Hello and welcome everyone.

Thank you for being here.

Full room.

I'm so excited you're all here.

You're engaging in the work that our city is doing.

Your voice matters, and we are glad to hear from each of you.

Vidat City Claire, are you ready for the roll call?

Thank you, Mayor Melanchol.

Here.

Deputy Mayor Hamilton.

Here.

Councilmember Bargavet.

Here.

Councilmember Breyer.

Here.

Councilmember Newman House.

Here.

Councilmember Robinson.

Here.

And Councilmember Simadoria.

Here.

Thank you.

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

Yes, please.

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

We do have a proclamation on human rights in Iran and everywhere.

Councilmember Sumadeverio is going to read that.

I invite Negin Konlu and Oresh Nasibi, uh Bellevue community members to come and sit here to receive this proclamation.

Councilmember Sumodaveria, please.

Thank you.

Whereas the city of Bellevue affirmed that human rights are universal and transcend borders.

And whereas the people of Iran are courageously taking to the streets to advocate for economic opportunity, human rights, dignity, and democratic freedom.

And whereas reports indicate that protests have been met with violence, repression, civilian death, and restrictions on access to information and communication.

Whereas Iranian immigrants and refugees are an important part of Bellevue's diverse community and are deeply affected by the events impacting their families, friends, and loved ones.

And whereas the city of Bellevue condemns the use of force against peaceful protesters and supports access to free expression, open information, and uncensored communication as fundamental human rights.

And whereas thousands of community members have gathered in downtown Bellevue to peacefully demonstrate in solidarity with the people of Iran and on to come affirm their support for human rights.

And whereas Bellevue stands in support of human rights and dignity for the people of Iran.

Now therefore, I Claire Summa de Raria, on behalf of Mo Malinkutian, Mayor and Bellevue Washington and the City Council do hereby proclaim Bellevue support for human rights in Iran and everywhere, and condemn the use of violence to suppress the ability to peacefully demonstrate for human rights.

Thank you, Councilmember Sumodaveria.

Please.

Hello, Mayor Malinkutia, I'm DB Mayor Hamilton and member of the council.

My name is Negin Khanlu, and this is R.S.

N SCB.

We are proud American and resident of Bellevue, deeply grateful for the liberties and opportunity afforded to us by this great country and state.

Do our path different we share a homeland where much of our family still remains.

We appear before you today to speak for those silent by Iranian regime that has turned its own streets into the killing field, mortalizing citizens for demanding their most basic human rights.

Since the Islamic regime took power 47 years ago, millions of Iranian families have fled in search of basic freedoms.

Neggin and I are part of an Iranian diaspora that hails from a long and rich culture that shares many values and pursuits with the West.

We are not political actors.

We are everyday citizens that work hard and contribute to our communities.

Neggin is a senior manager at Google with a PhD, who also teaches at Northwestern University just up the road.

The only difference is that they are unlucky to have remained locked in a half-century-long battle for their basic human rights.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The people of Iran have tried to make their voices heard through peaceful protests time and time again.

Only to be crushed by their own government through brutality and violence.

But except for an unbelievable scale and degree of the killing in the spam of the just few days.

More than 364,000 people have been severely injured.

More than the twice the entire population of Bellevue.

But they include accounts of the regime's authority, storming hospitals to abdocked and killed critically injured protesters, detained and imprisoned physician and nurses who simply doing their job, demanding ransom from families for the return of their loved ones' bodies.

That are in this room.

Thank you for calling the atrocities it has committed for what they truly are, crimes against humanity.

And thank you for understanding and representing the Iranian American community here in Bellevue and for advocating our interests beyond our city borders with state and federal Congress members.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you.

To approve the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved by Councilmember Robinson and seconded by Deputy Mayor.

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

There is no oppose.

City Claire, are there any speakers signed up to provide oral communication this evening?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

There are 18 pre-registered speakers this evening.

So before I start calling names, I'll go over a few of the roles that the council has in place because we will not be able to hear from all of them.

My microphone, sorry.

My microphone just cut.

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.

Each speaker will be allowed up to three minutes to speak, and only a maximum of three people are permitted to speak to any one side of a particular topic, which is why we won't be able to hear from everyone this evening.

We can.

Your time begins now.

Wonderful, thank you.

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

Thank you for your time and leadership as you review the updated HOMA framework.

Tonight I want to focus on two issues that are essential to making HOMA work in practice broadly and specifically for our property.

The grocery FAR bonus and the MFTE supercharger.

First, the grocery FAR bonus.

At the same time, grocery margins are thin, and rents have not kept pace with rising construction costs, especially structured parking, which now costs in excess of a hundred thousand dollars a stall.

A 3.1 FER bonus is the bare minimum to necessary to make grocery inclusion economically accretive.

Anything less than this simply will not be utilized.

Equally important to the required grocery covenant, require requiring grocery use for the life of the building creates long-term capital risk that lenders and equity partners simply cannot underwrite.

Grocery spaces are highly specialized and difficult to repurpose.

Markets change, consumer behaviors change, retail formats have to evolve.

There needs to be a reasonable sunset, such as 15 to 25 year term and flexibility to adapt if marking conditions shift.

Without that flexibility, the policy risks creating stranded space in instead of neighborhood serving retail are real.

Second, the MFTE supercharger.

Allowing required affordable units to count toward the MFTE threshold is essential to feasibility, not just in strong markets, but across market cycles.

Development today faces high construction costs, volatile interest rates, and tight equity underwriting.

If HOMA only works in optimistic conditions, housing delivery will become pro-cyclical.

Projects will move forward in a boom in boom periods and stall in normal or downturn markets.

The MFTE supercharger acts as a stabilizer.

It bridges the gap between policy ambition and capital market reality.

It helps ensure the mandatory affordability remains financeable even when conditions tighten.

Without it, projects become fragile and highly sensitive to volatility.

With it, housing production becomes more durable and more.

Mr.

Mininking.

Your time has expired this evening.

Thank you.

The next speaker on our list is Alan Dodderman, who is also joining us online.

Mr.

Dodderman, can you hear me?

I can.

Okay, your time begins now.

Yes.

Thank you.

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

My name is Alan Dodderman, and I am with TWG Development, a national affordable housing developer.

I'm also co-chair of the Eastside Affordable Housing Coalition, and I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the coalition and HTC.

I'd like to share our strong support for the Planning Commission HOMA recommendations.

This represents the realization of the 2020 2044 comprehensive plan resulting from many months of analysis and engagement.

We especially appreciate that the HOMA recommendations include a well-calibrated affordable housing requirement.

This policy will be critical to help Bellevue include moderate and lower income individuals and families as the population grows.

Evidence shows that a well-calibrated affordable housing requirement can and will work alongside robust market rate development.

We strongly support the analysis informed recommendations from staff to pair the existing MFTE with expandable affordable housing requirement in the mixed use areas while keeping the MFTE supercharger contained in Wilberton.

Staff analysis clearly shows that the MFTE supercharger is not needed as an additional offsetting incentive in HOMA areas.

Not only is there value provided through the Upsone itself, but the existing MFTE program already functions as a strong incentive to encourage development across economic cycles.

The median MFT tenant in Bellevue makes only 56% AMI.

Therefore, the existing program better aligns with the affordable affordability benefit with the needs of these residents.

All while still providing a suitable and generous lift to development.

Please only recommend an MFTE pairing that is supported by analysis.

Thank you for centering affordable housing in this discussion and for passing the HOMA land use code update alongside the existing 12-year and eight-year MFTE programs while keeping the MFTE supercharger contained to Wilburton.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker on the list is Carl Vanderhoek.

