The Bellevue City Council meeting for November twenty-fifth, two thousand twenty five.

Um, Councilmember Claire Suma DeWerria is in DC today, uh, representing the City of Bellevue, so she is participating remotely.

Um we have a roll call, please.

Thank you, Mayor Robinson.

Here.

Deputy Mayor Malikuti.

Councilmember Barkaba.

Councilmember Hamilton.

Here.

Councilmember Lee.

Here.

Councilmember Neumann House.

Here.

Councilmember Sumatoria.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hamilton, can you lead us in the flag salute, please?

Please stand if you're able.

I play the leadership.

One nation.

Do you have a motion to approve the agenda?

I move to approve the agenda amended to add an item under council business as item 7B to discuss a proposal by Mayor Robinson.

All those in favor say aye.

Any opposed?

Great.

City Clerk, do we have anybody signed up for oral communications?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

This evening there are four pre-registered speakers.

So before I start calling names, I'll go over a few of the rules that the council has in place.

So oral communications is for a period of no more than 30 minutes, and all topics must relate to City of Bellevue government.

Excuse me.

One also additional reminder we have two public hearings on tonight's agenda.

So if you are intending to speak on the public hearing, you'll need to wait.

And if you did sign up for oral communications, uh we have moved you appropriately to the public hearing.

Oh, excuse me, Mayor Robinson, members of council.

My name is Keith Swinson.

I reside with my wife Dixie at the Gardens of Town Square, a senior living center located at 933 11th Avenue Northeast here in downtown Bellevue.

I see a couple of head shakes.

You've seen it.

I'm not going to uh uh embarrass you or bore you by reading that letter, certainly.

I would like to call attention to a couple of important points.

I see the timing up there.

I'm going to slip through these very quickly.

Uh as I mentioned to you and uh my testimony in the 22nd of July.

Uh we serely sincerely appreciate your leadership and highly professional work in the transportation and public safety uh and that work of the uh transportation and public safety personnel.

Uh we are here in favor of the actions of uh that you've taken and your staff taken.

We strongly endorse the identification or identified location of speed safety cameras, and particularly at the corner of 1111th Avenue and Northeast 10th Street, diagonally across from our residents at the gardens.

We reported our committee's uh actions to our monthly residential uh residence council meeting at November on November 13th.

Uh we introduced a motion uh some essentially uh saying that your work was outstanding and we approved of the proposals.

Uh that put motion was passed unanimously.

We have a membership there uh of roughly 140 people.

So uh not all of them attended that meeting, certainly, but it's a substantial number did, and we feel pleased that we have been uh or are able to to pass that along to you.

Um, your staff have pointed out 31 seconds and that the uh traffic on that section of Northeast Trent where we're located is above 16,000 cars a day.

That is serious in terms of numbers, but worse is the fact that some five to fifteen percent of those cars are actually speeding over the current uh 30 mile speed limit.

That situation has the effect of and that's it, of making the possibility of a serious traffic accident and death or serious injury.

Thank you very much for your time.

Appreciate it, and uh we look forward to seeing you again in the future.

Thank you for coming down.

You bet.

Thank you.

The next speaker on the list is Karen Armstead, hello, members of the council.

Uh, my name is Karen Armstead, and I am here as one of the individuals from the Vassa neighborhood.

And I'd like for you to see that we have a number of people here tonight.

Can all the people from the Vassa neighborhood raise your hand?

We could have more, but there are quite a few of them who stopped us and said, gosh, we got two kids and two soccer games tonight and things like that.

We have prepared and sent to you a statement, which hopefully you've seen, and if you have had a chance to read it, I'm not going to read it to you tonight.

But I would uh ask you to give thought to it if you have time to because it does uh talk about several things that matter a lot.

And we have only three minutes, so I want to leave you right now with three points or so, and then we'll come back to it.

Vassa as a neighborhood is a lovely um area that if you haven't seen it, we'd invite you to come and see us.

We care about each other.

We know our neighbors, we walk the streets, uh, the children, we know the children.

It's a very close-knit uh a group, even though it's growing.

Right now we have uh one of the streets that is in your list for consideration for one of the traffic cameras.

It's Southeast 34th Street.

We have two streets that are used to be neighborhood streets and now there's thoroughfares to I-90.

And basically, people come from the north and come from 34th and go up the hill and hit I 90, go to Factoria, go on.

And then the others come from the south, which is a little beyond Vassa, come up once one 38th, 164th, and hit the freeway there.

So we have two streets that um people travel on daily.

And the data that you have in your record is that on 34th Street there are 8,800 plus cars daily going up it.

The key to this is in difference to everybody else in Bellevue.

Vassa has no sidewalks, no shoulders, maybe this wide with blackberry vines growing on them.

Uh, no crosswalks, no traffic bumps, nothing to help us with traffic safety.

Some of the parents here have to walk their children because the children have to cross 34th Street twice in order to uh get on their buses.

That again, right where they're traffic monitors, they uh they have to walk to get on, and it's not safe, especially in the winter time when it's dark.

Please read the uh statement because there's a uh incident in there that we observed that Captain Spingler has helped us with in terms of traffic safety and having people um uh from his uh police staff actually work their overtime and the number of citations that they wrote.

In three weeks they came very few hours, wrote between 50 and 60 tickets, one officer in three hours wrote 25 tickets.

And so this is again no place for people to go.

So we're asking you to think when you think about where to locate, please consider Vassa and think about our neighborhood and understand 34th Street and its priority.

And then hopefully we can come back and talk to you about 164th Street and other issues that we need for traffic safety.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Anthony McKay who's joining us virtually.

Mr.

McKay, can you hear me?

Yes, I can.

Okay, your time begins now.

Thanks very much.

Um hi, my name is Anthony McKay.

I'm the executive director of the Old Bellevue Merchants Association.

We are a collection of business merchants that support the local organizations and businesses and residents in downtown Old Bellevue on Main Street.

Um personality, as many of you will know, is quite a charming boutique-oriented and authentic environment.

Um being sort of in between all of the wonderful high-rises that we have in the development that we have in Bellevue, which is great.

Anchored in near downtown park and Maiden Bell Bay.

Um we've got a lot of women-owned and minority-owned businesses in many of our older buildings.

We've got um wonderful building uh businesses coming into the area.

We've recently had um some businesses like Voodoo Donuts coming into the area, Lama, um, just on the other side of Main Street uh in Bellevue Way.

And um we are interested in ideas for preserving our local area and things that we can do working with the city um and the city's staff to make sure we remain uh walkable um uh commutable space.

We we love the work that the likes of Visit Bellevue does in in having their um uh bellhop shuttles coming around and all of the work that the BDA does to put on events in our local area as well.

Uh we'd just like the the city and its staff to think about ways that we can keep an eye on the developments that are going ahead.

We're we're interested and we're happy for developments.

It it it's it's not something we want to stop.

It's not preservation for preservation's sake, but it's also not just demolishing um and rebuilding just because we can.

Uh if I could just ask the the city council to have a think about things like that in the future, um, in the in the months and years ahead um to help us ensure that our businesses are able to support the the local residents and business owners and property owners in the area so that we can continue to thrive.

Um I just would like to put that forward and support uh issues and initiatives that the city's gonna come up with in regards to that.

Thanks very much.

Thank you.

The next speaker on the list is Miriam Zanotti.

Hello, my name is Mary Mizanati.

My address is 16415 Southeast 37th Court.

I live um right on 164th Place Southeast.

So it's it's building upon what Karen was talking about, 34th Street.

It turns into 164th Place Southeast, and people are speeding down that road.

I have two boys here with me, Larek and Michael.

They're seven and three, and we have an easement road that kind of rides right into 164th place.

And people drive on 164th, they're not they're going 45 miles an hour, and when they see my kids, it doesn't deter them at all.

Um we've lived there about two years, and we've it's just been ongoing.

There's bus stops, at least three bus stops on that road.

And when I've walked my son to and from that bus stop, we have barely any shoulder to walk on, and I've um car cars will swerve almost into us while we're walking towards that um from the bus stop.

So then at night time, it seems like people use that road as their race car track.

I can hear cars going almost 70 miles per hour, and they're not deterred at all.

They don't think that anything uh there's gonna be any consequences to driving at those speeds.

I'm worried that someone's gonna drive out of control so quickly that they're gonna run into our house or flip into our yard, which has happened to um to the neighbor across the street from us.

It's great if we could start with cameras on 34th and 64th place.

But I'd like you to remember our neighborhood.

With there's several children in our neighborhood.

And as Karen said, we don't have sidewalks, there's barely any shoulder.

Um, it'd be great to plan if there's any um updates being done to the road to eventually put speed bumps in that area, and hopefully sooner than later.

That's what we're hoping our tax money for our houses go towards keeping our roads safe and our children safe.

Um I think you know, um, that's really the main points there that this road is incredibly unsafe, and it'd be a tragedy if we had to wait till one of my kids got hit by a car.

Um, we can hardly walk up and down that street.

We're just terrified.

And especially 34th Street walk, we can walk that um road up to the park, and we just we won't because there's not a full sidewalk, and then cards cars are just speeding by and there's bus stops there as well.

Um so the bottom line is we're not talking about five, ten miles an hour that cars are going, they're going double the speed limit and sometimes upwards to 70 miles an hour in the evenings.

And it's it's a curved road, so it can get really unsafe.

So remember, please remember Vassa Park neighborhood, and um that's all I have for tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um, City Manager, we've heard this from a lot of people and over the years, and I know that staff has a timeline of uh road work and and sidewalk replacement along that area.

I wonder if we can get a staff response at some point to that that gives us the timeline of what's going on and when.

Yes, we we do have transportation staff that will be here for uh the study session later tonight, but they can also respond specifically to the inquiries about our uh traffic calming program.

Okay, I appreciate that.

And thank you for coming down.

That was our uh third and final speaker that'll be allowed on the speed safety camera program in support.

Uh we did have one additional speaker, but they were also in support of that item at this point.

We do still have a few minutes left.

So if there's anyone else joining us that would like to make a comment to the council, please raise your hand.

Confirm.

I just want to confirm that we can't hear any more in support on the speed safety.

Oh any additional folks.

Okay, Mayor, I'll turn it back to you.

Okay, so um next up we have first of all, I want to thank all of you for coming down tonight.

It really is gratifying to see so much community involvement.

And we have we read your emails and we hear your comments, and it's a big part of the decision making process.

So thank you for taking the time.

Um next up, we have the report of our city manager, and I think you have two items tonight.

Thank you, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council members.

Uh, we do have two items.

The first one is uh for me to provide you with some information about some reappointments to the Bellevue Convention Center Authority Board.

Uh and I am recommending reappointment of uh two individuals, Ron Hoffalina and Kawasaki Romero, each of them for another four-year term, and that term would be effective January 1st, 2026.

Mr.

Hoffalina has served on the board since 2008, and he brings with him a very extensive hotel and hospitality management uh background.

His industry experience includes various positions, including managing properties for the Red Lion, Claremont Hotel, um, and the Hotel Bellevue, amongst others.

Um Ms.

Kawasaki Remote joined the board in 2011.

She has over 30 years of experience leading public sector agencies and providing uh a wide range of services to the public, including operating the kingdom and leading successful public-private partnerships in the development of um very large sports facilities.

They have both served on the board for over a decade.

Um due to that, um they have uh played a very critical role in ensuring that the convention center operations and direction um are well managed and they um keep them um insured, ensuring the convention center for future success.

So, with no objections, these board members would officially be reappointed for another term through January 1st, 2030.

So these are actually city manager appointments that do not require a council vote, but you are being gracious and asking for consensus.

And so if we can all just nod our head, if we can curve okay, sounds good.

And that's a strong thumbs up from somebody who's in on those meetings.

So thank you for that.

Okay.

Thank you, Councilmember Newtonhouse.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, so our um second report of the city manager is something that we bring um every year to you and the community, which is an update on our winter weather preparedness and response.

Transportation department um has been actively working with um our other departments that participate in responding to preparing for and responding to the winter weather.

And so tonight they will give you a presentation on both uh expectations and also some new innovations.

We are joined by Chris Long, the assistant director of mobility operations, and Matt Lebeau, a senior process analyst in the streets division.

He has been with the city for 20 years, and this is his first council presentation.

So uh welcome Matt.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Chris.

Thank you, City Manager Carlson and uh Mayor Robinson, Deputy Malikuchan and Council for having us back to uh share about how we've prepared for winter weather.

Uh this is a topic that we enjoy coming and sharing the great work that our team does every year to get prepared for these conditions.

So the the question I always get asked is is there gonna be snow this year?

And I don't know, but the forecast does say that there is a chance.

Uh so uh this is an interesting weather event.

Uh it is what we call a neutral El Niño.

So we're actually gonna see a transition from what is typically a warmer and wetter El Niño year in the early months of winter.

It'll transition to a La Niña weather pattern, which could which typically is colder, and that's where we often see snow.

Uh so we're uh the early weather can lead to wind events, which we've seen already.

We've had some some of that that we've dealt with.

And so uh as always, this is just informational something for us to kind of uh geek out over in the weather of uh uh system.

But really, we what we look at is we get very accurate 14-day forecasts that that we look at that help us get ready to prepare.

We don't drive our trucks around with plow blades on them all winter long, and so when we see that snow come out in that forecast, we get the trucks ready.

So um when it comes to preparing for it, this is a multi-department approach.

Uh transportation is the lead for snow and ice and wind events, and utilities leads for flooding.

But it takes all five departments listed here to uh support these events.

When it comes to snow, a typical snow event takes about 60 staff to run a 24-hour uh service.

And in our streets division, we have 30.

So we rely heavily on parks and utilities to help fill those other seats, either driving a truck, uh helping with dispatch or helping with uh scouting during an event.

Parks also does all the snow removal at civic buildings, including fire stations and the hospital.

Um and FAM does uh their fleets division does all of the maintenance on our vehicles and preps them for going out in a snow event.

And then lastly, the city manager office has our public information officers that uh that provide all the communications on the project.

So last year was a Wilanina weather pattern, so typically colder, and in it uh it also resulted in the bomb cyclone that we had in November last year, and that was uh a pretty significant event, one that we had not seen of that scale in quite a few years.

Took us about two months to recover from that event, uh, which was just in time for the two snow events we had in February.

So, fortunately, we were all cleaned up before that occurred.

Uh they were relatively small events uh that we were uh able to address pretty easily.

So, with that, I'm gonna pass it to Matt, who's gonna talk about some new technology.

Great.

Thank you, Chris.

Uh in early 2024, street maintenance uh evaluated various commercial software applications to replace our existing snow and ice response dispatching program.

We selected and implemented RouteWare's smart city application.

This is a hosted solution that provides two-way communications between our dispatchers at the Bellevue Service Center and our field operations during weather events.

A uh dashboard provides real-time locations for our dispatch responders and material.

A color-coded arterial map is also available to quickly determine time of last servicing for all street segments within the city.

Obstacles and hazards, such as construction barricades and steel plates, can now be mapped by dispatchers and plow operators are automatically alerted to these hazards real time as they navigate the routes.

Excuse me.

Our snow response fleet is now equipped with cab-mounted tablets that provide operations, operators with turn-by-turn directions to ensure that all assigned street segments are serviced.

This capability reduces the need for interacting with paper map books in the vehicle cabs, which was always problematic, especially for the night shift operators that may not be familiar with certain locations throughout the city.

As you can see on the screen, a typical turn-by-turn map makes it very easy for them to see the directions that they need to service.

Any road hazards encountered by field crews, such as stalled vehicles, down trees, or power lines, can be a geo-identified by field staff and photographed for immediate access by dispatch.

Routeware went into production in October of this year, and its use was included in our annual snow and ice response training.

All crew members were exposed to the new software, and they provided favorable feedback in the ease of use of this new program.

The implementation of this system is expected to increase the accuracy of our service levels and to ensure correct dispatch prioritization.

Chris?

Yeah, thanks, Matt.

And lastly, just uh wanted to highlight some of the the feedback that we get.

