybody sounds very positive. with all this change. So thank you. I just had two questions. I've had at least five designers reach out to me about wanting to have a small business here in Bellevue where they can showcase their fashions. And they're kind of starting with very little funding. And so just trying to figure out how we can support that style of bus

Thank you for the presentation, and good to see you again, Steph. I just want to give a couple of praise, because as soon as she was put on the ground, we had a meeting right away, and she reached out to talk to brokers, just ready to go. So I really appreciate you making a huge difference, because I think that when you all work together, removing the uncertainty and unknown, when you invest majority people's capital into a space, it takes a lot of effort, right? And then because the city is really prioritizing that, It makes this place so much more attractive, invest. And I love, can I just,

I think that's great. And I believe that the first initial interaction, first impression is everything, right? So when people ask me for help and they feel they can be heard and respected, also we're eager to help, they always most likely going to come back repeatedly to make the process more and giving really great feedback too. My next question is about, there's a slide talking about there's a diversity of the small business coming to town, which is so exciting. Thank you for bringing great chocolate to town. That's amazing. I do have a question about if there is a, if when small business, I

Thank you. And I think that's it. But last question is about AI. Can I ask, please? OK. So because it's making our work so much more efficient, and because of that, would you say that our staff now has so much more efficiency added, now they can actually help more customers because of the AI? Do you feel that way?

Thank you, Mayor. So I looked at the presentation, and our stated target of 11 weeks for utilities and eight weeks for major projects is well ahead of the Washington statewide average. And it also sets us up on the national stage, where we are ahead of cities like Austin, Texas, and Charlottesville, North Carolina. Obviously, we're going off of this first review and not issuance. But even benchmarked with that caveat, According to my research, we are killing it. So this is really, really exciting to see. And I have municipal friends in Massachusetts that have reached out to ask about this impl

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, this is an exciting update. I 100% agree that we're making a lot of great progress to be more efficient, be more, I think, the speed and the predictability really, really important and paramount. Love the talk about the new tools, especially AI. I, too, speaking at NLC, was on a panel. No other city had implemented. They were talking about it. They were interested in it, but they actually hadn't implemented anything yet. And I know we're taking, I would say, a very measured approach to see how AI can help us with the permitting process, which is great, and we should con

Oh, so they were not in the program yet when they ran into that issue. Gotcha. Okay.

No, but that's a great story. That's a success story right there that we were able to turn that around. And I don't believe they ended up having to do that part. They did not. Good, because they were shut down for a certain period of time. And every small business owner can understand, every day counts, every hour counts that they're not open. They're not having revenue come in. So I know that certainly that was a stressful time for them. Very. How do we intercept those earlier? Is it when they first make the permit submittal, do we get a sense immediately if they meet that criteria, if they a

So what, and that's a great story and I love that and I love the constant improvement. That is fantastic. Just wondering, what other feedback loops do we have to continuously look at improving or changing or adapting if needed? What other feedback loops are there available?

Do they have an opportunity to rate the quality of customer service that they received?

Okay, fantastic. And what is our goal for that?

So similar to the timeline. To the timeline. Yeah, I was going to say. That's not bad. Okay. All right. Great. Well, I look forward to that number continually to go up and improve. And very excited about this moving forward. So thank you for all your work. Really appreciate it.

Thank you. Really great presentation. A lot of optimism. Great work across the board as well. Small business support or permitting improvements, the data is telling. So really appreciate that. Let me start with just a couple things on the small business piece, which I think is really great. I love the idea of a concierge program. I like the idea of proactively also doing work. One question I have on that is, one of the biggest challenges that folks talk about when they think about a small business is understanding, is it feasible? Can we do something? If I do something, I can do many things. W

Yeah, I think that's great because if folks come in, like economic development will bring in likely successful small businesses to come and flourish, which I think is really great. But then organically growing small business opportunities within the city will be a really big win. So I applaud you for doing that and encourage you to grow that further. On the permitting side, one question and one sort of thought that I wanted to share. Question is, it's really great to see the data. So when we think about the parameters, it's cost, quality, customer experience. But in the public sector, in the w

And how do we make sure that our rate of improvements are accounting for that change as well? So we're... confident that the rate is as good as it gets?