Welcome.

Hi, Mayor Malgushian.

Council members, my name is Carl Van Rook with Vanderhook Corporation.

I'm here today on behalf of a group of property owners of eight parcels in Old Bellevue.

As long-term old Bellevue property owners, this group appreciates your time and consideration toward delivering much needed housing in Bellevue while maintaining the treasured character of old Bellevue.

We are in support of HOMA with the condition that all Bellevue be removed from HOMA.

We encourage you to direct staff to conduct an old Bellevue specific review of the design requirements to determine if there are ways to balance the area's unique status against the city's desire to create affordable housing.

HOMA proposes to give incentives, height, FAR, additional floor plate and lot coverage, and reductions in step back if affordable housing is provided.

Based on the current underlying height and form zoning restrictions in the land use code applicable to old Bellevue, the only incentives in HOMA that would really be achievable to provide the affordable housing are the reduction and elimination of stepbacks.

However, this step back elimination incentive in HOMA would allow a flat facade from the sidewalk to the top story of these buildings.

Allowing the step back to go away and have a tall or be at a taller elevation in the building threatens the character of old Bellevue and would decrease air and light, increase shadows, and make these built buildings less human scale.

The affected old Bellevue property owners recently met and agree that the proposed HOMA changes do not help preserve the character of Old Bellevue if it calls for stepbacks to go away or change significantly.

Development of many of the undeveloped individually owned small parcels in Old Bellevue within the framework of the current land use code is infeasible based on ground floor height and forum requirements.

The city should review some of the old Bellevue design guidelines to determine if there are ways to allow flexibility to design more thoughtful buildings, more practical solutions for small sites, and to incentivize things that make old Bellevue special, like retail frontage and sidewalks.

For example, we believe the stepback requirements that have been in place for 40 years should never be eliminated, but perhaps they could be reduced or done as you scale up the building.

We ask the council remove Old Bellevue from HOMA and further study the land use code in the area.

These recommendation actions would go a long way to show a good faith effort by council that they truly desire to preserve the character of Old Bellevue.

We as property owners believe that better outcomes for all can be achieved in a sincere effort is made by the city.

We appreciate your time.

And the next speaker on our list is Robert Tam.

Good evening, Council members, and thank you for the opportunity to testify tonight.

I'm here this evening to ask for your support in funding the Orchard Gardens Affordable Home Ownership Project by Habitat for Humanity.

My name is Rob, and I want to briefly share why this kind of investment matters, not just in theory, but in real lived experience.

In my role, I manage volunteer groups, partnering with companies, universities, nonprofits, and community organizations from across the region.

One of the most meaningful parts of my work is leading mental health and trauma-informed trainings before volunteers serve.

The goal is to normal normalize difficult conversations, increase empathy, and reduce judgment.

When people better understand trauma and mental health, they show up differently for the people they serve as well as for their broader communities.

I'm currently in the process of purchasing a home through Habitat for Humanity in the Rainier Valley of South Seattle, with completion expected this spring.

Habitat doesn't just provide housing, they provide stability for people who are actively serving their communities.

When Habitat selects homeowners, there's intentionality behind it.

They look for people who meet financial requirements, but who are also committed to making a difference through their work.

This opportunity has been life-changing for me.

Owning a home means I'm no longer spending mental energy worrying about rising rent or where we'll have to move next.

While I still could do my job without a habitat home, having stable housing close to where I work gives me more capacity, more time, focus, and emotional bandwidth to serve others and to stay deeply rooted in the community I've called home for the past 10 years.

That's why projects like Orchard Gardens are so important.

Affordable housing isn't just about providing a place to live, it allows people who serve the community to also live in the community.

Many nonprofit workers I know don't see our jobs as just work.

They're a reflection of our commitment to making things better around us.

When we live locally, we're more likely to be connected with neighbors, involved in schools, and engaged in civic life.

I want to thank you again for your time and for the opportunity to speak tonight, and I respectfully ask you to support the funding request for the Orchard Gardens project.

Thank you so much for your service to the Bellevue community.

Thank you, Robert.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Mark Vilwalk.

Oops.

Good evening, uh Mayor and Council members.

My name is Mark Vilwalk Dear Horton, also a member of the Master Builders Association, and we build for sale and for rent uh housing throughout the state.

And we want to say thank you to both the staff and planning commission for the great work today on the HOMA code changes that are before you tonight.

We are in full support of HOMA, but I'd like to suggest one clarification on the pedestrian oriented development requirements in the mixed use zones in Section 2051050.

In the latest draft, staff has modified the requirements in order to gain a departure from the pedestrian-oriented uh commercial part of the project.

But um, however, it would require an economic uh study demo demonstrating hardship and also prove a visual and physical access is limited.

And the code doesn't appear to clearly identify exactly what the criteria is to show that a departure would could be approved by staff.

And so, in order to provide certainty allow uh development to take place, especially in the area around uh kind of at the end of the um road near um Crossroads Church, there's kind of an area that has no through road connection.

Um we're requesting just a small change in the criteria to revise the wording to not require pedestrian-oriented development areas that there's only one-way traffic or where through connection does not exist.

And so you can find my exact proposed language in my written comments in the record.

So thank you for your consideration and appreciate all the work that has gone into finding ways to provide more housing within the city of Bellevue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Troy Dawes.

Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, City Council members, and community members.

My name is Troy Draz.

I am the Vice President of Real Estate Development for Imagine Housing.

Imagine Housing is a Bellevue-based local nonprofit housing developer and provider that serve the east side communities for nearly 40 years now.

And we are here tonight with our partners at St.

Andrew's Lutheran Church to request uh your support and uh funding award that's being recommended by staff tonight for the Forest Edge Apartments Complex.

Forest Edge Apartments is going to be, if I'm not mistaken, the very first affordable housing complex that will be constructed under the city's C1 land use code amendment that empowers uh faith-based organizations and nonprofit developers to uh work together to create new affordable housing solutions.

Uh, this particular project will create 100 new affordable housing opportunities in partnership with our friends at St.

Andrews by utilizing uh part of the underutilized uh portion of their land.

And uh we are just uh thrilled to be at the forefront of uh utilizing the city's uh C1 land use to show that it can work.

We've got more planned on the way, but uh would greatly appreciate your support tonight in your funding decision that is being recommended by staff to help us move the project forward tonight.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Hal Ferris.

Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor Malicuchian and members of the council.

My name is Hal Ferris.

I'm here representing St.

Lutheran Church, and I'm joined by Carolyn Ferris and Tom Benson.

These were both past presidents of St.

Andrew's Lutheran Church Church Council.

I'm the newbie in the group.

I'm the now member of the council.

So I have to say that when I was president, Darcy Johnson came to our council to begin St.

Andrew's housing that has become Imagine Housing.

I'm humbled at the growth that this organization has.

We want to thank you for your consideration and support of uh the C1 funding for affordable housing for Forest Edge apartments with Imagine Housing, just as Troy wrenched to you earlier.

It takes a village to support and build a community, which includes housing for families that could not otherwise afford to live in Bellevue.

It also takes a very long time to make land use changes and enable affordable housing in our community.

Efforts on this started over 30 years when Bellevue led and started Arch funding for affordable housing on the East Side.

More applicable to the action today, the 2017 Affordable Housing Strategy included recommendation, C1 to increase zoning density for faith-based properties.

Many of you have taken an active role in getting us here today.

There are others here.

There are others not here that has also been an instrumental in this accomplishment.