Uh when we're out there doing our work, we um we we do a lot of uh communicating to the public through uh our various social media channels, let them know where we're operating, how what to expect with the storm, and uh we frequently get uh a lot of uh great comments from the public appreciating us keeping the roads safe.

So with that, uh thank you for the time and look forward to a safe winter.

That was information only.

Anything else, city manager?

No, that's it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, very good.

Moving on right along.

All right.

Under council business and new initiatives, we have two items.

Uh the first one, go ahead, city manager.

I'll let you introduce that.

This is of the notice of appeal.

Yep.

Okay.

Uh I will ask uh Tris Natanis to give the introduction.

Okay.

Bless you.

Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council members.

Um, under council rules, any person excluded from participation or attendance at future council meetings may appeal the exclusion by submitting a written appeal.

Mr.

Zimmerman um has submitted a timely written appeal per council rules.

Uh council has to consider this appeal tonight.

This consideration involves reviewing the notice of exclusion.

As well as Mr.

Zimmerman's written appeal.

We're here to answer any questions.

Should you have any, but I'll turn it over to you, Mayor.

For consideration of the appeal.

Okay, thank you very much.

Are there any comments or questions?

Okay, uh, is there a motion?

I move to deny the appeal of the notice of exclusion issued by Mayor Robinson to Alex Zimmerman on November 21, 2025.

All those in favor all those in favor.

Aye.

I'm going to ask that he be removed and this is disrupting the meeting, so I'd like to note it as well, please.

Officer, would you mind escorting him out?

Thank you.

Who are you?

Security.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Um the second item I will introduce since I I'm bringing this myself.

I I feel I feel um a little under pressure here because I feel like I have to be like a staff member and present something to you, and um it's not my strength, so bear with me.

But um Old Bellevue is a unique and cherished part of Bellevue, and a lot of businesses and people have located there because of the charm of Old Bellevue.

And in fact, during COVID, it was one of the most prosperous parts of old of our entire city because the businesses stayed open and people flocked there.

It whenever we do surveys, uh the communities throughout Bellevue rank Old Bellevue as being very important, and um it's because of the charm.

And currently we have nothing in on the record, nothing in the books that requires that we preserve whatever it is about Old Bellevue that we love, and that attracts businesses there.

Um I'm gonna ask for one thing tonight, and it's part of three things, but tonight's only one of them, and that is that uh we allow staff to go beyond eight hours to come back at a later time with a recommendation of how we might um address Old Bellevue, and uh it kind of puts a temporary IOC, I think is what staff has recommended that we do, and that we will talk about that next time they come back if we give them more than eight hours to prepare.

And I will go into what that IOC is about, but I want to just give a little bit of a timeline.

Um over a year ago, we as a council uh got together, and um during our retreat, we voted unanimous unanimously to put in protections for old Bellevue for the character, and they are only recommendations at that point.

There are no requirements, and so there's nothing that says you can't just tear down an old building.

We only have seven old buildings left in old old Bellevue, and we're talking about Main Street between Bellevue Way and 100th.

And what a lot of people don't realize is that where Glassy Baby is, Jarbo, Macha Magic, the jewelry store, um Araya, Veritables, and a clothing shop, that's all getting torn down, and there's nothing that requires it to be a development to go in that has anything to do with old Bellevue, and there's nothing that re incentivizes any reciting of these businesses.

So we're probably going to lose all those businesses because it's really hard for a business that's been in an old low-rent building to come back into a new high-rent building.

And so I think that my goal is down the road that we talk about this, and we think see if we can put in some incentives for smaller uh retail spaces or or um incentives for um low-cost business space.

I don't know.

We have to have that conversation, but I really want to convene the landowners, the business owners, the people who work there and live there and visit, and actually have a conversation about what we want the future of old Bellevue to be and how we get there.

And so in the less than eight hours that staff has worked on this, they have brought back a recommendation of a temporary IOC that would uh require any development seeking a permit on that main street to preserve the character somehow in their re in their development.

It doesn't say they can't develop, doesn't say they can't do anything that they can already do today.

It just requires that they try to retain the character of old Bellevue.

And that buys us a little time until we can convene a group of people together to create permanent requirements.

So tonight, again, I'm asking for just permission from the council to allow staff to go beyond eight hours to bring back a recommendation, and the recommendation will most likely be a temporary IOC that will then give us time to uh convene a larger conversation and actual rules.

So uh may I if I could have a motion, then I'll open it up for questions and comments.

I move that council find a temporary emergency interim official control is necessary to preserve and reinforce the character of old Bellevue along Maine Street between 100th Avenue and Bellevue Way.

And that council authorize staff to go beyond the eight-hour limitation and prepare an ROC for council consideration at a future meeting that requires the protection of historic facades and objective design standards that reinforce, enhance, and preserve the character of this area in old Bellevue.

Why the staff works on a permanent recommendation to assure the compatibility of new development, read the surrounding development in the area.

Okay, I'm sure there's comments and questions.

I'm gonna call on Councilmember Sumadouaria first.

Yes.

Okay.

Um I I think this is a really good approach, kind of protect the character of the own main street, especially the um the single um brick and water mom and pop shops, because we want to attract that.

And then um, yeah, and I I think I think it's good idea, and thank you for bringing this up and also create a process for us to um have finding more data working with the staff.

And then one question I have with uh mayor, would this be um delaying if any of the project that's currently going?

No, it doesn't touch anything that's already vested, including the one where Glassy Baby is.

It doesn't affect that one at all.

Okay, thank you.

That's not my question.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Any other comment?

You go ahead, Councilmember Newmanhouse.

Um yeah, I mean, I um fully supportive of this.

I remember the conversation uh that we had at the retreat.

Um I do believe this is uh worthy of staff time to look into maintaining the unique characteristics of that neighborhood.

Um I might depart though a little bit in terms of our approach.

I do not quite understand why this had to be an emergency.

Uh that was over what a year ago that we had that conversation.

Um I'm just concerned that this sets a bit of a I wouldn't say it sits a bad precedent per se, but certainly uh I think property owners were caught off guard a little bit on this.

Um so my preference would have been that uh we would have convened the property owners first, have the discussion or let at least let them know what we were intending to have a conversation about before taking this action.

I think the fact that it was an emergency, it did show up very last minute on the agenda.

I think that caused a lot of confusion.

Um, although I think after conversations, uh they started to understand the intent of it.

Um so I think it's a good lesson learned, but uh I look forward to staff coming uh coming back and giving us a recommendation on the importance of uh maintaining that uh very unique uh aspect of Bellevue that we want to maintain for many years to come.

Thank you.

Councilmember Bargava?

Oh, and I I would still like to have an answer to my question about emergency in this case.

Why why what we can discuss that um when they bring it back to what but if we have an answer today, I don't know if uh Matt explained it well to me, so maybe he can share it with you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh Matt McCarlin supervising civil attorney.

So it's really um it depends on the process council wishes to follow.

Uh, if if you use the interim official control process, then council would need to at least find the legislative emergency or urgency in order to follow that process.

And the reason is because all of the other applicable requirements, both in local code and in state law that you have to follow before you amend a development regulation.

For example, public outreach, public notice, public hearing, none of that is required with an interim official control.

So in order to take that step, which is in the GMA, the Growth Management Act, then council first needs to develop findings showing an urgent or an emergency legislative rationale for why you're foregoing all of those other process for in our local land use code legislative process or in the GMA, the public outreach and the public hearing requirements.

So the IOC then is my definition on always an emergency or urgent that's correct.

And that's why you get to skip the process.

Let me just explain what my urgency is.

I fear that the moment I bring this up, people developers are gonna start sending in permits to get out from under whatever it is we're gonna do, even though I'm convinced they won't mind what we come up with.

But that's my feeling of urgency.

Thanks, Matt.

You're welcome.

Go ahead, Councilmember Pargava.

Okay, thank you, Mayor.

Um let me start by saying, like, fundamentally, I agree that there is very few places in Bellevue that have the character and the need for this kind of preservation of character.

Like we're now creating a sort of guideline on top of what redevelopment should look like and and things like that, not just from a intensity of development, but also of character, which is different from just redevelopment in general.

And so old Bellevue does have, and that portion uh does have that character that is very unique, and I believe it resonates with me in terms of the need for preservation.

Um I'm also not still entirely clear on the urgency, but I've I'm trying to work through that through the response we just got, and um it feels like there could be, and I'll say it out loud, is there could have been maybe a step that we missed in this process through the last 12 months.

I'm not sure where we could have foreseen this and maybe not had the requirement, but I'm not entirely sure about that because I wasn't part of the process a year ago.

Um so generally aligned with the intent, not entirely clear on the mechanism, but understand that.

So I'll ask two other tactical questions to clarify and sort of just bolster my understanding.

One is the motion states protection of historic facades and objective design standards.

Do we have clearly established enumerated and identified historic facades in the area?

As of right now, the answer to that would be no.

Uh that's part of the work program that would most likely be developed consistent with the mayor's desires and also the ongoing work program that would potentially go forward if council were to were to uh initiate that work program, that would be part of the study as well, is determining what the age and the um the cultural and historical value of a lot of the specific properties are there.

Um that being said, there are policies and even code provisions that are already in place that do talk about uh protecting both the historic and the cultural look and feel of old Bellevue, recognizing that it's a unique land use district in the city, but that inventory does not exist and hasn't been developed or updated.

Okay, that's I I think it's an important clarification from my perspective because a recommendation to preserve the character of any neighborhood or of you know, you can you have you can qualify that sort of attributes that make up that character uh as a recommendation much easier when you have to now start to require that it requires more stringent clarity on what we're requiring and what the criteria thereof are.

When you have to now start to require that, it requires more stringent clarity on what we're requiring and what the criteria thereof are.

And so that'll be part of the vote program as you're saying that.

Yes, and and I would I would like to say one other consideration is there can be objective design standards that that that preserve a look, a feel or the council's policy direction on what they would like the neighborhood to look like that is not necessarily tied to a historic or landmark preservation too.

It can be an objective design as well.

Okay.

And to clarify tonight, we're just asking for permission for staff to go beyond eight hours too.

And then that's actually my second question, which is just as part of this process, there's some trade-off associated with more than eight hours of work.

Do we have that or do we know what that would be, or is that part of what we'll come back with?

I think uh answer to that question is that primarily that would be a secondary body of work.

So the initial uh request is to develop the interim official control.

Um that there's not going to be something that's pushed off much uh to do that.

But um following that, right?

If an interim official control is put in, then there would be additional work to get to the um permanent solution, and that's where the staff might come back and say, in order to be doing that, um give you some options for how that's done, but also what the implications might be to other work okay.

That's helpful.

That's all the questions I had, Mayor.

Okay, thank you.

Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

I think this is a great idea.

Uh whenever I talk to all of my friends in Seattle, the main old Bellevue is the only place they believe Mayor has a soul in Bellevue.

Uh unfortunately, uh, everybody in Bellevue has a soul in my opinion, but from outside their view, that's the only place very cute.

I've heard that's a word a lot.

Um, small businesses, they can walk around, they can feel is really cozy place to be.

So uh I am all uh and as we the whole council agreed a year ago, I am all aligned to preserve that uh feeling and that character.

Uh I also would love us if the staff can, as part of this IOC uh come up with some idea, how can we incentivize the current developer that's this IOC if it comes, doesn't prevent them.

How can we incentivize them uh to whatever development they are doing, keep that character, keep that historic facade and reinforce uh and enhance the character.

And I understand the urgency because if we talk about that, if we go through the regular process and it stays one year, that could bring other developers that start developing and going through permitting process without having that requirement that I think as a council we agreed to uphold.

So thank you for bringing this up, and I am fully aligned to support this.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Hamilton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I agree we should be very deliberate about how old Bellevue grows and changes.

It's a unique neighborhood that deserves special attention and care.

It's an important part of the fabric of our city.

I would say the same thing about every neighborhood in the city.

They are unique and special and are part of what makes the entire city so wonderful.

I'm not sure what is meant by the desire to quote preserve and reinforce the character scale and identity of Old Bellevue, but I'm interested in finding out.

Giving the staff some extra time and resources to help us understand exactly what it means to preserve and reinforce the character scale and identity of Old Bellevue is fine with me.

But considering that this idea uh regarding the IOC is new, I wouldn't be ready to move forward with the final version until early next year.

I think that there are a number of directly impacted community members and others that deserve the chance to understand the goals and the impact of the IOC.

Community members and other neighborhoods will also be watching how we handle a potential IOC and Old Bellevue to understand how our approach there could impact them.

I'm not suggesting that we need to have a long drawn-out process.

However, I do think we all deserve the chance to have a thorough conversation before placing restrictions on how old Bellevue will grow.

And it can inform how we might place unique restrictions in other parts of the cities in the future.

So basically, I'm good with the extra time, but I do want to see us have a discussion over the next few weeks before making a final decision.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, Councilmember Lee.

I agree that we need to preserve our character in the city.

And I think that is a very noble objective.

Whether we have to have engagement, whether we need to consider parts of the city that also deserve the characterization of uh, you know uh unique character of Bellevue.

Uh Bellevue has many, many neighborhoods.

We can just name a bunch.

We talk about West of Hollywo earlier.

Talk about Lake Sammage.

We'll talk about Lake Hills.

We can do that.

Uh New Old Eastgate, you know, uh we'll talk about uh Hilltop, you know.

So it's just many of them.

Um I think that needs to have some real serious consideration.

Uh we have also talked about engaging people, and this is something that requires people who have lived here for a long time, people who understand history and people who are coming here new.

Uh what does it represent the character of Bellevue?

So I think that needs to some uh doesn't mean that we don't support it.

We do, but we need to be sure we don't put the car before the horse.

I don't want to set precedence that in the name of emergency.

Uh what does that mean, right?

So well, just because we don't want to have somebody abuse the system.

But I think we can have ways to prevent that happening.

Uh the point is that we do need to have uh resident participation.

Uh Bellevue has, you know, we have people that need to uh agree that I said the council have that we need to preserve things that's worth preserving.

Uh but we don't know what they are unless we have a conversation.

And uh so by and large, yes, that's the case, but specifically uh it just seemed to be uh create something we are creating a situation that uh we are precluding people from having a say about this, and I don't think that's a good precedence.

We've heard a lot over and over the public from the city of Bellevue is they would like to be engaged.

Every time we talk about a project, the first question we ask is are the public engaged?

Public engagement means they need to give us input.

They can of us give us the opinion.

Whether we agree or disagree, that's another thing.

I think by and large, I think we all think this is a good thing or agree.

So I support uh looking at this, I support, like you were suggesting.

Uh, you know, letting people uh get involved and using old Bellevue as the first neighborhood that look at it.

And if there's anything else that we can develop, I think that we have time to do that.

Um there may be like we're concerned that other people jump into it, maybe abuse it, but I'm sure that we can do something about it.

I'm not sure, you know, in terms of you mentioned uh according to the rules, EMA, that's a process.

I don't think we should short circuit the process for the sake of co-emergency, what that means.

I don't know.

Right.

I think that needs to be some conversation.

If we agree, then we can say yes, we should do that.

If we don't, but without too much information, uh just talking about the uh the the desire and nothing the merit of having a preserve, you know neighbor neighborhoods and characters.

I think that's a good thing.

But doing it, implementing it has to take some.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Thinking.

So I agree with Councilmember Hemwood.

Okay, so I'm hearing um, of course, tonight we're just uh voting to allow eight more hours, but what I'm hearing from the council is that they want to also look at other ways.

I mean, my intent is to create more of a process for communication with everybody involved and to put some protections on the character while we do it to buy us some time, knowing that intent you had recommended the IOC.

Maybe there are other options as well, or maybe when we meet next, you can explain further why you recommend that option still.

The one other concept that we probably should include for staff to consider is Old Bellevue is considered part of downtown.

So anything voted uh land use for downtown automatically applies to Old Bellevue, and maybe we need to look at what it would mean to separate that out a little bit so that old Bellevue is seen a little bit separately and not just uh wrapped up with downtown.

So um yes.

Can I ask Matthew question?

Yes, you can.

