Welcome, thanks for being here, a full house.

Thank you for taking the time to engage with our work.

We love to hear your voices and be glad you are here.

With that city clear, uh, are you ready for a roll call?

Thank you.

Mayor Malakitian.

Here.

Uh Deputy Mayor Hamilton.

Here.

Councilmember Bargava.

Here.

Councilmember Briar.

Here.

Councilmember New in House.

Here.

Councilmember Sumataria.

And Councilmember Robinson just uh is joining us virtually.

I'm gonna promote her right now, but she is here.

I can verify that.

Sounds great.

Councilmember New Enhouse, would you please lead us in the flag salute?

My pleasure, please rise if you can.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you so much.

We have uh two proclamation.

The first one is Lunar New Year Week proclamation.

I am inviting uh JJ Leen and Tai D.

Fong, Seattle Chinese Culture and Art Association.

Uh please come and sit on the table, and uh Council Mr Bargawa is going to read the proclamation.

Please join the join us at the table okay.

Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, everyone.

Whereas across the globe, more than a billion people from diverse cultures, including many residents of Bellevue, come together to honor and celebrate the Lunar New Year, a cherished tradition that spans borders and generations.

And whereas the beginning of February 17, 2026, the Lunar New Year marks a time of renewal, hope, and anticipation for the arrival of spring as families and friends gather to strengthen bonds, honor cultural traditions and lack, and take part in vibrant celebrations.

And whereas 2026 is a year of the horse, a symbol of energy, perseverance and forward momentum, encouraging optimism, determination, and collective progress in the year ahead.

And whereas Bellevue comes alive during the lunar new year with cultural performances, community gatherings and celebrations made possible by local organizations whose creativity and leadership enrich the city's shared experience.

And whereas Bellevue takes pride in its diverse and dynamic community and recognizes the invaluable contributions of its Asian American residents and the cultural heritage they bring to the city.

Now, therefore, I, Vishal Bahargava, on behalf of Mayor Mo Malakuchian of Bellevue, Washington and the City Council, do hereby proclaim Tuesday, February 17th, 2026, and the following week as Lunar New Year Week in Bellevue, and encourage all residents to join in community festivities, explore the cultural richness of this time-honored tradition, and celebrate the year of the horse with hope, prosperity, and unity.

Now, please uh now please you are ready for your remarks.

Thank you.

Thank you to the mayor and the city of Bellevue for this proclamation.

Our organization is dedicated to the exchange of Chinese culture with our community.

This is the 15th year we have partnered with the Bellevue Collection to celebrate Lunar New Year, and we invite you to come to Bellevue Square Mall on Saturday, February 21st, from 11 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

to enjoy diverse and exciting performances.

We also want to thank our longtime partner, the overseas Community Affairs Council of the Republic of China.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

So please stay in the audience.

And if any of anyone else wants to talk, please great.

So we have the second proclamation, Day of Action and Remembrance for Japanese American incarcerated during World War II.

We have Amy Hirotaka and Doug Ito, a board member of Eisson Bellevue, are here to receive these proclamations.

And we have another young guest also.

I think he's the son of Amy.

Councilmember Samodovirio, can you please read the proclamation?

Thank you, Mayor.

Whereas February 19th Marks said anniversary of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signing Executive Order 9066 in 1942, which authorized the United States government to create military exclusion area that led to the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans living in the West Coast.

And whereas more than 120,000 Japanese Americans, including American citizens and individuals born in the United States, were forcibly removed from their homes and incarcerated in camps located in remote inland areas of the country.

And whereas the impacts of this incarceration were profound and enduring, resulting in the loss of homes, businesses, property, savings, and generational wealth, as well as lasting emotional psychological harm.

And whereas Bellevue lost a generation of Japanese American residents during the World War II, with only 11 of the 60 families returning to the area after 1945.

Sorry.

Whereas in 1988, the United States government formally acknowledged the injustice of Japanese American incarceration, where President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, issuing an official apology and providing redress and survive to surviving individuals.

And whereas the city of Bellevue honors the resilience, contributions, and cultural legacy of its Japanese American community, and a reaffirming reaffirms its commitment to inclusion, access, equity, and opportunity for all residents.

Now, therefore, I, Clarisuma Di Werya, on behalf of Mo Melakutan, mayor of the City of Bellevue, Washington, and the City Council do hereby proclaim February 19, 2026 as day of action remembrance of for Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II in Bellevue, and encourage all residents to observe this day by remembering this history, honoring those who were impacted, and recommitting to the protection of civil liberties, equity, and justice for all.

Thank you so much.

Please.

Good evening.

My name is Doug Ito.

I'm a third-generation Japanese American Sansei, and I serve as president of Isan Bellevue.

My father, Hiroshi, and his pioneer family were farmers here in Bellevue before World War II in the Spring District next to Lake Bellevue.

Like every Japanese American family in the city, they were forcibly removed and incarcerated at Thule Lake during the war.

Afterward, my family.

Afterward, my family was among the few who were able to return because they managed to hold on to their land.

Hi, my name is Amy Hirotaka, and I'm a fourth generation Japanese American, Yonsei, and with me is my son Timothy Hirotaka Malinowski, who is a fifth generation goosei.

My great-grandparents and my grandparents were also farmers in Bellevue, not far from where we now sit, and returned some years after the war.

My father graduated from Samanish High School, and except for their incarceration during World War II, my family has lived and worked in this region for over 120 years.

We are here tonight representing Eason Bellevue, a community-based nonprofit organization.

We celebrate the history and resilience of the Bellevue Japanese American community through place-based art installations and historical markers of remembrance.

Our purpose is to increase knowledge and understanding of the agricultural history and contributions of Japanese Americans in Bellevue and surrounding areas, share the impact that racism and incarceration had on this once thriving community, and engage current and future Bellevue residents with local history.

Most recently, we collaborated with King County Parks and local artists for installations along East Rail and the Northeast 8th Street Crossing, which was the site of the former Bellevue Growers Association packing and shipping warehouse.

Prior to World War II, this was the only location from which Japanese American farmers could distribute their produce.

We look forward to future opportunities to memorialize and honor the contributions of this community in Bellevue.

And I'll turn it back over to Doug.

Tonight's proclamation is deeply meaningful to Isan Bellevue and our families.

And is a po powerful remembrance of why it matters, particularly now.

In nineteen forty-two, with the signing of the Executive Order ninety sixty-six, fear was allowed to override facts.

Ancestry became suspicion.

Citizenship offered no protection.

People were labeled as dangerous, not for what they had done, but for who they were.

A community was targeted solely because of ethnicity.

Remember this.

Language matters.

Anti-race rhetoric and scapegoating are never harmless.

Words that dehumanize make injustice seem acceptable.

When fear is amplified and blame is assigned to entire communities, harm is not accidental, it's inevitable.

Remember this.

A knock on the door.

Community leaders taken away by federal agents, families torn apart without warning, no charges, no hearings, no due process.

Power exercised without accountability.

Remember this.

Homes lost, businesses destroyed, livelihoods erased.

One hundred and twenty thousand people incarcerated.

Remember this.

Today we remember we remember not only the to honor those who suffered under executive order ten nine uh ninety sixty-six, but to recognize its warning.

Because when we see families separated, when communities are targeted.

When enforcement is justified by fear instead of facts, when raids, detention, and removal fall disproportionately on people because of who they are.

Remembrance is not passive.

Remembrance is our responsibility.

We remember so that policies rooted in fear are questions, so that power is challenged, so that no group is ever again denied dignity, due process, and human rights.

Remembering is how we resist repetition.

Remembering is how we protect the future.

Remembering is how we make sure this never happens again.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Do I have a motion to approve the agenda?

I move to approve the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and uh seconded.

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

There is no opposed.

The motion passes.

City clerk are there any speakers signed up to provide a oral communication.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

There are 13 or so pre-registered folks for our list this evening.

Unfortunately, we are going to hit our limit on topics.

So I'll go over a few of the rules the council has in place to explain that a little bit further.

So the total time for oral communications is for a period of not more than 30 minutes, and all topics have to relate to City of Bellevue government.

People speaking to items on tonight's agenda will be called first, and then if time remains, people speaking to items not on tonight's agenda will be called.

The presiding officer in both of those categories is off the rise to give preference to those who have not spoken to council within the last 60 days, or who will be speaking on topics that will come in front of the council within the next 60 days.

Speakers are each allowed to speak up to three minutes, and here's the important part.

Only three people are permitted to speak to any one side of a particular topic.

So we have a couple of topics tonight that have a number of speakers signed up.

One final reminder in compliance with Washington State campaign laws regarding the use of public facilities during elections.

I need to remind everyone that no speaker may support or oppose a ballot measure or may support or oppose a candidate for election, which includes one's own campaign, and anyone speaking on those topics will be asked to stop.

And with that, I'll start with our list, and the first speaker tonight is Monique Martinez.

Welcome.

Hello.

My name is Monique Martinez.

I'm a leader at For Tomorrow.

I'm Latina, proud daughter of an immigrant and a Bellevue resident.

This land carries the memory of the indigenous communities who were displaced, and the city carries the memory of Japanese American families who were incarcerated during World War II.

These stories remind us to refuse to repeat history.

Part of that progress is recognizing that culturally and linguistically specific priority category is an equity tool.

It exists to ensure that historically underfunded and underrepresented communities are not included, are not only included in service delivery, but meaningfully involved in the design leadership and decision making of the programs that serve them.

Access, belonging, cultural responsive services, but they do not provide measurable criteria, operational standards, or accountability mechanisms.

They are statements of intention, not tools, uh not tools that can guide funding decisions or protect historically underrepresented communities.

The current definition that human services has been using is clear, concise, and measurable.

It gives the city a reliable way to evaluate whether programs are truly designed by and for communities they serve.

The proposed new definition introduces subjectivity, meaning it relies on personal interpretation instead of clear measurable standards.

It's also important to note that this new definition does not appear in any earlier drafts of the DAP.

It only shows up in the final version, meaning it cannot be considered or described as community-driven.

The same communities who are facing heightened disparities and discrimination right now.

Disparities this category was created to address.

Lastly, I just want to say that Bellevue, we are stronger when we move together, when we care for our neighbors and when we protect the dignity of every person.

When we refuse to let fear or hate divide us.

Let's choose love and not hate.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

The next speaker, I believe, is already at the table, and that's Jesse Franklin.

Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council members, and engaged members of our community.

My name is Jesse Franklin.

I am the founding mentor of Rainer Athletes, a Bellevue-based youth mentoring organization.

I am a proud St.

Mammoth High School graduate and a firm believer in the transform transformational power of a connected community.

I want to begin by acknowledging the integrity of our council, staff, and commissions.

Across the country, big businesses, school districts, and nonprofits have scrubbed language that celebrates diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging out of fear.

Bellevue has chosen a different path.

We adopted the Diversity Advantage Plan and committed to building a city where our diversity is our strength.

Now is not the time to waver.

There is real fear penetrating our community.

I have heard directly from immigrant parents who are doing everything they can to keep that fear from spilling into their children's lives.

Now is the time to embrace the adage that there is no such thing as other people's children.

Now is a time for courage.

Courage does not mean ignoring fear or pretending it doesn't exist.

Courage means doing what is right despite the presence of fear.

It means standing up for our community's values and listening intently to the deepest needs of those impacted.

For the last 13 years, I have worked in youth development in direct partnership with the Bellevue School District, community-based organizations, volunteer mentors, a beautifully diverse staff, and determined students and families.

Over this time, I have learned a lot and unlearned even more.

I have witnessed trends and fads and shorts that started above the knees and moved to below the knees.

Trends come and go.

One data point has not changed.

When young people can see themselves and their coaches, teachers, mentors, and leaders, it widens what they imagine is possible for their futures.

That insight does not diminish the value of mentors who look and sound like me, a white English-speaking executive director.

It simply points to the unique power of representation.

The most effective providers are people who have lived the experience of community's young people and their families recognize.

A staff person, a volunteer mentor, a program leader who understands the language and the culture and the everyday realities of families they serve builds trust, connection, and impact.

Approaches alone do not deliver services.

People do.

Based on what students and families have shared, I urge the council to support the recommendation of the Human Services Commission, the community members charged with listening to and uplifting the needs of our most impacted residents.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker on our list is Reverend Lisa Horst.

Welcome.

My name is Reverend Lisa Horst Clark.

My pronouns are she, her, and resident of Bellevue and the lead pastor of First Congregational Church of Bellevue.

Two weeks ago, I traveled to Minneapolis as one of more than 600 clergy to stand in solidarity with the leadership who is on the ground showing courage and love of neighbor in the face of intimidation and brutality by federal agents.

There are more federal agents on the ground in Minneapolis than local police.

And when I was in a largely immigrant neighborhood walking with a group of clergy, in the course of just an hour, in just a few blocks, a pregnant woman in her car was surrounded by 12 federal agents.

Witnesses gathered to document an alert, and within a minute, this deluge had come and gone.

The woman was not taken this time.

What we are witnessing in Minneapolis is an attempt at the wholesale intimidation and brutalization of immigrant communities and people of color.

This is a moral travesty.

And what we are seeing happen in Bellevue is currently different in scale, but not in intent.

We know the ripple effects of fear and how they can have a stifling impact on the ability of all our neighbors to participate in public life, school, and work.

At the same time, what I witnessed in Minneapolis and know here in Bellevue is that injustice must be answered by community.

As a city where more than 45% of our residents speak a language that isn't English at home, linguistically and culturally appropriate services staffed by members of that community always needs to be a priority.

And this is even more important in times of fear and intimidation, as it is local small organizations that have built relationships of trust over time that are responding to on the ground needs.

Trust is built over time.

And we cannot overstate how important trust is in times of crisis.

If our diversity and equity goals are part of Bellevue's big why, linguistically and culturally appropriate services are answers to the question what and how.

Thank you.

That was our third and final speaker sharing concerns on the language included in the human services item.

So it's uh we won't be able to hear from any others on that topic.

Our next speaker is Karen Armstead.

Welcome.

Hello, council members, mayor, uh, deputy mayor.

My name is Karen Armstead, and I'm here tonight representing uh all of the neighbors in our neighborhood for the Vassa neighborhood.

And we want you to know that we are very acutely aware of the need for affordable housing and the efforts that you're making to bring that.

We also want you to see that our neighborhood is highly diverse.

All of the new uh real estate transactions recently have all been people of color, many immigrants, and they're young.

We have a very young neighborhood, even though you see those of us who are older, and so we are asking you to think about the neighborhood needs as the affordable housing is brought into communities.

And I don't want to take time tonight, and as you know, well, we are trying to get you to see the existing dangers that exist in our neighborhood for infrastructure when you add with affordable housing new lots.

We have houses that are being sold where they're doubling or tripling the number of houses on a lot, but nothing changes, and so all of the issues are very acute, and even as we you know celebrate little children trying to learn to ride their trikes in the in the cul-de-sac at the end of the street, we see cars zipping around the neighborhood coming down and beyond 25 miles an hour into this two-block area.

And so we're saying help us enjoy and appreciate and integrate new people into our community and be very careful whenever you start looking at affordable housing because it's too easy to take that lovely five-acre parcel at the end of a of a uh 200-foot public road and turn it into uh a multifamily unit when it's not safe for the children who now are already there, and so we ask you to come and see it and to consider very strongly asking staff to consider maybe maybe a study session for us so that you can see how to bring what we are uh offering and very willing to accept in terms of housing and and welcoming neighbors and celebrating diversity into a community that continues to care about each other and to work to support uh the the uh further diversity in Bellevue, which we do celebrate.

So thank you again, and we'll look forward to further conversation with all of you about these issues.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Deputy Mayor and Welcome.

I too am from the Vassa Park community.

I've lived there for 34 years, and I'm now one of the older people that live there.

Where I, when I was coming when I came there, I came with my 12-year-old daughter and husband, and we were the youngsters on the block.

And so it's been wonderful to see it grow and change.

Again, affordable housing is wonderful that we can think about that.

But I remember my daughter having to go from Southeast 35th Street to 164th to be able to walk across the street to go and catch a bus.

And it was dangerous.

And I still see the youngsters having to do that.

And now if we progressively bring in affordable housing in multi-units on what was just a lot for a single home, we compound that and most likely the people buying those houses are going to be young families.

They're not going to be the 69-year-old person that I am.

They're going to be in their late 20s and early 30s.

And we need to prepare to bring safety into those areas as well.

It's wonderful to have a great house.