Notably, Mayor Chalmanek, Mayor Stokes, Michael Ketterman, Janet Lewine, and Emil King, who have all been instrumental in working along the way to get us where we are in terms of the affordable housing production we see.

And notably, Councilmember Robertson, your commitment to affordable housing and working and engaging on the details of where we've gotten, have brought 35 church properties eligible for the same density.

36.

36.

In addition to the elected officials, Tom and Carolyn sitting next to me, who at one time chaired the planning commission, was the president of the church council, and the board chair of Imagined Housing have all worked hard to bring affordable housing to our community.

It takes a long time to make it all happen.

We hope to see you all at the groundbreaking next year, and also take uh great thanks for the work that you've done in getting us today.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Our next registered speaker was Mr.

Benson, but I am assuming that yeah, you okay.

So our next speaker is Sue Baugh.

Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor Mel Koutien.

Deputy Mayor Hamilton, uh, members of the city council.

My name is Sue Baughan.

I'm a 35-year resident of Lake Heights.

With me tonight is Dan Nygard, 25-year resident of Newport Hills.

We'll only be three minutes total.

Uh, we're here tonight to express our support of HOMA.

We represent a large and growing group called the Newport Community Coalition, including residents from Newport Hills, Lake Heights, Greenwich Crest, and Newport Shores.

Our group has been engaged in positive advocacy over the last two years, first with the comprehensive plan process, and for the last year with HOMA.

Our entire focus is to uh hopefully and finally assure the redevelopment of the Newport Hills Shopping Center because the center as it sits today is not just an eyesore.

It is unsafe and is not at all an asset to our neighborhood.

Over the past two years, we have supported the comprehensive plan as it was adopted, the need for more housing of all types.

The most recent iteration of HOMA that is before you tonight, and housing that is affordable for teachers, nurses, young families, police, firefighters, and our adult kids who want someday to live in the neighborhood.

Our group has met several times with representatives of the uh Newport Hills Shopping Center ownership group, and we are very excited about the vision they have for a future Newport Hills shopping center.

As I've often said, we've worked for 20 plus years to help make the shopping center a place we can all be proud of, and one that supports our neighborhood.

Several developers have wanted to upgrade the shopping center.

We're barraged with loud naysayers, so nothing changed.

It's still a mess.

We are finally at a point where we can actually make this happen, provided you move forward with HOMA.

One final note from me.

The planning commission worked on HOMA for a year and did several iterations based on the community based on community input and feedback.

The final project is really good for Bellevue, and we should all be thankful for their very hard work.

So tonight we're here asking you to support HOMA to implement what is envisioned in the comprehensive plan that you recently adopted, specifically the Newport Community Coalition supports HOMA and the neighborhood business zoning, which calls for three to four floors with amenities and bonuses to get to five floors.

It's important to note about 15 years ago, the City of Bellevue asked the owners of the shopping center to conduct a feasibility study.

And um, and what should be you know here for the future.

They agreed, and when finished, the study concluded that a mixed-use development with housing and retail was appropriate for the site.

We're excited for all that is about to come to the Newport Hill Shopping Center.

We're particularly excited about the ownerships, vision for different types of housing, open space, trees, gathering spaces, retail, and restaurants.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker on the list is Layla Kademi, who is joining us virtually.

Ms.

Kedemi, can you hear me?

I can.

Okay, your time begins now.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Layla Kademi.

I am a land use attorney at Hillis Clark Martin and Peterson commenting on behalf of the woodlands at Bellevue, the former Boeing Eastgate campus.

This site encompasses 45 acres just north of I 90.

If the city maximizes home as potential, this site has the potential to evolve into a robust mixed use development with a diverse range of housing types and expansive access to public transportation.

The current draft of HOMA makes positive changes for the site, including increasing impervious surface limits, a critical change that directly supports feasible transit-oriented development.

To further strengthen this legislation, we encourage council to adopt a more deliberate and pragmatic approach for sites subject to mandatory affordability that include a blended apartment townhouse model.

For projects that integrate both townhomes and apartments, we strongly urge the inclusion of clear language allowing the consolidation of affordable units within the apartment buildings.

This adjustment is essential to preserving the financial feasibility and constructability of the townhome component.

Townhouses encounter greater financing hurdles than apartment buildings.

And while the need for affordable middle housing is undeniable, enabling a substantive increase in middle housing supply requires policies that remove and not compound those financial hurdles.

Townhomes are critical spaces for young professionals, growing families and community members in transitional periods, offering stability, flexibility, and long-term community investment that apartments alone cannot meet.

We suggested this concept in planning commission, and it was supported by several commissioners in their discussions.

Despite the support, the concept has not been reflected in the legislation.

We also strongly support an MFTE supercharger, which would allow mandatory affordable units to count towards the MFT unit total without lower affordability levels.

New mandatory affordable housing requirements send a strong signal to the market.

If Bellevue wants to maintain its comparative advantage and keep attracting investment in housing projects in Bellevue, that a mandatory affordable housing requirement must be very carefully approached, and it at least needs to be paired with the MFTE supercharger approach that was used in Wilberton.

We appreciate your consideration of these comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker on the list is Al D.

Diedeman.

I'm here today to give you a quick visual tour of the issue we have with two roads.

These two roads are basically a Y funnel for people to get from Westlake Sammamish Parkway to I-90 and to the uh Eastgate Office Park and Eastgate shopping centers.

What we've witnessed in the last recently is a big increase in traffic and a lot of increase in speed.

And the problem is that neither of these roads have a continuous sidewalk or a shoulder wide enough to allow people to walk.

So it's not walkable.

I'm showing you the first slide here on the handout I prepared.

Um you can see the drainage ditch on one side and a very narrow path.

The problem with this bottleneck is the same situation exists on the other side of the road.

So it's not a matter of just zigzagging across the road to safely find a place to walk.

You have to be a tight woke war woke broker to be able to not step in the road.

And remember, the average speed, and this is 30 miles an hour posted.

Most cars go 35 or 40.

And the speed uh radars are showing some cars are going 50 and more.

This is a very dangerous situation.

And we urgently need a sidewalk and a shoulder in this heavily used roadway.

Um next example is just uh a guardrail where there's no place to walk, and again, on the other side, there's no place to walk.

Next example is just a guardrail where there's no place to walk, and again on the other side, there's no place to walk.

This next one is a classic where you see this 25 mile an hour speed sign on 164th.

You can't get by it.

There's vegetation, there's a city drainage ditch.

The only way to get by it is to actually walk in the roadway.

Well, that doesn't work for children and people going back and forth.

It's just it's just not acceptable.

The next slide gives you an idea of what happens when you cross the creek.

Again, you've got to step out of the roadway in order to get uh across because of the the street narrows to go over the the creek.

The next slide showing a mailbox.

Um this is taken directly from a school bus stop.

There's uh four buses a day at this location, and there's six buses a day down 164th.

Um these kids don't have a place to walk.

And early in the winter periods, early morning in the winter periods, it's dark.

I don't think anybody wants their kids walking in here.

Your time has expired.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Okay.

Thank you.

I've got my my recommendations here on the next page.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Colleen Dunset.

Welcome.

Good evening, Council.

I'm Colin Dunseeth.

Twelve years ago, I started working in parts part-time in the natural resources department, first on the farm crew on our blueberry farms, and then moving on to the trails crew.

Always explicit was the experience in these part-time jobs would lead to full-time positions.

In the last three years, several part-time parks grounds employees were brought on full-time.

