Bellevue has had no shortage of big decisions in the works, but I haven’t always had time to make a post here or elsewhere about them. Instead, I cover them in the weekly newsletter, and if you’re not signed up, you’d be likely to miss some.
Tonight, Council will initiate work on a major upzoning of existing housing around Crossroads and Factoria, to what is essentially R-60 zoning, and there will also be flexibility for planned unit developments and a big upzone for Overlake Farm (equivalent to R-15, so maybe 600 homes). It’s not a done deal, but speaking up early in the process may help community concerns to be factored in early on. There is also an item about upzoning the Factoria QFC and AMC and adjacent parcels to 110 feet, but that is on the Consent Calendar, so that decision is likely to be finalized tonight without any discussion.
Planning Commission will have their hearing on Wednesday for the Omnibus changes, which will disallow single family homes in some areas (formerly R-10 through R-30), significantly reduce tree requirements (by 60% plus) in some other neighborhoods (formerly R-2.5 zoning), and streamline the project approval process for some major projects. There are some building separation changes that will only affect certain residents, and lots of other tweaks. I would be surprised if there’s much pushback, since these were first announced in the beginning of April, and many community members still don’t know about them, but that also means that if you can attend the public hearing, your voice could have a disproportionate impact.
If you’re interested in seeing more about either of these topics, you can find the newsletter archives from the Newsletter link in the upper right.
There were also some big decisions last week that affected our budget – moving forward with the Tax Increment Finance tool to collect money for the $200-225M Grand Connection project; assumed future revenue will be the basis for creating bonds, with anticipated bond amounts of $75 million in 2026; $80 million in 2027, and $75 million in 2028. Council also voted on $9.5M for the KidsQuest move. There was also an Environmental Services Commission meeting with early steps toward increasing residents’ utility bills by lowering the fees paid in by developers.
The newsletter also includes the latest version of the Event Calendar and the Get Involved pages, but you can always come to this site for the most recent versions of those; they’re updated continuously as items come across my desk.
Leave a Reply