We have a fabulous community.

I can attest to that.

And we want to bring that to the new people that come into our neighborhood, but we also want it to be safe for them.

And when we have people roaring down the streets, you know, that's that's a problem.

And we need to make sure that again, we're making sure that we the kids is what I'm really concerned about.

When I see how they have to cross that street, and people are, it's 35 miles an hour, you know, and 30, and it's people are going double that, you know, 45 miles an hour up that hill because it just looks like fun.

And let's hopefully think about helping to aid that infrastructure before we build those houses and uh make it safe for everybody.

But thank you very much for taking the time to listen.

Sorry for your loss.

Thank you for being here.

Our next speaker is Robert Perkins.

Looks like Mr.

Perkins is joining us online.

Mr.

Perkins, can you hear me?

Mr.

Perkins, can you hear me?

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Your time begins now.

Okay.

Um hello, Mr.

Mayor and uh council members.

My name is Bob Perkins, and I'm calling in with regards to ordinance 6903.

I own three buildings on Main Street, Biz on Main, Title IX, and the Sotheby's building.

Unfortunately, I don't have a prepared speech.

The reason is I just found out about this ordinance uh this afternoon.

With that said, I'm opposed to this ordinance because there's absolutely been no outreach.

And um believe strongly that the council has an obligation to inform the people that are most affected and invested so that they have time to study and give thoughtful insight to the council and can make um so that the council can make well-formed uh well-informed decisions.

Um so that's number one.

There's been no outreach on this on this uh topic to the people that are most affected.

Number two, uh, there appears to be a conflict with state law on this issue with uh um uh state law 35-21-995 historic landmarks prohibit cities from designating properties as historic landmarks landmarks with re with out owners written consent unless the property is 125 years old.

Um and secondly, House Bill 1293, uh, which requires local design review to be clear and objection objective standards, not gray, most importantly involve no personal or subjective judgment by a public official.

Which leads me to my final uh request of the council members, respectfully request that they that any council member that lives in the old main neighborhood recuse themselves from tonight's vote, as clearly this would be a conflict of interest.

Um thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker on the list is Heidi Dean.

Welcome.

Good evening, everyone.

Um public comment sign and doesn't have an other option, so I wanted to make it clear that I'm not here to necessarily oppose Councilmember Robinson's request, because actually I get it.

When you love your neighborhood, when you cherish the small businesses that serve you, and when your commercial district is the heart and the identity of your neighborhood, you fight like H.E.

Double hockey sticks to protect it.

And the 2044 comprehensive plan update talks a lot about neighborhoods and supporting neighborhood centers and small businesses.

However, the direction that the city is going with its land use code amendments seem to contradict the comp plan.

Yet in the 2023 retail study, Newport Hill Shopping Center, which is a neighborhood center, had its viability compared and contrasted with countywide and large mixed use areas, including Bell Red, Downtown, Wilburton, and Main Street, which I consider to be part of downtown.

Why Newport Hills?

Crossroads is a countywide center.

Why weren't they studied?

So it was an Apples to Apples comparison.

And what all the study areas had in common is they all have a business district association with which the city partners.

And the city's going to help Wilburton form a district uh organization.

Community development uh included a policy and crossroads NAP uh regarding the formation of a business district organization, and Newport Hills did ask for the same for our NAP, but according to Dr.

Nessie, economic development felt that Newport Hills doesn't have enough businesses to make it worth it.

Wow.

So we're big enough to include with in a study with the big boys, but we're not important enough to provide us with an organization that would help with the vibrancy that the city claims to want in neighborhood centers.

So like I said, I'm not here to oppose the IOC.

I'm here to point out that if this council passes the IOC and then looks at adopting HOMA for the neighborhood centers, it sets a really bad precedent and sends a very strong message about inequality, favoritism, and abuse of position.

And I would ask what makes Old Maine and its businesses more important than other small business districts around the city where people love them.

What you do tonight and what you do when HOMA reaches council will tell us everything about um what you think of neighborhoods and their small businesses.

I'm of the opinion that each one is deserving of protection and support, and I feel like Bellevue's talk talk, you know, talks a lot about small businesses, but it doesn't align with this actions.

Same with it's all the talk about neighborhoods, and I did think that was really interesting to talk about the outreach, no outreach on this IOC because that's been HOMA.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Gordon Rainey.

Yeah, hello.

Thank you for having me.

Uh, my name is Gordon Rain, and I'm a uh business owner and property owner on Main Street.

We bought our property in 2012 and built a one-story building, because at the time Main Street was mainly one-story buildings.

In the uh 13 years since we probably are down to 30 percent one-story building.

So this issue might have been meaningful 12 years ago, but it's kind of to me silly at this point.

It's old Maine, which we think of old Maine, doesn't exist anymore.

And uh side thing.

So we bought the property, had it appraised, built a brand new building, and because we didn't use the property to its best use, the new building actually appraised for less money than the property by itself.

So uh I don't know exactly what the rules are that you want to change, but it doesn't make sense to me.

And also to to make a point that the other two speakers did when uh you wanted paid parking on Main Street or in Bellevue Street.

People from the city came by, asked our opinion, want to know what we thought.

I thought actually thought it was a good idea, but at least they reached out and we talked about it.

This is I only heard about this thing this afternoon, so uh I tend to agree with the other speakers that there should be more outreach and uh I think if the timing is bad, and maybe we shouldn't change rules at this point.

Anyhow, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Jerry Croon.

Welcome.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, Deputy Mayor, members of the council, um, Jerry Crohn, uh, executive director at Eastside Legal Assistance Program.

I'm here actually to speak in favor of the uh cultural linguistic specific programs.

Um, even though I do agree with my friends said also, but I believe that words matter.

You know, as a law firm, we're we we hear that every day.

Words are important.

Two years ago, uh we were blindsided.

We were our funds were cut by the city of Bellevue by 50 percent, even though we had met our metrics for the last ever since Poole City started, we've met our metrics.

Uh we exceeded our metrics by actually 22 percent that year, and yet our funds were cut by 50 percent.

Uh the city of Redmond, I'll let you know, cut our funds by 100% that year.

Um, and when I went to and asked both uh councils and both commissions why, they pointed to these words, and they said that even though we were talking and working with the right communities, that our focus has always been on those communities.

That the last sentence in that in the program here that says and deliberate by individuals from that community, that we didn't meet that.

And so our funding was cut.

Um we were we were kind of hurt by that, quite frankly.

Uh, rather than then picking up our ball and walking away, uh we doubled down.

This past year, we exceeded our the goals the city of Bellevue set by 217 percent.

We we doubled down on diversity, we doubled down on equity, we doubled down on the training of those things.

Not because we had to, but because we were trying to prove a point that words matter.

And so I really do believe that the the new version is is a better version, it's a cleaner version, and it's it's more inclusive of all of us who are trying to help all the communities here in Bellevue.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ron Zulski.

Welcome.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council.

My name is Ron Zolski.

I'm the team manager for the Recovery Navigator Program under Pierre Washington.

I came to introduce ourselves.

Our program covers North and East King County.

We work as co-responders with law enforcement, first responders, and we assist with any individual struggling with substance use or mental health.

We can see in our society that this is a catastrophe taking place right before our eyes.

We have individuals struggling every day, seeking shelter and seeking assistance as they struggle with substance use.

Many of these individuals have lost contact with family.

They have no natural support.

There are other programs that exist.

What's unique about ours is the way we come alongside an individual and walk with them step by step, helping them access DSHS, other available services, making it possible for an individual who has no ID, no cell phone, and no one who cares about them to actually engage in these services that are already here and utilize them to for sustained recovery.

We cover from Shoreline out to Vashawn Island all the way to North Bend.

We've had great success with Shoreline Police, uh Eastside Fire and Rescues Care Team and other individuals doing great work.

I had the opportunity to meet with Chief Bart briefly before this.

It's clear that your civil servants are exemplary, and we would invite conversations with the council to work hand in hand to assist Bellevue and supporting all of the community, even those that are most disenfranchised.

So any information you can provide me about points of contact, I would love to be a part of communicating going forward.

Thank you so much for this time.

Thank you.

Good evening, Student Council members.

My name is Jonathan Solanus, and I both work and live here in Bellevue.

On Friday, February 6th at 746 a.m., a man was forcibly stopped by three men in two unmarked cars on 148th Avenue Northeast near Robinswood Park and violently torn from his car.

Each one was wearing camo vests labeled police, but had no uniform, no ID badging, and masks covering their faces.

As people continue to drive by the scene, they could hear him calling out, Auxilio, help.

This wasn't an arrest, it was a kidnapping.

And it's happened in our community.

In your proclamation today to denote February 19th as the day of action and remembrance for Japanese Americans incarcerated by well during World War II.

You accurately call out the injustices perpetuated onto residents, forcibly removed from their homes, their businesses, incarcerated for their racial and ethnic features.

And yet we are watching history repeat itself in real time as a threat to immigrants, racial and ethnic groups, well, dissidents and protesters, their rights and their voices have entered and begun to operate in our city.

A place that should be pulling out every stop to go ahead and protect them.

In the first session I attended at Bellevue Essentials, it made it definitively clear that our community is a population that is multicultural and that we're proud of it.

On sharing our values, learning about each other, and growing together.

And when I see news videos of these inductions that happen in our country, our state, our neighboring towns, and now in our community, I'm forced to reckon with the question what actions are we taking to protect our residents from induction from massed individuals that are labeling themselves as police?

What protections do we have for our community?

With reports coming out of ICE expanding into cities, leasing office spaces and warehouses while in targeted areas within the reach of schools, churches, and other sensitive areas for immigrants and their families.

I want to ask that a zoning restriction be put in place, a blanket ban while citywide denying the leasing of any space to ICE or related agencies or operatives.

I realize that this ask is not a simple one, and it will assuredly draw ire, but inaction is complicity.

So I ask you to take the time to reflect and ask yourselves how do you intend to show that you have learned from the injustices while inflicted upon people in the past, and how will you honor their memory and legacy by refusing to let more harm perpetuate upon vulnerable people now?

We do not have the luxury of passing the Responsibilities Act.

We must not abdicate our power to protect the rights of the community because we are scared.

I ask you all, as a part of this community, please help us.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

We have hit the time limit at this point, Mayor.

I'll turn it back to you.

Thank you so much.

Uh we have an item on the city manager report, land use planning initiatives work plan.

Uh would you please introduce uh city manager?

Yes, thank you, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council members.

Um, every two years, our development services staff and our community uh community development staff get together and they um take a look at what's in front of them in terms of initiatives for land use and uh code and policy.

And they develop a work program.

And tonight we're bringing this back to you for information to share the progress on their prior two-year work program, and then also describe the focus and the priorities for the upcoming 26 and 27 uh year period.

So we have uh Tara Johnson and Nick Whipple here, along with Emile King and Rebecca Horner in the seats directly behind them.

So with that, I'll turn it over to Nick.

Great, thank you, and uh good evening, and Air Hamilton, members of the council.

Um, we are here tonight to present on the joint land use planning initiatives uh work plan.

Uh we refer to it as LUPE, uh, and this is a community development and development services joint plan.

So tonight's presentation is for information only uh to preview what's ahead in the next two years in terms of code and policy changes.

Our agenda will touch on the planning process that we use.

We'll also touch on the uh accomplishments from the plat the past two-year work planning effort.

Um, Tara will mention some of the prioritization framework that we use in looking ahead to our next two-year work plan and then dive into the 26-27 work plan.

So, beginning first with our um planning process.

So this is how we get from policy to permits as it relates to comprehensive plan policies, code development, and then eventually permit review.

So as we know the comprehensive plan, sets that high-level vision for the city.

It's really an expression of our values, our priorities, our goals.

The policies are meant to be high-level and flexible to ensure that we can be responsive with how we implement those policies.

And one tool we use to help implement advanced policies is our land use code.

This is where we set specific standards that would apply to the built-in natural environment, whether that's protecting our streams and wetlands or enabling those high-rise towers in our downtown.

Eventually, after those codes are approved, that would then create that pathway for permits to come in the door and begin implementing the policy.

So briefly, we'll touch on just a few of the highlights.

It's been a busy past two years, as you all are all aware.

The 2024-2025 loopy accomplishments is really made possible by our very engaged community and stakeholders, the dedication of our planning commission, the leadership of council, as well as the staff that advance a lot of this work.

Some of the highlights here we have the council did adopt our Bellevue 2044 comprehensive plan to set that vision for the next 20 years out to 2044.

And that really set the tone for the amendments that follow.

Another one we'll pull out is the tree canopy code amendments.

This was a complete rewrite of our tree code, moving us into a tree credit approach, really driven by community desire to address and update our tree code.

Moving into 2025, this year was marked by a few sub-area plans getting adopted by council, crossroads and Newport as those examples.

And then also some pretty major code amendments as well.

And then middle housing was an item that impacted the entire city, now enabling more housing types throughout every neighborhood in Bellevue.

And then our critical areas ordinance update was a rewrite of our critical areas, first time since uh 2006.

So Tara's gonna talk through our prioritization framework and then touch on the work plan.

Good evening.

So I want to really highlight some of the some of the strategies we use in determining what makes it onto the work plan.

So first off, it's really intended to be responsive to council's vision, priorities, strategic target areas, but also address things like state and regional requirements.

As part of the periodic update that was completed, we of course established growth targets that were 35,000 housing units, 70,000 jobs.

And then as we're evaluating our work plan, we really look to ensure that we have adequate staff resources as well as community commission and council resources to complete the work that we've started, as well as look forward to new projects.

And then really focusing on maximizing positive outcomes while avoiding significant opportunity costs.

So this is not going to go into a whole lot of detail on this slide, but this is our 26-27 proposed loopy work plan.

Um really broken up into uh three phases of the loopy process.

So the yellow boxes uh really relate to our pre-launch phase, the green, which is the majority of the project timeline uh relate to the execution phase, and then um the last blue uh really relates to implementation, so the permitting process.

And then we're gonna go into a little bit more detail on the three buckets that the overall work plan is broken up into.

So the first bucket being state requirements, the second being projects that are already underway and will come forward to council very soon, and then the third um is projects that are already on the docket.

So, under the state requirements, just gonna pick out a couple to note.

We have our parking reform LUCA that's again responsive to state mandates, and then the omnibus, which includes a number of amendments uh required.

And both of those were initiated by city council just last month.

So I'm familiar with those.

And then want to highlight a couple that were that are also underway.

So the Bell Red Look Forward Land Use Code Amendment and Rezone, which implements, of course, the Bell Red sub-area plan changes that were adopted in 2024.

And then the housing opportunity and mixed use areas, which of course also implement the comprehensive plan recently adopted.

And as you may recall, the sustainable Bellevue plan was recently adopted by council at the end of last year, which includes uh priority strategies to address this through other efforts, so outside of the LUPI work plan.

And then lastly, um the docket.

So these are amendments that will be uh that are either underway or have were established, and then we'll be coming forward to council for initiation as well.

So a couple things of note downtown livability amendments 2.0.

Um, so that will include a significant body of work with updating the downtown land use code, and then um our annual comprehensive plan amendments as well as the ongoing annexation for the Cougar Mountain area, and then a number of great neighborhoods uh work that's 20 that covers both 26, 27, and then on to into 2028.

So with that, uh thank you for the opportunity to uh present our work plan.

Thank you both.

Um thank you so much for being here.

Uh we can just move to the consent calendar.

Do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar?

I move to approve the consent calendar.

Second.

It has been moved by Deputy Mayor and seconded by Councilman Muhnhouse.

Uh, any discussion?

All in first say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

I could not hear Councilman Robinson, but I believe the motion passes.

We have our first study session, development service activity and continuous improvement update.

City manager, would you please introduce that?

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

There uh this is a two-fold um presentation tonight.

So the purpose is first to provide an update on our development activity, including some of the projects that are in the pipeline.

And then the second purpose is to give a chance to our development services team to share with you a very robust and ongoing effort that they have undertaken to make process improvements aimed at creating more consistent, understandable, and predictable uh permitting processes.

So we have um our director of development services, Rebecca Horner, our assistant directors, Jay Kessel, and Greg Schrader, and then we have a team of people from the um departments, the other departments that um are part of the development services process here as resources as well.

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

Thank you, City Manager Carlson.

Thank you, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, members of council, Rebecca Horner.

I would be remiss if I didn't introduce the rest of our team.

We are four departments that operate as one through four directors and seven assistant directors, and they are all represented here tonight.