Those of us with the same classification in natural resources campaigned for full-time status as well, justified by the increased workloads.

We were passed over.

Last week I was told I will not be hired back.

The details are unknown to me, but I understand several positions are gone.

The work won't go away, only the personnel.

Let's start with two questions.

One, why is the director of natural resources reducing services to our city?

And two, what is happening with the rest of this budget?

Now I realize you're not the folks that I really need to talk to, but I can't talk to my shop steward because I'm not employed here anymore.

I can't talk to my boss because I'm not employed here anymore.

I can't talk to human resources because I'm not employed here anymore.

Um, so what I really need to know is what's happening, why are those positions disappearing?

And what's up with this director that he doesn't like talking to us about our positions?

He doesn't seem to understand what we're doing here.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We do have time for one final speaker, and that's Ted Middle Stad.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Um welcome.

I'm I'm happy to be here.

Um I come to you as a recently retired city employee.

I spent um, as you're probably wondering what why is he coming to say to speak to council?

But I I have a profound sense of uh uh gratitude and thank you for all the support we've had for so many years.

I worked for the city for just over 40 years, and I was in the business of parks and recreation more uh appropriately called parks and community services later on for 43 and a half years.

And and I always appreciated just the level of support that we received from council, the senior leadership team of the city, and it and it really meant a lot to several of you here.

I've seen out at our events, and it just means a lot if it's just for a moment or you know, they're there for the whole event.

It doesn't mean a whole lot.

You allowed me to have a career where it really truly felt like it made a difference.

Um you got the work that we do.

Providing great programs, building a healthy community, providing great spaces and places.

Many of my colleagues in other jurisdictions can't say they have the same level of support.

They have great programs, great services, but you guys have always been there for us too thick and thin.

I'd be remiss if I didn't publicly acknowledge the uh my wife, Sherry, who's not here tonight, but and hers and my daughters, Kara Tigan Middlestat, and my other daughter, younger daughter, Dr.

Hannah Middlestadt, for all their their love and support over the years, too.

And I had just a great send-off from the city staff.

My supervisor Brad Bennett did a great job, and my uh former staff, which is kind of weird to say.

Uh Aaron McCaslin, uh, Joe Mormon, Carrie Sabachik, and uh Tanner Cornwell just did a great job organizing a just a fun a fun send-off form and it really really meant a lot to me.

I know this is kind of out of character for for me to come and talk to council and as an open communication, but I just wanted to take the time to say thank you.

I do have a couple at requests.

Keep taking chances.

I think as the city has evolved, we've gotten a little more risk-adverse.

You never know what's gonna stick and really make a big difference for a lot of people in this community.

I think of some of the programs and services we've put on over the years that are there making a huge difference every year.

And I I really strongly support before DEI was even a thing.

We did a lot of stuff supporting DEI.

I remember Kevin Henry was first hired as our outreach diversity coordinator.

I'm just so happy to be I've been a big part of a lot of that in my work.

So we've had a lot of hits, uh, a few misses, and I just wanted to take the time to thank each and every one of you for your your support of the city and and specifically parks and community services.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

That is the end of our times, I'll turn it back to you, Mayor.

Wow.

Uh we do uh on the reports of boards and commission have a written information only uh from parks and community service board.

So I encourage everyone goes and read that.

Uh do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar?

Move to approve the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

Second.

Is move uh by deputy mayor and seconded by councilmember Robinson.

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

There is no oppose.

We do have a public hearing.

City manager ordinance 169604.

You mayor, deputy mayor and council.

Uh this is a routine required public hearing to release an easement following council's approval in January, where you declared this specifically identified easement as surplus.

Uh Lauren Matluck for uh real property manager is here to share a little bit of information about it uh prior to you opening the public hearing.

And we are looking for council to consider adopting an ordinance to amend um ordinance number 740 to release the utility easement.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Carlson.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members.

Um, our staff report this evening is on our request to release a utility easement located at 200 112th Avenue Northeast.

On January 13th, council declared this easement as surplus to the city's needs and set today as the date to hold the public hearing.

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

The property is located um along Northeast 2nd between 112th and 114th Avenue Northeast.

Um the property owner is redeveloping the site into a combination of um whoops into a multifamily apartment community with up to uh 325 units and over nine stories.

Uh the reserved easement indicated in red uh will be removed as a part of the development plans.

The utility easement was reserved as a part of a street vacation in 1965 through ordinance number 740.

Utilities were never installed inside the easement area.

City utility staff has confirmed that this easement is no longer necessary going forward.

Following the public hearing, staff requests council action on the proposed ordinance to amend ordinance 740 authorizing the release of this easement.

Um this ends our staff report.

I'll be available for questions if there are any.

Thank you so much.

Uh, do I have a motion to open a public hearing?

I move to open the public hearing.

Is any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

There is no oppose.

You're open for the public hearing.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, there are no pre-registered speakers for this public hearing, so I would do a call out for all those joining us in council chambers or those joining us online.

There are several of you.

If you would like to make a comment in this public hearing, please raise your hand.

I see no hands, Mayor.

I'll turn it back to you.

Thank you so much.

Uh, do I have a motion to close the public hearing?

I move to close the public hearing.

Second.

It has been moved and seconded.

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any discussion?

Please raise your hand if you want to have any discussion.

I don't see any hand this on this side.

I don't hand any on this side.

Great.

Do I have a motion to adopt the ordinance 16904?

I move to adopt ordinance number 6904 authorizing the release of a portion of an existing utility easement and amending ordinance number 740 to release the utility easement located at 200 112th Avenue Northeast, which has been declared surplus to the city's needs and no longer required for providing continued public utility service, the release of this easement being deemed in the best interest of the public.

It's been moved by Deputy Miller and seconded by Councilmember Newenhaus.

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

If you all agree, let's just have the two affordable housing uh study session and then we get a break.

Everyone is okay with that.

Uh city manager, would you please introduce our uh to a study session that's all related to each other?

Thank you, Mayor.

Deputy Mayor and Council members.

Tonight we have I would say three very exciting housing funding allocation recommendations for council to consider.

In total, these recommendations will have a significant impact on affordable housing projects within Bellevue and the East Side.

And as we have done in the past, we are presenting the Arch recommendations this evening first, and then we will cover the city-specific housing allocation program recommendations.

The city and Arch staff work uh very closely together in this funding process.

Um, as many of you know as well, Arch's funding recommendations come from the executive board at Arch to the member cities for approval.

And um Nathan McComan, who is our deputy manager and is the city's representative to Arch of the Arch executive board, and he is also the current chair is here tonight to introduce the recommendation and the Arch and City staff.

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

McCommon.

Thank you, City Manager Carlson.

Mayor Malikutien, I'm gonna keep us saying that, and Deputy Mayor Hamilton and members of the council.

It's a pleasure to join you this evening.

And it's also a pleasure to get to serve on the executive board of Arch.

And with me at the table is uh executive director of Arch, Lindsay Masters, Patrick Tippy, the investments manager, and the director of housing, uh Bianca Siegel.

And as a reminder for the council and the viewing public, the city uh of Bellevue is one of the founding members of Arch uh dates back to 1992 to work collaboratively with East King County to plan for and fund affordable housing.

In Bellevue alone, the majority of the affordable housing stock here has come as a result of its participation in Arch, which supports planning capital awards property services and ongoing compliance since Arch's inception.

It has helped to create over 10,000 affordable units on the east side in communities of opportunity.

And the topic before the council this evening has followed its routine and required funding process and asked this council and all the Arch uh jurisdiction city councils to consider the approval of the Arch Housing Trust Fund Award recommendations.