Uh is my understanding correct that this is just a temporary solution to maybe stop a developer for without building there without any requirements.

And then as a city as a staff, you are going through that permanent solution that that requires everything that I'm hearing, talking to stakeholders, going through the process, talking to all of our community that we love to engage with them, maybe go through even the planning uh commission process.

Is that my understanding correct?

That is just a temporary pause, and then we for sure are going through our typical process that the community engagement is the first step of that.

That that's correct.

So that you just described the authorized use of an interim official control or even a moratorium on development under the GMA, is that you can put a temporary interim control in place for a temporary period.

You do not have to hold a public hearing in prior to adoption, you have to hold a public hearing after adoption.

And then if you want to continue to have that interim official control in place beyond six months, a year, you have to have a work program where you're working towards those permanent regulations, generally the way you described it, um, Councilmember Malakuchin, which is through the regular um uh land use process, right?

That that what what you typically do when you amend the land use code or when you adopt a comp plan amendment, it's the uh planning commission process for land use process is what we call it in our code.

So that's that's exactly what you described.

And that and and really the the question is does council have the sense of urgency to to put the interim placeholder in place, which is which is what the mayor is proposing.

If that sense of urgency is there, then it's perfectly fine under the GMA to put that interim placeholder in place while you develop that those permanent regulations.

If council feels like, well, maybe there's not a sense of urgency, or maybe we you know that the majority of the council feels like that just the work program suffices, council can initiate the work program, but the interim official control is that tool that the GMA provides if you need that temporary measure while that work program moves forward.

And and that and Bellevue has used that interim official control process over the years.

Um Councilmember Newenhouse knows times that we've used it before.

We frequently use it to immediately bring the city's local code into compliance with state law while we a state mandate while we develop the permanent rags over the course of the full process for process.

So um that that's that's kind of a long-winded way of saying yes, that that's the purpose of it, and that's authorized.

Oh no.

The way that the lawyer explained anything is much better than the way I explain with my broken uh English.

So thank you for explaining that.

So and the urgency is we don't lose all of the seven existing properties in the old main, go through the permitting process without any requirement that we may lose that character and neighborhood vibe of the old main.

And for that reason, we are going to do this uh urgency IOC, and then I believe part of part of HOMA or downtown availability, we will go through the extensive process to come up with some permanent solution uh with old main uh as a neighborhood that involves all of the correct stuff that council member Lee and Hamilton were talking about, the engagement, stakeholders, and everything.

Thank you, Mayor.

And just to clarify, this isn't really a pause and it's not a moratorium.

It is, yeah, it's any anybody can still permit during this time.

It was just mean that instead of being recommended that they uh retain the character, they would mandate that they retain the character and whatever development they did.

Yeah, that's correct.

It would make what is currently an incentive in our code a mandate in our code with respect to retaining, for example, the facade of a building when you redevelop.

So one clarifying question?

Yeah, this is very, very helpful.

Uh, the last 15 minutes or so of clarifying where we are in this process because I wasn't here when that priority was set.

Is it fair to say that we have a recommendation for that already that was established a year ago?

We have had some permits come in where we feel that there may be maybe the recommendation is not fully followed, but this process in place it becomes a requirement, and we give ourselves assurance that that character, until we define the parameters of it more with more clarity, will stay in place.

So that's where we are right now.

Is that a fair assessment?

I I don't know the recommendation as well as council does.

Um but I think in general if if if the idea is that council has already prioritized this, which I believe is correct, is focusing on old Bellevue, and the actual code adoption could be lagging behind the identified priority that council's already already identified, um, then I think that's accurate.

I'm just not familiar with what what came out of the retreat in a substantive way, like the council members would be.

Um if I you know, one thing that we could do, both development services with assistance from the city attorney's office, is we could bring back um more information with options on the potential interim official control, or kind of the the work program initiation without the official interim control and talk a little bit more in agenda materials about what it entails, kind of like we're talking in real time now.

Rather than bringing an item back immediately for council adoption, it could be more of a study session where we provide more information about the process for the full council to consider.

I'm hearing that that's what we want.

And so we just need a vote to give staff more than eight hours to prepare that.

Okay, Councilmember Lee.

Thank you.

I appreciate this uh conversation when you mentioned that uh the council wants to do this, we know what we want.

Uh generally speaking, like we we would like to preserve the character.

But there may be some specific details we don't know.

I mean, I don't which which piece is we want preserved, which piece maybe not.

Maybe it's maybe something we have different ideas among the seven of us.

So I will like to clarify that.

Right?

Because in the mix of all things, maybe something we really don't mind.

Uh something we do on, they must knock in or me out.

So I think that might be a worthwhile for us to do that.

Yes, yes, that's what we need to do before we before we say we yes, we're going to do everything for everybody.

We have a motion, we have it seconded.

Can we go ahead?

I just want to be clear.

Um, I have no issue with the IOC.

And if that's what we decide to do, I just want to have more since just finding out about it yesterday.

I just want more than a week from today to have a conversation, but I'm not suggesting we go through a whole process.

Um that can come later.

I think if the IOC makes sense, which it very well might, uh, we could take that up.

I just want us to do so with a more than a week's time to review the IOC itself.

Okay.

So all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate the conversation and thank you, Matt.

You're welcome.

Yeah.

Thank you, Matt.

Thank you, Council.

Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar?

I move to approve the consent calendar.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

We have um two public hearings.

I propose that we get through the first one and then take a break.

What do you think, Deputy Mayor?

Great.

Okay, let's let's do it.

So uh city manager, would you like to introduce the first one?

Thank you, Mayor.

Deputy Mayor and Council.

Uh, this first one is a public easement, public utility easement release.

In October, council approved the um resolution that declared a portion of an uh utility easement uh surplus to the city's needs, and as part of that process, um a public hearing is required.

And so tonight uh Lauren Matlik is here from our real property division to um share a little bit more information again about that um portion of the utility easement that is to be released and to open the public hearing.

So Lauren.

Thank you, Ms.

Crosson.

Um good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council members.

Um, our staff report this evening is on a request to release a public utility easement located at 707 96th Avenue Northeast.

On October 14th, council declared this easement as surplus to the city's needs and set today as the date for holding the public hearing.

The purpose of tonight's hearing is to allow the public opportunity to comment on this release.

There we go.

Uh the property is located near the intersection of 96th Avenue Northeast, Northeast Fifth Street.

The property owner is proposing to shortplat the existing parcel into two parcels and to build a single family residence on each of the new parcels.

An existing ordinance number 386 describes a reserved utility easement across the southern portion of this parcel.

Developers ask the city to release this easement so that they may move forward with its redevelopment.

Um per this proposal, the reserved easement area shown checked and read uh will be released.

The yellow striped area is also reserved under this existing ordinance, but it will remain in place.

Um there are no utilities currently within the easement, and no replacement easement will be required as the property is served directly from the adjacent 96th Avenue Northeast.

Following the public hearing, staff request council action on the proposed ordinance authorizing the release of this easement.

Sends our staff report.

I'll be available after the uh public hearing to answer questions.

Okay, thank you.

So we'll go ahead and open the public um hearing, listen to comments, close it, and then if anybody has comments or questions, we'll do those then.

So is there a motion to open the public hearing?

I move to open the public hearing.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Do we have anybody signed up?

Thank you, Mayor.

No, there are no pre-registered speakers for this public hearing.

And I'll also mention that the council did not receive any written comments.

So with that, I will make a call out for anyone who is joining us this evening who didn't pre-register, who would like to speak in this public hearing, please raise your hand.

Okay.

I don't see any hands in person or online, Mayor.

I'll turn it back to you.

Is there a motion to close sorry?

Is there a motion to close the public hearing?

I move to close the public hearing.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

My only comment is that it's exciting to see a double lot have two houses on it in a city that needs housing.

Any comments or questions?

Okay.

Um is there a motion?

I move to adopt ordinance 6890 authorizing the release of a portion of a public utility easement and amending ordinance number 386 to release a portion of a public utility easement located at 707 96 Avenue Northeast.

Which has been declared surplus to the city's needs and no longer required for providing continued public utility service.

The release of this easement being deemed in the best interest of the public.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay, great.

Thank you so much.

We're gonna take a break till 20 after.

Thank you very much.

We're on to our second ordinance.

Am I right about that?

Yep.

Okay.

Second public hearing.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh the second public hearing is on the co-living housing housing land use code amendment.

And um this is something that you heard about in a study session in November.

And it requires that you have a public hearing as well.

The LUCA is necessary to comply with House Bill 1998, and the deadline to comply is the um end of this year.

So with that, I will turn it over to Nick Whipple, our code and policy director, Charlie Engel, uh, our associate planner, and then Rebecca Horner, our director of development services.

Great.

Uh thank you, City Manager, and good evening, Mayor Robinson, Deputy Mayor Malikutia and members of the council.

Um we are here tonight for the Co Housing Luca land use code amendment.

Um we are seeking direction from council to hold the public hearing on ordinance number 6891.

And following the public hearing, consider adoption of this ordinance.

For our agenda tonight, we do want to recap just some of the drivers behind this code amendment, and then Charlie will talk us through what are the components of this land use code amendment, the review process that we used.

And then because council is retaining processing of this, we also want to make you aware of the decision criteria that has to be met in order for you to adopt or take action on this LUCA before ending with direction.

So a quick recap on the driver behind this land use code amendment.

So this is responding to a state mandate.

House Bill 1998.

It was introduced in the 2024 legislative session.

It does require that cities allow co-living housing in all locations where we allow six units by right.

And the goal behind this legislation was to encourage additional housing choices and uh more affordable rates than traditional rentals.

The deadline that we're working with is December 31st, 2025, so end of the year.

Some key components.

We do have to treat co-living housing similar to how we would treat other residential uses.

We can't, for example, set minimum room sizes that are smaller than what the building code would dictate.

So there is the default would be our building code.

We also can't restrict or set unit mixes, so you cannot say a building has to include you know two bedrooms, three bedrooms, and co-living units.

You have to allow it to appear in any manner that they would like for it to appear or be developed.

We also have to align and use the same dimensional standards as other multifamily uses, same building height, FAR, etc.

And then it does establish some ratios for how we calculate density and parking.

So Charlie will recap the November 12th study session and then talk about the components of this code amendment.

Thanks.

Good evening, everyone.

So the last time this was at council was just a few weeks ago at the November 12th study session.

It's when the project was first introduced and ultimately ended with the direction to schedule the public hearing.

There were a few questions that came up during that study session, and there's a detailed response in our agenda memo, but just to cover an overview right now quickly.

One of the questions asked was what is the price comparison of co-living units versus traditional studios.

After some research, we found that the rent prices for these types of units are falling around 50% the area median income, which for Bellevue is around $1,300 a month.

So that's following the intent of the bill.

Another question that was asked was about the ownership model.

How does that work?

And while that could vary based on the developer or the building design, one example that we've seen is the buyer owns individual private suites and common areas are jointly owned and managed by all residents.

Another option could be a cooperative or co-op housing model where there is no individual ownership, but it's more focused on shared governance and decision making with all residents involved.

And then finally, we were also asked about how could we possibly encourage operational standards such as on-site management.

Since we can't be more restrictive with co-living than other multifamily uses, an operational standard like that can't be required specific to co-living, but it could be incentivized with things like increased allowances for height of AR or parking for anyone who would provide those operational standards.

Including these incentives goes beyond the baseline requirements.

So to get into the LUCA overview, the LUCA adds a definition to codify co-living to mean individual lockable rooms with private living and sleeping areas where residents share common kitchen facilities with others in the building.

This is a refresher content from our previous presentation.

But the map shows where co-living is permitted as a use in the purple areas, both dark and light, and that's everywhere where six or more multifamily units are permitted.

There has been some confusion, I think, with the public comment about exactly how this is applied, and just to be clear, um, in cases where six units is only possible with an affordable housing bonus.

Um, co-living is not allowed on those lots.

Parking is also shown in this map with the black crosshatch.

Um it's not required within half-mile walking distance of major transit stops.

And when parking is required, the maximum is a quarter of a parking space per sleeping unit or one up-street space per every four sleeping units.

For the development standards, Nick touched on it a little bit.

We have to align uh the co-living standards with existing residential development standards for height setbacks, FAR, so that they align with the other multifamily uses in the same district.

Um we have established standards for calculating dwelling unit density.

The maximum is a quarter of a dwelling unit per one sleeping unit.

So on a lot where the maximum is six dwelling units, that's a maximum of 24 co-living units.

The LUGA enables co-living to participate in affordable housing incentive programs.

That's a direct requirement from the bill.

And to ensure that this provides housing for a housing option for low-income families.

Co-living is restricted from serving as a short-term rental.

Less opportunity for feedback and more opportunity for information and awareness and community education.

So following the process for noticing requirements, our project webpage, a public information session, and a one-pager with the bill requirements and applicability.

This is the Luca process, and as you can see, we're here tonight for the public hearing in action to meet the state deadline of the end of the year.

And there is a list of decision criteria that must be satisfied for Luca to be adopted by council, which includes consistency with a comprehensive plan, enhancing public health, safety or welfare, and it's not contrary to your best interest of citizens and property owners of the city of Bellevue.

A full detailed analysis of how the Luca meets this criteria is provided as attachment A.

But staff has concluded that the Luca, as proposed meets this decision criteria.

And with that, I'll turn it back to you all.

Okay, thank you very much.

So we're gonna go ahead and hold a public hearing, and then after that, um we'll have council discussion.

So uh is there a motion to open the public hearing?

I move to open the public hearing.

Sorry.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay, do we have anybody signed up for public comment?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

There is one pre-registered speaker for this public hearing tonight.

Um, and that person is Katrina Romotowski.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council members.

Uh I'm a real estate broker with more than 25 years of experience in building, developing, and permitting, and I'm also a longtime resident of the East Side who cares deeply about the stability and future of our communities.

I'm here on behalf of Respace to express support for the city's proposed co-living legislation, especially the provisions that expand attainable home ownership, not only rental housing.

Thank you all for your leadership on housing affordability.

Bellevue continues to pursue a thoughtful and disciplined approach to enabling new housing models that allow people to live, work, and thrive here.

We also want to thank the staff that we have had the opportunity to meet with for their careful analysis and presentations.

Their work clearly reflects a deep understanding of the city's challenges and opportunities and provides a strong foundation for informed decision making.

At Respace, our mission is to expand access to hyper-affordable, high-quality home ownership for residents who are being priced out of the communities they love while giving existing homeowners new options to age in place, preserve wealth, and remain connected to their neighborhoods.

Our model works by giving each resident an ownership stake that includes a private suite along with shared ownership of the land and common spaces through a clearly defined legal structure that defines responsibilities, shared costs, governance, and the long-term stewardship of the home.

This approach provides stability and wealth-building benefits of owning property while keeping the entry costs significantly lower through shared land, shared infrastructure, and efficient design.

One of our most impactful offerings is our sell and stay pathway, which allows longtime residents, especially older adults, to unlock equity while remaining in their homes and communities.

This reduces displacement, strengthens neighborhoods, and maintains community ties.

We appreciate that the staff has recommended including co-living through ownership within this legislation because it creates new pathways for residents and workers to build equity rather than rent indefinitely.

Bell V has a long history of forward-looking housing policy.

The legislation before you continues that leadership by expanding home ownership options that support a balanced, thriving, and inclusive city.

So thank you for your time, your work, and your commitment to making Bellevue a place where people of all ages and incomes can call home.

Thank you.

So at this point, I'd ask if there are any others joining us tonight in council chambers or online.

If you would like to make a comment, please raise your hand.

Okay, maybe do not see any additional hands, I'll turn it back to you.

Okay.

And then just to reiterate this is a state mandate that the city council is implementing.

And we are doing the bare minimums.

We're not adding to this.

So is there a motion?

I move to close the public hearing.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

Can you uh make a motion and then we'll we can discuss it?

Absolutely.