Uh we have um Lucy Liu, our utilities director, Dave Tate, our fire chief, and Andrew Singalakis, our transportation director.

We also have, in addition to Jake Hesselkesser and Greg Schrader from Development Services, Nick Whipple, who you just uh saw present, as well as um Travis Ripley, our uh fire marshal.

We have uh Tony Pratt, our land use director, Dave Vaish, our utilities assistant director, and Vanessa Humphries, our transportation assistant director.

So we together as one aim to serve a single uh face of uh service delivery.

So tonight we are very excited to give you an update on our development activity as well as our current update on some activities that we've been doing related to process improvements, streamlining has been of high interest to our stakeholders and to the council.

So our agenda for tonight is the three of us will be helping present.

I'm going to start with an overview of the work we've done over the last year to year and a half on updating our five-year strategic plan.

Greg Schrader will give us a development activity update, and Jake Hesselgesser will finish us out with our customer feedback and our continuous improvement work plan.

Oops.

So like I said, about a year and a half ago, we updated our strategic plan.

This was significant for us because it gave us our new North Star, our new vision, building the best Bellevue together.

And we also revised our mission, both of which did not explicitly address partnership and teamwork with our stakeholders.

So as you can see, building the best Bellevue together means that we're working together with our customers and stakeholders to create the best Bellevue.

And our mission statement specifically speaks to partnership and partnering to solve problems.

We also created initiatives and goals, which are represented in four perspective areas shown here.

And we utilize these four prospective areas because we wanted a balanced approach.

It starts off with customer in the community, our stakeholders and customers.

It uh focuses on processes and systems to support where we're trying to go.

There's a financial systems section, which speaks to our cost recovery financial strategies.

And finally, with not the least important, maybe equally as important, our employee learning and growth.

So with that, Greg will give us our development update.

Okay, thank you, Rebecca.

Uming, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council members.

We'll start with this graph, which is it represents the total volume of applications on the top line and issued permits with the bottom line.

We did see a significant spike last year, ending at over 18,000 applications.

This does not account for the type of projects, and there was a shift from larger, more complex developments such as high-rise to more residential and tenant improvement work.

The widening gap between the lines indicates the increasing number of projects in the review pipeline.

And we actually now have more multifamily residential units in review than at any prior time.

The next uh graph shows single family applications.

You also see an upward trend in 2025.

Uh, again, the top line is the total here, and the bottom line represents solely reinvestment, so remodels in additions to existing homes.

Uh so we're seeing an increase in both single family and multifamily investment.

And then I'm sorry, I advanced one too far.

The construction valuation is the total value associated with all issued permits.

And here the increase in 2025 is not as significant as the previous graphs because as I noted, we're not seeing as many large projects.

But on the far right, the blue and white checkered bottom segment of the 2025 bar indicates a substance substantial increase in the residential proportion of the work.

And I think that reflects a step toward the council goal of seeing more units brought to the market as part of next right work.

And of course, we do always like to include project photos.

So the upper left is a rendering of the Bosa Park Row High Rise, currently in the review pipeline, and you may know that it's proposed uh along the west side of Bellevue Way adjacent to the downtown park.

The lower left is the Pearl Apartments project, which recently started construction on the former Silver Cloud Hotel site at the north end of downtown.

In the center is a photo of the bridge affordable housing complex recently completed at the Sound Transit operations and maintenance facility site, and on the right is the Bellevue 600 phase one project just across the street from City Hall.

And Jake will cover work plan.

Great, thanks, Greg.

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

Um wanted to start this section by just noting some accomplishments that development services made in 2025.

The department's strategic plan, as Rebecca mentioned, was a major accomplishment.

We held a residential permitting expo here at City Hall, very well attended by the community, over 300 community members that showed up to engage with us, ask us questions and provide feedback, looking to hold more events like that in the future.

We made marked improvements to our permit timeline performance, going from meeting established targets 70% of the time at the beginning of the year to over 80% of the time at the by the end of the year.

So looking to build upon that.

We've instituted some improvements in the handoff between review and inspection, getting some positive feedback from staff and from members of the development community on that.

We implemented a single family building permit pilot, really aimed at cutting down on revision cycles and the time it takes to review those permits.

Early indications are positive, looking to evaluate that more here in 2026.

And then a host of land use planning initiatives, which you just heard about from Nick and Tara.

Wanted to talk a little bit about the process we went through at the end of 2025 to establish our 26-27 continuous improvement work plan.

We took in a lot of feedback, both from external stakeholders as well as internal stakeholders, had several meetings to kind of align all of that, scope initiatives, prioritize those, lay it all out in a work plan, understanding all the resource needs and dependencies.

And out of that, we're gonna share a few of those here with you this evening.

One of the central focal points in all of this effort was really centering the voice of the customer.

One of our goals in our strategic plan is to understand customer needs and perspectives.

And while we receive fairly decent satisfaction ratings through our customer experience program, over 80% of respondents, respond with some level of satisfaction.

There are certain areas of improvements that have been identified through that program as well as the Bellevue Development Committee, the residential permitting expo, and other forms.

Some of the top line themes include customer service, very strong focus on improving the entitlement review process, desire for more consistency and service delivery, and then permit streamlining as Rebecca mentioned.

And we did see a lot of synergy across customer personas.

So thinking about one-time customers all the way up to sophisticated developers, customer service, and consistency in the process is a really good example of that.

So to look at some of those buckets of our strategic plan, focusing first here on customer and community.

Some of the initiatives that we have planned are enhancements to our customer experience program, deepening our listening and understanding of customer needs and perspectives.

We have three subteams actively working through the Bellevue Development Committee, focused on inspection improvements, permit and application improvements, as well as a focus on site civil and land use construction.

Middle housing process and system changes.

We just rolled out a new permit type for middle housing to more closely align the time that it takes to review that permit and all the processes with single families, streamlining the development process there.

Really pleased to have our small business program stood up and looking to build upon early success by bringing resources to bear for small businesses who often lack the resource or maybe understanding of how to navigate the permitting process.

And then a pre-approved DADU program, which is a council priority.

You will be hearing more about that in the coming months as that program gets brought back here for initiation.

In the processes and systems bucket, you can think of processes here as a business process or maybe the permitting process and a system as either a technology or maybe the system by which we use to review performance metrics, for example.

Really exciting innovative partnership with GovStream AI to bring artificial intelligence tools to the to streamline the entire ecosystem of permitting.

Very excited tonight to announce that we are rolling out the first two technology solutions to our city staff, AI assistants to help with email and chat assistant that we uh one day will hope to make that public facing to streamline some of the pre-application inquiries that we we receive, repurposing human capital and higher value work.

We also have goals to cut revision cycles by upwards of 50% in the next phase of the pilot.

So looking to report back on that.

We are digitizing thousands of historic public uh records to make those more accessible to the public and using a federal grant issued to us from FEMA.

A host of system upgrades and enhancements, technology is so important to our service delivery that we're constantly looking to improve upon our systems.

And then performance system improvements.

This one here is talking about the really the rigor by which we review performance metrics and doing that on a regular basis to ensure that we're delivering outcomes for the community, and also a companion technology project to stand up public uh performance dashboards to report on our permit timelines in a very transparent and accountable way to the public.

And then finally, a host of land use entitlement process improvements, um, standard templates for issuing staff reports uh and a host of other things, really appreciate the development community leaning in and helping us understand where we could make improvements in that arena.

Finally, the the last two buckets here financial perspective area.

We are getting ready to begin our annual cost of service study that culminates uh in the fall when we bring uh proposed rate and fee adjustments in front of the city council in conjunction with the budget process.

Also thinking beyond 26 and 27, we believe we have adequate resources to deliver on these work plan initiatives, but also uh what we might need in the future and considerations that we would be bring forward in the budget process.

And then the bedrock of everything employee learning and growth, the incredible humans who work here at the city to deliver exceptional service to the community.

We've hired an outside consultant to come in and help us with a customer training, customer service training program and embedding that into onboarding as well as reviewing all of our standard operating procedures, ensuring that those are consistent across departments, divisions, and work groups, so that we're delivering consistent um uh services to the community.

And then finally, the skills and competencies that employees need to be successful for secession planning, uh looking to attract and retain high-quality talent here at the city, uh not just now but well into the future.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Rebecca to conclude us.

So, in conclusion, uh almost a year ago, we officially adopted the five-year strategic plan.

And in that year, we have been laser-focused on aligning our service delivery with that strategic plan.

And as you can see, we have a lot of work plan items in the future.

We'll continue to work closely with our stakeholders, we'll continue to align and check and make sure we're still hitting the mark, and we will continue to deploy resources as we need.

So it was information only, but I will uh turn it back to you, Mayor.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Rebecca, Jake, uh, Greg, of course, Nick and Tony and all of our colleagues from transportation, utilities, fire.

Uh, development affects all of our residents somehow small business neighborhood across build view.

And the way that you guys are showing up, it's really, really uh important and matters.

I appreciate the focus that you are making to things become more clear, uh more predictable and more consistent.

Um really appreciate to see the continued investment in system uh people and partnership uh that we hopefully improving our services.

Great job.

If anyone has any comments, please raise your hand.

This is a straightforward, so I'm not going to go one by one.

Is your time to raise your hand if you have any question or comment?

Councilman Bargabo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, really appreciate the presentation and also the strategic comprehensive view of the work you're doing.

And it's really impressive, and I agree really with the comments of the mayor that it's the way you're showing up is it's really strong.

So I appreciate that.

Uh I just want to one commend you on taking a technology first approach, which I think is very required.

And I and I just want to the reason I speak up is because I just want to reiterate how important that is uh with the time that we are in right now.

We're at this really pivotal point where that makes a huge difference.

Um I also, you know, transparency, consistency and metrics, really appreciate that.

And I have two questions before that.

I'll just make one more comment.

You know, consistency you mentioned, which I think is such an important thing because I think when you talk about service delivery and you talk about public interactions with the city, consistency in addition to accuracy can really yield a lot of benefits and trust.

And so I think that uh is a really good focus to have.

My only little questions are, and they're more sort of numbers-oriented.

When we see this gap increasing in applications versus permits issued, do we also see a commensurate increase in time to permit issued and how much is that growing by?

And I'll say my second question out now.

Do we know what our average time for permit issuance is, and then what does the long tail look like?

Versus that I'll take the first question and I'll let the team fill in anything that they would like to add.

It is interesting, and I appreciate that question because that line graph tells a different story depending on what the data says behind it.

And as you know, in the economic uncertainty, the council has been very interested in helping the development committee community work through that.

And uh, one of the ways in which you've done that is to extend vesting.

So that has resulted in more applications than we typically would have.

And that actually has increased the gap.

Whereas sometimes if we aren't doing that, it could it could relate directly to timelines.

But I'll let the team provide some more data behind that.

But I think as for what you're seeing today, it is very attributable to the extended vesting.

It is it's kind of a unique time because we have seen a lot of the major projects slow down in the development pipeline.

So the number of applications has increased as opposed to really good economic times where those uh applicants are just pulling their permits.

So we have seen that go up.

Interestingly, we've we're seeing uh timelines and city performance improve at the same time.

So it's kind of contrary to that that graph that you see there.

Um we do also post all of our timelines on our city website currently, and the new performance dashboard will allow people to see how we're performing against established targets.

So just creating even more accountability and transparency in the process.

So thank you for the question, Councilmember.

The only thing that I would add is that across development services, all of the review teams have had added contracts with outside consultants to have more capacity to respond quickly when we see uh changes in the workload.

And I think your final question, you might need to repeat it uh because I'm not sure I've heard all of it.

Average timeline issues.

Yeah, no, just the average timeline for permits issued if you have that for residential, and if there's a long tail, um so it depends upon what permit type that we're talking about.

On average, for like single family permits, for example, those are running about four to six months right now.

That includes not just the time that it's spent in the city's court, but also in the applicants court.

So we do often see uh some permit applicants who become non-responsive, so that can add to that overall timeline.

But that number has come down over the last year.

Okay.

Thanks.

Thank you so much, Councilman Bargado.

Anyone else has any call?

Yeah, uh, Councilmember New in House, please.

Great.

You go first, and then we go to the Councilwoman Robinson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um great job.

Really appreciate the the uh the presentation this evening and uh uh especially taking a moment there to look at some of the accomplishments uh as well.

Uh we're always trying to knock out that next thing.

We don't always look back and say, wow, we've actually accomplished quite a bit over the last uh year or two, and I really appreciate the uh uh the great focus that uh this and entire team, entire department has had on improving uh development services, as my colleagues have mentioned, it's such an important uh uh aspect to uh a well-run city.

Um, and it's really important to the the overall functioning of the city.

Um, and we all rely on uh just a just a great team, so thank you.

I just had one question um uh on slide 14 about the small business program.

Could you elaborate a little bit more about what you're going to be looking at with uh within that small business program and the things they're gonna uh address as it relates to small businesses in our city?

So we have a web page dedicated to the new program, and it's got a great graphic, but we utilize a lot of names, uh, concierge, uh ombudsperson, but essentially it's a person you can call to help direct you to any part of the process.

So it's almost like a no-rong door for some a customer of small business that needs assistance.

So we're working very collaborative collaboratively with other departments in the city, economic development, finance asset management, business licensing to make sure we're helping get customers the answers they need.

We're also helping them from the front end to identify the appropriate site.

It helps everybody if we can ensure that our small businesses who need to spend every penny wisely are spending it in the right place.

So helping them identify very quickly before they've invested a lot in a particular site, which might be a better site for them and help direct them to that place, get economic development to help with site selection, uh, working together that way their investment is going to actually yield a return for them.

And we've gotten fantastic positive feedback from that.

I think people have felt very thankful that they have just somebody they can call that will always call them back.

And we've been working closely with the chamber and small business chamber and also uh our fire department and our fire foundation at uh finding ways to provide resources, actual tangible resources to our small businesses when they open their brick and mortar storefronts.

Is there an additional fee for the uh for the business to have the concierge service?

No, it is fully general funded.

That's fantastic because I hear it so often, you know, especially a small business, first time interacting with the city, unsure about the process, the paperwork, who they should call, um, you know, the uh especially someone opening a business for the first time, you know, you know, members of our immigrant community might have some some language challenges as well.

So the the fact that we can respond in a culturally appropriate way and and get them what they need in a timely fashion is uh is is really important and really important work.

So thank you so much for that.

Thank you, Councilwoman Ewanhaus.

Uh, Councilmember Robinson.

I can hear you, yeah.

Okay.

Um I just want to make one quick comment that uh the um graph showing as the volume increases, uh the capacity increases.

Uh that is so impressive that you've been able to do whatever you have to do to adapt to the increased demand of your services.

And so I just want to commend you the whole department for that.

Thank you so much, Councilwoman Robinson.

Yeah, please.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thanks for the update, everyone.

Uh, certainly very pleased to see the continued effort to improve overall efficiency of the department and focus on speeding up its work.

Uh the department's vision of building the best Bellevue together is an impactful way of organizing our approach and emphasizes the importance of partnering with our community members.

The 26-27 continuous improvement work program looks solid.

Clearly, you have set some good goals and enough of them to keep you very busy as always.

Uh, combined with the loopy work plan presented earlier tonight.

It's clear you'll have another very busy year ahead.

Uh, please keep up the great work and continue to focus on speeding up your processes.

I think that's a primary way that you've made so much progress.

And I think there is a growing sense as well that our development services team is setting the standard regionally.

Not only does our community benefit from your best in class service, but our region benefits from your leadership.

So keep up the good work.

Look forward to the next update.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Councilmember some other video.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll keep it short.

Um, so I love the presentation.

Thank you for your hard work and also the together value that just really spoke to my heart.

But somebody who's really close to my heart once told me that a way to value somebody's growth and the project's growth, it's the way that we are proactively seeking for feedback and also the demonstrate curiosity.

And you got both of them.

So I think that's the golden start right there.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you so much.

I think we can uh go to our next study session, the recommended 2026-2031 economic development plan.

City manager, would you please introduce that to us?

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Deputy Mayor and Council.

I am very pleased to have council receive and review a recommended economic development plan for 2026 to 2031.

This plan is shaped by considerable amount of research and by council input in this fall, and of course uh a significant stakeholder and community input.

It's also very aligned with our 2044 comprehensive plan, and you'll see um its alignment with our strategic target areas.

There's a strong focus in this um plan with um targeted goals and strategies that will help us further our economic development objectives and also help us remain competitively in the economic sense.

