The Middle Housing Implementation effort will apply to areas that have single family homes and add density in the form of duplexes to sixplexes, cottages, courtyard housing, flats and townhomes. This Land Use Code Amendment (LUCA) is required by HB 1110, which passed in Olympia in 2023, and will add about 100,000 housing units to Bellevue based on the state requirements. Bellevue has created a special implementation proposal that goes above and beyond and will add roughly 100,000 more units. The implementation draft also includes changes to setbacks, building height, lot coverage, rules for ADUs, the definition of multi-family housing, Tree Code, and more.
The HOMA (Housing Opportunities in Mixed Use Areas) effort is also a LUCA, but entirely separate and happening in parallel. It will add apartments and affordable housing in areas like Downtown, Factoria, Eastgate, and the Neighborhood Centers. It is part of Bellevue’s Next Right Work effort and will help us align with the Comprehensive Plan, but is not being done to meet any specific state requirement.
There is an Engaging Bellevue outreach effort right now for Affordable Housing Strategy Update, which just had a kickoff event on January 30, 2025. There is also an interactive event happening on April 5th. We need to plan for how we can reach our goal of 5,700 affordable and 8,300 unrestricted units in the next ten years. We do have 12,000 units in the development pipeline now, but most of these are market-rate units.
In the second half of 2025, the city will implement a Co-Housing bill (HB 1998)that also passed in Olympia in 2023. We are required to complete this LUCA by December, and the co-housing will be allowed in all the areas that the Middle Housing implementation designates for six or more units per lot. Units as small as 70 sqft would be allowed, and they would have shared kitchen space, with either a private or shared bath. A more typical size is 150-200 square feet, and it is also possible that bedrooms in an existing house could be turned into co-housing units.
Bellevue initiated the Next Right Work effort as a group of actions to increase the housing supply in Bellevue. Already, it has included the creation of a micro-apartment housing category, temporary bonuses to encourage the addition of permanently affordable housing, lower permit and inspection fees for affordable housing, expedited permitting, an interim ADU policy, unit lot subdivision, and SEPA categorical exemptions.
Another recent bill is HB 1042 for conversion from commercial to residential. Facilitating growth are SB 5258 – unit lot subdivisions and proportionate impact fees, HB 1293 – objective design standards, and SB 5290 – permit timelines.
Up for consideration in Olympia this year is a very important TOD bill (HB 1491) which would add density around Link and RapidRide stops. There is also a lot-splitting bill (HB 1096) that could double the density in Bellevue. SB 5184 would lower parking requirements, and therefore decrease obstacles to adding housing. There are also bills for condo liability reform, which would make it more likely that flats or units in a tower would be sold as condos rather than rented as apartments.
Even if the implementation of Bellevue’s Middle Housing policy is scaled back to meet the state requirements, there are many opportunities to add density by offering bonuses for the kind of homes we want.
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