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Capital Facilities

VISION

Bellevue has exceptional community facilities that efficiently serve the needs of an evolving city while addressing greenhouse gas reductions and climate resiliency.

Bellevue has adequate financial resources to build and maintain parks, streetscapes, community facilities and other essential public facilities to address the city's growth and evolving needs. Public buildings and municipal operations address energy efficiency and climate resiliency while allowing for a flexible, healthy and productive environment for those who live, work and play in Bellevue. Community facilities address multiple objectives, such as creating new open space and enhancing livability, even as they meet basic functional requirements.

CAPITAL FACILITIES SCOPE

The Capital Facilities element is about how the city plans for, acquires and maintains public land, facilities, buildings and other public property.

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INTRODUCTION

Ensuring that public facilities are available when growth occurs is critical. The implementation of a well-defined capital facilities program will help realize the community’s vision for outstanding capital facilities as well as the vision and goals of the Land Use element. Outstanding facilities are not only technically high-performance, in terms of facility- and equipment-specific measures, but also contribute to community and environmental health and resilience. The construction and modernization processes of outstanding facilities are guided by high standards, including industry best practices and innovations as well as third-party certifications.

This element is Bellevue’s plan for the provision and maintenance of capital facilities. It acts as a reference for all other capital facility plans, comprehensive plans, capital improvement and investment programs, inventories and studies that together represent the planning and financing mechanisms necessary to serve the capital facility needs of Bellevue. Figure CF-1 contains a list of other relevant plans.

WHY CAPITAL FACILITY PLANNING?

The Growth Management Act gives jurisdictions specific direction on capital facilities through its Public Facilities and Services Goal:

"Ensure that those public facilities and services necessary to support development shall be adequate to serve the development at the time the development is available for occupancy and use without decreasing current service levels below locally established minimum standards."

Bellevue owns and manages a variety of capital facilities including roads, parks, water and sewer lines, police and fire facilities, administrative buildings and training and maintenance facilities. In addition to facilities owned and managed by Bellevue, there are publicly owned capital facilities

managed by other entities which meet some of Bellevue’s capital facility needs. These include but are not limited to schools, libraries, water supply, sewage treatment, public transit and publicly owned park-and-ride facilities.

The governing bodies responsible for each public facility make planning decisions about their facilities, such as when to construct new facilities, improve existing facilities, increase the level of service provided by those facilities and how to fund and maintain needed facilities. Planning decisions address the evolving and adaptive role of technology in the provision of capital facilities.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS AND TOMORROW’S PROJECTIONS

Capital Facilities Today and Tomorrow

Capital investment recommendations are drawn primarily from functional plans specific to each capital facility service or city department. Utilities such as water, sewer and stormwater have specific requirements according to state and federal law. Each city department or responsible agent forecasts needed improvements for at least a twenty-year time horizon and, in some cases, through ultimate system build-out, based on the city's land use plan. The plans contain inventories of the system and forecasts of system demand and capacity based on population and regulatory mandates. The functional plans identify capital investments required to meet future demand and to replace or maintain existing facilities for continued service. The plans also define customer service levels and system-specific operating policies.

Each system plan is updated every six to ten years depending on need and regulatory requirements. These system plans are the best resource for comprehensive inventories and facility location information, as well as existing capacity and forecasted needs.

LEVEL OF SERVICE

Level of Service (LOS) is the adopted standard of service adequacy. For capital facilities planning, the LOS measure for each facility type provides guidance as to whether facilities are adequate to meet service needs and what new capital facilities may be needed. LOS standards for each capital facility are provided in the corresponding functional plan. The standards can range from a precise measurement, such as the amount of time it takes for a fire truck to reach the scene of a fire, to a general, qualitative measurement, such as a community’s perception of how much and what type of open space is needed.

LOS standards are created through an ongoing iterative process that considers the community’s population, economics and fiscal resources. Population figures tell who, how many and where people need services, and the economics determines the amount of funding available to meet those service needs.

The performance of a capital facility can be measured once an LOS standard has been established. A capital facility operating at or above the established LOS indicates no need for improvements or new facilities. A facility operating below the established LOS is an indication that there may be a need for improvements, new facilities or a re-evaluation of the LOS standard. However, if funding is not available to bring service up to the established level, then the LOS is reexamined to determine if it is appropriate.

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Bellevue’s Capital Investment Program (CIP) is the city’s seven-year financing and implementation plan. The objective of the CIP is to identify capital facility needs and funding mechanisms to finance the construction, reconstruction and acquisition of assets needed due to population growth, aging of existing infrastructure, changing needs or Bellevue’s desire to improve the city’s capital investments. Updated every two years, the CIP consolidates the planned infrastructure and facilities improvements identified in the system plans. The CIP prioritizes projects, identifies project order and assigns funding.