So we have tonight to present this.

Uh, we are seeking um council um consideration to provide direction to bring this back for adoption at a future meeting.

Um, Jesse Canado, our chief economic development officer, and Ellie Ha, our economic development specialist.

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

Thank you, City Manager.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Uh Ellie and I are very excited to be here tonight uh to give an update on over a year of work with EY and our partners and the business community uh on a recommended update to our economic development strategy that continues work on broad-based prosperity and building a diverse economy that is resilient across economic cycles.

Uh, across the engagements over the last year, the council and our partners have continued to mention resilience and the recommended strategies that Ellie will go through tonight are intentionally responsive to that goal and help sharpen Bellevue's strengths and support regional prosperity.

As the city manager mentioned, at the end of tonight's uh presentation and conversation, we hope that you will consider directing us to prepare the plan for adoption at a future meeting.

Our agenda tonight is pretty straightforward.

I will give a little bit of background on where we've been, who we've engaged, and how that has been incorporated into the work, and then Ellie will dive a little bit deeper into the actual strategies and plans that are in the recommended plan.

In terms of where we've been, the council kicked off the process for updating the plan in December 2024.

We hired EY as our outside consultants and advisors and spent the first half of 2025 on engagement and analysis of data.

And that analysis included more than 2,000 data points and touch points from our ongoing small business walks, our business retention meetings with medium and small employers in the city, our biennial business survey, as well as intentional engagement with our small business community, our creative community, and some of our major employers.

We reported on those findings and engagements to the council in September, and I'll touch those a little bit in a second.

And since then, we have been working to fine-tune the recommendations.

In the intervening time, the market has given us some pretty good feedback.

Hopefully, the council has seen some of the announcements in the last two weeks.

Companies like Uber, Databricks, OpenAI, and XAI have either announced or kind of allowed to be announced commitments of leases of around 700,000 square feet of office space.

And that is a tremendous commitment and sign of confidence in Bellevue.

For reference, the Lincoln Square South office building that houses Fogo de Chow, Nordstrom Rack, and Ascend is about 700,000 square feet.

So those four companies that have announced in the last couple of weeks have committed to a Lincoln Square South size of office of existing office space in Bellevue.

And I'd like to give a special thanks to our team member Corbin, who is our business development manager.

He's not here with us tonight because he's on parental leave.

But Corbin's intentional and proactive engagement with Databricks and OpenAI are part of the reason that they came to Bellevue.

So it reflects Bellevue's intentional and proactive engagement with the business community.

There are fourth kind of overarching themes within the recommended plan that includes growing and maintaining support for both existing small businesses and new small businesses, so that wherever a business is in its life cycle, whether it's a first-time founder who's looking for assistance creating their first business, or it's a company like Dozone that started in Bellevue and now has locations up and down the West Coast and recently expanded to the Dallas area, that we can support businesses at all scales and all parts of their maturity cycle.

There was a strong desire and reflected in the plan for Bellevue and Washington to remain a competitive place to do business, particularly competitive compared to other states in the Union.

Because businesses drive job growth and job growth creates wages for our families and our households that helps them have a high quality of life here in Bellevue and in our region.

There is a theme to proactively prepare for the AI transformation through workforce initiatives and centering Bellevue and our companies as a thought leader in AI.

And if the council approves moving forward with the plan tonight, we are already thinking about how to begin easy implementation of some items.

For example, uh last week I was engaged with the Tech Alliance, and we started discussing things like reshaping our Startup 425 Tech Week activities to focus intentionally on AI and aligning with Microsoft's AI for good theme.

All of these things together, we believe will maintain Bellevue's reputation as a high quality place to live, work, learn, and visit.

And now with before Ellie dives into the details, a little summary of what we heard from the council in September.

The council asked for a plan that was both bold and doable, bold and doable, that raised Bellevue's global profile and continued to elevate the city as an international community.

You also asked for stronger supports for small business, a little extra attention for Eastgate, and a strong desire that Bellevue and our innovative companies should lead the AI transformation, not be led by it.

We believe the recommended plan strikes a balance between visionary and pragmatic and will create a positive feedback loop where job growth supports small business growth that supports continued primary employment growth and continues to improve Bellevue's quality of life.

So with that, I will hand it over to Ellie to dive into the details.

Thank you, Jesse.

Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Council members.

I'm very excited to walk you through the our recommended plan.

So Bellevue's comprehensive plan has articulated an economic development vision, as being a hub for global business and innovation, and a goal of supporting a strong local economy with opportunities for all to prosper, consistent with a high quality of life and a sustainable natural environment.

This vision and goal is further supported by the objectives that Council identified for vibrant economy strategic target area.

So this overarching vision goal and objectives combined with our research analysis and strategies, formed the economic development plan for council adoption.

That's attachment A in your packet.

And we also have an associated action plan.

It includes tactics on implementation, and that's attachment B in your packet.

Now let's zoom in and take a closer look at the objectives.

Council identified six objectives for the vibrant economy strategic target area.

And these are just keywords.

The full descriptions are included on page two of the recommended plan.

Our strategies are organized under each of these six objectives.

There are roughly three to four strategies for each objective.

And then we have for each strategy, we have multiple actions for implementation.

Over the next few slides, I will walk you through all of the strategies.

As to actions, there are a total of 62 of them.

So I would just highlight a few actions that speak directly to council's priorities.

All right, let's start with the economic diversity.

And supporting the emerging industry sectors, especially those sectors that are still relatively small in Bellevue but have great growth potential.

These first two strategies really aim at addressing the diversifying our economy so that Bellevue is more resistant during all different economic cycles.

The last strategy, the third one, focuses on working with businesses already in Bellevue to provide them with support, keep them here, and help them grow.

And by the way, the order of our strategies and actions do not indicate any uh any ranking or priorities.

We have a lot of actions within these strategies, and I would just highlight a couple that are especially exciting.

Um Bellevue has been attracting businesses over the years without much investment in marketing, which is amazing.

However, uh, in order to reach the job growth target that Jesse just mentioned, it's time to be a little more intentional.

So we propose a media campaign to highlight Bellevue's advantages, and we will start off targeting the industries that we want to attract to Bellevue to diversify our economy.

The second idea, industry events.

Um we would like to work more closely with Bellevue, uh visit Bellevue to bring more industry conferences and events to Bellevue.

Uh the idea is that when business leaders are in the city attending the events, they are experiencing our city firsthand.

And we want to be intentional to uh take advantage of those moments to highlight our city and spark relocation interest.

Objective two focuses on small businesses.

Um made it clear we need to work on small business displacement and affordability.

So that is front and center here.

We also want to expand uh the growth of our entrepreneur system to encourage more scalable businesses, and the third strategy focuses on working with small businesses already in our city.

Uh really um do a better job sharing resources with them and keep them here.

We already have a quite robust, robust small business team, but we want to be intentional.

And I have a long list of actions to highlight here.

The first four focus on affordability.

And here this action calls for expanding the program to other business districts.

The second action is about developing affordable commercial spaces on city-owned properties as part of larger redevelopment.

And we would like to look into mitigating impact fees for small businesses, especially those locally owned restaurants and retail businesses.

The fourth action is looking at looking at a zoning to encourage more naturally occurring affordable retail space like a corner stores and a neighborhood cafe.

The bottom two actions focus on the permitting process.

Our colleagues in the previous study session mentioned the concierge position.

Our actions here refer to, we would like to look at the possibility of scaling up that role and further improve the process.

And also the last action here in increase add permit review staff time.

The third objective focuses on growing private and partner investment through developing new tools or exploring new tools to catalyze growth throughout the city and leveraging existing tools and private public-private partnerships to improve environment for businesses.

The third strategy speaks directly to the high office vacancy issue in the Eastgate commercial area.

And one concern council brought up was our tax competitiveness.

So we included an action here to advocate for state regulatory and tax environment that encourage business investment.

Belvious talent is our competitive advantage.

And the also look at identifying and removing barriers for employment, for example, housing, transportation, child care.

And lastly, we work with education partners and workforce partners to further support the providing education and apprenticeship and job placements to our residents and workers in the city.

A couple actions here, developing up skilling and reskilling programs in partnership with our educational institutions.

And Startup 425 program is an existing successful program for business creation.

We would like to leverage that program to target workers who lost their jobs and provide them with training and resources to help them start business.

Equity and inclusion that's included in our all of our programs and initiatives.

The strategies here specifically target historically marginalized communities to provide access to them, to connect them to higher wage careers, and support enrollment and completion of in training programs.

Also connect entrepreneurs with resources to help them overcome barriers.

We would like to implement targeted up scaling initiatives to connect people with higher wage careers.

Also work with our partners to draw more visitors to our city and continue to support Bell Red Arts District and other arts clusters.

Well, in terms of action, we would like to look into better utilize city-owned facilities for events and programming.

And also as our city grows, we are seeing an increased need for an outdoor event venue.

And so we would like to conduct a feasibility study to see what it might look like.

All right.

So we have just walked through all strategies included in the economic development plan.

And the example actions listed on the right side, that they are included in the action plan document.

The document will give us a little flexibility so that we can stay nimble and adaptable in this fast-changing economic environment.

We plan to update the document working with the city manager to update it every two years or sooner as we make progress.

And here is a snapshot of that document.

For each action item, we included details about the key departments involved, the time frame, and our estimated cost, in terms of number of dollar signs, and other details.

With that, I'm handing it back to Jesse to talk about next steps.

Thank you, Ellie.

There are many next steps in implementing 62 actions in an ED plan.

But at the high level, early implementation on the plan will be supported by the 2025-2026 budget and just sharpening and adjusting some of our existing programs to help support implementation of the plan.

We will, of course, have staff work with our internal and external partners to provide some additional analysis and iteration on things that require additional work and bring back options to the council for things that might require a policy or budget adjustment.

We'll also be reporting back twice a year to the council on our progress on implementing the plan.

And as Ellie pointed out, the action plan does include several metrics for each of our strategies, and includes things we'll be measuring like the goal of adding 34, 3100 net new jobs every year through 2031, averaging almost 1,400 new businesses per year, reducing the vacancy rate in Eastgate by half, attracting an additional 800,000 overnight visitors annually, and looking for positive upward momentum in educational attainment for our diverse residents.

So all of those things will be reported back twice a year to the council as we make progress.

So with that, I will hand it back to the council for questions and feedback.

Thank you so much, Jesse Ali, Emil, and the whole team for putting this together.

The amazing conversation that you had with businesses, workers, and community completely is obvious in the plan.

To me, what diff what different I felt when I was reading this is not any more vision heavy, is more really implementation focused framework that I really really appreciate that.

Before I go to my uh council colleagues for question, please, when you're asking your question at the end or at the beginning, tell us that if you uh okay with uh this plan for adoption for a future meeting, and if you also are okay to come as a on consent.

So please uh tell me about those two things and also if you have a very um large question about the action plan, the action items in the plan uh asset offline because tonight we are not talking about the action items.

On that note, Councilmember Robinson, I'll start with you.

I didn't have anything but praise, so I'll leave it at that.

Thank you so much, Councilman Robinson.

Councilmember Smodovero.

Thank you.

Um I just have uh a quick question or suggestion on the slide 12.

Um there is talk about upscaling and rescaling.

Is there any room we can talk about cross-training?

Where I mean, as we know, the grade resignation and quit quite quitting, is uh uh it's a showcase of you know our workforce is not satisfied with how they're growing.

So I was wondering if there's any space for us to think about cross-training, where, for example, it could be a friend of a house, chef maker, I mean pastry maker then transition to a master chef in the back, something like that.

Just a thought.

Yes, council member.

That would be part of our our work and implementation would include bringing together some of our higher ed and uh education providers or training providers to see what we can do to help provide some cross-training or help people who want to transition with or within a sector or into a whole new one.

Absolutely.

Okay, and then would the possibility to have partnership with the school district and also maybe Bellview College still we can like help our kids locally to be more job ready.

Yes, so our workforce development specialists uh on the economic development team engages regularly with Bellevue College, and we've been building some new bridges with uh Bellevue School District.

So, yes, they will be prime partners.

All right, thank you so much.

Yes, I uh moved to do I agree to adapt later days.

And colon consent.

Great.

Uh Councilmember New Enhaus.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh and Jesse and Ellie, thank you so much.

You know, uh admittedly, I think I've been uh critical at times of our economic development.

Um but I think this plan uh is probably the strongest plan that I have seen since my time on the dais.

Um I appreciate the amount of outreach that you have done.

Uh I appreciate you really listening to what myself and my colleagues uh were looking for in this plan.

Um covering off on the diversification of our economy, small businesses, uh the investment tools, um, the focus on retention, how important that is, as well as as as getting more aggressive, as you rightly pointed out, uh, and putting some more time, effort, and resources behind attracting more companies here to Bellevue and making Bellevue the you know, our brand more known.

Um, because it won't take much uh once they get here and they see it to find out that um this might be a place where they want to do business and set up shop and and we're gonna help them do that.

So uh great job.

I particularly like um a lot of the metrics.

I could quibble about some of them, um, but um, and and also some of the buckets uh in terms of where the money's going, but for the most part, it hits what I'm looking for in terms of the metrics, and I really look forward to um uh seeing those metrics um in the from the strategic plan or those action items um uh going going forward and seeing how close we can come to that and then uh maybe adjusting as we go along, but um, but uh a lot of them really really hit and um just really impressed with the uh the work there.

The one question I I have for you, um as you rightly pointed out, we haven't had to do too much to attract great businesses here in Bellevue.

I think about why that is.

Um, you know, one were the benefit of some amazing companies here, um, and those employees have created other great companies here.

Um this is a great place to live in the country.

Um we're a business-friendly city, and that has meant a lot and has done a lot to attract companies here.

However, one of the other key elements was our tax competitiveness.

That has declined significantly, as you know, Jesse, over the last five, ten years.

We now rank 45th out of 50 in tax competitiveness.

Most business owners will tell you some of the key things that they looked for was no income tax here in Washington state.

Um now we're looking at that.

We're looking at increases or looking at payroll uh uh uh tax, uh capital gains tax.

Some of these taxes directly hurt uh startups as well as the larger companies.

So, and this legislative session is not over yet, but um this could dramatically make your job harder in terms of attracting and retaining companies here.

So, what's kind of the uh the the plan when we're competing against other states that can offer that and and and and we can't.

How are we going to counter that going going forward?

Because Jesse, I'm sure this has come up in conversations uh before, so I'm just kind of curious how we deal with that question when it comes up.

Absolutely, and it's a it's a good question, Councilmember.

Thank you for asking it.

Uh, it came up last week while I was engaging with some of my colleagues.

Um and so the the short answer would be that it's a partnership between economic development and our government relations team.

Uh as you know, the council adopted a legislative agenda that prioritizes keeping Washington a competitive environment.

So I've engaged with Katie Halsey and our government relations team on things like are there additional data points, additional analyses like the one that we did with EY that showed our our drop in competitiveness that would help tell the story in Olympia about how their choices uh impact the business environment.

And one of the the interesting pieces of feedback that I got from uh one of my my peers in Snahomish County is that many of our legislators have never gotten an economic development one-on-one kind of session.

So they're not sure how how economic development uh impacts the job growth and the state.

So there's a there's a lot of work we can do in partnership with government relations and our our regional partners to help elevate that message.

Okay.

With our regional partners and with our electeds, I get that, but what about the companies that we're trying to attract?

What are we going to tell them?

So for that, we will continue for now to lean on Bellevue as an incredible place to do business because of our infrastructure, our public safety, and our high quality of life.

There are some other things in the action plan or in the strategies in this economic development plan that might create some additional tools that create either incentive or a powerful like uh think tank or hub that could be a natural attraction for companies, even in light of some potentially higher uh regulatory environment.

Okay.

I I see this as an opportunity for us to maybe look at a way um that uh Bellevue might be able to create an incentive or create um yeah, I guess incentive would be the best word for it, but uh a way that somehow we can somehow counter that.

I don't know what that looks like, but I just want to um see that idea that this could be an opportunity for us uh to to look at it from a different perspective to somehow address uh this issue or this concern that inevitably will come up.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilwoman New Hass.

And you are okay, Victoria.

Oh, yes, okay, moving it forward, okay on consent.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh Councilwoman Broy.

I'll start with saying okay on both items.

Thank you.

Um, Jesse, first order of business.

As a native Texan, I think your cowboy boots are just fantastic.

Uh thank you.

I appreciate all the comparisons to Texas in this report as well.