These recommendations were vetted by a community advisory board with the support of technical staff and then reviewed and unanimously approved by the Arch Executive Board to raise it to the council this evening.

And the recommendations seek to award seven projects, which you'll hear about and create a and preserve or preserve 505 homes on the east side, including 271 in just in Bellevue.

And so with that, I'll turn the presentation over to Lindsay Masters.

Thank you, Nathan.

Okay, so uh as Nathan mentioned, we're here to get your direction uh to approve the recommendations from the Arch executive board, and we'll be walking you through those tonight.

Um we do have uh some new council members who I haven't had a chance to come to the council before, and so I just wanted to spend a few brief minutes giving you a little bit more background on Arch as an organization.

Um you did a great job introducing uh Bellevue's role with with Arch as one of our founding members.

Um we have been around since the 1990s uh with a mission to preserve and increase housing for low and moderate income households.

It's really a collaboration of local governments.

We have 15 member cities in King County that are all partners in that collaboration.

And one of the most important ways that they work together is through direct funding of projects.

What sort of creates the framework for how we work with you is our interlocal agreement.

And that is a legal structure that allows communities to partner together to cooperate in planning, funding, and providing affordable housing.

It sets forth a lot of key responsibilities for Arch and it kind of creates the roles within our structure, including how our board operates, how funding recommendations are developed, and then what responsibilities are with local city councils.

And I'll talk a little bit about that in the next slide.

This gives you kind of a high-level picture of that structure.

Most of the important decisions, I think, do all come back to you as city councils, including approving our budget each year, approving the work program that sets out the things we're gonna work on, and importantly, approving the funding awards that we are recommending your dollars go into.

We are governed by an executive board that provides representation for all of the communities that participate in Arch.

We have relied on an advisory board as well to help us shape those funding recommendations.

And new this year, we are piloting a council of elected officials that came out of our strategic plan a couple years ago with a desire to see more participation by electeds in Arch's structure to increase the communication to elected officials about affordable housing, deepen knowledge and support.

So we're really excited and happy to welcome Councilmember Bargava to that pilot.

And then finally, there's a very special role that Bellevue plays for this whole collaboration, which is you host us.

We're very grateful for the services that we are able to access through Bellevue.

It's a key role, and I think without that, this whole partnership probably would much be much more difficult.

So tonight, again, there's a whole range of ways that Arch works with Bellevue and other jurisdictions to help you realize your housing goals.

And the one we're gonna talk about tonight is the direct investment of public dollars into affordable housing projects.

The program we're gonna begin with is the Arch Housing Trust Fund.

This has been a part of our structure.

It's written into our local interlocal agreement that sets up how that works.

And it's voluntary contributions from all of our member jurisdictions on an annual basis that then turn into a competitive process we administer on your behalf.

We have longstanding relationships with other funders to help coordinate these resources.

We have longstanding relationships with development community to try to attract their attention and their work to do business in East King County.

And so that is a very successful program.

I'll talk a little bit more about later on.

We'll be also sharing recommendations from the housing stability program.

It's been exciting to see local jurisdictions have some new funding sources that can then come and supplement what we've been investing through the housing trust fund.

Just big picture.

We could spend a lot of time talking about what's been produced through the trust fund over the last few decades.

But as Nathan mentioned, it's one of the most productive ways we've been able to achieve affordable housing on the east side.

Without that local investment, it's very difficult to get these projects going.

It provides important seed funding.

It allows projects to be to be fully funded in communities that may not have the full resource in a given year by pooling those funds together and making them available to the whole region.

Just want to highlight one of the most important impacts of this whole effort is the resources that you're able to leverage with your local dollars.

Because of the systems we built to collaborate with other public funders and increasingly private funders as well.

We've been able to achieve over $13 of investment in other public and private funds for every one dollar of local funds that we've put into the pot.

Those are those come from the federal level down to the state and regional level as well.

And there were a couple of points just to mention this year that this was a pretty difficult year with the dynamics around federal funding, dynamics around interest rates, cost of materials, labor, everything being very in flux.

And I think given all that, it was uh pretty it was a successful year for us in that we were able to secure a lot of those important state and county resources.

In total from the state housing trust fund, uh we were able to secure 35 million dollars in awards to East King County.

That's over half of the funds that came to the county as a whole.

15 million of those are coming into Bellevue projects, which is very exciting.

Uh another 4 million from the county coming into Bellevue projects.

Um we also anticipate three of the projects in this funding round will be very competitive for Amazon housing equity funds, which is another incredible kind of one-time opportunity and why this is such a big year.

Um I'll mention just briefly to kind of since we're gonna talk a lot about the different pots of money tonight.

Um, this this evening's first presentation is about the resources going through the Arch Housing Trust Fund that are pooled by all the jurisdictions together.

Uh, in total, there's 5.2 million in those awards.

Um 4.6 million of those are direct uh contributions from members or funds they've collected back in their accounts through loan repayments and that type of thing.

There's also a set aside of federal block grant funds that are directed by a subset of Arch cities.

They agree to put those into uh the trust fund as well.

Within that is a portion from Bellevue, and that's 1.3 million this year.

And then there are those separate resources I mentioned that are primarily from the 0.1% sales tax, but also this year the Affordable Housing Fund in Bellevue.

Um we have been uh responsible for trying to achieve a lot of different priorities with this program over the years.

I think we've been successful in meeting a whole variety of needs of different populations, um geographic distribution of the housing throughout the region.

We have focused on preservation, we've focused on siting housing near transit, and then in the last couple of years, really as a result of that strategic plan.

Um, the executive board has been focused on how we can build more faster.

So they've elevated a couple of priorities for us in our funding round.

Uh, one is the timely delivery of the housing, how quickly the projects can get off the ground, how close are they to being permit ready, and that bang for the buck, how far are our dollars gonna go and how much housing is going to be produced, how much other uh resources can we attract.

Um, so with that, I'm gonna probably hand it off to Patrick Tippy here, who will walk you through the projects.

I'll just leave it with saying this was a record year for us in the number of applications we received, the amount of housing that was proposed.

I don't think um there's a there's probably a uh connection between the amount of resources that Bellevue has been able to put out to the development community and the number of applications we saw.

So we're really excited to see that momentum growing and happy to show you the actual projects, which is the exciting part.

Great.

Thanks, Lindsay, and thanks uh Mayor Malcuchan and members of council.

Uh, as we've talked about, we're here to bring forward the recommendations.

We recommended seven uh projects to to you all for your consideration this evening.

Uh the projects range from across five different cities, a range of project types from rental to homeownership serving various uh communities and populations and set aside, some are uh rehabilitation, some are new construction.

So really a wide range.

And we did receive $14 million in requests when we advertise only three and a half million available, so definitely an oversubscribed amount.

I did want to share one slide on each of the recommended projects and not all of the projects that we did receive, but just highlight some of the great things that uh your your investment uh may go to fund if you do advance the uh recommendations here this evening.

The first is a project called Bothell Urban to be developed by Bridge Housing Corporation recommending uh the uh an award of 1.5 million dollars to create 200 homes, uh one, two, and three bedroom units.

With half of those units being two and three bedroom units, really size for families.

This is being developed on surplus land from the city of Balfel, right in downtown Bothville, adjacent to some transit upgrades in the community, and Bothville's really excited to advance that as a as a priority, and it really addresses many of the needs of the uh creating affordable housing at the 30, 50, and 60% area median income levels.

The next uh project recommended is uh Altair Maine developed through a partnership between Hopelink and SRM Development.