I move to adopt ordinance 6891 relating to co-living housing, amending the land use code to establish requirements and standards for co-living housing, amending land use code 2010 440, land use charts, land use code 2025A050, downtown land use charts, land use code 2025 Q050, East Main land use charts, land use code 2020 590, parking circulation and walkway requirements, land use code 2027, rooming houses 2050 014, C definitions 2050 016, D definitions, and 2050 044, R definitions providing for severality and establishing an effective date.

Thank you for the second.

So I'll open this up for questions and discussions.

Deputy Mayor, do you want to start us off?

Thank you so much, Mayor.

Absolutely.

Are you guys coming back?

Come back.

My first line is thanking them.

I need to be there.

Thank you, Rebecca.

Thank you, Nick.

Thank you, Charlie.

I think Charlie, this is the third time we are seeing you back to back in the council meeting.

Great to have you.

Great job presenting this.

As Mayor mentioned, and as you mentioned, this is a state mandate, and we are here basically tonight to just comply with the law, but while still making some uh thoughtful choices that fit our community.

Uh as always, you guys make our code clean, clear, and workable.

Uh, what I really appreciate about your work is you are making it very transparent about what city can do and what it cannot do.

Uh, the state is very specific about our limits.

We cannot regulate room sizes, we cannot require extra parking near transit, and we cannot treat these units differently from other multifamily units in the same zone.

But again, great job.

While we have all of those limits you made our code simple, predictable, and align with our middle housing work.

Um I also wanted to acknowledge that this is a new thing for Bellevue.

So it's going to be a lot of questions.

People are going to ask questions about ownership models, operational pieces, parking, and uh I appreciate all of your public information sessions, the web page, and the work you are doing to reach out to our community and let them know what this is about.

Uh, as our uh person who testified mentioned, uh we are growing, and the people who live in these housing types are part of our future workforce, students, older adults, and people who want to live near transit, and if we do it well, co-living can offer a more affordable option in very expensive housing market that we have.

Uh I just have one comment, one question, and again, I suppose to email you guys about this completely was overwhelmed with the day uh workday job job.

But uh we and we talked about this last time.

We because these co-living buildings have shared kitchen, shared common areas, and maybe higher resident turnover.

Can we have a good management on how the property handles operation, maintenance, resident support, and community expectation?

And I know we cannot require that, but can we work with this developer to somehow incentivize that?

And again, by incentivizing, I'm not talking for less parking or more density or higher height building, none of those, or even, and I uh saw eventually your email about permitting and fasting permitting and the cost of permitting.

We cannot even go there based on your recommendation.

But is there anything we can do to incentivize these developer to have some management uh on the property to handles operation maintenance, residence support, and being a good part of the community as a neighbor?

Thank you, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, members of the council, Rebecca Horner with Development Services.

I believe there are probably tools that we can use and put in our toolbox.

It will take a little bit of our collective brain power to think about how best to do that.

But yes, I do believe there's a way to find a path forward.

Thank you so much.

I look forward to hearing more about this later.

So I'll do next, and I'm just gonna uh echo what the deputy mayor said.

I would be interested in staff coming back after we advance this as is, have you come back with some recommendations on how we might create some sort of uh operating agreement or whatever you want to call it for these in our city?

So I'd like to have that discussion as well.

Um Councilmember Sumunduiria.

Um hi.

I I actually really agree with the deputy mayor as well, because I think that last time this was put in front of us.

Um I had the same question, whether because we this is our first experience, is so it's something very exciting and also new.

Um, but seeing it more clear um how it worked out would be I think it would be really great for our community and also neighbors to know what to expect.

And I believe that you know, clear um is kind.

So this is really a good way to deepen our engagement, also trust with the community.

So I would love to hear more about how can we move this path forward as well.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Um, Councilmember Lee.

Thank you.

That's another very good option for people, especially for younger people.

A lot of people go to college, and uh, you know, the parents would love them to have learned independence, how to take care of themselves.

I think that's a good way to understand responsibility, uh, sharing living space with others and going up, learning to be independent and to be responsible.

So I think it's a good thing to give opportunity to do that.

Great, thank you, Councilmember Lee.

Councilmember Newenhouse.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um first of all, great presentation.

Thank you so much for the for the follow-up.

Thank you for addressing um a lot of the um either topics or concerns that we had the the last time around.

Um, although I I believe that, and it was either me or one of my colleagues had mentioned um other um ways that we can monitor monitor the short-term rentals.

Um rather than just complaint-based, are there ways that, and I'm not sure this falls under the conversation about about, I don't think it does about standards as people actually violating the intent of of uh of this co-living situation.

So, what can we do to ensure that um that type of um activity um uh does it doesn't happen under these short-term rentals?

Thank you.

Uh I we are aware that there is some concern about this potential violation.

We are looking into what the impacts might be to our workload and if there is a budget impact and ask that we need to bring forward at some point in time, but we are recurrently researching proactive enforcement of that use.

Uh we know that we have the ability to do it.

Uh so it is something that we're currently researching.

And I do think if we implement something that incentivizes the management, that would help rein in some of that.

Yeah, if a property agree to that.

Thank you, Rebecca.

I appreciate that.

Uh, I am concerned about that.

I know a lot of neighborhoods are as as much um um uh I guess interest and enthusiasm is for creating more housing options and this type of co-living options, but it it it it is a concern.

I just wish we could have something more in place before having to be forced on another state mandate to put forward code that uh I don't feel really meets the Bellevue A right now.

I would like to see the enforcement piece uh already in place, some of the the standards that have been rightly mentioned by uh by my colleagues were in place.

Um I I feel like you know we're we're we're being forced to move forward with this without f you know fully understanding what some of the ramifications will be.

And unfortunately, the result of that is that um potentially, potentially, um residents might feel the impact of that.

And then we're playing catch up, and then you're being in the data with emails and calls.

Is this allowed in our city?

Why wasn't I told?

Um you know, this this is how what do I do now?

So um I I think as we roll this out, I think that um uh and I'm sure you already have something in place, but in terms of the outreach and educating people, um, why we're doing this, why we're doing it now, what it means, and then maybe even um hint towards some of the things that uh we're still working on, uh or your your great team is still working on to bring back for discussion in terms of what we can and cannot do in order to make sure that the the intent of this um uh is um uh brought for uh uh brought forward and and and uh is actually done the appropriate way.

So uh that would be my my my request uh uh going forward as much as we possibly can.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hamilton.

Mayor, thank you for the presentation, uh great work.

Um big believer in co-housing, so I think it's really an important housing type for the city.

Glad to see that uh we're moving forward with it.

Obviously, we're just meeting the state mandate, so that seems fine, but I agree with my colleagues uh that it would be great for us to look at ways that we could further incentivize uh co-living housing and uh see about bringing even more of it to the city.

So again, thanks for the work and uh all in favor of it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Council Morgana.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

Um thank you uh for the presentation and all the work that's gone into that to get us here.

I do appreciate the work that's gone into translating the state requirements to simple clear um code, which is helpful, uh, which leads to great implementation, which uh thank you for doing that.

I also appreciate the state's intent to try and create co-living um as a as a requirement and a mandate for Bellevue and many others to create additional housing opportunities because I do believe that increased housing supply is really important and really important in Bellevue as well, and this is an option which uh now enables some of that to happen.

I also approve you know appreciate the affordability uh and underlying that affordability that this can create.

Uh and it's not just affordability, it also creates uh a possibility of having uh us better achieve our sustainability goals and greenhouse gas reduction that this can entail with support for transit and the infrastructure and the density around transit.

Um you know, and small businesses and business support that this can generate with additional foot traffic, especially in these areas.

So I think those are all uh great things.

Um and so fully supportive.

There's only two little things I will call out, which would be uh things to consider uh as we go forward.

Uh some of it has been spoken about, but in a slightly different flavor for me.

I really really think co-ownership is an area for for which to focus on and to innovate here from a policy framework standpoint as we go through this and learn and iterate on this uh going forward because I see there's opportunity, which I think is the right thing, where there could be lots of developers who come in and overuse that over time to create um, you know, let's call it investor-driven conversions.

I don't know how else to say this, but but it's just okay, which is the intent of the the the ordinance, but co-ownership would be even a better outcome.

So I think that's one area to focus.

And the only other thing is I think it's been said by numerous folks on the council already, my peers.

Uh continued engagement and education uh will be really important because this is a unique and new thing for many people, and many people in Bellevue may still not know much about it.

So that's really important that we create a framework and a platform and mechanisms to do that.

So thank you so much.

Truly appreciative supporting as well.

Thank you.

So we have a motion on the table, and we've had our uh public hearing.

So let's are we done our comments?

So all those in favor say aye.

Aye, any opposed?

Okay, thank you very much.

All right, next we have two study session items.

I'm gonna ask our city manager to introduce the first one.

Thank you, Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Council.

So uh recently the legislature allowed for an expanded use of speed safety um traffic speed safety cameras to enhance um traffic safety.

And over the past year, our transportation staff have been working cross-departmentally with uh team members from um various departments to evaluate and propose uh speed camera safety program expansion to the council.

So tonight they're here to provide um a recommendation for the program um and also recommendations for initial installations, and also um how the this program has been informed by data and also community input.

And so tonight we have our director of transportation, Andrew Singalakis, uh Franz Lowenhurst, our uh mobility planning solutions manager and our assistant um police chief, Andrew Popachak, uh, to give the presentation, and they will be asking for counsel direction this evening.

So with that, I'll hand it over to um Andrew Singalakis.

Thank you, City Manager Callison Mayor Robinson, Deputy Mayor Malikan and Council.

Um as Diane mentioned, changes in state law have enabled cities to expand the number and types of safety cameras.

Um after extensive public outreach, tonight staff is seeking direction to prepare an ordinance amending the city code uh for this purpose.

And additionally, staff will see council direction uh to prepare a rev resolution approving a list of locations for 2026.

Um if directed, staff will return at a future meeting with the ordinance and the resolution for final council action on the consent agenda.

And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Franz.

Thank you, Andrew.

Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council members.

Umight, Assistant Chief Popachak and I will review Bellevue Road safety trends, explain why we are proposing an expansion of our existing speed safety camera program, share with you some of the community input and technical analysis that is informing this proposal, and then uh present proposed next steps.

Tonight's presentation stems from council's adoption of a safe system approach to its vision zero goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries on city streets by 2030.

Uh, included among those 36 strategies that council adopted uh is direction to expand uh the use of our speed safety cameras.

And to maintain progress on that uh commitment, staff develops annual action plans.

The 25 plan that we are presently working through includes a task to evaluate our existing program, consider industry best practices, state law, and arrive at the proposed recommendation that we're bringing to you this evening.

And with that, I'll hand it off to my colleague, Assistant Chief Popachak.

Thank you, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council members.

Um the graph you see here is the number of uh fatal and serious injury traffic accidents we have seen between 2015 and 2024.

This graph actually represents 232 people who were seriously injured and 22 individuals who died.

If you look just at 2024, that's two fatalities and 34 serious injury crashes.

And unfortunately, as you can see uh across the graph here, 2024 was the worst year between the the years presented in the last in the last 10 years.

Unfortunately, when we look at the data going into 2025 through Q3, we were actually a higher number than we were in 2024.

Um as you can see, it's at this trend line.

Um unfortunately, I think we're going to be close, if not as high as we were in 2024.

So speed is a real issue on our roadways.

Um I want you to direct your attention to the graph on the right.

36% of all motorcycle uh fatal and serious injury.

That's FSI crashes were a result of speeding.

Twenty-eight of our motor vehicle 28% of the motor vehicle crashes were as a result of speeding.

So what the police department has done about that is we have made sure that we have focused on speed safety.

Um over the summer we did an emphasis campaign.

Um it not only had a public awareness, we want to make sure the public's engaged in this process to slow people down, as well as enforcement.

And just that emphasis, we did 10 reckless driving arrests, issued about 300 speeding tickets, and arrested 25 people for DUI on our roadways.

But the emphasis is not enough.

It's not just educating the community.

Between January 1st and December 1st, we issued a total of 5,294 citations compared to last year.

We issued three 3216.

That's an increase of 65% on the roadways.

This is a very serious issue for the police department to try to address.

We want to slow people down.

We want to make sure people drive do not drive aggressively and that they are driving in a safe manner.

Also, this year we made 282 DUI arrests.

Last year at this point in time, we were at 284, so we're less too, but I know the officer I was just talking to is doing security arrested another DUI this morning.

So it is something where they're out on the roadway.

Just in November, we had 30 arrests for DUI on our red roadways.

The benefit of this enforcement, I think, is that we actually have seen a decrease of 15% in the amount of crashes on a roadway.

So while we have seen serious injury classes, we've actually seen a decrease in crashes themselves.

So I want to talk a little bit about our current uh red light camera and speed zone cameras in school zones.

So this program began in 2009.

Initially it was three red light cameras and three speed zone uh school zone speed cameras.

Um it has grown, and this is actually what we have now.

So you see there's three school zones cameras and now four red light traffic cameras.

Uh there's been a lot of community conversations about the flock system.

So I want to uh discuss that and make sure that we're addressing that as part of this communication with you.

This is not the same system that we've seen out in public.

The flock system was designed to have data sharing as part of the model.

This is a very specific system that's designed to give citations for a violation, and it is not designed to share data beyond the Bell Vie Police Department and the individuals that have been cited.

So based upon data, um, the top line here um is data coming from different municipal municipal sorry municipal you missed I'm gonna mess this up all night long.

Other cities uh their speed cameras, and really what what the data has shown us is that speed cameras do reduce speeding.

They reduce the frequency of crashes, and then the uh re it enhances safety by reducing the amount of severe crashes by up to 47 percent.

So the Bellby Police Department, these are not going to be a cure for safety on a roadway.

This is a very complex issue.

Um if you look at vision zero and trying to address safety on our roadways, this is a piece of that puzzle.

Um it takes cooperation between different departments, between transportation and the police department, as well as the public themselves to change habits and behaviors.

The benefits of these cameras is that they provide round-the-clock safety.

So there doesn't have to be an officer on, it does not matter what our staffing is for the day.

There are cameras are always there, and they're educating the public.

That's a key part of part of what we do is we educate the public on their motoring habits.

Sometimes people don't know what the laws are.

That's part of our job.

And by educating the public, it slows people down.

But I want to make sure we set we understand what these cameras don't do.

They don't address things like DUI.

They don't address reckless driving, they don't they don't uh address distracted driving.

Those are all accident-causing violations as well.

So nothing about what we're talking about tonight is going to reduce our officers' commitment to road safety and our mission to make sure everyone is driving safe.

It is another tool for us to try to address the concerns about the number of fatal accidents and serious injury accidents we've seen on our roadways.

We will still have the TSR, the traffic service request portal, where individual community members can put in their information about a location that they're seeing speeding or dangerous behavior, so there are officers who will work those areas to address concerns of locations that are not addressed as part of a speed safety camera program at this time.

Last month we opened another position for a motorcycle officer to increase the number of motorcycles in the community because they're highly effective in addressing speeding as well as other violations in our community.

The focus of roadway safety is part of the Bell V mission, our mission today, as well as our mission in the future.

I'm gonna hand this back over to France.

Thank you.

Thank you, Assistant Chief.

Um last year, the Washington State Legislature uh expanded where uh speed safety cameras can be used.

Now they can be deployed in high-risk areas.

And the code amendment before you this evening uh would, if uh uh approved by council, uh, update Bellevue's regulations uh to better align with state law uh and the changes reflected here.

Uh, among those uh those state law changes are that all net revenue from speed safety cameras after accounting for administrative costs would need to be dedicated towards traffic safety projects.

The state law now allows for civilian review of citations.

There are expanded annual reporting requirements to the state.

And then there's also a requirement when it comes to camera placement to conduct a safety and equity analysis.

And on that last point, the safety and equity analysis correspond to attachments D and E of your agenda memo and under and are the subject of the next series of slides.

So we approached our safety analysis by considering 95 candidate camera locations that are permitted under state law.

We vetted those 95 locations against a point-based evaluation system that I'll review in the next slide.

And those locations that's uh were highest scoring that scored 60 points or greater were advanced as proposed camera locations.

There are 37 of those from the 95, and those 37 are depicted as dark green dots on the map.