And if I tell you that the stars at night are big and bright, how would you respond, Jesse?

Deep in the heart of Texas and in the heart of Bellevue.

That's right.

That's exactly right.

Thank you so much.

All right, let's jump right in.

I love all the positive aspects of this.

We are seeing the increase of our average residence income by 39%.

Of course, the introduction of open AI and now XAI and uh, you know, building an AI quarter.

But more importantly, I appreciate that you've grounded this by saying while these positive things are happening, you're not over-emphasizing or focusing on marketability, you're focusing on the challenges that come with that.

I mean, I think that is critical.

Parts of the world's uh workforce, especially here in Bellevue, might become obsolete with the introduction of AI.

So talking about um safety nets and workforce training uh is fantastic.

Uh key finding six in the report says that local businesses are experiencing challenges despite increased retail trends here.

So addressing this with um addressing this in the action plan where you outlined concrete steps to create affordable retail space for Bellevue uh born and raised businesses is just incredible.

Um last item I have is for the economic action plan.

I see that we have a budgeted uh paid media campaign to attract more businesses.

As someone who's fiscally responsible, I don't think we should be spending money on hiring an actress to do this.

Instead, I think you should hire me as your lead actress.

You don't have to pay me, and I'm willing to take that sacrifice to save the city some money.

Um but it don't laugh, it's so serious.

Um, but in all seriousness, uh I think there'd be some really great opportunities to showcase all of our communities and businesses in Bellevue.

So thank you for the work and yes to both things.

Thank you so much, and I appreciate the humor, Councilmember Bargava.

All right, thank you.

Yes and yes.

Um that's great.

Thank you again for the incredible work.

Uh I really appreciate uh the um the rigor, the depth, the breadth of what you're doing, and also the successes speak for themselves.

And uh so congratulations on that.

Umgratulations of the 700,000 square feet.

That's huge.

Uh special mention to Corbin because he's not here, but hey.

Um I also really want to acknowledge your focus and not just economic growth, because I think that is really, really important and what your job is, but also your focus on building resiliency.

Because that I think is just as important.

And you mentioned it upfront, and you acknowledge that, you highlight that, and I'm sure your strategies, as I've seen them, also reflect that.

So that I think is really important, and I would encourage you to continue that.

Uh I also uh uh plus one to the affordable spaces, which I think is really great.

Uh, incubation space is really important for business growth.

It gives an opportunity for things to to flourish and find find roots when when it's really hard to do that.

And if Bellevue can do that for small businesses, I think that'll be a really big win.

Uh would love to see some of the more tactical details on how we can actually accomplish that.

City owned properties can be a great start.

Um plus one also on Councilmember Neilhouse's push uh on the advocacy on the tax uh competitiveness.

Uh and I think you're doing a lot for that, but I that that would be really top of mind for a lot of folks who might be considering coming to Bellevue.

And so let's let's focus on that.

The only um really one question I have that I would love not deep detail, but just a very high-level response would be adequate.

Is you talk about your four pillars, and your fourth pillar is AI preparedness.

Can you speak a little bit about what you're doing to do that?

Yes, council member.

Uh, we can talk a little bit about uh a two-pronged approach.

So there would be some workforce initiatives in partnership with Bellevue College, the school district, other training providers that would help with reskilling, uh cross sector training that would allow people to transition to uh new market segment or a different career as if their job is impacted by AI.

Then there's the other portion, which is more of the business recruitment and business formation piece.

So that would be helping uh bring in new jobs.

So, like the the companies that announced their uh expansions this week all have significant, if not if they're not directly AI related, they have significant AI arms like Uber.

So it's bringing in those new jobs that are AI related or growing out of the AI transformation, so that as a an existing employer might shed some middle management or um easily automatable jobs.

We're bringing in jobs that are supporting the growth of the AI industry that keep us at the center.

Okay, I got it.

I misunderstood what you had initially thought of when I was thinking of AI preparedness versus what you're thinking of is really interesting because many cities have built brands on sectors of technology, like cloud computing could be one where we think of specific cities where they have built a hub, and you could be thinking of that as an economic development brand for Bellevue, where we become the center of excellence and technology sort of bleeding edge for AI, where companies come because there is a critical mass of workforce and talent here that they can continue to flourish.

I think it's an interesting idea.

Appreciate it.

Thank you so much, Councilman Bargaba.

Deputy Mayor.

Thank you.

Appreciate the presentation.

I think my colleagues have hit on all of the superlatives and how excellent uh this work is.

I'll just mention as well that uh I appreciate how you've incorporated the feedback that we've provided previously.

So thank you for that.

Couple of uh questions and you can an email for this is fine.

Um, but I'm particularly interested in uh affordable commercial space and in general in uh business districts, and then affordable commercial space on city-owned land.

So just kind of curious, uh, and just to follow up if you could provide some examples of that and what kind of what you're thinking, and then two um, you know, if we're budgeted for that, or if you you feel like there's some additional um resources that you might need to to uh act on those.

Um really like this expanding access to capital and financing for entrepreneurs.

So I think that that's really interesting to me.

I'd have the same question on that one.

If you could just kind of give me a little description, and then we could talk about the cost.

Um number of other things too that you know I I think are really important.

I think the whole plan really stands out.

Um, good to see the the grand connection in there.

Um, I think that's gonna be super important for us.

So I'm glad we're focusing on that.

We're focusing on Eastgate.

Um we are focusing on tools like a business improvement district.

I think a bid is something that the city I know we're taking a look at, but I think there's a lot of good that could come uh from that effort as well.

Um workforce development, all good.

Um, so I think the objectives look good.

Uh, you know, you have your work cut out for you, but uh it seems very intentional.

I just came away from reading through the plan and feeling very excited about what's ahead.

So look forward to seeing the impacts and look forward to having you back for an update.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mayor.

Are you okay for great?

Uh thank you so much.

I think uh the everyone has said majority of what I wanted to say.

The we want all of the business to be here open, grow, succeed, and we are all doing our best to make it clear, predictable.

And we are, as we mentioned, uh we heard before, we are doing some continuing to improve our processes and making everything understandable and reduce any unnecessary friction and complexity.

At the same time, what makes Build View strong is our safety or taughtful planning or clean and walkable spaces or strong schools or leavable neighborhoods or human services that we provide.

That's kind of our competitive age, and I think we should keep both and we should just double down on everything.

One thing that I've heard is helping businesses, especially under service businesses.

I think the comprehensive package that we can give our underserved businesses is managerial training, access to capital, and improve access to new contract or new market.

And I think if you can see that those three things at the same time and provide that to our especially marginalized uh businesses, I think that would be a win for our city and for us.

Uh councilmember Robinson, um, everyone here uh nodded that they like this to come as a consent calendar.

Are you also okay with that?

Yes.

Great.

So uh can I have a motion and in the motion, please uh add come in the future on consent calendar.

I move to direct staff to prepare the 2631 economic development plan for council action at a future meeting on the consent calendar.

Second.

It has been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by council member Newon House.

Any discussion all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

Uh excellent job.

Thank you so much.

On this note, we have been sitting here for two of the questions.

Okay, great.

Uh we can uh start.

We have um two uh ordinance resolution and motions.

Uh I am going to ask our city manager to introduce the human uh service recommendation funding percentage allocation, please.

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

Um on January 27th, staff presented to you the human services needs update.

Um, and also along with that, the 2027-28 Human Services Commission funding recommendations uh for the percentages to the different um areas of need.

At that council meeting, staff received comments and feedback or um yeah, from the council.

Um, and that feedback has been incorporated into the materials for your consideration tonight.

Um so staff is seeking council adoption of the human services percentage funding recommendations this evening.

Uh Tony Esparza, our assistant director in parks and community services is here again to review that for you and and um help through the process of the adoption.

And she's joined by Shelley McVeigh, the acting director of parks and community services.

And so with that, I will hand it over to Tony Council members.

Thanks for having us back this evening.

So as City Manager Carlson mentioned, we're coming back to you after our January 27th meeting at your direction and seeking your adoption of the recommendations from the commission.

Um I'll briefly touch on some of the information we reviewed at the last meeting just for um the public to come along and reminders for you as well.

So these recommendations were formed in alignment and informed by city policy.

Some examples of that are the uh human services element of the comprehensive plan, the thriving community strategic target area, council priority number 11 that focuses on equitable access to human services, and council priority number 12 that focuses on supporting those of our residents that are unhoused.

In addition, the policies in the human services strategic plan and those in the diversity advantage plan are in alignment with these recommendations.

And of course, you heard at our last presentation the data from the 2025 human services needs update.

So, what we're bringing back to you today for your adoption is these percentage allocation recommendations from the commission.

This slide is unchanged from when you saw it at the last presentation.

Um, those highlights, as you may recall, are the three areas of life safety critical needs that the commission felt were the top priority.

They total just a little over 50% of the funding.

The commission also adopted um target area percentage recommendations for two specific areas.

Those were youth programs and culturally and linguistically specific services.

It's important to remember that all of our agencies are required to serve in the the entire community.

So setting these target areas does not prevent anyone from accessing services at any of our contracted agencies.

It perhaps could expand to encourage uh individuals to have access that previously may not have had that access.

And this slide also is the same information as was presented at the January 27th meeting.

In addition to the percentage allocations, the committee commission also adopted a contingency plan that offers a few things, some slight flexibility based on the types of applications that we see come forward.

It provides recommendations for any um opportunities for added funding where those priorities could land, and it also reiterates the two target areas.

The only change on this slide, um, which is not a change in the packet itself, is there was a typo on this slide.

As you may recall, some percentages had been flipped, but the percentages on this slide are now in alignment with the percentages on the prior slide.

At the 127 council meeting, council also directed staff to bring back an updated definition for consideration of culturally and linguistically specific services.

So on the slide, you have the original definition that was included, which uh came from the council adopted human services strategic plan.

You also have the definition that incorporated language as the council suggested, um, and it uses the language from DAP 2035, Diversity Advantage Plan 2035, Policy E61, and it brings that into the existing definition of culturally and linguistically specific services.

Once we receive council direction on all of this, including the definition, it will be included in our upcoming RFP for human services funding.

Um specifically relative to this definition, just so you understand its application, will be asked the following questions.

The program would first be asked if they believe they meet the definition for a culturally and linguistically specific program.

If so, they would be asked to please describe what linguistic or cultural community the program was designed for, as that's a part of both of those definitions.

Um depending on the definition we receive direction from council to move forward with.

The second question could be different.

Um, the second question using the first definition would say please describe how the services are delivered by individuals from that community.

Um with the second definition, the question would be please describe how the services meet the diverse and evolving needs of Bellevue communities and are delivered through approaches that are shaped by the culture, language, and lived experiences of those receiving the services.

All agency application responses, including those, are provided to the Human Services Commission for their consideration in the formation of their funding recommendations.

And we do thank the council for your deep commitment to human services for those in our uh community that need them and are most vulnerable.

And mayor, we'll turn it back over to you.

Uh thank you, Tony and uh Shelley.

Thank you for being here.

And we have uh I think we had two um chair and voices of the Human Service Commission.

Now we just have the voice chair, Mr.

Hayes, uh amazing body of work.

We appreciate all of that, and I think we talk about how you are impressed by this work.

Uh thanks for coming back.

Uh before uh we started discussion.

Can I have uh someone to make the motion to adopt this resolution, please?

I move to adopt resolution 10585.

Adopting the Human Services Commission recommending funding percentage allocation and contingency recommendations for 2027 to 2028 human services funding as represented in attachments A and B.

Is there a second?

Is being moved by uh Deputy Mayor and seconded by Councilmember New Enhaus.

Now let's just have the discussion.

I will start with uh Councilmember Bargabel.

Okay.

Thanks, uh first of all, I want to again show my gratitude for the incredible work and the continued focus that you bring and the human services commission and the staff for doing all the great work.

So uh this is really really important.

Critical work, especially at this time.

So thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Um of the things that I was reflecting on uh through this in our last conversation is the needs assessment that you brought forward is still continues to be really, really um worrying in many ways for me.

Especially when I think about needs assessment, you know, when we think about safety.

Safety being being able to trust organizations that provide support, not feeling safe, not being able to access services.

And I think the data point, if I'm not getting it wrong, was 54%.

Felt they could, but that's roughly a half and half split, which means half those communities that might be the most vulnerable and the most in need for human services may not feel comfortable accessing those services or trust that they will be able to access those services with safety is a very, very concerning fact.

And so when I reflect more on that, I really feel like there's a need to sort of address this.

And this need becomes even more heightened in the current context in which we're operating, where there is such a lot of fear, and you know, it's a difficult time to be in a situation where you don't feel safe and you don't feel like you can have trust in the agencies and the organizations that are supporting you.

So that really forms a little bit of the framework of how I'm thinking about what we're trying to do here.

Uh I also want to say that there has been conversations about training and support and broadening out this organization.

I don't think that is a or conversation for me.

That needs to be and should be an and conversation because we need to provide immediate support.

We need to provide support where it's needed where the trust can be maximized, and we need to make sure that all organizations have the training and capacity needed to provide these difficult, intricate community rooted services that are sort of in the larger envelope of human services.

And so with that framing and context in mind, I think it is uh I would support going back to the original language because the four of them buy them, I think will provide improved outcomes in this current environment for where we are in the city, and I don't believe that uh by that and by that there's no means by saying that organizations other than that don't provide the quality and support because this budget is large.

This is 24% or 26% of the allocation.

There is a lot of opportunity to do that.

But I think in the current environment and the current needs assessment, I feel compelled to go back to the original language.

That would be my proposal.

Any thoughts or uh feedback is welcome.

I would love to hear what the peers in the council as well say.

Thank you.

He has invited you for any feedback or comments.

If you have.

I think we are here to hear the direction of the council.

Okay, appreciate it.

She will respond last time, and she's not going to respond to any of your threat.

Um Deputy Mayor.

Oh, great.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um I just want to be clear about the human services recommendation that we're considering.

Um, and this was attachment A in the agenda memo.

And I just want to be I'm curious to know if the commission reviewed and recommended the current language included in the section on culturally and linguistically specific programs.

Yeah, thank you for the question, Deputy Mayor.

So I think that perhaps that could cause some confusion, and so let me clarify that.

Um, the commission has not changed anything that they sent forward as a recommendation.

So to uh create a paperwork trail for your resolution, we put the council's requested language onto that, but no, the commission did not update the language on attachment A.

Okay, great.

Um are there any other changes that were made to the recommendation besides that one since we saw it two weeks ago?

Good question.

There were not.

Okay, thank you.

Um we heard from any social service providers that they had somehow been disadvantaged in the award granting process because of the original language, and in other words, is the change in language an attempt to correct an unfairness.

Um I heard a comment tonight from an agency that um uh seems to have been uh pointed to the fact of a priority for culturally linguistically specific services as perhaps a reason they received less funding.

Um I'm I'm not clear on what conversation that was, so what I will just do is provide some broader context.

When there's when there's multiple factors at play in any situation, it's hard to draw a direct causation effect to one factor.

And so some of you may recall, and those of you that knew to the council may also be aware, in our last funding cycle, we were approaching the end of federal funding.

So we went from 14 million dollars that the city was distributing in 2024 to 9 million dollars that the city was distributing in 2025, which uh we also received more applications for funding in our last funding cycle than we have ever received before.

And the requests were two and a half times higher than the funding that we had available, which naturally puts a strain across the awards that are given to any agency.

Um so uh I I don't know if that I could draw the correlation that was drawn.

Um I think for context, it's also perhaps helpful to uh be aware that even with that priority in the last funding cycle, the net result was two million to culturally and linguistically specific agencies and seven million to all the other.

So, even with that as a target, there's still funding being distributed across all agencies.

Okay, great, thank you.

Um so I appreciate that we've had the chance to have some additional time to get an understanding of the proposed change to the human services funding recommendation.

Uh, with that, I'm more convinced now that the Human Services Commission's definition of culturally and linguistically specific programs is critically important and should remain in the plan as they originally had it.

This language focuses on programs that we know many of our community members have difficulty assessing.

We should remove barriers for participants of all programs.

We identify community needs and support programs to address the community needs.

When we see barriers for participants of programs that are designed for a particular linguistic or cultural community, then we should do our best to eliminate those barriers.

We're not talking, we're not really talking about a community need.

We are already convinced the need is real.

Further, we know that as diverse as our community is, so too are their needs.

So to make our programs the most impactful to get the most value out of our limited human resources funds, we need to be targeted.