We're recommending an award of 500,000 to create 146 homes.

They'll be one, two, and three-bedroom serving households between 30 and 60 percent of the area meaning income.

We'll talk a little bit more about this project in the subsequent Bellevue funding recommendations, but one of the exciting parts is uh serving this uh development would serve households, uh, some households exiting homelessness and survivors of domestic violence.

Next project is also in Bellevue.

This is Forest Edge to be developed on surplus land from St.

Andrew's Lutheran Church by Imagine Housing.

And the recommendation here is for $500,000 to create 100 uh new homes ranging from studio to three bedrooms, all at 60% of the area median income, uh, with uh about 25 of the units dedicated for uh households with disabilities.

Next is Orchard Gardens.

This is on property that Habitat for Humanity purchased from uh Holy Cross Church, and the recommendation for this funding ground from the Arch Housing Trust Fund is for $500,000 to create 25 three-bedroom townhomes uh affordable for uh purchase for households that earn up to 80% of the area meaning income.

Do you want to note this is the second award for this project?

It was previously awarded funds from the Arch Housing Trust Fund back in 2022.

Uh but the project is now ready to go and break ground later this spring.

Next project is called Kirkland House to be developed by Porch Light, uh, which operates the men's shelter here in Bellevue.

The funding recommendation from the Housing Trust Fund is uh 212,600 uh to uh create a home, uh, build three new bedrooms on a home that will serve six men that are have exited from shelter programs, who are working, who uh still uh need an affordable place to live and work and live in community.

The next development is uh a preservation project to uh support the rehabilitation of the family village redmond apartments.

These are 20 uh two and three-bedroom homes, all serving 30 percent area meaning income households.

All of them are families that are exiting homelessness.

And so this is a really important project.

This project was was not originally funded by Arch when it was built in the early 90s, and so this will be Arch's first investment in the property uh in order to preserve the uh the building's envelope and keep the useful life of the structure uh to provide this really important service.

And the final recommendated recommended project is for a project called Leo at Trailhead.

Uh, the developer here is life enrichment options.

This will actually be for the purchase of seven uh units within a larger condominium developed by the King County Housing Authority.

Uh that project has received Arch support in the past.

Uh the Leo Trailhead condo has also received Arch support in the past, and this is a supplemental 191,500 uh award that's being recommended to you today.

So, in summary, I wanted to bring forward uh here's all of the funding requests.

The box in red is those projects that are recommended for funding.

Uh, this does uh bring forward the the total amount advanced from the Arch Housing Trust Fund.

There are supplemental funds that a few Arch member cities contribute from uh CDBG allocations of federal resources.

But this will create 505 uh new homes uh or preserve a few homes in the east side as well.

I'm really excited to advance this forward uh through Bellevue's uh contribution to this and did want to identify the range of all the Arch member cities and their contributions here.

Uh so have um and the source of funds that they're using to contribute to this uh this uh collaboration together to create units across the east side.

And so that with that, uh, would like to uh just have share a couple takeaways that we had this year is we had a significant more, significantly more two and three bedroom units that were proposed, which is wonderful to uh have more people be able to live uh near where they work, where they worship, where they go to school, have access to the great schools and parks and all the other amenities of the community.

But those do increase the cost of the development, so we are seeing those go up.

Um we are seeing seeing some great opportunities to uh advancing projects on Faith Owned Land and on city surplus sites, so really seeing those planning efforts from local communities moving forward.

Um we did have a record funding around more than three to one uh requests to available resources, and then finally we were really successful this year in attracting resources, especially from the state level of more than the half of the state's uh investment in King County did come to projects in East King County.

So we're really proud of the funds that we're awarding, helping to attract those resources.

So, with that, we'd like to ask uh council to consider directing staff to return with legislation approving funding allocations from the fall 2025 Arch Housing Trust Fund awards.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, uh Nathan.

Bianca, Lindsay, and Patrick and the whole Arch team.

We talk about outcome uh in on these toy a lot, and um Arch is doing that.

I think there are four before I go to my uh colleagues.

There are four things that stood out with uh for me.

30, and they're all just numbers.

34 years, 120 million plus in investment across King County.

Uh one dollar in local investment achieved $13, and 12,000 30 units just this proposal.

So thank you so much.

Uh we go with your new council of elected officials member, Councilmember Bargava.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Uh first of all, really happy to join the the council pilot, and hopefully it'll add value.

We'll know in a year whether this is good or not.

I want to double down on what the mayor said.

Just incredible work, super impressive.

Um beyond the numbers, I want to call out uh two things.

One, your presentation highlights how responsive you this work is to housing stability.

The idea that you're able to take someone who finds themselves unhoused to someone that goes up that continuum to more stable housing outcomes is really remarkable, and it's really really commendable work.

It's it's also very needed work, so kudos for that.

And the other thing I would I would say is that it's also the focus on family-sized housing that really stands out.

So that it's not just affordable units, but it's units that actually create the right quality of life for families who need the housing, and the work that you're doing stands out uh as well.

I also really appreciate the taking off on the first C1 project, the 100 units.

That's uh great to see.

Uh, Orchard Gardens and Habitat for Humanity also uh, you know, have continued support.

They're doing great work there.

And the Hopelink project in Bellevue, uh, that's also awesome.

So in aggregate, I'm very supportive.

I'm really thankful for the work you do, and uh uh continue to hope to contribute uh uh in any way I can.

So appreciate that.

Thank you uh so much, Councilmember Bargabo.

Councilmember Royer.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, I want to begin by acknowledging the incredible step towards affordable housing in our community.

I mean, this is really phenomenal work, and I think it's the most we've ever allocated, if that's correct.

Yeah.

Um, so I understand that we're not only funding the construction of affordable units, but we're also funding integrated services as well.

Um, could you give an example of what an example of what those services are?

The services piece will come in more in our second item tonight, which is the um the city's funding program, specifically the housing stability program.

I'll be happy to tell you more about that in just a moment.

Sorry, I got too excited.

Um could you uh and then one comment I wanted to share is that I like that the funding is solution oriented, echoing Councilmember Bargava, meaning that the end goal of these project uh projects is not just for folks to remain in shelters, but uh help our community members experiencing homelessness integrate back into their communities, working in and again and having access to various services.

So I think we're really showing a movement of of some sorts here, which is just fantastic.

Um those are my comments for now.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Broyer.

Councilmember New Enhouse.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh great presentation as we continue to build more and more of our housing stock, affordable housing.

I I just love these projects when I was uh looking through them, everything from you know orchard gardens to the to the village or the family village in Redmond, that one, okay.

And then the Leo Trailhead just looked like phenomenal projects, and it's so great to be a part of that and create the type of housing that our community needs.

So great report.

I I appreciate not just the projects we're looking at, but the holistic view of uh of Arch as it continues to grow.

I just had one uh question, but I am very supportive in terms of moving this forward.

Um, the increase in the two and three bedroom.

Um, so understand that would cause the increase in cost to create that.

Why is there an increase?

It's just less demand for the one bedroom, or what can you tell me a little bit more about and how maybe the model is shifting a little bit too, since that does appear to be the stronger need?

Yeah, I think there's a few dynamics at play.

I think there is a little bit uh the market is producing more of the studio in one bedroom units and are taking advantage of other programs, and so there are uh maybe slightly more affordable in that realm, whereas there is a bigger gap between market rents of the two and three bedroom units that are created by the market or single-family home rentals uh versus what would be an affordable rental in a new apartment complex.