CAPITAL INVESTMENT PROGRAM (CIP)

This is the city’s seven-year financing and implementation plan for needed capital improvements to the city’s public facilities and infrastructure. The plan is updated in odd years.

The CIP uses many revenue sources to fund the capital investment projects identified in the plan, including sales tax, business and occupation tax, utility rates, state revenues, bonds and grants. Impact fees and other specific revenues allowed under the Growth Management Act also offer potential funding sources. Similar to city-managed capital facilities, non-city-managed capital facilities improvements are funded through bonds and other mechanisms.

The Growth Management Act requires that capital improvement planning be coordinated with the city’s larger land use planning framework. The city is responsible for monitoring the status of development relative to planned conditions and for reviewing and revising plans as necessary. In particular, the city must ensure that adequate capital facilities are available when they are needed to serve development. If limited funding or other circumstances would prevent the city from providing adequate facilities and services, the Growth Management Act requires the city to re-evaluate the Land Use element and make sure that capital facilities plans and land use plans are consistent.

Capital Facilities Inventory

The City of Bellevue owns and maintains a variety of public services infrastructure, including drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems; parks and open space; police and fire facilities; municipal buildings; public roads and transportation infrastructure.

The city departments responsible for each of these services conduct ongoing facilities planning. Larger systems, such as utilities, have specific functional plans. In addition to these topic-specific plans, planning for the construction and maintenance of capital facilities takes place every two years through the Capital Improvement Program Plan. Capital facilities belonging to privately owned utilities serving Bellevue (electrical, natural gas, pipelines and telecommunication) are addressed in the Utilities element of the plan.

Bellevue Utilities owns, operates and maintains infrastructure to provide drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater and surface water services to Bellevue residents and businesses as well as some areas outside of the city limits. Continued investment in this infrastructure is necessary for continued delivery of utility services that are critical for human health and safety economic development, as well as supporting a sustainable, healthy environment. Capital facility investment helps to ensure that Bellevue can continue to deliver the high-quality municipal utility services customers expect. The goals and policies for city-owned and non-city-owned utilities can be found in the Utilities element.

In addition to utilities, the city owns and manages a collection of recreational facilities, including parkland, trails, athletic facilities, swimming pool, playgrounds and community centers. A detailed inventory and discussion of goals and policies for these recreational facilities are included in the Parks, Recreation and Open Space element.

Other facilities managed by the city include fire stations, a central police station, substations, a 9-1-1 communications center and associated

PLANS FOR CAPITAL FACILITIES NOT OWNED BY THE CITY

The following plans include inventories and plans for facilities not owned by the city.

School facilities

• Bellevue School District 5-Year Strategic Plan
• Renton School District 6-year Capital Facilities Plan
• Lake Washington School District 6-year Capital Facilities Plan
• Issaquah School District 6-year Capital Facilities Plan

Utility facilities

• King County Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan
• Puget Sound Energy Integrated Resource Plan
• Redmond Water System Plan

Transportation facilities

• Roads Services Division of the King County Capital Investment Program Plan
• Puget Sound Regional Council Regional Transportation Plan
• Washington Transportation Plan

equipment and assets (fire engines, police cars, ambulances, hazardous materials response equipment, etc.). The city also manages buildings and facilities necessary to conduct day-to-day operations, such as City Hall and public works facilities.

Public capital facilities located in Bellevue but owned or operated by other agencies include state and federal transportation infrastructure, a King County solid waste transfer station, King

County libraries and various schools owned by the Bellevue, Lake Washington, Issaquah, and Renton School districts. Similar to city-managed systems, each of these providers conducts its own capital planning processes to ensure its ability to meet demand.

Most city-owned capital facility systems are governed by a dedicated functional plan. These plans contain detailed inventories of existing facilities and infrastructure, as well as planned improvements. In addition to the facilities covered by functional plans, the City of Bellevue maintains and uses a number of other facilities to perform city administrative functions. Figure CF-1 contains a list and description of both types of facilities.

Figure CF-1. Inventory of City-owned Capital Facilities and Related Functional Plans

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A complete list of capital facility improvements planned in the next seven years is included in the city's Capital Investment Program Plan.

Future Needs

The provision of capital facilities contributes to Bellevue's quality of life. Parks, utilities, fire stations and other community and regional facilities are a physical reflection of Bellevue's vision for the community.

Bellevue is an urbanized community with little vacant land and a full array of urban services. Projected growth in housing units and jobs over the next 20 years will be accommodated mainly through redevelopment of existing property. Therefore, planning for needed capital facilities will focus on maintaining and improving levels of service as redevelopment occurs rather than extending the network geographically.

