After my post yesterday, City Council’s agenda for next Tuesday was published, and staff is seeking direction on the HOMA proposal. If you look at the map provided with the meeting materials as Attachment 5.D, it would appear that only a few parts of the city are being affected by HOMA, but some of the areas I talked about in the last post already have NB (Neighborhood Business), CB, O, and F-1 zoning, so HOMA doesn’t need to rezone them to add capacity and increase building heights.
Current zoning map is here.
Current building heights can be found here.
As you can see in Chart 20.20.010 (scroll down to the second half that has the non-residential info), the current max heights are lower than is being planned with the HOMA changes. The Draft included as Attachment 3.B to the agenda materials for next week’s Council meeting has 211 pages; on page 75 you can see the proposed height limits.
Office is going up from 30 to 40/55 feet, OLB is adding the option of 15 more feet, the height listed for NB was 20′ and will be 45/60, and it references note (55). There is a new category of MU-8 that is 85 feet in height, NMU would be 110 feet instead of 75, CB will be 60 feet instead of 45, there’s a new MU-16 category that’s 170 feet, and one of the Factoria types is going from 75 to 135 feet (this last one is confusing because it has the note about alternative maximum height, but doesn’t seem to list a second number. It’s possible that it just means there’s no fee/affordability contribution required to get the 135 feet). Building Height for the Factoria F1 zoning of the mall is not in this table, so you have to look at 20.25F1.040 (page 141 of the draft), and it will be mostly 170′ (instead of the former 60/75/45′), except for 80′ in a strip on the south side of the mall (that includes part of the T&T), which had been 40/75′.
“(55) The alternative maximum building height shall only be allowed if at least 15 percent of the total dwelling units are dedicated to affordable housing. This requirement may be met through the payment of a fee-in-lieu equal to the applicable per-square-foot fee specified in Table 20.15.150.B multiplied by the total square footage of new nonexempt gross floor area equal to 15 percent of the total dwelling units contained in the building.”
The fee is listed in Table 20.15.150.B is on page 66 of the draft, and is $10-13 per square foot for a development that includes residential. If a typical unit is 800 sf, and you have to pay the fee on 15% of it, that would be a fee of $1200-1560 per unit to get the taller height. This seems like a very minimal obstacle, so I think it should be assumed that many buildings will be built to the higher limit without any affordable housing inside.
Checking the heights for each location (in feet),
QFC in Northtowne (NB, 20 -> 45/60)
S-Mart in Newport Hills (NB, 20 -> 45/60)
Crossroads:
India Metro Hypermarket (CB, 45 -> 60)
La Superior (CB, 45 -> 60)
European Grocery (CB, 45 -> 60)
Grocery Outlet (O, 30 -> 40/55)
(other parts of the mall are being changed to NMU and MU16, which will be 110 and 170 feet)
Walmart by 150th (CB, 45 -> 60)
Factoria:
T&T Supermarket (F-1, subcategory DA-I and DA-II, from 60 and 40/75 to 170 and 80)
Target and former Amazon Fresh (F-1, subcategory DA-I, 60 -> 170)
QFC (CB, 45 -> 60)
Southgate Oriental Grocery (CB (was 45) -> NMU, 75-> 110)
Eastgate Plaza’s Safeway and CVS, as well as the ExtraMile and Jacksons Food Store (NMU, 75-> 110)
Lake Hills:
IFB Market (CB (was 45) -> MU8, 85)
QFC (NB, 20 -> 45/60)
It should be noted that there are lots of other changes in the 221 pages of the draft: for instance, in addition to the height increase in the DA-I category of Factoria, a 30′ setback from 124th Ave NE is being eliminated.
In addition to the grocery stores that I focus on here, there will be lots of restaurants and other small businesses that could be affected. I personally think more anti-displacement measures should be in place before we amp up the development pressure with these increased heights. The community input that was provided specifically about the recent decision on Evans Plaza/PineView is the kind of concern that is likely to apply to neighborhoods across Bellevue if HOMA does get approved.
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