And I think the other likely more compelling case why that's happening regionally, not just in submarkets within uh Bellevue or the East King County area, is the alignment and policy uh goals of the larger sources of funding that we do leverage, both meet mostly the low-income housing tax credit program as well as the focus from the Amazon Housing Equity Fund, both really prioritize larger bedroom sizes, and so is uh our our dollars are getting stretched 13 to 1.

People are looking at what are those bigger chunks of the dollars to complete their capital stacks, yeah, and know they need the two and three bedroom units to be able to secure those to advance their developments and creating longstand, and these are uh Bellevue and East King County cities are amazing amenity rich places that really have strong demand in those areas, and so it's attractive to developers.

So, would it be fair to say that's a real focus right now?

Or what is what does that mix look like in terms of the diversity of housing?

What's the ideal ideal mix that you're aiming for or targeting?

Yeah, I think we we try to be responsive to the the applications that do come in, and so it is really taking a look at how how strong is the you know, through many of the underwriting criteria that we have.

We look at viability of the project and really looking at the the market demands, how close it is to market, how it deviates and creates a public benefit for the investment that that uh jurisdictions like Bellevue are making to advance that project, and I think we have not produced two and three bedroom units nearly to the demand level of the demand, and so uh I I don't think we've calculated at this point what a maximum cap would be on those units because we do have a lot of catch up to do.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilmember New and House.

Councilwoman Robinson.

Um gosh, this is such a good news story, and you know, you make it look so easy, and this has taken years, and it's it's taken a synergy from with uh Arch, the City of Bellevue, our housing partners, including Amazon for the housing equity fund.

It's taken funding, policy, land use, um, all working together.

And here we are, we're gonna get 271 affordable units in Bellevue, and I just want to thank everybody in the room here and everybody who has contributed to make this happen.

Um, and it's year after year, but this seems especially wonderful tonight.

Um, so very, very supportive, very proud of this work for all the people who have worked hard to make this happen and the council that supports this kind of work.

Um, I have two questions.

I'm curious if the organizations that applied for funding but did not get funding this time.

Do they get another bite of the apple?

And number two, you know, we have a lot of uh minimum wage workers, especially in the service industry in Bellevue.

Do they know about these units?

Can we get the word out to them somehow so that we can maximize the opportunity for the people who work in the city to live here if that's what they hope to do?

Do you want to take the first one?

Yeah, yeah.

So to answer the first question, uh so we uh have let all the folks know that weren't awarded.

We talked about uh shared some of the rationale of why the community advisory board did not recommend funding for those projects, and for those who uh are interested or able to maintain site control, recommend that they uh do reapply opportunities for them to be competitive both here and for other sources of funds uh that they may be seeking uh for their projects.

We do encourage them to come back and uh continue to work on creating units in in the area.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, I just add uh it's not new that we are wishing we could fund more projects than we have resources for, so we are always trying to maintain those relationships with the developers and give them support they need to maintain the project and be able to reapply.

Um so that's that's a big focus for our team.

And then with regard to marketing, uh we do offer for each project that we have funded, as well as projects that are being completed through incentive programs, support for marketing.

Um in some cases uh ongoing support, but especially when projects are just opening and there are a lot of units available.

Uh we maintain that mailing list of folks who we can market uh those availabilities to.

So I think it's over 12,000 households on that list now, um, most of whom are households in East King County actively looking for affordable housing.

Um, so we're constantly trying to build up that list.

We've also built out a lot of partnerships with community-based organizations that operate in um East King County as well to help them get the word out as well to all the communities that they serve.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Robinson.

Councilmember Smother Verio.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you for this amazing work, Lindsay.

This is so exciting.

I think that I don't have any questions, but I have one comment.

I think that the diverse um choices of location and then AMI needs, and especially I love the um the Pacific meeting the needs of you know, for example, intellectual and disability families, and then you know, meant that's going through a transitional from um Porsche to a permanent housing.

I think this program is really amazing because it's not only inclusive but also very intentional.

And then with the innovation that collaborate with others around the region, I think this is that's why it's making so powerful to help people.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Deputy Mayor Hamilton.

Great.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thanks for the presentation.

Good to see you all.

Um, certainly uh thank you to our own deputy city manager Nathan McCommon for his leadership on the Arch Executive Board as the chair.

Well, while there is always more we need to do, the projects in the funding allocation recommended are impactful, and as mentioned earlier, we'll bring 271 affordable housing units to Bellevue.

That's significant.

I want to highlight the 70 or so family-sized units at the Altair at East Maine project.

Uh so important that we continue to afford to focus on affordable units that are sized for families.

There are far too few of them, and this project helps address the critical need.

Also want to briefly call out the city's first one, first C1 project as mentioned earlier, but Imagine Housing and St.

Andrew's Forest Edge Development is a very exciting and worthy project.

Hope to see the Peters Ridge project in my neighborhood reapply in the future.

The C1 program is going to make an impact and provide inspiration for similar programs around the region and state.

And 25% of the Peters Ridge units will be for households with disabilities.

Really pleased to see that.

So well done, fully supportive.

Thank you, Mayor.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much.

I just have two quick questions.

One uh question is we have seven projects that you awarded.

Uh, we are hearing interest rate is going high, construction costs is elevated, and there are many projects at risk.

We are hearing that from development community.

Do you see any financial risk for any of these awardees and what are what is our exposure?

How are we dealing with that?

Yeah, I think uh we did a number of things uh both before the uh RFPs were even issued as well as through the underwriting once the applications were submitted.

So, first uh to get on the on the front side of that, we wanted to we set benchmarks of what we're seeing.

So we're talking to asset managers, our own portfolio around the county and really looked at what are the market dynamics across the affordable housing portfolio, really to get a view of what our operating expenses because we know insurance is going up, what are interest rates, what are what is the yield on equity tax card equity pricing, all these different dynamics to make sure we really know what market is, and then we asked all the developers to at least meet that uh as a contingency and then include some other continues so that way there is some variability because from the time they submitted these applications to us six months ago, now they'll still take another six to twelve months from now to get into the ground, and so that is a lot of opportunity for uh escalation in various different dimensions.

So we make sure that we've got contingency built in there so that way our one award uh is uh sufficient to advance them, give them the confidence to proceed uh full steam ahead, knowing they're spending precious resources to to advance the projects.

Thank you so much.

Uh, and thank you for being on top of that.

The other question is you had a strategic uh plan.

What year is that is from what year to what year and when is the next one?

Uh when is the next body of work on a strategic plan is?

Yeah, um, the plan was adopted in 2024.

Um, and when the board put that in place, the commitment was that this wasn't gonna be uh a status quo sit on the shelf kind of plan.

It would be constantly evaluated, revisited, and at least once a year opened back up by the board to ask are these still the right strategies?

Do we need to make adjustments?

Um, so it's meant to be kind of implemented and reevaluated in real time.

So we're now almost almost two years in, and I think um the board's doing a really good job of tracking that.

We maintain a dashboard to give them information.

Nathan could speak to um kind of where that discussion's been.

But uh the idea is it will continue to live on as long as it's useful and as long as it's having an impact.

Thank you so much.

Again, I appreciate you all.

Thank you so much for the work you are doing.

You are doing the real impact, and we appreciate you for that.

We have another study session, and some people are oh, sorry, we have a motion.

Oh, sorry, we have a motion.

Great.

Do we have a motion?

I move to direct staff to prepare legislation to approve Bellevue funding of $1,300,200 for the fall 2025 Arch Housing Trust Fund as recommended by the Arch Executive Board for the future for future council action.