Got it. Last comment, really. As you think about your next agent beyond the readiness check and the other things, you go into your research for staff, I think one of the things you could consider looking into is something that I've seen Seattle do really well, is that they have a, I'm trying to remember the name, I think it's called Bluebeam, which they use, which essentially creates a centralized repository of comment collection across teams that really simplifies this process for them and has improved productivity significantly. I don't have to say that's the vendor, but I'm just saying that

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you also for all the hard work that you and your team have done to make development services increasingly more customer focused. I think the results speak for themselves and they're really quite impressive. Just a few questions here for you. Just kind of digging into this, I'm curious, what are the main factors contributing to the current high volumes of permit applications and issued permits?

In the agenda memo, it's stated that amongst other things that the pace of permit applications is being driven by investments in new single family housing, residential reinvestment projects, and new applications stemming from the Wilberton vision implementation land use code. And I'm just curious if you could provide some context regarding Wilberton and why the LUCA has been so effective at spurring growth.

Looking ahead, which process improvements that are currently included in the DS work plan or it could be added to the current work plan could help us realize the most positive impact on speeding up our development review pipeline.

Also wanted to mention, I really like the employee learning and growth perspective section of the DS work plan. And I'm pleased to see that all four categories will be in the implementation stage by the first of the year. As was mentioned in the presentation, you've made significant and impressive improvements in overall departmental effectiveness with a nearly 14% improvement in permit timelines for first reviews. And I think that there's really widespread support and appreciation for all of your efforts. And, you know, like a lot of good things, I think there's a desire for additional improv

Councilmember Hamilton, of the 700 units seeking permits for Wilberton, how many are affordable?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. So let me just first start by appreciating the work that community development does. You know, one of my favorite sayings is, you know, planning is a triumph of logic and engagement over dumb luck. And you make that happen. So, you know, it's really tremendous. I also really am excited for Lake Hills and West Lake Sammamish's neighborhoods to go through this process and all of the great outcomes this will drive for those neighborhoods in the future and the opportunities and alignment with the comprehensive plan. So just gratitude to you and the full team and also the gr

Yeah, no, I really appreciate that being in the picnic was actually a great, great idea and saw a lot of engagement as well there. So I appreciate that. And actually, I'd made some notes on ideas to share with you, but you are ahead of the game as students. And the idea of using community partners and organizations that actually work within the community seems like you've sort of laid out. So I have no better suggestions, but I'm looking forward to it. Thank you, Councillor Bargello.

As a proud Lake Hills resident, glad we could weigh in on this this evening. You know, this is an opportunity, I think, always to enhance existing neighbourhoods and maintain the unique characteristics of each neighborhood. And it's such a great opportunity to engage with the residents, hear directly from them. Because I think this goes beyond just what we take in in terms of comprehensive plan amendments, et cetera. It's really the kind of get in the weeds in terms of what's happening in every neighborhood. And speaking of that, I wanted to mention something that Steve brought up earlier duri

But certainly, you know, defer to Council if Council wants to provide direction for us to... Well, it could be just a follow-up in terms of the staff requirements, what staff would be for as it relates to 14, was it 91? 1491, that's the TOD transit order. To have just a greater understanding of that, I think, and you can follow up on that would be great. But I'd love to say in that cadence too, in terms of to each time. Versus it's just gonna take us longer to get through all of the neighborhoods right in the city. So So, you know every neighborhood as I said is unique with unique characterist

Well, I think it's also just an opportunity, right, to educate and to help people understand, you know, how we, you know, develop policy at the city level, why certain decisions were made or why they weren't. You know, I'd be prepared to answer middle housing-type questions as well as you're doing all your engagement. But that's a good thing. So the memo mentioned a successful community-led urban design pilot in Eastgate. Can you go into some depth on that a little bit in terms of how that model might be able to be replicated or scaled in some way?