The original language of the human services recommendation does that in a way that is completely consistent with our typical approach.

Well, I was when I was on the parks board, we heard from community members that struggled to get their kids signed up for day camp.

Parents were staying up until late into the night in an effort to enroll a child into one of the camps.

A barrier was identified and a solution was found.

We wanted all community members to have an equal chance to participate, so we eliminated a barrier and changed our approach to day camp signups and held them at a time that parents could fit into their already hectic schedules.

The human services original recommendation follows this same approach.

Their definition of culturally and linguistically specific programs helps ensure that barriers are removed for our community members, and the proposed language and attachment A weakens our commitment to increasing access to critical programs.

I cannot support the change in in language and plan to offer an amendment later that restores the Human Services Commission's original language.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much, uh Deputy Mayor.

Councilwoman Breuer.

Yeah, I'll be brief.

Uh I want to be data-driven here.

If memory serves me correctly, it was January 27th.

Uh, that this language, it was introduced to us at this language, um, was an explicit ask from partner organizations from the Human Services Commission.

So I would like to vouch, and I'm of the belief that we ought to return back to the original language.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Councilwoman Ewenhouse.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um thank you again for the update for working so quickly.

Um thank you for being so diplomatic and unbiased too in your answers.

Um I I am in favor of the uh of moving this forward in terms of the funding percentage allocation and the contingency, and I too um uh would uh revert back to the original uh definition of what as well uh as relates to the culturally and linguistically specific uh programs.

And my questions have already been answered, so that's it, Mayor.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Councilmember some other video.

Okay, I better do a better job.

Um but for me, I think um I want to try to stay lean, so I'm gonna try and keep it as we hear from the um public comment.

Minnesota may be far, but this is happening out background, right?

So, like my kids go to big picture, which is exactly the federal activities happen.

I know I don't know if we should talk about this, but that's how I felt actually have the calling to the language linguistic.

Um, as a first generation immigrant, that my kids may not look like some different everybody else, right?

And then also my parents who're gonna be doing the pickup drop-off, they're gonna be scared.

So I think when they need help, they need somebody who speaks their language, either going to the hospital and go to different places.

So I agree with the rest of the with my colleagues that we should revert back to the language because I think that is gonna remove the barrier that who somebody able for me to do this job.

I need to make sure that everybody I love stay safe.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh Councilmember Robinson.

Thank you.

I I I did want to apologize for not being there tonight.

I have a really nasty cold, and I didn't want to share it with everybody.

Yeah, I appreciate it.

But um I want to just start by commending our human service commission.

I know that everybody thinks that the commission there, the liaison to is the hardest working one, but I will vouch for the human services and all the hours and effort that they put into looking at all these applications, considering all the needs in the community and trying to serve them with a limited budget.

They really do an excellent job.

And I appreciate the conversation.

Um I've learned a lot over since our meeting on the 27th, and um have talked to a lot of people.

And I know that we all have the same goals of serving our community, our very diverse community in the most effective way possible with as I say limited funds.

And um, you know, I wanted to be consistent with our diversity advantage plan, but having listened to my colleagues and listened to the providers in the community, uh I I do support what the planning, I mean, the um human service commission is recommending.

Um I don't think it's enough.

And I would like to add, not not in the motion or anything, but just as a thought that we try to make all our agencies more culturally specific, and that they have people from the diverse community on their boards and providing services, and if that is not possible to have people of the community they're serving helping to provide services and that they partner with other agencies or even hire other agencies to supplement the delivery so that they can meet that goal.

So that's just the thought that I have.

Um as far as the motion goes, I will support the motion with the uh recommended percentages and definition by the um human service commission.

Thank you so much, Councilman Robinson, and thank you for the thought on we should do more.

Uh, I have uh several questions.

Um if we go with the original language, is there and we delivered these services by the people from that community.

Do we have enough qualified provider in Bellevue right now to meet the needs and demands that we have?

I think across the human services continuum through all agencies, um, the demand for services far exceeds availability right now.

Great.

Do we have any data that shows that the provider's personal background directly leads to a better long-term result?

Um within the world of human services, there might be studies related to that, specific to Bellevue.

No, we don't track that data.

But but do we heard um anecdotal that the experience was qualitatively?

Absolutely, yes.

We absolutely heard in both this needs update and actually our last one, which is what informed the development of the human services strategic plan of our community asking to please have more access to people who have lived their lives the same as them, so that they could access those services in a way that best meets their needs and feel uh a level of safety in doing so, which doesn't express distrust to other agencies, it just expresses the level of fear that exists in the community.

Great.

If uh we are changing, Bellevue is changing rapidly.

If a new cultural group come to here tomorrow, the original one doesn't have any risk for us, the original language.

Um actually, the one of the reasons for adopting a priority such as this in the human services strategic plan was an acknowledgement of newly emerging agencies, and that we have agencies that are uh developing out of response to community need, and they are typically grassroots coming out of their own community.

Um it's uh, you know, there's another priority in the human services strategic plan that specifically talks about providing equitable access to funding for agencies.

So how do we reach out to newly developing agencies who have not experienced government funding before and try to bring them along?

So it's really a paired effort of those two things that are trying to say that needs emerge, and we want to make sure that we are being responsive to new agencies coming to the table.

And last question, and then I have one comment.

Is do have you have you have we know there is no um legal hiring risk or legal that's we can our criteria in weighting the this organization?

Is it legal that we have that language in the original one?

Uh we have our city attorney here, but I will say our plans have been reserved, uh reviewed by legal.

If the city attorney would like to weigh in, please feel free.

She's not um I will say that within our contracts uh with all agencies, they are required to um uh uh commit to and have a non-discrimination policy, both in their hiring and in their delivery of services.

And again, our contracts for services with agencies require that they serve all Bellevue residents, so it is not exclusionary, it's to increase inclusion.

Thank you.

Uh and I I think I'm just want to ask all of this question to just make sure that we are uh, or at least I am making the right decision because we know that the trust is the founding foundation of any services.

Uh I do some uh mentor mentoring, and um the person I am mentoring has a different language than I have a different language, and he never calls me the best mentor.

But then across me, there is the same, then another mentor and mentees, they both speak Spanish, and the bond between these two, it's so amazing.

And when I asked him, hey, why from the mentees?

Why do you call them this mentor the best mentor?

He just looked at me and said, and I think he's probably seventh grade.

Uh he said, yeah, I'm just talking to him in my language.

I'm feel comfortable.

So uh I see it firsthand that representation is the foundation of trust.

And uh I think uh as a city, as diverse as we are, uh we cannot uh have a result without a relationship.

So I appreciate uh all of the efforts and I appreciate that you're uh respecting the human service um original recommendation.

Deputy Mayor, do you have an amendment to our uh motion?

I move to amend the language and attachment A defining the target investment area of culturally and linguistically specific services back to the originally recommended language to read programs and services that are designed for a particular linguistic or current cultural community and delivered by individuals from that community.

Second.

It has been moved by our deputy mayor and seconded by council member New Enhouse.

Any further discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate you all.

I believe you need to go back to your original um the main motion.

The main motion.

Yes.

He did my turn.

Yeah, I didn't see the point.

Uh any further discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed all of the motion passes.

Thank you so much.

We have another ordinance, and this one is um the inter interim official control.

Uh city manager, please.

Council.

Her your direction in December, staff are returning tonight to present the inter official control with an old Bellevue to ensure new development is compatible with historic and existing development in this um part of downtown for council consideration this evening.

Staff will also review options for work plan approach for potential updated regulations and or uh policy changes in the future.

Uh to present tonight, we have Nick Whipple, Code and Policy Director from Development Services and Matt McFarland, our supervising civil attorney from the city attorney's office.

And um, I'm going to I believe hand this over to Matt.

Or Nick.

Good evening.

Uh Mayor Malcoti and Deputy Mayor Hamilton and Council members.

We're pleased to be back as uh city manager mentioned.

We're bringing back the interim official control for this limited stretch of area on Main Street and old Bellevue consistent with council's direction at the December 2nd, 2025 meeting.

So this is um uh agenda item that actually has two prongs to it.

The first prong is going to be council's consideration and action on the interim official control along that stretch of the IOC area in Old Bellevue.

The second prong is council providing direction to update the development regulations for Old Bellevue as part of downtown Livability 2.0.

That's the staff recommendation.

And I believe you'll recall, and I'll talk about this during the slide that the interim official control is designed to be a temporary measure, and if council so desires, there's the opportunity to adopt permanent regulations for Old Bellevue.

So, based on the conversation on December 2nd, uh the way that we have set this up is we're going to provide some background and context for this stretch of Main Street in Old Bellevue and Old Bellevue in general.

Go through what the interim official control does and also what it does not do.

Uh Nick will cover the future work plan options for council to consider on that second prong that we're looking for, and then a quick process summary for council, including the the newer council members who may not be familiar with the uh kind of way that these interim official control processes play out through the Growth Management Act, and then uh once again the request for the two-pronged action tonight.

So, current city code um and policy both already recognize the and encourage preservation of the historic and cultural identity of Old Bellevue.

It recognized this part of downtown as a unique part of downtown, and it also calls out the older and unique design elements, facade treatments, also the uh pedestrian and small scale environment at that kind of main street-facing street level, including where the Grand Connection runs through Old Bellevue as well.

Um, and this is for Old Bellevue, but also throughout the city, the city's balanced um kind of recognizing Bellevue's history, encouraging preservation and protection, but also be prioritizing growth, housing production, mixed use development, commercial development, more recently affordable housing development, and that's kind of the balance that the city has struck over the years.

Um just for background and context, the city hasn't completed any formal kind of cultural or historic resources survey since 1993.

That was updated in 1997.

Uh, there was a historic and cultural resources survey completed with the comp plan periodic update, which occurred back in 2023 and 2024, but that historic and cultural resources survey did not look at Old Bellevue.

It was just limited to the kind of the parts of the city across 405 that were going to be most impacted by the periodic update.

So the proposed interim official control consistent with council direction.

What does it do?

It provides a path to strengthen the preservation and protection of the historic facade treatments in Old Bellevue for the older buildings between 100th and Bellevue Way.

Um there's already an incentive-based uh regulation in the land use code to preserve and protect those facade treatments, but this interim official control would mandate that preservation and protection that's already in the code.

It would also provide the incentives that are in the code and make those as of right.

It requires new development to be compatible with adjacent development, including the unique design features on some of these older facades and the and the older buildings down there, and small-scale pedestrian ordinance is street frontage in Old Bellevue.

And uh once again, it's narrowly tailored to address those two main issues based on uh the policy and the code that already exists.

So, what does the IOC not do?

It doesn't change the baseline development capacity at Old Bellevue, it still allows projects to redevelop.

It does have this preservation and protection requirement for the facades, it does have updated and strengthened design requirements, but it still would allow properties to redevelop based on the zoning and based on the dimensional requirements that are already in place for that part of downtown.

It doesn't affect projects that have been approved by the city, it doesn't affect um complete permit applications that have been submitted by to the city and have been deemed complete.

It only would apply to projects that come in during the time period when the interim official control is in effect.

Um, as I mentioned uh with the previous slide, it's we we tried to narrowly tailor this to be relatively targeted to build off of the policy and code that's already in place, and I you know I can't emphasize this enough.

And I, you know, I can't emphasize this enough.

It's a temporary interim measure while council considers permanent regulations for the same part of old Belleview.

So I'm going to turn it over to Nick for the next two slides, which will cover the DS work plan or the code and policy work plan.

Great.

Thank you, Matt.

And so, as Matt noted, we are seeking some direction as to whether you'd like to adopt the interim official control or not.

And then the second part of this discussion is how would you like to address old Bellevue in a permanent manner?

And so we have a couple of options where you could address that through work plan.

And so option A is the staff recommendation.

This is to address old Bellevue through downtown Livability 2.0, which you heard about with the Loopy work plan brief today.

That will begin, or we plan to initiate that in the spring, and it'll take us about a year or just under a year, we hope, to complete that work.

So through that process, we'd be able to have some direct amendments to respond to some of the concerns raised around Old Bellevue and particularly the appearance of new development on Main Street.

And that would allow us to have some targeted input from community on what they would like to see in terms of development responding to that condition and provide some uh updates in that regard.

The other thing we wanted to just flag here is that old Bellevue is being addressed as part of the housing opportunities and mixed use areas land use code amendment.

That code amendment will be bringing some change to the area when affordable housing thresholds are met.

So there's a certain amount of affordable housing.

The code is trying to provide some incentive and prioritize delivery of more housing and affordable housing by offering some reductions, for example, to upper level stepbacks.

So this is something that the planning commission just made a recommendation on.

You'll be hearing about this at the end of the month when we present that recommendation.

So just keep that in mind as you're considering that planning commission recommendation on HOMA.

Um, and then council may choose you know, when you're reviewing that, whether it's appropriate to for now exclude Old Bellevue from HOMA or keep it in, or make some amendments to how you'd like it to show up in HOMA, and that'll be later this month.

So with option A, um that is our recommendation, it would have minimal impact on the legislative work program that you just heard about this evening.

Um, it could very easily fit within the scope of downtown mobility 2.0.

And then option B is taking it a little bit further, and this is providing a historic and cultural resource comp plan amendment, comprehensive plan amendment, as well as a subsequent land use code amendment.

Um, this would be a new work program item that would allow staff to explore a national, state, or local historic cultural preservation option for old Bellevue.

Um, it would represent a substantial amount of work and would uh also divert some resources from other work program items.

So in our next slide, um, we wanted to just talk through some of the considerations with each of these options.

So, with option A addressing old Bellevue through downtown Livability 2.0, like I said, that would allow for some targeted updates to old Bellevue through an already planned initiative.

Um this would have that minimal impact to our legislative work programs.

Maybe one of the cons here is that might be seen as less protective than having a formal historic preservation program.

And then looking to option B, which is establishing a more formal program.

Um that of course would create some long-term policy tools for the city, um, including looking at how to do local landmarks to certain buildings, um, establishing a historic district and a preservation program to get some more kind of certainty on that's the outcome we're driving towards.

That would entail a multi-year process and require significant coordination with state agencies as well as property owners.

Um, there needs to be some willingness on their part to kind of enter into this as well.

Um, and that also would result in some funding impacts, uh, and then we would need some infrastructure to be able to manage the program.

That might be a preservation board that has more involved review with some of the redevelopment proposals.

So uh this would introduce new regulations that affect redevelopment timelines and some of the property owner flexibility, um, and it would have some significant upfront administrative setup before we could realize any of the potential benefits that this type of program may offer on the other side.

I'll turn it back to Matt.

So for some factual and process um context and background, if you recall on December 2nd, 2025, that's when um Councilmember Robinson first introduced um the option of the interim official control for council to consider bringing back here tonight for council to formally consider the interim official control at that first meeting, council authorized Nick and myself to exceed the eight-hour limitation that typically would limit a request like that.

And then we're also seeking the direction on the future work plan.

Uh one thing that you may have kind of gleaned from the public comment that we heard tonight when you when when the city council or or when the city moves forward with these interim official controls, there is no real public process, there's no public notice, there's no public hearing, there's no planning commission process before council uh has the opportunity to adopt an interim official control.

The idea is that you can adopt these interim official controls and change the land use code amend the zoning quickly without having to go through the otherwise legally required public process.

So by its very nature, interim of an interim official control is designed to be adopted quickly because there's a sense of urgency or it's meant to address an emergency, and that's why the public process is on the back end, and even then it's not the same robust public process that, for example, a full-blown land use code amendment or a comp plan amendment would have.

So the the um statutory requirements do require a public hearing within 60 days of adoption.

That's the opportunity for council to get feedback on the interim official control.

That's a public hearing in front of council.

So if council does choose to adopt this interim official control tonight, Nick and I will be back within 60 days at another council meeting in order to facilitate that public hearing.

And um, once council adopts, it's good for that the interim official control is effective for um six months, and council can extend it uh while the the permanent regs are being developed and that regular land use code amendment process is going forward, council can extend the interim official control for additional six month periods, but with each extension, council would also have to have another public hearing to get that feedback.

So back to the the two-pronged action, the consideration of the interim official control in old Bellevue in that area on Main Street, and then also the direction to update the permanent regulations and the staff recommendation as this part of downtown livability 2.0.

Thank you so much, uh Neek, uh Matt, Rebecca.

She's a still here with us on the back.

I appreciate you all uh that's make it very clear for us to understand what is in our uh in our unit to make a decision on.