So our screening of the 95 uh candidate uh camera locations were cross-referenced with first um locations on the high speeding crash network, that's where 10% of streets account for 88% of severe speeding crashes, those were eligible for 40 points.

Second, uh locations on the speeding risk network, uh, those are quarters where 15 percent or greater of weekday drivers exceed the speed limit by six plus miles per hour, those two were eligible for up to 40 points.

Uh finally, uh locations on streets with the highest speeding citation rates per mile per year were eligible for 20 points.

Together, these criteria provide uh an enhanced awareness uh where to strategically deploy cameras to maximize proactive road safety outcomes.

Having gone through that uh safety analysis, we then took those 37 proposed camera locations and applied a safety lens consistent with state law requirements.

You can observe on the map that those 37 proposed locations are broadly distributed across the city so as to ensure no neighborhood or uh disadvantaged population is overburdened by enforcement.

We also have taken into account in the state law in our code amendments uh a number of fairness uh requirements, notably uh safeguarding privacy.

These cameras only activate when vehicles are speeding, uh vehicle speeding are detected, they do not record the faces of the drivers nor of the passengers.

Fines are lower than police issued tickets to reduce hardship, a 50 percent fine reduction is available to people on public assistance, and tickets are not recorded on driving records.

Uh informing our safety and equity analysis was a robust community engagement process.

We had three rounds of online uh engagement, we had multiple public in-person uh opportunities, we had several uh information sessions as well as targeted engagement of stakeholder groups to ensure equitable participation.

Uh three of the prominent themes that arose from that are that speeding is a serious safety concern, cameras are viewed as an effective tool to address it.

Top priority areas for camera placement include streets with severe crashes, street racing, hotspots, and school zones, and finally, cameras should be accurate, effective, and protect personal privacy.

As we were finalizing our proposed uh camera expansion, uh we released this online questionnaire inviting input on the 37 proposed camera locations.

There are responses reflect diverse perspectives.

Some of the participants uh expressed that they were not supportive of the program, while others requested additional camera locations that were not vetted amongst the 95 candidate locations.

Um the feedback that we've heard from the public, both uh on the questionnaire as well as vis-a-vis tonight's testimony.

Um we will take into account if they are not part of the 2026 program expansion, they will be considered uh when we uh contemplate future program updates.

Uh uh a key takeaway from the survey that's notable uh when we look consider the future rollout is that 51 percent of respondents believe the city should implement three or more cameras per year from the proposed list.

Um tonight staff brings forward for council consideration a proposed expansion of our existing speed safety camera program.

If approved, uh staff would uh initiate uh uh uh roll out of that program next year.

Following the six-step process uh reflected on this chart, we would um we would take into account uh staff capacity and uh uh safety needs.

And whenever we uh consider a program deployment, we would uh engage in a robust public engagement awareness uh campaign.

Uh we would uh uh do so through newsletters, social media signage.

Uh before uh citations are issued, there would be a 30-day warning period for each of these cameras, and we would evaluate monitor the performance and report back to council to inform future program expansions.

So tonight staff seeks council direction to um uh prepare a resolution approving seven locations for a 2026 program expansion.

Um this uh opportunity uh will provide us uh uh an opportunity to uh develop or build public awareness to evaluate program effectiveness and to gauge uh um the operational readiness to uh build out uh future program updates.

And um, you know, these locations are broadly distributed around the city for north of I-90, three south of I-90.

Um we also intend on leveraging this time to develop a data-driven process for evaluating um recommended uh recommendations that have come from the community so that we can review, confirm, and prior to it prioritize those in future program updates.

With that, uh staff seeks council direction to finalize uh the City Code Amendment ordinance and the accompanying resolution.

Thank you very much.

Good presentation.

Uh let's start with Councilmember New and House.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um yeah, echo those uh words, uh great presentation.

Uh really appreciate the very thoughtful but data-driven approach to this.

Um thank you, uh Andrew Franz, Assistant Chief Papachuk.

Um really appreciate your perspective on this as well.

Um, you know, and I think the data speaks for itself.

Uh Bellevue has a speeding problem.

Um and it's putting uh people um in jeopardy, uh putting lives at risk potentially, and not just other motorists or motorcyclists, it's it's it's cyclists or it's pedestrians.

Um it's I I it's just so curious to me why it has escalated like it has with the numbers going from what, 3200 to over 5,000, take us a the it's just uh uh unbelievable, and that's probably a conversation for for another time, but um there is hardly a day goes by that this doesn't come up in conversations that I'm having with the with the community.

And I um I I think the uh the the engagement and the responses that we got would kind of reflect that.

So um appreciate the time that we took to to really understand what we're trying to do.

Um so residents understand why we're doing this.

Um it feels like it's fairly limited in terms of those concerned about privacy issues um given or the flock system given that these cameras have one job and one job only, and that's to capture the the the information of those that are going beyond the speed limit.

Um Assistant Chief Popach, I had a question for you in terms of uh I remember when we had a report about the the when we had the emphasis patrols, I think over the summer and uh what that was something like 300 tickets and but I also remember from that that we actually confiscated in some cases uh an automobile or a motorcycle.

Uh was that for speeding or is that for reckless driving?

Is that something that is even in play here?

Um and or is there an escalation of the cost of the ticket if um you know they're just not going over 10 miles over, but they're going 30-40 miles over.

Is there an escalation in terms of the penalty, or is it just if you're going over, it's one price and that's it?

Well, no, the speeding statute does have an escalation clause inside of it.

Great.

Um seizure for just speeding is not allowable currently under law for just uh someone who's merely speeding.

Um statutorily, that's something that we want to make sure if there's somebody else is involved in that another crime, we will we will seize that vehicle for that that crime, but it's not something that we would um we would be able to seize a vehicle just for the act of speeding.

That's a a citation.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Of course.

And um Fraza Andrew, uh question about the the probably don't know what the um what the impacts will be in terms of revenue that the and I know that's not the primary, obviously the primary purpose of this.

Um, but as as you mentioned, that money will be reinvested into other safety um uh infrastructure tools, whatever that might be.

Um what's the plan for um deciding which uh tools or infrastructure we might be looking at?

How will council be updated in terms of how those funds are are going to be used?

Yeah, so um the state report, annual state reporting uh it requires that we document all revenues, net revenues, where those funds are flowing so as to ensure that they are going towards the desired outcomes.

We have a very, very long list of safety needs.

Um we are will have no problem um finding uh productive uses of those.

The intent is really to hopefully at the end of the day make these cameras obsolete by the corrective measures that we can implement on these corridors so that we can actually uh there's a term of art in um in practice called self-enforcing streets.

Uh and so the intent being that we would uh at a certain point with corrective measures, with countermeasure improvements, physical and digital, we would be able to achieve um positive safety outcomes absent the that technology.

That is the stated intent of of what we're hoping to achieve.

You would see it again when it comes back through the uh CIP process where we identified projects and would identify the revenue source for it.

Okay.

And uh since we've had some uh folks here tonight uh from the VASA neighborhood, and I think I saw on there the 34th, 164th uh area.

Uh I I know that's not part of the round one here, but where did that land in the overall um uh uh I guess roll out if once we go beyond uh the seven initial cameras and Franz, before you do that, why don't we uh talk about how the seven were selected and where this lead um what is being talked about tonight falls within your rankings?

Sure, absolutely.

Um additionally, I I also have an update from John Murphy, the neighborhood traffic uh service manager as well to kind of respond back to some of the traffic calming on that corridor that I can share as well, or it can be communicated independently.

But um related to um why the seven were selected, all of all of the the two that were identified by the community this evening, Southeast 34th and Northeast 10th, um those scored 60 and 80 uh on our point schema.

Um that's in line with other the that those are part of the 37 proposed camera locations.

The reason we selected the seven that uh we bring to you this evening um to a large extent is driven by site conditions and what is actionable next year.

Some of these uh locations that we are looking at uh beyond the seven will require a a great deal more of uh preparedness in terms of uh uh uh getting those established, be it um coordinating with uh PSE to get power, et cetera.

So as to minimize uh delays and to you know deliver on on the commitment that we're bringing to you.

We we we selected those that were, if you will, low-hanging fruit, um actionable in 2026 versus being overly ambitious in identifying additional uh locations that will require more effort.

Um we we've heard the communication loud and clear I shared with you during the communications.

All of that will be part of our thought process as we prepare future uh phase deployments.

Okay.

Did I get everything?

I I think so.

There was a couple of in there, but I think you got them all.

Last last question or just want to give assistant chief Papachuk a chance, because uh I so appreciate the fact that you kind of clearly laid out this is one tool.

That doesn't mean we don't we're we're no longer going to have uh BPD um out there or doing emphasis patrols, etc.

You mentioned that portal.

Can you please tell residents who are watching tonight that might want to report that where they can find that portal?

Absolutely, it's a traffic service request.

Um you can go to our website or online um to report that.

I believe it's also in the My Bellview app uh process.

I'm not sure about that one, but I know it's online.

Uh if not, they can contact the police department through any of those numbers and we're glad to pass it on.

Thank you.

That's a great way to have us to communicate with us about your concerns about speeding in the city.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Great.

Thank you.

Councilmember Lee.

Thank you.

Uh that's a great work, lots of uh study, lots of uh analysis.

Um the challenge is that you know we've seen a lot of uh drivers who don't really know how to drive.

Well, I don't think they're properly educated.

They hop into the car completely or maybe semi-completely automated and to look at GSP, GPS rather, and it's drive.

You know, they forgot about the attitude.

You know, I remember when I was learning to drive, we know which direction to look.

Every driver knows what everybody's looking at when they make a move, right?

So I think we understand.

Right now, they don't understand this.

A lot of people who are new drivers who are new to this country, who just learn how to drive.

Uh so we see a lot of very dangerous uh condition.

So I'm not sure how we can fix it.

Uh the one to fix is what you're doing, just enforce it.

Make sure that if they do anything irrational, you know, dangerous, you catch them.

I think that's one move.

But I would suggest that education is important.

When they get a driver's license, or when we see anything that's maybe before we issue a ticket, we should be able to somehow stop them, say, hey, uh, are you aware of your next driver, people behind you in front of you, your left?

You know what you anticipate them to do.

Uh somehow they expect that the car will do everything for them.

Uh they don't need to pay any attention.

They don't even look at you when you drive, right?

I mean, that's dangerous.

So I I'm not sure how we handle that except for education.

Uh stop them when we see, even before we issue a ticket, maybe it's uh way that they need to uh understand.

Um I see oftentimes, you know, when we go through a four-way, you know, circle, uh, usually it's the people to the right, you have to give them the right away.

But people don't do that.

You could be right there before they even arrive, but they just go straight through, aiming at you.

Uh they just think that maybe the car was stopped for some reason, you know.

Um I compliment what we need to do.

We have to do these things.

Uh, but I'm not sure uh, you know, the statistics will really be uh improve uh much more so.

You may protect people from bettly hood, you know, because they do uh you do give them tickets.

Uh the other thing is was intentionally people speeding, young people, you know, they just think that they can go whatever they can if they don't see any enforcement in any situation that they think may be dangerous.

Uh we see you know, people talking about uh, you know, driving around in uh intersections.

Uh these are attitudes people need to uh learn that it's not tolerated.

Uh another thing is when you have speak camera in mostly arterials, people can speak.

But in residential street, that's one place people live on the street uh very unhappy if you have a sign for 25 miles an hour, 20 miles an hour.

But everybody going along the road doesn't pay attention.

Even delivery trucks, Amazon, FedDAX, they go as fast as whatever they can drive by.

And people you know put up signs to slow down, watch for kids.

It doesn't really help very much.

So I'm not sure what we can do except uh maybe more enforcement.

Uh but you know, I know that's not first priority for our public safety.

So you know, we're limited to what we can do.

So I'm just thinking we need to have more education, more ways that we can slow people down.

Uh and have a lot of patience.

So thank you for what we are doing.

So this is vision zero is really important.

I think we need to keep going at it.

We use technology.

We need to use various ways educating people that they got to be uh careful.

And uh so thank you for what you're doing.

But this is just one step, one thing that we are doing.

So thanks.

Councilmember Sumadwearia.

Um first of all, I just want to really thank you.

Um express my appreciation for this really thoughtful work.

Um what I think really stands out is how the this transportation also the police team work collaboratively to make this intention because I think something is truly unique about this um solution to help our community feel safer is this could be feeling like something this could be tension, you know, between keeping our community very safe and also respecting the privacy and dignity of our residents.

So this program definitely demonstrate that we don't have to choose one another.

Um and then these can these two things can come in hand in hand.

Um I have a question about to clarifying is because what I understand is the camera only activates when the speeding is detected and they don't record um phases.

So when the citation does happen, does it go on the driving records or affect the insurance rates?

No, it does not.

Okay.

Thank you.

And I I think that's why I think this is a very, I believe this is very intentional design choices to reflect that it really respect everyone that's actually driving in Bellevue, uh, not just our current like local residents.

Um and then also another thing I want to call out is I believe this this equity analysis, like the state law requires that the impacts of the livability, accessibility, economic education, also environment health.

That I thank you for staff taking that flexibility, also build this really an incredible framework that ensures that we are not overburning any one neighborhood with the enforcement, also adding the factiveness of our police force that they can focus on more diet and urgent uh matters.

So I'm really grateful for that.

Um I have uh one, I have one question about the data privacy.

So when can you help me to understand the life cycle of the data that's gathering and collected?

Um so, like, for example, if um a footage is retained, how long do we retain it?

Who has access, and what kind of safeguard um we have in place to ensure the data is only for um traffic safety.

Do you want me to go ahead?

Um so one right now our vendor that we work with is a company called Vero Mobility.

Um we have a contract with them.

It stipulates that we are the sole agency that can have access to that data.

And so only uh people authorized to have access to the data are able to interact with the dashboard and view the the data.

Um at this point, the police department is the sole um r uh entity uh responsible for reviewing the citations, uh officers review them.

It's we're we in transportation aren't able to to view the actual infractions.

We are able to see that the collected data.

So there's significant limitations dictated in the contract.

Um with tonight's if if council directs us to proceed, we would be proceeding through uh uh a new request for proposal procurement process.

So um, but whatever vendor we select would have the same uh requirements of ensuring that data sharing is uh safeguarded.

Okay.

Well, one um can I may I ask um what is the timeline for us as the council and community can get the reporting back from the data after the cameras installed next year?

Uh the data uh uh we can generate reports um you know daily.

Uh there's no it uh the the dashboard that uh we have access to uh provides really unique insight on uh driving behavior and we could produce you know quarterly reports, annual reports.

I think we were thinking this might fit nicely with the reporting we do annually uh for our vision zero update.

Uh that was what we had in mind originally.

So that could be part of that briefing.

That's smart.

Thank you.

This is really amazing work.

I'm really glad to support moving this forward.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Hamilton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Appreciate the presentation.

Um I noted in the presentation that speed cameras can reduce total crashes by up to 54 percent and injury crashes by 47 percent.

And I think uh those numbers represent substantial safety improvements for our residents and visitors.

Uh happy to see that the traffic camera revenue, net revenue will only be used uh to fund traffic safety projects.

Um I think the process you used for selecting camera locations is solid, so thank you for that.

I do have a question about the locations and ones we might choose in the future.

And would we re-score some of those that criteria, maybe you know, reevaluate those locations, or do we pretty much have a list and we're gonna just move our way down?

Good question.

Um we you know, we've certainly heard from the public that you know the data uh doesn't necessarily accurately capture the lived experience of everyone, which is why we're also getting requests for additional locations beyond the 95 that we contemplated.

Uh so one of the commitments we we made during the presentation was to develop a data-driven process that is more immediate and taking into account data as it emerges versus the framework that we developed for this uh current process, which is more retrospective in nature.

So if we should start to see um you know, new big data uh uh available through uh in vehicle systems or other mechanisms or using video analytics and traffic conflict data, all of those could start to figure into the work that we do.

Um this is something we will engage in this next year uh uh pending council direction.