I really appreciate all the community groups that you've already met with and engaged with and will be working with as you move forward. One of my questions, as well as Council Member Bhargava, was just about how we're going to reach out to some of those underserved communities and others that we don't hear from as much. Lake Hills is probably... At least the last time I checked, it was the most diverse neighborhood in all the city of Bellevue, so we want to make sure that all voices are equally heard and we want to hear everything they have to share. Last question, and it kind of goes to the

We're able to follow back up with those that have provided feedback to us and then we reach out to them Hey, here's the initial plan or it's going to the Planning Commission. We want you to okay. Yes good.

Thank you, Mayor. To Council Member Bhargava's point about making sure that we're engaging a good portion of our community, considering we have roughly 100,050 residents, I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here. am likely but I'd love to leverage social media here across the city just because I had in my personal capacity written some thoughts that I had about non-business city related items and folks had reached out that were in my neighborhood and so I think you had mentioned that bringing in the neighborhood associations to really engage with the community is fantastic I personally had th

Have we worked with this consultant before? Okay. And the pillars or values that are driving this consultant and what they develop is what was mentioned in the slides as well, right? The open spaces. Okay. Okay. That sounds great. Thank you so much. And thank you again for your work. Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you for the presentation. I was going to ask the engagement question, just like my colleague. But thank you for answering it, because we know that they have the highest spend speaking, as you mentioned. So I really love the way that you're going out to the community, to the schools, and also to Drupal Reach, the community partners. One question I had, there's a mention about the racial equity toolkit. But it's in the process, right? Can you tell me more about it? Absolutely.

That's really helpful, because I think, like, when you're thinking, like, even, you know, council members, we are a different age group, right? Different things could be different way to targeting to reach the audience. So I think, is there any room when this tool is created that we can use that to engage the, like, the neighborhood? neighborhood and neighbors and actually having them into that same conversation, talk about like, okay, we see these data points. Maybe these are the family that we are not able to reach out and then find, like reach, and then is there a way that you can connect u

I have two questions, but I emailed, and so you can answer me later. So one last question is kind of looping this together about the format of the survey. As we know, Bellevue is the most, I mean, to my heart, I think it's the safest city, right? And then so public safety, any safety in general is very important. So I'm looking at the Eastgate and Victoria. You know, safety is always the first value in those neighborhoods, and I believe that's the same for every neighborhood. And on the survey of those two neighborhoods, I didn't see the list of the questions. Safety was listed in there. It wa

Thank you, because I do agree with you. And I think that everybody's definition is safe. Safety could be very different. Even the different culture could be different, right? So one culture could be, I feel safe when I can talk to my police officer or my firefighter directly. To other culture, it could be completely different. So I would advocate to be, I guess, culturally sensitive about more inclusive about their needs and how do they define safety. Because sometimes it's not only the physical things that matters. It's, I think, the mental and other elements, too. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate hearing my colleagues' comments. And I really love this Great Neighborhoods program. I just think it's such an amazing opportunity for the community. So I support what you've laid out here. I do like the idea of emphasizing the public safety conversations. I think that's really important. I also wonder, when we talk about mobility, it doesn't look to me like we're it looks like you're describing public spaces and connectivity, but I would really like more emphasis on travel. So multimodal travel, love to hear what sidewalks are problematic or what bike lanes and just ki

Okay. So the only thing I wanted to ask is, you know, outside of this program, we have neighborhoods who right now are trying to navigate the missing middle housing. House Bill is 1110. And there's not really a forum for them to talk to the city, what's possible, what's not possible, and helping neighborhoods navigate through these changes. So I wonder how you think we can be having those conversations outside of this neighborhoods program, because people shouldn't have to wait until their neighborhood comes up in the queue.

Yeah, I'd like your response before that. Yeah. That's perfect. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. I'm a big fan of the Great Neighborhoods Program, updating the comp plan in neighborhoods around the city to better reflect current citywide and neighborhood priorities and address issues of opportunities I think is a big boost for the city. The objectives and scope of the Great Neighborhoods Program are well-defined and ensure that we achieve impactful outcomes. I think our focus on social connectivity and our neighborhood's core needs is especially important. The work program and specifically the engagement plan are very solid. I really like

I think managing my device is the sentence of the night.