Uh before we go to the each council member, uh please make it clear that first do you support the IOC or not?

And also second, do you go with the staff recommendation to bring these as a with a downtown livability to work platform?

So I need uh both affirmation or not affirmation of these two uh two topics.

Uh Councilmember Robinson, we go V to you.

Thank you.

Um so I'll just tell you why I initiated this.

We know from annual surveys that Old Bellevue is one of the most popular areas in Bellevue, and it's a strong economic tool for our city.

And as a council, we unanimously voted to retain the character of Old Bellevue at uh what I think our last retreat or the one before that, but we've never taken any action to do that.

And uh we only have well, I think I think I count it seven properties, but somebody said four older properties left.

And my goal um is to have a conversation with the property owners, the business owners, uh, the old Bellevue Merchants Association and residents on what their goals are for old Bellevue.

And so I am supporting option A, which will if we include Old Bellevue in the downtown livability, that will create uh an opportunity for significant community outreach.

So we can have these conversations.

And I would like to take old Bellevue Otahoma and discuss it uh in the downtown livability.

Um and my reason for wanting the IOC is so that we don't get a rush to permitting before any decision is made.

I don't want to see um people submitting permits really quickly just to get out from under any uh recommendation or any uh legislation that we do.

I'm not interested, I don't think anyone's interested in restricting development.

And uh my one question is we had a good email, uh good question from um the owner of the gas station.

And when you talk about whatever you're building um looking like what what is around you, how does it have affect the gas station property?

Um does you know, if they put um a condo in there or a restaurant, it surely shouldn't have to look like a gas station, right?

So I'm just curious about uh the application of that of the IOC I would say that the IOC is not designed to address maintaining a gas station facade.

I I'm I don't believe that that specific property has any older facade that would be protected or preserved.

Okay.

Um so that I that certainly wasn't the intent of the IOC.

Okay, so to be clear, I'm support option A and I support that IOC.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Robinson.

Uh Councilmember Breyer.

I'd like to ask a question.

Do we know any projects that are coming up in the next six months that this IOC would impact?

Or any folks that are uh talking about submitting permits or anything like that.

And Councilmember Robinson, you may ch if she's allowed to answer that question too, Mayor.

Uh I think the staff probably knows the answer.

Yeah.

Well, I'll just say um, Councilmember Breyer, that if that is an argument not to do an IOC because there are no projects going to be permitted in that six months, and there's no reason not to do an IOC because that nothing would be affected anyway.

That's but I don't know if staff can answer that.

Thank you, Councilmember Robinson.

Go ahead, please.

Sure.

Um, to the question of uh whether we are aware of any development um interest in the stretch on old view or old main rather um for the IFC area.

Uh we have contacted our land use division um just to see if there's been any pre-application activity, any pre-development services activity for that stretch of Old Maine.

Um that's usually a good indication that there's interest in redevelopment.

Um, and they have indicated to us that they have not seen anything as of recent.

Okay, I see.

Um at this time I'd like to support staff recommendation and addressing this in downtown livability 2.0.

Mayor, may I um listen to other council comments prior to the other decision?

Okay, yes.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Newenhouse.

Thank you.

And thank you for the uh update this evening.

Um I'm gonna start with the question first.

We've had a couple of people weigh in on this in the chamber as well, and I tried to look it up earlier.

Um that the historic preservation requirements may not actually be enforceable because it's inconsistent with new state law requiring owner consent for landmark designation.

Can I get your opinion on that?

Uh well, the the IOC doesn't landmark any properties.

Um that's 35 A21450, I believe.

That's the code city provision.

And I believe that just went into effect last year and does apply in Bellevue.

But we've certainly tried to draft an IOC that meets council's desire to consistent with current policy to maintain the look-feel design guidelines, the historic facades.

Okay, but we're certainly also mindful of administering the IOC and council adopting an IOC that's consistent with that state law.

So would you say it could be problematic though?

Cumbersome?

Well, I can't predict the future, but I've heard the arguments.

Yeah, we certainly have tried to draft an IOC that is both objective design review and also consistent with that state law as well.

Okay, okay.

Um, first I'll I'll say, you know, uh Councilmember Robinson is absolutely correct, you know, uh Old Maine, Old Bellevue is uh is a treasure and certainly worth protecting.

Um we're all I think all on the same page there.

Um however, I do not see an emergency here um and why I'm not in favor of an IOC.

Uh I don't think it's we it's been clearly articulated why we need one.

Um, and looking at the agenda memo talking about helping small business, that's not really clear to me articulating about historic probation requirements is uh, you know, I think it's a little inconsistent still or a little cumbersome with that state law.

Articulating about historic privation requirements is you know, I think it's a little inconsistent still or a little cumbersome with that state law.

We could work around it, but that's that concerns me.

Um there's as uh councilman Breyer asked uh the good question about any immediate development plans at the moment, there are none.

Um, these property owners also want uh old Maine to remain um unique and uh a wonderful place to spend a Sunday afternoon or any day of the week, but they understand the the cultural and the historic significance as well and and what it does to our city.

Um your outreach comment was interesting because um for me, I kind of put that into the bucket of uh, you know, just because we we we we we can doesn't mean we necessarily should in terms of not doing that outreach.

I you know, I I appreciate that there are times when we do need to take very quick decisive action.

Um, but to me, this doesn't rise to that level.

I think when we're experiencing um uh another pandemic, for example, um, or uh or or a bomb cyclone, things of this nature, these this is what I think about as emergencies.

To me, this doesn't quite rise to that.

And and and and still I don't know what a clear definition is in terms of the character and the facades, et cetera.

Um, I think that's um uh cumbersome at this point as well.

Um I think it sets a bad precedent um as a as a council moving forward as well.

Um and and and that and that concerns me when we could pull this IOC card.

Um I also feel that um it should be a part of the downtown livability, so I will say that.

I also think that it should be a part of HOMA.

I'm not why I'm not sure why we would consider the thing anything different.

Um this council has time and time again put a strong emphasis and priority on affordable housing to carve out old Bellevue to say anywhere in the city except for here, just to me kind of smacks of elitism, and uh uh I think we should stick to our goal of trying to find as many affordable units as possible in our city.

Um so that's kind of where I stand, and I think I answer your questions about knowing the IOC as well.

Yes, and then yes to the downtown livability, um, but then strongly encouraged that we maintain um Old Maine is still in Homa as well.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Councilman House.

Councilmember Baragalbo.

Okay, thanks.

Um I also just want to have a few clarifying questions and then one question that you know you can tell me whether you're able to answer or not, but we'll we'll walk through it.

First, let me start with the historic designation.

You know, there was you said that there was an inventory done in 1993.

That's long time ago.

Were there buildings identified?

Eight of them is my understanding that were identified as historically relevant in that inventory and actually put in, out of which four still remain in this stretch.

Is that right?

Well, uh, let me clarify first.

Okay.

Doing a city developed historical and cultural resources survey doesn't designate anything.

That's a tool to foster informed decision making about the properties there, but that does not landmark a building or list a building or or have any effect.

What it's it's a tool to let the policymakers know what the state of the built environment is there.

So when we talk about those um historic and cultural resources surveys that were prepared in 93, also in 97, and even the more recent one for the comp plan, that doesn't mean that those properties are then listed or designated officially as historic.

But that being said, that historic and cultural resources survey that was uh developed back in 93 did identify eight properties as having historic or cultural resource value along that stretch of Main Street.

But that does not carry any designation value at all.

That's correct.

Okay, that's a helpful clarifier.

The second question for me is, and this is not a clarification, but this is more just stating my understanding that is no development impact from this IOC.

Anyone can still come in, make an application, do all the preapplication work during the if this was to pass during this period, and there is no impact.

The only impact could be the more stringent design guidelines that you have put forth and changing the requirement of an incentive-based preservation of the two-story facade for certain buildings to be a mandatory requirement.

That's correct.

Those are the two changes.

So it doesn't prevent development from occurring.

Any development that submitted an application while the IOC isn't effective would be subject to those two IOC provisions.

It would increase the cost of development for those particular property owners, so to speak.

Okay.

This is the question I'm not sure you can answer, but you can tell me.

I just want to get your point of view, maybe.

Is that given where we are now?

There are two scenarios possible.

One, we adopt the IOC, which would then make this mandatory.

And if the outcome is the preservation of the character through the preservation of these facades in this stretch of main street, if that's the outcome we're going for, then it would maintain that, albeit at cost for development for three developers.

The second way is that we could not do that and then wait for potentially it sounds like the livability downtown 2.0 work to come around where we would create the more robust guidelines that would be either incentive-based or mandatory in nature for the work to happen.

But there is a window here, then in that case, where if I am a property owner here and I don't want to incur the additional cost, that I might consider putting a permit in or a permit application in during that period, because now I know there's an this brings to life that window in some ways.

So is that propensity become going back to the question of do we see pre-application work, but does that create an increased propensity for that to happen?

Yeah, it's hard to say how the development committee would respond to this type of action or this sort of um change in what's expected of them.

Um but it is uh not an easy thing to put together a design review application.

Um that does take a considerable amount of time, investment, and a high level of commitment.

Um, and it you know begins with the pre-application conference, which is kind of very early in the process.

And we haven't gotten any of those yet for the properties that would be potentially impacted by this IOC area.

I got it.

Because that I think is an important thing for me to consider because if this creates that urgency and that possibility that the outcome that we're looking for potentially here gets impacted because we created this window of opportunity sort of through this process, that's a consideration for me.

But that said, I do think that the precedence of using an IOC for situations which may not be as compelling as an emergency as Councilmember Newman has pointed out.

I do feel um that bar should be high and we should maintain that consistency because not just for us on the dais, but for anyone else who sits in these seats, it'll be the same precedence that carries over.

Uh and so that's an important aspect.

Um I am in favor of the work to carry out in uh downtown Liverpool 2.0.

Uh in terms of supporting the IOC, uh, if there is a high propensity potential of something to come in because of this current opportunity, I would feel that that would provide the protective measures we need to to uh to do this while acknowledging the precedence that this binance set that would be wouldn't be appropriate.

So short answer is I could support this in this process because of those reasons and very unique to this situation that we have sort of created in this process for ourselves.

And the last thing I'll say is I want to commend you for using the the loopy acronym with such confidence repeatedly, you know.

It's great that you can do that.

I find it hard to do, but it's it's good.

I'll take that as a compliment.

Thank you.

Council member.

Sure.

Thank you.

Um I just have a few clarified questions.

I want to understand this perspective more because I agree with um council member Robinson that you know, old May is such a gem in our city, it is very unique, it's beautiful, there's many memories, right?

And then it does put us on the map for like a tourism hotspot for that street.

Um currently, um how what are the code are protecting the um protecting the old old main, like is there like requirement for like brick, you know, street, step back, like in what kind of what kind of code is protecting the current facade of the old main.

Sure.

Um so there's a couple of ways that we address kind of um design in the old main.

Um so as Matt noted earlier, uh Main Street is a segment of the Grand Connection, and the Grand Connection is comprised of multiple rooms.

So there is the old Bellevue room that expands on Main Street.

And with that, there is some kind of um design considerations that a project must incorporate to help us realize that policy goal that the council has set.

Um and so uh what that looks like usually is having um high pedestrian kind of um orientation towards the street.

Um there are things called points of interest that are required at specific intervals.

There's also um the need for some transparency so that folks can see into Windows, um, feel like it's a welcoming place to kind of stroll along Main Street.

Um, and then we also have um what's uh some use requirements.

So for that particular stretch, um, we do require some amount of active uses that could be either commercial or um there's some service uses that we also allow um along Main Street.

And then the building form itself in Old Bellevue, there are lower heights that are authorized in Old Bellevue and along Main Street in particular, um, there is an upper level step back required.

Um it's a 15 foot step back.

So um when you get to a height um above 40 feet, we do ask that the building kind of pull back about 15 feet.

That's to help define that pedestrian scale, provide a more comfortable environment for folks strolling on the sidewalk.

Um so that's kind of how the current code is is responding to that that visual appearance, the compatibility of the historic nature of the area.

Um so that's the that's the current approach.

Okay, and then um I guess like how do we um rewarding centified that um to developers, make sure that they maintain that look of the cohesiveness of the area.

Yeah.

So you know, we have a design review process, it's an administrative process.

Um that did change pretty significantly when um the city implemented House Bill 1293.

Um so we had a lot of aspirational kind of squishy language as we call it, where it's really hard to define what that means, what it looks like.

Um so some of that got pulled back to comply with state law, and so we were left with more clear and objective standards.

Um, and so all projects will have to comply with those clear and objective standards to speak to kind of the other tool we have in the land use code that's not well utilized, and um it's it has not been utilized since the 2017 code update.

Um it's the uh component of the IOC that's going to change from voluntary to required, and that is actually preserving the facade of an existing building.

And so um that is something that we have available as an incentive option.

Um and so as part of downtown livability 2.0, we already kind of had it on the list of let's figure out a way to maybe strengthen that incentive and um get to some of those outcomes that you know we just weren't seeing um through the 2017 code implementation.

Okay, thank you.

The reason I ask because um I don't know if you were in so in the UK, every region is actually the house outside looks exactly the same, but inside they can build whatever they want.

It could be really old, it could be really new, but somehow that really incentivize the property owners to upkeep to look outside because they want to make sure they are able to sell the property within the same range of the neighbors.

Um that's why I think like when it's like more incentivized, it's more exciting because what you want is I guess as a parent, because if you're happy to do it, then you want to do it even better for your own benefits, right?

Um that's why I asked if there's anything protecting our old main, because I agree with um council member Roberts.

I think we have to do everything at power to protect the monstre is unique.

So I think that I agree with going to the option uh one, go make sure that we include old uh Bellevue as part of the downtown livability 2.0.

That's one.

And then another question I want to ask is how do we have any type of engagement with like I know we have heard from the um property owners.

Have we heard from the tenants who's like the street level businesses?

How do they feel about this?

Yeah, and as Matt noted, um, by design, the interim official control doesn't really offer that outreach and engagement process.

That that said, um, when council indicated interest in this in December, um, there were a few folks that had reached out directly to staff, and so we've engaged kind of at that level.

Um, I would say those individuals are not maybe the the demographic that you're you're speaking to, those kind of um small business tenants.

Yeah, I'm just worried because I think right now small business having a lot of challenges ahead of us.

So having and this uncertainty knowing my landlord might build something really quick, and then some is any kind of uncertainty would bring unnecessary stress from per se.

So what I think that but okay, just scenario, if we don't approve the have the emergency IOC, is there a room we can study and then the stakeholders more thoroughly while we're doing the downtown Livability 2.0, is there an opportunity for us to do that?

Yeah, yeah, those are kind of separate asks of the council tonight.

So you know if there's a yes, no, no, that's that's fine.

Uh if there's a yes on IOC or no on IOC, we still would like to hear from you as to what's the way we should address this concern because clearly it seems there's some shared interest in uh attending to some um emerging issues in Old Belleview.

Yeah so that opportunity would allow us to do some outreach um through the permanent code.

Okay, great.

Um let's see.

I think I only have one.

Oh, the one last question I had is um if this passes, um because it would increase the cost of building a building, right?

For the development would they increase the cost for developing the property?

Uh the code anticipates that it would because the actual additional development capacity, whether it's more FAR or additional height based on the facade protection, both in both in current code and also in the IOC is is geared towards every a thousand dollars spent to add that protection.

So I I obviously we're not looking at a project.

But but uh I think it's safe to say that the assumption leading to that framework in the regulations is based on the increased cost is passed on to developers.

Okay, and then that I mean, in essence, we know that's gonna be passing through to the tenants in the commercial space in the future.

I'm guessing.

Again, I mean I I I can I know what the code anticipates.

I do not know uh you know the landlord-tenant relationship or how they would deal with that private uh contractual agreement.

Okay, perfect.

Okay, what were the two things I need to answer?

I answered one of them.

Yeah.

Okay.

Anything else?

You can not answer if you want.

Yeah, the two the two questions that you're answering if you are ready to answer is yes or no to IOC.

Uh-huh.

Yes or no to move this work to uh after IOC, yes or no independent.

Okay.

Let's go to the downtown Libability 2.0 to have that uh outreach, have that engagement and come up with the permanent policy.

Okay, answer that part as a yes already.

I said please, we definitely need to keep that in there.

But can we come back for the first time?

Can I think about it, please?

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Uh Deputy Mayor.

Thank you.

Um just a couple of questions uh clarity here.