So it is our intent to maintain uh an open mind and take into account the public feedback that we've heard that we need to do better in terms of uh in uh considering their lift experience.

Okay.

I would like to re uh emphasize that point.

I mean, it is a data point.

We're collecting it for a reason, and it will be used.

The police data will we expect it would change somewhat because as we know driving behavior can change when you start putting different uh devices like speed cameras, where we may see people divert off of the main thoroughfare, where that's where we would want to be responsive using our police dashboards, our data that we're getting from the community traffic service requests that would then change the data that we collect as far as the heat map you saw about where we issue citations.

So that data will change in the future, we expect as people's behaviors and actions change on the roadways.

Okay, good.

And I'm wondering too, you you addressed this a little bit regarding the camera data and who has access to it.

But I I as I understand it, it's solely within the police department, and that this data would not be available to anyone outside of the police department for any other purpose.

Essentially not public data, is that right?

So the police department is solely has sole access to reviewing the actual infraction events and and validating that they are indeed infractions.

The transportation department staff has access to it from a planning standpoint to uh monitor changing conditions, uh looking at recidivism, we're looking at um you know, speeding behavior at different times of day, et cetera.

So we do have access to the VERA mobility dashboard, not the infraction validation side of the dashboard.

And there's also data shared with the individual that gets the citation in the mail.

So that to say I think data is kind of a broad question in that, but the as far as the sensitive data, that's something we want to make sure contractually is only seen by our department.

We don't want the data of this anything that's protected license plates, anything else beyond that that we would not want that shared, and that's something when we look at a contract, we would want to make sure that we're we have an airtight uh contractual obligation from the company to make sure that data is not shared beyond the police department and uh the city of Bellevue.

And it wouldn't be uh subject to a public records request either.

Is that right?

Couldn't be used for some kind of other legal action beyond enforcing the infraction itself, is that right?

I don't have an answer to that question.

I will have to follow up with you, sir.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Um then too, uh I'm I think this is great.

Really looking forward to you returning back in a year or so and giving us an update.

Um I know too, you it's mentioned we're gonna have this uh an annual report on the website.

And I'm just curious where someone might look to find that data on the website.

Does it have a home yet?

Or a place we can look at some point in the future.

At this point in time, it's on the police uh traffic services web page, the the more generalized reporting.

The the new state law has additional requirements, so we still need to develop the the framework for that annual reporting.

Okay.

Okay, great.

Um, I think this makes a lot of sense.

I think it's certainly going to make the city safer.

Um look forward to hearing uh from my other colleagues.

But so far, what I've heard, I think is great.

Appreciate the presentation ready to move forward.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you to each one of you.

Uh it is um disheartening to say the least that uh FSI metric has um you know degraded year on year from 17 to 27.

And uh, you know, it is something that is encouraging that we're taking this very seriously, and we're trying to make a dent into that.

No pun intended, um, to try and get uh where we need to be.

Um of the things that I would this isn't a question to answer, but something to consider.

Um you mentioned only about 28 to 36 percent, depending on the type of vehicle of these incidents are speeding related, which means there is a whole slew of other root causes that are roughly 70 percent of these FSIs that are not speeding related, could be DUIs.

I don't know if that counts under speeding or not, could be an overlap, but I would also say that is a need for us to show the same urgency and sort of um inventiveness in terms of solutioning for the remaining bunch of these because it is only a portion of the problem that we're handling here.

So that's just something on the side that's really important not to lose sight of for us.

Um the other thing I'm really encouraged by the fact is that the revenues do go into safety.

This has been mentioned before, so I'm just gonna plus one that and keep going.

Um the other thing that really caught my eye, and I sort of talked about this in the briefing as well prior, but I'm really appreciative that you're looking at data from 2015 to 2024 as you think about the locational parameters for where you're putting these cameras and not just looking at you know the last couple of years because trends can develop over time.

Some years can have some unique uh situations.

So I appreciate that averaging out and making sure that there is a clear benchmark.

But I also appreciate that there's a recency element of changes in development pattern, development intensity, uh uses in a certain location that cluster together that might drive a higher propensity for these kinds of accidents to happen.

And so I think it's really important that we keep an eye on both.

But um the fact that you're doing the historical gives me a little bit of peace of mind that this is not just sort of recency bias for sure.

The other thing that uh I I didn't quite understand, and maybe it's already captured, is uh the the testimony we heard about VAS from the residents in the Vasa neighborhood was about the lack of sidewalks and things like that.

Is that part of the consideration set?

This is more a clarifying question.

I know that we do have um a sidewalk project on uh 34th Southeast.

It's in the TFP, it hasn't made it into the um CIP yet, but it is there.

Um, and there may be others around the general area.

And I know that Franz has uh information about the traffic harming program that we have.

Sure.

Yeah, so this is uh communication from John Murphy, our our neighborhood traffic service manager, uh, who shared um Southeast 34th is currently posted at 30 miles per hour and will be evaluated as part of the uh speed safety uh or safe speed bellevue work.

Count council will be uh hearing more about that next year.

The the sidewalk planned for the north side of Southeast 34th that was mentioned uh for 2029.

There are existing radar signs on Southeast 34th, Southeast 38th, and 164th place that have reduced speeds.

Southeast 38th, 164th is a top candidate for traffic calming will be highly considered when uh we select the next round of projects.

No timeline on that at this moment, but it's budget content contingent.

Um, and then of course, in the near term, there is the opportunity for residents to reach out to the police um to request in you know enforcement, take advantage of our encouragement programs like our popular yard signs.

So, you know, this is a sampling of some of the things underway in that particular geography.

Yeah, that's great.

Really encouraging to hear all of these different things, and there isn't a you know a single mechanism, but there is a whole slew of things you're doing to create um, you know, reductions and and such uh incidents, that's really helpful.

And the two other things I really uh call out one is appreciation that you didn't explicitly mention that in your presentation, but you are thinking about launching with some warnings so people get an understanding of what this is and it creates awareness and the awareness will create actions differently, and so that's really helpful.

I thought that was very thoughtful.

And uh the only thing I would say is you know, if we do believe these are the right actions to take, then uh I've said this before to you, but acceleration as much as possible so that we're not waiting for a year or nine months for things to happen.

But if we can, and I know there are other dependencies, but I would encourage some acceleration if possible.

Very supportive.

Thank you.

Thank you.

How about you, Deputy Mayor?

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Andrew Franz and assistant chief Papa Chok, great job.

We always say great presentation to whoever presents to us and we mean it.

But this is one of my favorite excellent work, and I tell you why.

Um, if you go to a slide um nine, please.

This is slide is talk about the why.

And I think if we just read these stats, it's the this data completely um encourage us to have 95 cameras in all of those 95 locations that you identified.

Uh, when we hear from our residents, especially parents, older adults, and people who walk and bike, that this is a problem, we need to listen.

We had a mom tonight here that said she's afraid to walk her kids to school, and I think that's something that is a that add to this slide that how these cameras will help.

If you go back to slide 12, this is the data-driven approach that you guys did, like these three kind of um level of safety analysis that you did to come up from that 95 to 37, and then eventually to seven, that's data-driven process.

It's amazing.

So, kudos to you all.

Thank you for your very great public engagement, your survey, your listening session, these are all amazing job that has the balance of uh safety plus equity was very important.

I believe these cameras, as you mentioned, assistant chief, uh, don't get tired.

Uh and they always there, they are they don't discriminate at all.

They always going to reduce the speed.

So I am a huge advocate, and I also plus one to all of my colleagues here.

If we can do more of these cameras in more of these uh risky places, I am all in favor.

I know we have some uh budget constraint.

The only recommendation I have, and I think I've heard about a dashboard or something that is there, but if we can make that more publicly accessible, that shows the camera location before and after a speed, and then also shows where the re-invent reinvestment uh of these money goes and how we are improving our whole traffic safety and getting to that vision zero that Councilman Lee mentioned would be great.

Thank you so much, Mayor.

Thank you.

So I really appreciate your the work that you're doing on this.

When you have you know, 30 places that are needy for these cameras, and you only have seven that you can implement in the beginning, everybody other than seven feel very let down, and it's not your fault, it's all we can afford at the moment.

Um, but I personally know areas near where I live where the neighbors are really concerned.

I've talked to other residents who are extremely concerned, and so I guess my question and assistant chief Papa Chak, you kind of um answered this already, but as you focus the cameras in certain areas, um, and I know gradually will fill in the whole city.

Do you anticipate that people are gonna reroute if they're racers?

Are they going to instead of being on the street, they're gonna go somewhere where there isn't a camera?

And even if not, how where are we going to deal with enforcement in areas where we don't have the cameras?

And I'm kind of hoping that with the cameras, you free people up, the people power up, so maybe you have more people to enforce areas that don't have cameras, but that's just my hope.

So go ahead.

Yes, um, so it does not it will change our enforcement approach because as you know, maybe someone's slows down for the camera and then immediately speeds up afterwards.

So as we install these and and look at the data that's coming out of it and where we're seeing divert to, I think it is a possibility that someone's going to change their behavior to not go to a specific area or cut down a side street.

And that's what our responsibility is to, when these are put in, start looking at how the two behaviors change and address those behaviors.

Um like I discussed before, though, the reckless driving, just because someone's going the speed limit doesn't mean they're not being reckless in how they're operating the vehicle.

That would be something we still want to address because that still is a community concern.

Um and those areas that are not being served right now by the in this initial seven, we do look at those and we look at those and go, these are locations that I can deploy officers to to do emphasis because there are individuals in this community that clearly um want a camera.

They want speed calming, they want it to slow down.

It comes with the education, and just seeing an officer in the side of the road acts sometimes just like a speed camera.

You see the motorcycle officer there with the radar gun, and everyone slows down for them.

So it is that visibility in the community and being able to be visible from your officers and being there that causes that calming of the uh traffic that we want to have happen, and that we ensure that the people see the officers there.

And that's something we did with an emphasis.

And something we will continue to do is do high visibility enforcement across the city in specific locations, using the data that we have from the transportation department working in collaboration that if they see an area or they see an uptick in crashes or they see data, we have the ability to share between the departments and say we're gonna deploy officers to work that area.

Okay, absolutely.

And um, when do you expect to come back with some data for us?

Have you decided?

Can we put that into this that you come back in like six months or whatever you recommend and give us some data on how it's going?

We we can certainly uh look to that right now.

The schedule that we presented in the agenda memo, as some assuming we get uh uh a green light to move forward, um, would have us complete uh initial installation sometime around Q3 of next year.

Um so uh with that, you know, we would want to um there's that uh one month warning period.

So you you can start to see that much of 2026 is already uh we're not gonna have much data, maybe a couple months.

Um, after they're all installed, we can do six months after that.

I think that seems like a prudent course of action.

And probably when we come back with a vision zero update, it we'll have some data to share.

Okay, that's excellent.

Well, I really appreciate the work being done, and I just want to move fast on it, so thank you.

Um is there a motion?

Did we already do one?

Absolutely.

I move to direct a staff to finalize the Bellevue City Code Amendment ordinance and the accompanying resolution deeming seven locations, higher crash resides where it is suitable to locate speed safety cameras for final action at future meetings.

Um for final action, does that mean we can bring it back on consent if we want or okay?

Do we have head nods to bring it back on consent?

Okay, all right.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay, thank you.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

I think we'll take a break.

Uh yeah, I guess sorry, I'm gonna do take a break, but we'll come back at 10 till we are back in session for one more item.

City manager, I'll ask you to introduce this, please.

Thank you.

Uh mayor.

City council and deputy mayor.

Um in 2023, council adopted a curb management plan, and one of the high priority uh components of that was undertaking a curb pricing study.

So staff has been very hard at work um over the last year doing this um pricing study.

And so tonight they'll present the findings to you and the recommendations um of implementing uh paid on-street parking program in Belleville, Bellevue's urban core neighborhoods.

Um, Director Cinkalakis and Chris Long, our assistant director of mobility operations are here to give you the presentation tonight and to seek your direction.

And with that, I'll hand it um over to Andrew.

Uh thanks again, everybody.

And uh for this study session, we're discussing the results of the uh curb pricing study performed by Chris and his consultant team, which are online in the background.

Uh the study was a recommendation of the curb management plan, as Diane mentioned back in 2023.

Um the team has done an extensive amount of public outreach to come to a recommendation to advance uh on-street parking in the urban core.

And tonight's staff is um asking council to consider moving this concept further uh by developing ordinances uh to in the Bellevue City Code language for action, which will be at a future study session.

So this will come back again to a study session next year.

And with that, I'm turning it over to Chris.

Thank you, Andrew, and uh thank you, counsel, for having us back.

Um as Andrew mentioned, our consultant team is online.

Uh we have uh Chrissy, Kenzie, and Eric from Walker Consultants, and they're a nationally known consulting firm that focuses on parking, and they've worked with multiple cities in our region and have uh just provided a great resource for us.

Also supporting us is Chris Iverson, who is uh a consultant, former city uh staff member who helped deliver the curb management plan and has been supporting as uh a consultant supporting this project as well.

So the agenda for today's presentation will focus on the process we went through to complete this study.

Um and to develop the components of what uh implementation could look like.

So, as mentioned, this was rooted in the 2013 curb management plan.

Uh uh predating that plan was a policy that did speak to considering implementation for paid uh curb use program.

Uh that policy was updated with the curb price curb management plan and then again updated through the comp plan work that was recently done.

And uh this was this the the curb pricing study was identified as a near-term priority uh primarily because of the how the transformational impact it could have in our ability to manage the curb.

The study area for the project is considered is the urban core of Bellevue.

Uh the neighborhoods of downtown Wilverton and Bellred and Wilberton and Bellred today that do not have a lot of on-street parking, but we're accounting for the future development that could occur there and and provide more street parking.

Uh Spring District and Old Bellevue are highlighted separately because they are unique, uh uh have unique characteristics that uh are a little different from the other areas, and uh so focused data was collected in those locations.

So our our primary goals of uh doing curb pricing.

Uh there's three of them.

One is to improve access at the curb.

We're we're looking to create a condition where there's always one to two spaces available on any given block that measures out to about an 80% occupancy rate.

Uh so that's uh what we look for in the data that we collect.

Uh, we're looking to improve parking compliance uh today.

Our enforcement is fairly limited, and so we uh we we're looking to improve safety and predictability on our streets.

And then uh lastly is equity at the curb.

We we there are a lot of competing needs, and uh we're we're looking to balance those needs for both delivery and passenger pickup and uh transit, employer shuttles, micromobility, all of them trying to use the limited curb space we have in Bellevue.

Uh a big part of the big component of this is trying to support support the street level businesses in Bellevue.

Uh that's where we see the primary users of the parking.

Uh we want to see uh improve the turnover so we can increase the visitors to those businesses.

We want to reduce the perception that parking is a barrier uh in these areas to get to those businesses.

We want to improve wayfinding uh not only to the parking that's on the street, but parking in private facilities that are available to the public.

Uh it's it's we that's one of the big complaints we heard is that it's confusing and hard to find.

And then lastly, is reduced congestion.

Uh parking seeking behavior can increase congestion in a tight urban environment like Bellevue.

So the uh the data collection was done in 2024, and then a few updates were done in October in areas that were impacted by construction back in 24.

Uh, we collected occupancy and turnover data from uh 7 a.m.

to 8 p.m.

Uh in all the areas that are currently time limited.

Those areas are currently two hours from 7 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

We extended a little later so that we could capture the dinner rush in in more of those areas.

The key takeaways from the the data collection are that most of the blocks in the study area exceed that 80% capacity by mid-afternoon, and it continues into the uh through the evening.

We also found and then on weekends uh for uh old Bellevue is an example, it starts exceeding at about 11 o'clock in the morning through the rest of the day.

Uh over 25% of vehicles are overstaying the curb time uh in an excess of three hours.

So that's really an indication of uh how our enforcement isn't keeping up with the demand.

And then the compliance issue.

This photo is uh was taken just a few weeks ago of uh uh people uh doing pickup and drop-off in the middle of the road, right south of the transit center on 108th.

And those that's the type of behavior that we're looking to try to improve.