Bellevue's 20-year planning targets include 35,000 additional housing units and 70,000 additional jobs. These planning targets drive Bellevue's capital facilities planning to ensure that Bellevue plans for and is able to fund needed capital facilities. These facilities are needed to consistently implement the Land Use element, which focuses most growth in mixed use areas. Providing adequate capital facilities in Bellevue also implements the Urban Growth Goal of the Growth Management Act, encouraging development in urban areas where adequate public facilities and services exist or can be provided in an efficient manner.

Bellevue maintains performance measures and thresholds for all capital facilities to evaluate performance and needs. Quantitative and qualitative capital facility needs are established by adopted levels of service, operating criteria, or performance standards. These measurement tools are listed in each capital facility functional plan. Each functional plan also contains a list of capital facility needs and planned improvements. Performance should address emerging challenges and opportunities, such as the impacts of climate change, as well as long-established challenges and opportunities.

Challenges and Opportunities

While there are unique challenges to specific capital facility services, several issues apply broadly in Bellevue:

Accommodating Increased Demand. Increased demand will require investment for building and maintaining facilities for services like water, wastewater, stormwater, parks, fire, police, transportation and municipal buildings. Non-city providers, such as school districts, libraries and solid waste processors, will also experience increased demand for services and will need to plan for new or improved facilities.

Aging Infrastructure. Some of Bellevue's capital facilities are aging and will require repairs and replacement over the next twenty years. The costs of replacing utility infrastructure and roads are substantial and take years of planning and implementation. Likewise, facilities such as parks and municipal buildings require ongoing maintenance, improvements or replacement. City departments maintain plans and strategies for funding and building necessary improvements, which are scheduled and assigned funding in the city's seven-year Capital Investment Program.

Service Provider Coordination. Capital facilities in Bellevue are a collection of infrastructure managed by the city as well as a variety of non-city providers. For example, the surface water drainage system is a combination of private and public systems. These systems, over half of which

are private, work together to convey stormwater, control flooding, and protect water quality. Other non-city facilities include schools, public libraries, transit stations, the electrical grid and solid waste transfer stations. The city is responsible for ensuring that adequate services are provided for all community members.

Compliance with New Laws and Regulations. Changing state and federal mandates governing capital facilities systems require the city to monitor and review its systems to ensure compliance. For example, compliance with the city’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Municipal Stormwater Permit, a Federal Clean Water Act mandate that affects programs citywide, requires periodic updates to meet evolving requirements, which can have impacts on the way the city does business, on city expenses and on private development costs.

Sustainable Facilities. Generally, capital facility function is guided by the purpose to deliver services that contribute to community and environmental welfare, health and resilience. Bellevue’s construction and modernization processes are guided by industry best practices and innovations as well as green certification standards.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction and Resilience to Climate Impacts. Our climate is changing. Bellevue will increasingly experience extreme heat, wildfire, smoke, extreme precipitation, drought and flooding. Overburdened communities and vulnerable community members are disproportionately at risk. The City of Bellevue has committed our community to a climate-safe future supported by Washington state law. Capital Facilities are part of the solution: increasing energy efficiency, electrifying systems that formerly used fossil fuels, providing environmental and human disaster preparedness and delivering emergency services that promote community resilience to withstand and recover from disruptions to daily life.

If these challenges are managed effectively, many will become opportunities—to save energy, reduce costs, free-up funding for other investments, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, raise levels of service, improve public trust, modernize facilities to be disaster-resilient and more.

Capital Facilities Policy Summary

Bellevue’s policies establish clear guidance for the planning, design, construction and maintenance of the city’s capital facilities. The Capital Facilities policies are organized into the following four sections:

Capital Planning

These policies intend to promote technically sound and effectively coordinated capital planning processes in line with the Capital Facilities Vision and existing agreements and requirements.

High Performance Facilities

These policies intend to deliver excellent capital facilities that meet high facility-specific service standards, meet or exceed green certification standards, and support other community priorities, such as equity, health, financial stewardship, and environmental sustainability. These policies direct staff to manage capital facilities to go beyond basic functional requirements to serve community more holistically through industry best practices and innovations, including certifications. These policies relate to the development, operation, maintenance and deconstruction of capital facilities.

Essential Public Facilities

These policies deal with facilities that are typically difficult to site, such as airports, state education facilities and state or regional transportation facilities as defined in RCW 47.06.140. These policies intend to improve coordination, decisions and outcomes for the siting and management of these facilities.

Map CF-1. Municipal and Other Public Facilities

This map shows the locations of existing municipal and other public facilities in Bellevue.

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City Hall Community/Visitor Center Crossroads Mini-City Hall Library Medical or Related Facility Other Municipal Facilty Fire Stations Public Schools Public School Sites City Parks Other Public Parks City Limits Urban Growth Area Boundary

Data Source: City of Bellevue

Produced by: City of Bellevue Community Development Department and Department of Information Technology, Geospatial Technology Services.

GOAL & POLICIES

Goal

To efficiently serve the community’s growth at planned levels of service through fiscal prioritization, innovation and attention to the city’s character and quality.