Could you describe the historic facade treatments that we're considering protecting?

I just know as I go along Main Street.

Different buildings look well different.

And so what are we talking about?

What's the facade that we're considering protecting?

So in the interim official control, um, we had noted that there were uh eight properties that were analyzed in that um early survey, and um four kind of seem to be in the same, they look similar to the pictures from 93.

One went through a pretty substantial looks like facade remodel.

Um in the interim official control, there's still a checkpoint because we don't necessarily know that these are the facades we want to retain.

So there's still a path within the IOC for a report to be um commissioned and for us to have some discretion and review as to whether or not it is providing the type of um it's contributing to the the type of uh appearance and historical kind of relevancy that um we want to have endure along Main Street, and so those properties um uh that we had uh found um mostly center around Main Street and 102nd.

Um so one of the sites is the um I believe it's called old and elegant um building right on the corner.

Um, and then there's a couple of properties next to it, um, up to the Title IX building.

Uh then across the street from that building, uh, there is another kind of smaller um building, it's a jeweler.

Um that's another um building that was kind of included on the list.

Um 520 barn grill is another one that was included on the list as well.

So I I could try and describe those facades to you, but I'm hoping the names elicit some image or memory for you.

But let me know if you'd like a little bit more kind of clarity on what kind of those facades look like.

But generally they're one-story buildings, smaller facades, they've got kind of smaller storefronts, more entries, larger windows.

That's the kind of the vibe on Main Street.

Yeah.

All right.

So I well, I'm just kind of curious if uh a property owner chooses to redevelop.

I mean, what is the checklist that they could go through so that when they apply, they know that they are you know substantially in compliance with the IOC.

Yeah.

Yeah, so that would be part of that administrative review process with their design review application.

And that's not inconsistent with kind of how we ask applicants to show us how you're meeting the code today.

They'll usually have an architect team that helps us kind of with that review.

They kind of make the pitch, um, and then that goes through that review process.

Okay.

I mean, I always think just as a practice that it's much better to have the guidelines defined so that everybody understands up front uh what the rules are, but thank you for explaining that.

Um I think I'm I'm concerned that implementing this IOC and old in the old Bellevue neighborhood will create an expectation that all neighborhoods should be entitled to seek their own IOC to preserve what they think is their unique character.

And each neighborhood in the city is unique and valuable, but I think it's important to remember that each neighborhood plays a vital role in supporting the goals of the entire city.

We are one city.

I don't want to pick and choose favored neighborhoods or streets.

I think the fair and proper thing to do is to adopt a consistent standard and only allow for limited, carefully defined deviations.

The old Bellevue neighborhood is already considered a unique land use district and is fairly and properly set apart in the comprehensive plan.

Our recently updated comp plan says that it we it encourages preservation and retention of the character of old Bellevue, including protection of the historic facade treatments of older buildings in the IOC area.

Those who would like to see us move the old Bellevue IOC, old Bellevue neighborhood IOC forward can also take comfort in the fact that old Bellevue is going to be included in the downtown livability 2.0 effort, which will consider measures to protect historic facades and other significant design features in Old Bellevue.

I'm also concerned about negatively impacting the current development services work plan.

We received a very positive update for our development services team earlier tonight.

They had a list of 16 significant accomplishments and a list of 18 goals to tackle development services is caught at stride, and I'm concerned that we could break it.

From my point of view, the old Bellevue neighborhood is properly distinguished and protected by the recently adopted comprehensive plan.

The neighborhood is also properly prioritized in the current uh DS work plan.

Recent IOCs were adopted primarily to comply with new state laws, as was mentioned, or to prevent regulatory gaps.

I would like, I would likely have a different view of this IOC if the facts in this case were similar.

I'm just not seeing a justification for us to take the dramatic step of adopting this IOC.

The last time I checked, and even here in public comment tonight, I've only heard opposition to the IOC.

So I'm all the more concerned about a lack of public support for moving it forward.

There are significant protections already in place in Old Bellevue that accomplish what I believe this IOC is attempting to do.

I just don't think there is sufficient sufficient justification for moving it forward at this time.

Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor.

Nick I also have several questions.

What is the difference between HOMA and downtown availability 2.0?

Yeah, so uh downtown availability.

Or well, sorry with HOMA.

Um of the housing opportunities and mixed areas is headed to you all later this month.

Um it's been a project we've been working on since 2022.

Um it is providing kind of more um uh kind of changes to support residential redevelopment and maximize kind of affordable housing.

It applies in all mixed-use areas citywide, including downtown.

And what it will do in downtown is mostly make some changes within the perimeter overlay where we are in a wood frame construction type and um trying to really maximize how people can take advantage of wood frame construction to get some affordable housing.

And then downtown lovability 2.0, unlike HOMA, it will have a very specific focus on just downtown.

And it'll look back at the 2017 policy amendments and code changes and figure out where have we maybe not quite hit the mark on our policies and uh try and close those implementation gaps.

So that's really the focus of that um effort.

Great.

Can you I know it's not your department, but because you're so close with uh community development department.

Can you tell me about the great neighborhood program?

Uh well, that is, I mean the community development department, of course, is the owner of that and can speak much um more eloquently about it than I.

Um but Great Neighborhoods is kind of the sub area planning process the city undertakes and it looks um, you know, neighborhood by neighborhood.

Um they do usually two a year as part of their work program and they update policies that are specific to those areas.

Um for that neighborhood.

For specifically for that neighborhood, and so the ones underway right now are Factoria and Eastgate.

Um and those are also they're looking at not only policies, but they're looking at um potential future land use map changes as well through that neighborhood planning process.

A specific neighborhood that considered the neighborhood characteristic.

Yes, it looks at kind of what are the values of that area, how do we get that embedded into policy so we have good direction to build from that.

And if we not this case, if we feel an urgency and we have an IOC to prevent something that we don't like to happen, of course, those people is an urgency, that's why this is our IOC to tackle that.

So if someone comes to talk to us is probably against that because we are preventing something that as one person or a body thinks is a not desirable outcome for the city.

So is that correct?

My assumption that of course those people who come and talk to us are going to oppose that IOC because they may want that thing, that v thing is undesirable for our city.

Uh well, it's hard to say because uh it does sometimes cut both ways.

Some people come out in really strong support.

Um the council implemented an IOC in downtown in 2022 that was actually trying to reduce and and um kind of ease some of the restrictions around housing, and so um that brought out I think both sides um for that IOC.

So it really depends on kind of the nature of it.

Thank you.

And council did remove all of Bellevue from that IOC.

That the original staff proposal had no Belleview included, and council chose to take why they did remove that from the IOC?

Uh because of the unique nature of that.

I mean, that that was essentially the direction that staff got when council was processing that IOC.

Great.

The other one was by a few crests.

Yeah.

Uh two uh two more uh question.

Uh please can you guys don't interrupt us?

I can non stop hearing you are making comments while we are on dias.

I appreciate that.

Um question.

Beside the so right now you said this facade incentive have some costs, but we do what we give back to the to offset that as an incentive.

The um the way that the code is currently set up is that it incentivizes the facade preservation and protection, and then there's a 40 bonus points, 40 to 10 point ratio, and it's tiered to every thousand dollars that the developer spends on preserving or protecting the facade, and or even more generally preserving and protecting the kind of uh character and identity, the historic and cultural qualities in Old Bellevue.

And so what the IOC does is it requires that facade protection, but automatically gives that that that bonus, which you can use for FAR increases or height increases.

Um that was by design to make sure that if the city was going to add cost by requiring something that's currently maximum flexibility and voluntary or not, it is uh is an incentive, then we wanted to make sure that the IOC also gave that extra development capacity in in line with the way the code's structured now.

And we believe that's a good compromise, like the the increase costs by giving back these incentives, kind of uh balance the increased costs by increasing, for example, density, maybe.

Well, I I'll say this.

Uh but part of the complaints that we've heard, and some of council member Nowenhaus' points to about the lack of public participation.

We can always calibrate the the the policy decision or even the staff recommendation when we have a more robust process, right?

So that I mean that's why we have the the process that we have with public participation.

Nick, how many uh planning commission meetings have you had on HOMA alone?

Is it a half dozen?

Yeah.

Six six.

So that's always going to make it better.

Yeah.

Um, this was, as I said, a narly tailored attempt to meet the request from council, but admittedly it's not as good as a permanent regulation that went through the full feedback too.

If this IOC pass or not, or if we go to downtown livability, are you then after that going to do some communication with every stakeholders to at least uh because if we don't do communication, they're going to be creased a loss of uncertainty that is not good for us.

So is it a plan after tonight's meeting, regardless of the result, we just go and communicate with all of those stakeholders that hey, this is happened last night, just FII, we are moving forward with this.

Is that any plan to do that?

Uh well, the plan that we were had in mind was to begin that targeted outreach.

Um, some may not even be aware, frankly, um, that this IOC was being entertained.

Um sometimes that's could provide a bit of a jump scare if we say this thing was introduced, it didn't happen, or maybe it did.

Um, but what we were thinking was um as part of downtown lobability 2.0, which you know, as you learned about the pre-launch phase, implementation phase, and execution phase, um, or mix those up.

But anyways, the pre-launch phase, we do our engagement plan, and we do plan to share with you all our engagement approach as we embark on downtown livability 2.0.

So that would be another opportunity to say really targeted outreach in this area is important for this project.

So um, but yeah, we were thinking part of downtown mobility is when we make that connection.

Great.

Are you recommending whatever the outcome is, please uh make some uh communication with them to have some clarity of what they should expect.

I have the same opinion as before.

I think Old Bellevue is one of the few places in our city that still feels like a very traditional Old Bellevue.

If you ask 10 people who lives in Seattle, if they come here is from for container restore or old Bellevue.

Uh it is the only place, kind of one of the old places that we have is a human scale, is walkable, is rooted in the city's early history.

And I understand why there is a concern about uh maybe losing that feeling, losing that vibe before we have a chance to go to the downtown live uh livability.

Uh I am supporting the IOC.

I am supporting the going to the uh downtown liabil livability to uh kind of make that permanent.

Uh it is six months.

Uh it is not forever.

So in these six months, we have some uh pause, um, not any big change, but to maybe prevent something that is it can be irreversible change while we do the downtown 2.0 uh liability.

Um just protecting a human scale pedestrian feel of the main street that we all agreed in uh that retreat.

I'm not sure it was one year ago, two years ago that is we need to protect that.

Uh it doesn't, this IOC doesn't change the height or zoning or approved project.

It's simply ask uh for now until six months to future project.

The one thing that was incentive uh now become mandatory on the facade and the character.

So I uh support both of that.

Council member Robinson, I see your hands up.

Thank you.

Um and thank you for your uh explanation of what we're talking about tonight.

That was very good.

Um just a couple of things.

Um is old when we're talking about our great neighborhoods program, is old Bellevue considered its own great neighborhood that has its own process, or is it uh grouped in with downtown?

Yeah, as I understand that program relates to our sub-areas, and so it would be grouped with the downtown sub area.

Which may be something we want to consider later.

Um making old Bellevue a sub-area so we don't have to go through all this effort.

We could do it more in the great neighborhoods uh work that all the other neighborhoods get to do.

Um just to clarify, I'm always supportive of affordable housing.

We have a lot of affordable housing in the building that I'm in, and um, so I'm never going to try to block affordable housing.

Um when we brought this up, I think it was in January, there was support from the old Bell V merchants association from some of the property owners and from residents.

There was support from the Old Bellevue Merchants Association, from some of the property owners and from residents.

So just to know, and I hope that we can do a separate vote, one on uh the IOC and then one on the uh looking at Old Bellevue um through the downtown livability process process.

Thank you so much.

There are two two motions, and uh, if there is no more uh any person wants to recom uh talk, we can yeah, councilman you and house.

Just one clarification.

Do we need to give guidance on the inclusion of uh old Maine as part of the HOMA process?

Do we need to take that step as well tonight?

Yes, we would appreciate direction.

Direction on that.

Okay.

So then we do the third motion if uh you want.

Let's just uh let's just have a motion, the first motion about the IOC, and then we go through the all of the uh process.

Can I have a motion?

I'll be way is there a second okay?

Second.

Uh it has been moved by council member Robinson and seconded by Councilmember Bargaba.

Is there any discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

I've heard four ayes.

Uh those uh any opposed?

No, no.

Three no's uh the motion uh passes.

Can I have the second motion about downtown livability motion?

Uh I move that we provide direction to update development regulations for old Bellevue as part of downtown livability 2.0.

Is there a second?

Second.

It uh has been moved by council member Robinson, seconded by Councilmember New Enhouse.

Any discussion?

All in favor say go ahead.

Well well, no, go ahead.

We'll vote on this.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

No opposed.

The motion passes.

Is there any motion on excluding the um old main uh main street from the HOMA work?

I move that we take uh old main old Bellevue out of HOMA and make those have those discussions and make those decisions during the downtown livability discussions.

Is there a second?

If there is no second, we are done with this motion.

Is there a second?

I'd like to be able to have a discussion at least.

Last time is there any second?

Okay, I will second for making sure that we have a discussion on this because that's the whole point of a second.

You don't need to accept or vote.

Yeah, so it has been moved by um council member Robinson, second to the by Councilmember Bargaba.

Any discussion?

Go ahead, please.

Yeah, the first uh question I have is I would like uh, and then I don't know if uh uh councilmember Robinson had a hand, but I'm gonna go.

Um I think for at least for me to be able to weigh in on a decision like this, the puts and takes need to be a lot more clearer than they are to me right now.

I would actually want to go into a much more robust study session, understand the impacts, understand the affordability outcomes, understand what it means.

It feels like this would be a significant decision that I feel unprepared to take today.

Councilmember thank you, Councilmember Borgovic.

Councilmember Robinson.

I appreciate Councilmember Bagava's comments there.

The reason I'm making the motion to do this is because old Bellevue and downtown are grouped into one entity.

And so when we look at HOMA, anything that we vote in for old uh for downtown will automatically apply to Old Bellevue.

And I would I think as a two-lane street uh with historic significance, I would like to have those considerations in the downtown livability, not that I don't want to have the um discussion and make the decisions.

I just want to do it in downtown livability where we can have more community, but and not be lumped into um downtown Bellevue.

And uh Nick, let me ask you a very quick question in maybe less than one minute.

What are the pros and cons to exclude the uh that this from Homo or not exclude?

That's the first question.

The second question, the planning commission is done with Homo.

Am I right?

Yes.

So is that change anything?

Uh so we'll be bringing the recommendation to council on February 24th, is the plan.

Um, so we can go into more detail at that point um as to what HOMA's impacts might be to Old Bellevue specifically.

Um, but at a very high level, um, it is looking to when you meet a certain affordability threshold, reduce, allow reductions of the upper level step back, also allow larger floor plates potentially, um, an increase to the lock coverage by structure, it's a five percent increase.

Um, there's also an FAR increase, but um no height increase.

Um, and then the ability to um uh land kind of that upper level step back at a different point in the building.

If um an affordability threshold is not met, they can kind of provide it at a higher level potentially.

And uh mayor and council also that decision does not have to be made tonight.

That's what I was my so if even if this motion were to be voted down, this same decision could be in front of council and probably would be more appropriate in front of council when the Homo Luca is the agenda item in front of council.

So I just want to be clear that that the decision of whether or not to include or exclude all Bellevue in that legislative item can certainly be made when that legislative item is actually presented to council.

And by that time, then HOMA comes uh addressing Councilmember Bargawa, everyone knows more about HOMA, what that intailed, and we can have a much much more informed decision to see if we should exclude a neighborhood, any name from HOMA or not.

That's what you're saying, kind of matters.

Exactly.

Informed decision making, I think would be served well by by addressing that question when the agenda item is actually in front of council.

Great.

Um other councilmember Robinson, I see this is from the previous hands up, or is it the new hands up?

Let me just go let me just go to council member to deputy mayor and then I come back to you.

Um I just I'm uh aligned with uh council member Bargava.

Uh just didn't haven't had any time to review that uh this particular uh the HOMA question, so uh without enough time to really think it through and to get some additional information that wouldn't be in favor of moving forward.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Robinson.

To withdraw my motion because I agree with what's been said, and if we have another opportunity to actually study it, that would be great.

Great.

So I think we're good.

Yes, as we are.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

So I think on that note, we can happily adjourn this meeting and we can all that Charlie, what's going on?

Oh, great.

There is no meeting next week, and we see you in two weeks from now.

Have a great night.

Thank you so much.