So uh the engagement for this project was extensive.

We didn't want to surprise anyone with the concept of paid on street parking.

We started with a mailer that went to all almost 17,000 addresses in the uh study area, and that mailer invited people to participate in a two different uh open houses that we had, one online and one virtual, uh, and to participate in a survey that we conducted uh that was available online.

The uh we also worked with the uh Bellevue uh Downtown Bellevue Association uh who supported uh created three focus groups for us that were focused on uh street level businesses, uh property owners, and then major employers in Bellevue.

Uh we had multiple touches with the old Bellevue Merchants Association, uh Bellevue Diversity Advantage Network, Chamber of Commerce, and then we uh reached out to every neighborhood association that's was in the area, including uh a lot of the uh the building HOAs to engage with them and get information to them.

Where we gained a lot of great insight was going door to door.

We walked to many businesses and uh talked to the people working there, the owners, the managers, and learn what some of their pain points were uh with parking.

Uh this through this effort, we uh we did generate some interest from local media.

There was an article in the Seattle Times, I did a on uh on air interview with Cairo Radio.

So it it made a lot of made the rounds, got the word out to a lot of people.

Um a couple of key statistics, another that we collected, we did intercept surveys as well, where we talked to people after they completed the parking maneuver at the curb, uh talked to about 220 people uh through this intercept survey process.

Uh a couple of key findings.

We asked them, did they need to circle the block before finding parking, and over half of them uh said yes, this was an issue that they faced.

And then we asked the question of is finding parking a barrier for visiting the neighborhood where we were talking to them, and again, over half said yes.

And so this really confirmed for us that what we were hearing and observing anecdotally was in fact uh an issue for the people who are looking to park and use this uh access these areas.

Um as we did the outreach, we certainly heard from people who uh weren't excited about it, weren't excited really about change and worried about what the impact was would have.

But what we also heard is that they acknowledged that there was a problem and that something needed to change, and that's you know really what we were trying to focus in on is how can this program better serve them to improve that access at the curb.

So uh as we worked through developing the the parameters and what this program might look like, we did take that back out to the community again.

We attended a lot of uh events this summer, uh, and then also set up right at the edge of the downtown park near Old Bellevue to uh for uh portions of three different days uh to talk to uh people coming and going in that area.

Also invited uh the uh all the members of Old Bellevue Merchant Association to come out.

Uh we met with them in their stores or out on the street.

We did more door-to-door uh conversations to talk about okay, this is what it might look like, what do you think of this, and then additional meetings with the old Bellevue merchants and other stakeholders that uh were interested in engaging in that process.

Uh one a key takeaway from this, we did have a a couple of quick questions we would ask people, and one of them uh was we asked if the uh you know what what they thought uh would they change their travel pattern if they had to pay for parking.

And we found that 74% of people we surveyed said that they would be more likely or just as likely to visit the area if parking was easier to find, and understanding that they might have to pay a few dollars.

So diving into the strategy, um this the implementation strategy uh was which is uh ultimately has uh resulted in a staff recommendation to consider paid on street parking, uh was uh was developed through a series of four engagements with our transportation commission uh to help guide the development of this document.

Uh the commission saw a draft the first week of October, and that same draft was posted publicly.

We advertised it uh to all the stakeholders and people who engaged with us throughout the the first round of engagement on the project.

It was also an article in the It's Your City uh letting people know that this was out there.

So all the any comments we received through that process were incorporated into uh this document.

So a couple of key elements of what we're proposing with the program.

The first is the way the the pricing structure will be.

Uh what we're proposing is the current industry best practice, which is called demand-based pricing, where the council would uh ultimately approve uh a rate a price range, and then the city traffic engineer or uh the department director would set the rate in each location based on the demand.

So areas that see a really high occupancy would pay a slightly higher price than areas with lower occupancy.

Uh that would give us the ability to then collect data of one to two times a year and adjust the rate uh to try to keep that target occupancy.

So in some cases, we may be adjusting the rate down because the occupancy has fallen below 80%, or adjusting it up, and those would be incremental changes until we reach the uh the the target occupancy there.

Um expanded enforcement would be a big part of this uh today.

Our enforcement officer uh who is contracted to the city uh does not provide service for the full hours of time-limited parking, not even all the days of time-limited parking because of the uh budget constraints that we've had over the years.

Um we would be looking to improve that operation and also do more focused uh enforcement of load zones and illegal parking behavior so we can make sure that we're getting the best use of those load zones.

Uh payment for the program would be through pay stations, a uh which would be limited, but we would we want to have those out there based on feedback we receive from the public, uh mobile app, and then also text to pay.

Uh and then lastly, we are looking to establish a curb pricing advisory committee, which would be a uh a group that is uh well informed of how pricing and the parking program is working in the city.

Uh members from old Bellevue Merchants Association, uh Spring District Merchants, uh, the uh Bellevue Downtown Association would all be and anyone else who is interested and has a good understanding would be um invited to participate and help guide how the program is adjusted over time.

A couple of the concepts that we've developed for this program is an adjustment in the hours of operation.

So we saw very low utilization of the parking early in the morning, and so instead of starting at 7 a.m.

look to start the uh the pricing at 10 a.m.

but then extending it to 8 p.m.

in the areas where there's a lot of nightlife and and in restaurants.

Uh also we heard from uh some of the merchants out there that they would like to see it extended to three hours uh to provide more time for people to dine and visit some of the stores in in the areas like Old Bellevue.

And then lastly, uh we were looking at expanding it to seven days a week as most of the businesses are also open on Sundays, so uh providing that that parking turnover for all the days that they're operating.

Uh from the from an equity perspective, uh we met with the uh Bellevue Diversity Advantage Network a couple of times to vet this program with them.

Uh one of the key things that we did confirm is that all the three the three payment options can all be provided in multiple languages, uh, and that the concept of providing ambassadors on the street to help navigate the payment system when we first deploy, and then providing a uh a grace period or warning period at the beginning of operations so that uh people can adjust to having to pay to park.

Uh lastly is uh one of the concerns we heard was related to employees of a lot of the street level businesses, especially in Old Bellevue and Spring District.

Some have access to parking uh in the buildings that they are in, and some don't.

And uh the there and we heard complaints on both sides of you know, we we need places for our employees to park, and others saying I don't want to see other businesses' employees parking on in these valuable spots uh near near the retail center.

So we really want to promote transit and is an option, looking at getting more information out to people about um King County Metro's existing uh discounted orca pass programs.

Uh we've also been talking to Visit Bellevue about the option to extend Bellhop service later into the evening so that it can provide access to transit for people working that late dinner shift and and getting off work at midnight.

So and then seeing what other partnerships we can develop with private garage owners that could potentially provide improved parking.

On the financial side, this program uh it was modeled extensively to confirm that it will cover the costs of operation.

Uh the initial upfront costs for pay stations and in equipment uh would be about 1.6 million, annual operating costs about 2 million, and the revenue uh that we're anticipating based on the modeling that was done is at about 4.3 million.

So there will be funds available to reinvest into the curb management plan.

Uh and that's the the last few slides here, just highlight where we would start that.

Um obviously we talked about expanded enforcement.

We also have an obligation to try to provide more ADA accessible parking spaces on the street.

And that uh is includes more than just putting up signs, it includes wheelchair access to parking.

Uh we want to improve our loading zones, but also improve the way we can monitor them and track how well they're being used to make sure we're putting them in the right places.

And then uh we had heard through the career management plan enhancing access to transit and transit amenities and um activation in the in this project area.

And then lastly, the the pieces that we a couple of key items that we heard from the community were wayfinding.

As I mentioned before, there's a lot of publicly available privately owned parking, but it's intimidating to folks and finding a way to improve the signage uh and in eventually incorporating any of those who are want to partner with us into the same mobile app that you would use to pay on the street, so that when you start your trip, you can look to see what's going to be the best place to park depending on how long you're gonna stay.

Uh, and then lastly, um looking to invest in potentially uh improvements at the at the curb in the pedestrian realm uh uh as well.

So uh next steps uh is if if council provides direction to proceed forward, we would be back in early 2026 with uh to another study session to talk about the ordinance and code changes that would be required, and then we would jump into all the administrative tasks we need to complete to get this program off the ground by uh early 2027.

And with that, we're ready for questions.

Great presentation, thank you.

Uh, let's start with councilmember Subidwiria.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay.

Um first of all, I uh as we as a team, we're always thanking our staff put a lot of effort into this, but I think that tonight I really want to um speak from a different capacity, especially as a small business owner and then it's uh with somebody who has a street level restaurant um right on Main Street.

So I think that right now, many of us um as the business owners, we have to pay for parking validation to help our customers and in hospitality where our margins are really already major thin, um, that really adds up to the cost and eating up the margin.

And we are essentially subsidizing the parking management ourselves just to stay competitive in this um really I think uh challenging market for hospitality.

So, what I really appreciate this program is that it really shifts that burden.

So instead of individual businesses like us absorbing the parking costs, we get a citywide system that actually I I think this is gonna work and then better enforcement real turnover and the customer who can also find a spot on their own without circling the block three times and or have a bad experience with private uh managed uh parking lots and just simply giving up on uh businesses, um, either newcomings and or you know, like um institutions like that's been here forever.

So I really appreciate this process, and also I think that um a lot of the visitors not only on the 52% you showcase on the data, but also the customers we face every day.

Say parking is always a barrier to come to some businesses, especially old May area, it's getting really tough to park.

So that is a lost business that's walking away.

Um so I think this is not just only managing curbs, it is about creating the condition that street level business can thrive, and the new business will um coming will come into Bellevue area because we really care and put the data behind it.

Um I do have uh a few questions.

So the first one I will love to actually understand more about um so about our residents and also businesses, because I I think I understand there is some business like the idea, some of you know us we don't.

So can you walk through help me to understand the timeline between today's tonight's direction and one the residents and then the business who actually see this implemented?

Um and furthermore, I would love to hear about how can we assure the businesses in the area that has adequate notice before the program goes live.

So making sure that they can communicate effectively with their customers and also training their staff as well.

Yeah, great questions.

Um the the timeline uh the it's gonna take us about a year to pull together all the elements of this program, and that's uh part of that is is hiring staff to help get the program off the ground, um, hiring staff to do enforcement, and then also getting uh either extending our current consultant team or hiring a can a new consultant team that can help with the outreach.

Uh we did uh as I mentioned, quite a bit to start this, but we need to do even more to help educate, and and that would include re-engaging with a lot of the same folks we've talked to before to make sure that we're getting the message out about what to expect and what it's gonna look like.

That could be you know being out at these same events with a pay station and showing people what it looks like and how and how you would engage, and then really getting the message out to people to get the app downloaded before they make their first trip into downtown.

We had another question we did ask uh was um if people were familiar with with pay payment apps, and fortunately we uh 80% of people we asked said that they they had us a payment app for parking.

One of the downsides is there's more than one payment app for parking.

And so uh finding the one that people are most familiar with and that really provides the best service is what we'll be looking for.

So I I think I I hit on your your two questions there, but yeah, let me know if I missed anything.

No, that's perfect.

Um, to add a more Pacific about the public awareness campaign, um, how do we go about reaching out the visitors who are not living Bellevue but are coming to only shop and die?

Yeah, um yeah, that is a good question.

I I I you know I think a big part of that is in the the messaging campaign.

We did find that there's we did a um as part of the intercept survey we did, we asked people where they're uh where they were coming from.

And it's uh it's remarkable over half are not in Bellevue.

So it's a it's a large amount that are coming from outside.

Uh one thing that we have going for us is that there are again, there's there are other communities that have uh parking payment systems.

So it's uh if you've done it once in another place, it's pretty similar.

Uh but I think getting the at least in our region, getting the message out through social media and uh and you know, I'm sure that the news will pick this up too when we are ready to implement to let people know what to expect when they come to Bellevue.

So it's uh and then it really it's gonna be the signage once you get into these areas uh to make sure that it's their folks are aware that something's different.

Thank you.

Um yes, that's actually really good about having a plan for the marketing as OPR element to it, so we can um amplify the message outside of Bellevue.

My one last question is about the revenue and then the financial model we project.

Um I'm I'm I'm asking is I wonder um, I want to know how confident we are with these numbers for the financial, and then um if you know if we the revenue didn't comes in significantly lower than uh we expected in year one, what is our contingency plan to make sure that you know our program is still meets its financial and operational goals?

Yeah, great question.

I I'm gonna actually pass that on to the consultants who did the financial modeling, and Eric is online and uh could answer the first question about confidence.

Yes, hello, can you all hear me?

Yes, yes, we can hear you.

Thank you.

Thank you for having us here.

Um to answer your question, the the figures that were presented tonight assumed pretty significant um elasticity or or loss of demand from the implementation of parking.

Obviously, you know, going from a free to the user um program to a paid program.

There will be people that choose to arrive a different way or maybe make a different parking choice.

Maybe they already have a place to park, but they park on the street because it's more convenient now.

So our numbers that were presented actually assumed depending on the area between a 30 and 50 percent reduction in the demand that was observed out there during all that data collection.

Um that's incredibly uh conservative, typically with um with parking and pricing, you know, it's a different circumstance going from from free to paid, but in situations where parking rates increase, you know, say 100% from a dollar an hour to $2 an hour, something like that.

We would expect normally about a 10 to 20% impact on demand.

So we're really um trying to be on the conservative side to make sure that we're not um being too optimistic and and just saying that there's gonna be all this you know excess revenue.

We really do think these numbers are achievable.

Um if you know the program's implemented fully, the the enforcement is really there and consistent, you know, the signages as Chris um as Chris mentioned, extensive the communications extensive, all of that.

Thank you.

I mean, a pleasant surprise is always a plus.

Well, thank you, Mayor.

Okay, great.

Um, Deputy Mayor.

Thank you so much, uh, Mayor.

Uh Andrew again, thank you so much, Chris.

Great job.

Uh, I think you guys uh did the perfect job.

Um curves seems a small piece of our transportation system, but I think we are growing as a city.

Uh everything is changing.

We are using, we have deliveries, we have pickups, we have richer as you mentioned, outdoor dining, people running around, errands.

So the whole thing is being uh changed, and I think we should use our care space in a better way.

Uh, I think as we discuss um it is great that we are looking at the big picture, and uh it is not just basically charging for parking, is basically how can we have a better clear access, less congestion, safer street, and maybe more predictability.

Uh, I also like that the revenue directly is going to back into the safety and care improvements, uh, plus one to uh council members point.

I just have one um kind of loud brainstorm thinking that maybe you can guys come back when you are coming back for the study session.

Can we pilot a first 30 minutes or 20 minutes or 45 minutes or one hour free model, and then after that, we are start uh charging people.

I think many cities are experiencing that, and these first 30 minutes, it seems it can be just done through the app, like there is no additional.

But in if someone used the duration of 30 minutes, they are not going to be charged, but their license would be tracked, so we know they have been there from this time.

Then after 30 minutes, if they left they if they are gone, great.

If they are not gone, we can enforce that or start a ticket.

But it seems based on other uh pilot in different cities, it helps.

Um in everything you guys said, reduce the circling, uh, reduce illegal parking, support a small businesses.

I my coffee time is less than 30 minutes.

I park, grab my coffee, drink it very fast and out.

Uh, increase a curb turnover.

It seems this first 30 minutes or whatever minutes free model in other cities is working.

So if you can just do some study on that and some recommendation, again, I would love to hear from my colleagues.

I think that would be some benefit benefit in that that uh we can all use.

That's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Councilmember Barga.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, and thank you for the presentation.

Um I'm gonna try and uh be quick given it's uh where we are in the day.

Uh one um ADA users, you talked about it briefly in your presentation.

I think it's really careful that either we have clarity on what we're pricing that at, is it discounted, is it free?

It's really important for access.

So as we think about how we utilize the curb, it should have adequate availability at the right price point or not.

I leave that to you, but that's an important consideration.

The other thing is um price predictability.

You talked about dynamic pricing.

I'm a little bit concerned about the user experience.