Policies

Capital Planning

CF-1. Ensure that capital facilities necessary to meet level of service standards are provided within a reasonable amount of time.

CF-2. Provide affordable and equitable access to capital facilities and public services to all communities, especially the historically underserved. Prioritize investments to address disparities.

CF-3. Plan for the long-term retrofit or replacement of aging capital facilities as needed to comply with green facility requirements and meet performance standards.

CF-4. Develop and implement a Long-Range Capital Facilities Master Plan which addresses strategic site and facilities acquisition for municipal services to support level of service standards to serve the growing community.

CF-5. Use the city’s Capital Investment Program, as amended periodically, to prioritize the financing of capital facilities within projected funding capacities.

CF-6. Align long-range capital facilities plans with needs, financing and level of service to be consistent with land use development and anticipated growth.

CF-7. Use facility system plans to identify and plan for the long-range facility needs for individual city services, taking into account the condition of the facility, its compliance with city standards and expected population growth.

See also the Utilities element.

CF-8. Use adopted Level of Service, operating criteria or performance standards to evaluate capital facilities’ needs.

CF-9. Coordinate planned capital investments including operations and maintenance across departments.

CF-10. Coordinate with non-city-managed capital facilities providers consistent with Bellevue's Comprehensive Plan.

CF-11. Consider levying impact fees on development in the portion of Bellevue served by a school district upon the request of the district, presentation of its adopted Capital Facilities Plan, and demonstration that such facilities are needed to accommodate projected growth in the district.

CF-12. Support consolidation (by mutual agreement) of those portions of special purpose service districts and King County Flood Control Districts with the city where the service district is providing service within the city's corporate boundary.

CF-13. Provide public services and/or utilities within the corporate limits of adjoining cities when there is a service agreement in effect or when such temporary service is necessary because of an emergency.

CF-14. Recognize existing utility agreements with adjacent cities, towns, and districts, and acknowledge the continuation of such agreements. Ensure that these agreements contain conditions that have the necessary development review authority in order to maintain acceptable service levels to those municipalities.

High Performance Facilities

CF-15. Construct and operate new city facilities to exceed required development standards and code requirements in order to conserve energy, water and environmental resources.

CF-16. Maintain the post-disaster Response and Recovery Plan, including clear staff roles and responsibilities, to ensure the city’s capability to prepare for, withstand and rapidly recover from climate impacts and other disasters.

CF-17. Plan capital investments to prepare for, withstand, rapidly recover from, and promote community resiliency against climate impacts, including extreme heat, wildfire, smoke, extreme precipitation, drought, flooding and other disasters.

CF-18. Plan capital investments to support efficient, equitable and environmentally sustainable outcomes through facility condition assessments, including consideration for climate resilience, risks and the present cost of non-investment.

CF-19. Plan capital investments to engage relevant communities to identify, promote and preserve objects and sites of cultural, historical, artistic and aesthetic importance.

CF-20. Reduce solid waste at capital facilities through a comprehensive program and purchasing policies that promote processing and recovery of recyclable materials, compostable food and yard waste and disposable items to promote a circular economy.

CF-21. Incorporate Low Impact Design (LID) standards and operational strategies into all relevant capital projects and ongoing maintenance.

CF-22. Reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in municipal operations and facilities through building design and by supporting renewable energy, electrification, and energy conservation measures.

See also Climate and Environment policy related to leading environmental sustainability by example, CL-15.

CF-23. Require all capital projects to meet or exceed green certification standards for capital facilities unless determined infeasible by interdepartmental review.

CF-24. Ensure that all electric vehicle charging infrastructure sited on city property is designed to charge a wide array of vehicles and is equitably distributed throughout Bellevue.

Essential Public Facilities

CF-25. Define essential public facilities, consistent with the Growth Management Act.

CF-26. Site and design essential public facilities according to city standards to minimize potential impacts from the design, construction, operations and end-of-life stages to the community, while recognizing the public importance and difficult-to-site nature of such facilities.

CF-27. Participate in inter-jurisdictional efforts to site countywide or statewide essential public facilities. Pursue agreements among jurisdictions to mitigate against the disproportionate burden that may fall on the jurisdiction which becomes the site of a facility.

CF-28. Impose conditions of approval or other measures within the scope of the city's authority to mitigate environmental, compatibility, public safety or other impacts of the essential public facility.

CF-29. Work to site or expand essential public facilities through equitable processes that balance social, environmental, economic and historic impacts to achieve citywide and regional planning objectives.

CF-30. Locate Secure Community Transition Facilities, as defined by RCW 71.09.020 now or as hereafter amended, outside of residential districts. Provide a separation between Secure Community Transition Facilities and residentially developed property in other land use districts.

CF-31. Consider climate change, economic, equity and health impacts when siting and building essential public services and facilities.