I move to direct staff to initiate work on the comprehensive plan amendments to update the Lake Hills and Westlake Spanish neighborhood area plans in 2026, 2027, and provide direction on the recommendation for bridal trails neighborhood area planning to occur in 28 and 29, consistent with Bellevue land use code section 20.301.130.B.3. Second.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. So I would say first thing, plus one to the mayor's comments, and I would extend that to the larger team. I think it's really remarkable and strong team and does a very, very good job. And I've seen that in difficult planning commission meetings with a lot of feedback coming from many different directions to react in real time and sometimes react with a lot of poise and consideration. So definitely plus one to that. Overall, let me just start by saying that I'm really supportive of this LUCA and the components of the LUCA. I think they're thoughtful. I think they're nee

Yeah, I really appreciate the context for the for. Sort of everyone, but the heart of my question is still the issue of. the trade off on making affordability outcomes happen versus a fee in lieu and how we would think about this going forward and measure those outcomes and what is our chance to make sure we're doing this right. The second consideration for me on that is equity across different parts of the city. in terms of the landowners and development opportunities, those would be the two lenses with which I would suggest we think about this, at least from my perspective. And if you have a

Well, since Council Member Bhargava brought that up, I just want to add that we did give increased height to that property in exchange for onsite performance. And so now that we've removed that condition and they get to keep the increased height, if we revisit it with the other bill, are we going to have to give another incentive? in order to put in a requirement for affordable housing.

I'll definitely want you to explore other incentives. Sure. Thank you. Really appreciate the work here. And I do think that you, Nick, and your staff have gone above and beyond what is typical of staff members. You've done site visits, you've had multiple conversations with individual property owners, and you've done what I think everything you can to be available to answer people's questions and concerns. I just want to thank you for doing that. I am very supportive of this work. Thank you.

I'll be redundant by thanking you for the incredible work that you do. I hope you do get a raise at some point. Not speaking on behalf of the council there. I am also interested in seeing what other incentive tools and levers we can pull for that change. And I'll wrap my comments up by saying I'm absolutely supportive of the work. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Great presentation. Thank you, Nick. I just want to dive just a little bit more into that tree just to make sure I understand the tree candidate. So we pivoted from the retention model to a tree credit model, correct? Is the confusion stemming from some of the emails that we've received about the conditions in a neighborhood that that ascertains how many credits they could have per square foot, or how does that, where is the confusion coming from, or I guess folks concerned that we are relaxing our tree canopy code that we've now made. I think there are always gonna be some t

So the critical areas code kind of trumps the tree.

Okay, okay, great. Thank you so much. I appreciate that further clarification. And I also appreciate the passion that people have for our tree canopy and want to maintain that in our city. So thanks for going that extra step and going out and meeting with them and walking through that. I think that's very helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Smotiverio.

Thank you. I plus one to all my colleagues, and I don't have any questions, and I just want to show my gratitude for your patience, and also I love the thoughtfulness of the response, because, I mean, this code is very, like any kind of code, any policy we talk about is super complicated, and the fact that you and the team can go out to meet the neighbors, explain them in real person, that shows a lot. It shows a lot of commitment our team, our staff has for our residents, so I'm just grateful for that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Not really a lot to add. I like this omnibus amendment process. Helps us to accomplish relatively insignificant code changes all at once. So this seems like a very effective and efficient way to do that. Certainly agree with the praise and recognition that's been expressed by my colleagues tonight to DS at large, but specifically to you, Nick. So plus one to all those comments and fully supportive of moving forward. Thank you, Mayor.

All right. Well, I practiced all of those, so I'm a little disappointed, but nevertheless, I move to adopt ordinance number 6930 relating to the clarification of known errors contained in and cleanup of the land use code.

I move to adopt ordinance number 6931 relating to development regulations.

I move to adopt ordinance number 6932 relating to environmental regulations.

I move to adopt ordinance number 6933 relating to land use review procedures. Second.

I move to adopt ordinance number 6934 relating to development. Second. Any discussion?