As a, you know, if I'm coming into downtown and I'm going to park somewhere and I know how much roughly on a Saturday evening, expecting to pay, and then I realize that hey, parking prices have changed and now they're 2x of what they used to be.

So it's a question of how you create awareness on dynamic pricing, whether it's for parking or anything else, actually.

But for in this case, parking really important.

And so that clarity needs to be communicated, needs to be signboarded, needs to be all of that, you know, engagement has to be created.

So that's another area for focus.

Uh I think that's really important uh for from a user standpoint.

Uh the other thing, uh, plus one to the use of transit, like we're now creating, I'll call it friction for parking in some ways for for some users.

And so alternative means are really important.

So how we're thinking about wayfinding, I really love that uh it's part of your thought process and the use of transit, or whether it's bellhop hours or other things that allow for us to have alternatives to pricing models to not dissuade the use of our you know incredible amenities that we have.

I think that's uh important thing.

I appreciate what you're trying to do, but that's just an overlay that we have to keep in mind.

And then I would say the last thing I would say is uh, you know, you talked about uh employee parking and things like that.

Maybe consider subscription-based models that are discounted at the right location and distance with private partnerships that may allow for that to happen for ease of usage, but also uh ensuring that the prime parking spaces are not uh overut by you know employee parking, trying to ensure customer availability uh is highlighted.

So those would be the three or four things that I would say beyond what you've done already, because it's a great presentation.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Great.

Uh council member Newland House.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um yeah, great job, Andrew and Chris, uh the consultants on the line there.

Great job to the commission uh who did some great work on this as well.

Um and just really appreciate again back to back presentations that are so thoughtful and um uh data-driven uh analysis um that uh really helps us with our overall decision making and making sure this is hopefully successful from from the start.

But um I I wanted to ask you a little bit more about the metrics that we're going to be tracking because there's just there's quite a few ways to look at this and number of different areas to look at.

Um so can you can you touch on some of the the the key metrics that will inform decision um making going forward in terms of uh maybe it's the um you know cost uh the or the the price of parking or how the curb is being used, etc.

Um can you speak to that a little bit, Chris?

Yeah, um you know the the one of the key ones that we'll be picking that we'll be collecting on a regular basis is that occupancy and turnover, so making sure that we are achieving our goal.

That's that's a big part of it.

But then the the other big piece is is that communication back out to the community.

We want to know that this program is working for them.

And uh some of that we can do through the app when they uh complete a parking stay, we can have we can try to ask some survey questions, but getting back out and and regularly connecting with the the organizations that do exist, like the old Bellevue merchants, uh and uh attending their meetings, seeing what they're hearing.

Um, or our hope is that with staff that are more focused on this, that we'll have a uh a better handle on the pulse of of what's happening out on the street and what the opportunities are.

Uh and then we'll be relying on this uh committee that we hope to form that can provide us that that feedback.

So it really is a a communication exercise in understanding you know what what we're hearing and what we're finding with businesses.

I I think that committee um is a great idea.

I also um think that going door to door again would be fantastic.

And and kudos to doing that and actually getting out, especially as been mentioned before.

Um, you know, the the those smaller retailers especially uh want to make sure we're hearing from them and understanding the impact uh that this is the that this is having uh on on their business, and hopefully it's a positive one.

Um but um but I uh I think that uh face to face would be really good too.

We might might learn some things that we might not have expected as well.

Yeah, uh the unintended consequences perhaps.

Um speaking of the uh the the apps, that's one way um you could pay for parking.

Would be great if um we could put links or directly link to those paid apps within the My Bellevue app to encourage folks to get those on their phones as soon as possible so they'll be ready to pay as soon as they um as soon as they get there.

And then um and I brought up on the briefing, but I I think it's still warned some consideration discussion how we're going to deal with those folks who um refuse to pay for parking um or always will look for another way to park, or perhaps um they are unable to pay for parking.

Um they will look for alternatives, and the most probably the easiest alternative would be going to the Bellevue Collection or going to another parking garage.

Um to a certain extent, you know, the the we're very limited in terms of what we can we can do there.

But is there some type of framework or mechanism that we can uh work with some of those larger parking lots uh that might see some overflow um uh or even in our own parks or other uh areas that people um uh frequent um that we can help um adjust or enforce uh because I think when you're talking of forces more about the the actual enforcement of is the curb being used properly, but they're not actively going to be going on private property and seeing if you know the are these folks actually going in Bell Square Mall or are they actually parking here and then they're going to Old Main or somewhere else?

Yeah.

Uh uh good comment.

The we do um so the park, uh the downtown park, Maidenbauer Park, Ashwood Park, uh all of those parks have some uh are mostly time limited.

Uh I think Maidenbauer has some non-time limited uh as well.

But in the the downtown park in particular, uh currently enforcement is done on a complaint basis.

So when part so it's a very small contract that they manage on an annual basis.

Our plan is to incorporate uh uh the time-limited monitoring of those parks into our daily routine for our parking.

So we want to make sure uh that at least the three-hour parking limits in those parks is being adhered to.

Uh we have had conversations with the Bellevue Collection.

They uh they are probably a little more unique in their ability to monitor and manage walk-offs.

Uh they have they put a lot of effort into that.

And um in the and they will be monitoring that and certainly providing us with feedback if they're seeing change.

One element to this is that you know, our this this on-street parking is a a very small percentage of the downtown.

It's uh it's less than one percent of the total parking capacity in downtown.

But it's probably the most desirable one percent.

So uh it is so it is that balance of we're we're not talking about a uh huge number of people who are choosing to do something different, but it is uh doing our best to make that that small desirable percentage accessible.

So um, yeah, I think we we do have some control over what we can do at the parks and then just uh keeping up with communications with the Bellevue Collection and others to see what they're experiencing.

I would also uh suggest uh reaching out to the like the Loch Levin Neighborhood Association as well, that which is right beside that it could be impacted.

Yeah, um, and giving them some tools or resources that if they see a higher volume in their neighborhood, um especially when this initially goes into um uh operation, I think they would appreciate that.

Yeah, a lot of the neighborhoods that are along the edges of downtown have residential parking zone permit requirements, so that's a pretty easy one for us to deal with.

Um we can uh same with the enforcement that we would uh we've accounted for that in our budgeting is a little bit of additional enforcement today that's also typically done on a complaint basis, but we would have more capacity to to support that through this program.

And then on the revenue side, um, does the revenue actually stay within transportation?

Uh that is up to the council.

I mean, right now is it is uh uh we've been talking about it as if it would just be in general in the general fund, but we would uh try to carve that out to be able to reinvest, but we can also put uh restrictions around that as well.

Okay, because I I mean I like some of these uh reinvestment uh concepts that you have outlined here, but I think uh, and this is probably not the right venue now, but I would like to have a greater conversation about other needs within the transportation department that as we heard even earlier um uh require some some some urgent needs to be addressed.

Um so it would be great, uh Mayor, if we can bring that back and have a conversation about you know the the revenue where it goes and how it's going to be used from from the sport, especially when we have some some initial numbers too and we get a sense of what this revenue looks like.

Sure.

Yeah, Andrew.

I mean the intent is to have net proceeds go back into the curb management plan.

Yep.

How it happens mechanically, I don't have an answer for that, but we can check in with the finance director.

Yeah.

So that's a request for something to report back on.

I'm sure you're going to come back and report back on a lot more than that.

Sure, exactly.

Good.

And if we're getting media coverage on parking, you know we've made it as a city.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um councilmember Hamilton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thanks for the presentation.

I think the desired outcomes of the curb pricing study, as you mentioned, to improve curb access, improve parking compliance, and achieve equitable outcomes are widely supported.

And they are an important element of making our curb management plan function as designed.

I appreciate all of the public outreach that has been conducted to inform the curb pricing study.

I think that the implementation strategy is sound.

I'm especially pleased to see a focus on expanded enforcement and equity and mitigation strategies.

So as I read in the agenda memo, they all they all support the curb management plan.

Is that right?

So 100% of the net revenue goes back to supporting the curb management plan.

That is our that is our goal.

Yes, that we want to put it back into the those functions that are uh enhancing what we've identified in that plan, and then uh there as I mentioned, there were a few things that came up through the conversation with the community.

I don't know that the wayfinding concept was part of the plan.

It was it it was in there but in a slightly different way.

So uh but I think there are and then the bellhop concept that was definitely not in the curb management plan, but something for uh for council to consider is uh another place that we we support in order to enhance that operation and that transit opportunity into um these areas.

Okay, well, yeah, and I would definitely be in favor of uh making sure that that revenue, that net revenue does flow back into transportation, and if there weren't enough uses in the curb management plan for that revenue, I'd like us to explore some other transportation uh investments.

But uh I'd like to see essentially kind of the uh 18th amendment protections that they have an Olympia for uh transportation uh apply to this as well.

And so I would love to see that uh revenue come back into transportation.

Uh so certainly hope that we do work on that.

Appreciate council member New in House uh highlighting that.

Um otherwise, I mean great work.

Um I think it's really important uh that we we take this steps and ready to move it forward.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Councilmember Lee.

Thank you.

Madam Mayor, uh amazing work.

You guys have done great job.

Uh you know, transportation, you know, mobility is one of the biggest things for this country.

For you know, we are very mobile people, and we like to roam, you know, we like to freedom.

And uh so uh, you know, I got my start with the city of Alvarez serving on the Transportation Commission.

So I know what's how important it is.

Uh and uh also how challenging it may become and uh what you've done.

Uh it's uh I I'm very very impressed.

Uh I've been sort of uh uh somewhat impatient uh because I know how much you guys have put into looking at transportation mobility, technology, and all the human element that goes into how people do things, how do how people behave.

Uh obviously uh transportation, parking, anything to do with moving people to places they want to go.

But that is a human behavior.

You know, how much they're willing to put up with it, how much they are willing to even pay for it, or they how much do they fear that they have a say about it.

You know, we heard a lot about transportation early on, right?

About safety, about uh mobility, about uh all sorts of things.

Uh so I I I think now I realize that uh you guys have done a great job because uh uh you know one thing you do affects everything else.

And uh we have people who live here, we don't live here who are in businesses, small, big, uh, all sorts of things.

And uh they they all you know, moving, they're move they're all movable.

They can walk on their feet.

Uh and so we gotta make sure we meet uh their expectations, how we can motivate them.

And uh so what you've done, I think it's done a lot of good work, a lot of study, a lot of interview, a lot of involvement, a lot of engagement.

Uh uh I you know I I think most people don't know that, all right.

Uh because I've been asking you a lot.

So what's our convention going on?

You know, what's our business as a companies?

Everybody who occupies a space in Bellevue or who come here to Bellevue, wherever they go, you know, it's going to affect their being there.

Well, getting to it or leaving from it or staying there for however long.

So I think that what you've described really impressed me.

I think it's going to work very well.

And if it works well, you know, people pay for it.

One thing I'm just going to ask one thing.

I think Councilmember Richard has already mentioned a little bit.

One of the logo this Belleview collection, Bellevue Square is very proud of is that the parking is free.

I mean, that's the biggest attraction for the city of Bellevue.

Anybody can come here.

We can park free.

You go to any other cities or you know, right off the bat, 10, 15, 20 dollars.

How is it going to change?

How is it going to impact Bellevue Squares pride and tradition of not charging?

How do we make it compatible?

How can we make it work with their principle of success?

It's an interesting interesting question.

So today it is for most of the garages, it's technically free if you're shopping in the Belfer collection.

So again, I think the kind of the key aspect here is that we are talking about a very small percentage of the parking.

And the other thing to consider is that virtually all the other parking in downtown, aside from the park and the library, is does require a payment.

So there's um there's even vacant lots that now have paid parking in them.

So it is uh it's because of the demand.

And so it there's a there's a need to to better manage it and to uh you know, as I mentioned, this is the most attractive one percent of parking in the city, and so trying to uh acknowledge that and and make it as functional as possible.

So perhaps my thought is that if we have collaboration, real working together for mutual interest, mutual benefit.

You know, they whether they charge, they don't charge, they're gonna welcome, they're gonna appreciate, they're gonna like what we are doing, and vice versa.

Same thing applies to all the other uh, you know, uh companies, whatever they may be doing, or uh establishments that they provide various ways of uh accommodating their their customer, their clients.

So I think that's important.

We really need to be working collaboratively with them, not saying that, well, we're gonna take your business away stupid.

That I don't think it's a good model.

It's been negative competition that would not make it work.

I think it needs to be a real positive collaboration.

Uh so I would encourage, and uh because of that, I think if it works well, you're gonna generate revenue, I believe.

Anything that's doing well, you know, in our capitalistic world, you're gonna make money.

And with money, you have revenue.

With revenue, you can do a lot of things.

So I believe that uh again, uh the councilman when you want to mention the revenue we have, we can do a lot of good things with transportation system.

You know, we have smart, you know, technology, smart mobility.

All those things need revenue, all those things need money to make sure that we can test, prove, and you know uh to to make it work for our community to make us movable.

Besides regional movement, we need to have uh local movement in and out.

So this is very important thing that can connect us.

People need to be connected, and one of the connection is through transportation.

So I think I really like what you've done so far.

So if we can get people collaborate together, make it generating revenue, we can do a lot of great things through what you're doing.

And hopefully, I will not be impatient.

I would say, hey, you're doing just ahead of what I'm thinking about.

Thank you very much.

Good job.

Okay, I'm gonna go last here.

So um I love the expanded enforcement that this allows.

I have to tell you, I'm not a fan of um paid parking.

I love that we're a city that doesn't have that, but I have been convinced from the data from hearing from Councilmember Sumadwea as a small business owner, her perspective, and also hearing from Linda Hoffman, the property manager in the spring district.

And her uh they had a pilot, you had a pilot project over there, and she thought it was really effective.

So that's compelling evidence for me to support this.

Um I have some thoughts.

I'm very interested in one free hour and then two more after that, or one more, whatever you decide how long you want somebody to stay in one spot.

Um, but I think there's a lot of people who just want to dash in and dash out, and that would mean a lot to them to have the first hour free.

Um I like the idea of the advisory committee with membership from the old Bellevue Merchants Association, BDA, Wilburton, and Bell Red.

That's excellent.

Um I love that the revenue flows back to the improving compliance and enforcement, and I like the idea of adding bellhop, increased service hours for that.

That's good.

Um my one concern is I talk to a lot of people who work in places like Old Bellevue.

There is no employee parking for them.

It's really hard for them, and they come from far away, so they can't they have to drive.

Um, and they've had to be pretty uh clever about finding places to park and moving their car and everything else.

This is going to pretty much eliminate all the places that people like that have been parking in.

So, what are we creating any employee parking uh setting aside or doing anything like that?

Well, that's where the bellhop would come in where they could take people to the um uh transit and they could park down in the South Bellevue Park and Ride lot.

Yeah, that was one of the suggestions that we heard from Visit Bellevue was providing a connection down there, especially for old Bellevue.

Super convenient to get down there.

Um you can take at the beginning of your shift, easily take transit.

There's regular service that would get you into downtown, but probably at the end of the shift, it's a little less frequent in those late hours and bellhop can fill that gap.

Well, let's make sure that we're working with the with the merchants association there and in all the other employment areas in the city where this is going to have an effect because we really need to work with people to help them figure out routes and what will work for them.

It's I just can't tell you how hard it is for people, and it's really makes them really anxious about getting to work on time and things like that.

So I want to make sure that we consider all that.

Okay, thank you.

Um, so is there a motion?

I move to direct staff to proceed with administrative tasks that would allow for the advent of paid honest street parking in Bellevue's urban court neighborhoods of downtown, Belle Red and Wilberton, and prepare an ordinance and amendments to the Bellevue City Code for consideration and action at a future meeting.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay, that brings us to the end of the meeting.

Our next meeting is a special meeting uh with our state legislators on December 8th at 4 o'clock here at City Hall in room 113.

And then following that, uh, we'll be having a walking tour, but there will be no opportunity for public comment.

And then um we have a regular meeting after that, right?

On the is that the 9th?

Then we have a our final meeting of the year on uh December 9th.

And with that, we are adjourned.