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

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

There is no opposed.

The motion passes again.

Thank you so much.

Now to the second related study session.

Thank you, Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Council.

I do recognize that many of your comments related to both of these presentations.

So, but we do want to bring a separate uh PowerPoint here and information to you about specifically about the two programs that are City of Bellevue funding programs for housing.

So that's our housing stability program and our affordable housing fund.

These are the housing is a major priority for the city, and the allocation recommendations that you have before you tonight from the two city funds are significant.

They're significant as Councilmember Breyer noted in their size and amount this year and in what they are going to be able to do to help the city move forward on our affordable housing targets.

So there are many more essential actions that we utilize in the city to advance those housing goals.

Certainly among one of those, the C1 program that you heard about tonight, and many, many more.

But the city's funding allocation does unlock other funding to come to the city.

And I think this is just a very remarkable year for that.

So to add to the presentation dais here, we have uh Sabrina Villarde.

She's our housing stability program coordinator.

She's joining Bianca and Lindsay to give you more detailed information about the city funding specifically.

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

Good evening.

I appreciate the continued conversation with the um exciting funding announcements.

Um I'm gonna be just be really brief and echo the city manager's comments that this really is a um a particularly exciting year.

We have um offered uh as part of this funding round uh some funding that the city has been accumulating for many years, and we have the opportunity to allocate that now to accelerate some really exciting projects.

So I will let uh Sabrina take the presentation.

Good evening, everybody.

Thank you so much for having me.

Um so we are seeking direction today on approving the housing stability program and affordable housing 2025 uh funding recommendations.

So we're gonna walk you through some background on both the housing stability program and the affordable housing fund, then we'll get to the exciting stuff, which is the award recommendations, and we'll close out with seeking direction again.

Um so just big picture on I know that we've heard a lot about how exciting this round is, but just three specific reasons for why it's a historic round.

So this year is the most money that the city has advertised uh for affordable housing in recent years.

Um for HSP in particular, we were able to do this because prior year awards were relatively low.

Um, and then the second reason is that the affordable housing fund was advertised for the first time.

So the affordable housing fund is made up of Bell Red Fee and Lou contributions and prior capital uh CIP uh appropriations for housing.

And then finally, thanks to the amazing work of Arch and city staff, um, the excellent coordination between other public funders made it possible for us to fully fund three of the four projects that you're gonna see later today.

Um we coordinated with the Department of Commerce with King County uh to ensure that these projects are able to move forward into the next phase of development without having to seek additional funding through other rounds.

So we're really excited to bring you those today.

Uh, and I'm gonna walk through the housing stability program first.

Okay, so I'm going to start at the bottom with staff support.

But in July of 2022, council approved a program framework for the deployment of our housing stability program, sometimes referred to also as our HB 1590 funds.

So these funds are replenished every year through a sales and use tax collection of 0.1%.

We are able to do that as a result of state legislation, which really governs the way that we run the program.

But starting first with staffing, so council allocated 5% of overall revenue to cover staff support.

5% is generally on the lower end.

It's below the average of what it takes to really truly run a program like this.

So our goal is, as always, to continue being effective and efficient with how we spend tax dollars.

Next up on the list in blue is the 15% allocated to the behavioral health and housing related services pod.

This is administered by human services in the parks and community services department via a biannual award cycle.

Funds for Behealth for behavioral health and housing related services are allocated directly to community-based organizations.

And that award cycle is separate from our capital and on-site maintenance operations maintenance and on-site services funding.

I will frequently refer to that as OMS, but please feel free to interrupt and ask if you have any questions.

And then the final two categories in that like purplish color up there and green.

So in purple, 40% was set aside to explore bonding and unique partnerships that would typically require a different type of investment.

So while the opportunity has not yet arisen to engage in those opportunities, we continue to be open to those investments, and we're still speaking to affordable housing partners about that.

Tonight, we will be focusing on the green bar.

So that is the capital and OMS section.

So that can include on-site services, as we mentioned earlier.

And Bellevue is unique.

This funding source generally is unique in that it provides that operations and maintenance support.

Very few funding sources, if any, provide that to affordable housing developers who often face higher barriers as far as operations go.

Okay, so very specifically about the housing stability program again.

This program is governed by the enabling legislation.

That's the RCW that gave us HB 1590.

That RCW details what these funds can be used for, so they can be used for acquisition, new construction, and then the operations and maintenance as mentioned earlier, which includes that on-site service support.

Capital and OMS runs on an annual cycle.

So we advertise those every year around early summer, get applications later in the year, and then go through a review process and bring you recommendations the next year.

As far as funding priorities, so with the adoption of the 2022 framework for the housing stability program, council also prioritized addressing and preventing homelessness and housing instability, prioritize households earning less than 30% of the area median income, and specifically wanted to focus on underserved marginalized Bellevue residents.

With the Affordable Housing Fund, we had the opportunity to expand beyond the requirements of the RCW.

So that meant that we could look for homeownership projects, that we could support projects that were taking advantage of the faith-based development incentives like the C1 program.

And we were able to also prioritize family-sized units with that funding.

So it gave us kind of a broader range and helped us really bring projects forward that we wanted to see get to units faster.

So a couple of the amazing things that the housing stability program has done so far.

We've invested just for capital and OMS, a little over 30 million dollars the program's inception.

That has translated to 472 units overall, 107 of which of those units are directly supported by the housing stability program.

So that means that there is a service component that is attached to those units.

Without the strategic and targeted investment of the housing stability program, those 472 units would not have come to fruition.

And that includes both new construction and preservation of units all in the city of Bellevue.

Those projects include, you'll recognize some of the pictures as the Aventine, the Hope Starts Here program from LifeWire, the Bridge Spring District Project, Plymouth Crossing, and then last year's award for the Amani home.

We will be providing or we anticipate providing by fall a program report on both capital and OMS for the housing stability program, which will have a little bit more data so that you can see what that looks like day to day.

And now I will pass it to Patrick.

So we work closely together between Arch staff and the Office of Housing Staff to really make sure that the city's making strong investments, wise investments, and coordinated investments.

And so the Arch staff supports the staff by evaluating the project proposals and using the city's criteria and underwriting these proposals and applications to assess the viability, the finance and economics of it, as well as the applicant strength.

And so here's a range of some of the different types of criteria so we're looking really looking for in the applications that we receive.

We really try and align the schedule of both the housing stability program, the affordable housing fund, the Bellevue programs, and Arch release their RFPs at the same time.

They're do-it-the-same time.

It's the same materials with one exception of an addendum for the city of Bellevue.

It also aligns with the same time frame applying to other other places.

And so part of this is a way to make and reduce reduce barriers for the development community, create simplicity and efficiency for staff time and expertise.

The application review process is uh goes through an analysis coordinated coordinated uh with Arch and Office of Housing to streamline this process.

We also coordinate with the human services team.

We're this is Office of Housing and Arch, but really we have a third leg to the stool coordinating with the Human Services Department within the Parks Community Services, and Andrew Nambouget is here today, uh helping us to review and underwrite the program support, making sure it's a best practice program model and that the services are appropriate to being what's proposed, and that the award amount for the operating maintenance and services award is appropriate for that development.

And then finally, uh the uh analysis is brought forward to an interdepartmental review committee that the city coordinates to review the applications, consider the risks proposed some proposals, conditions for the potential awardees.

Then the Office of Housing takes those recommendations and prepares them to the city for the city manager and ultimately for your your consideration.

With the Affordable Housing Pro Fund being new this year, we thought we'd use the same time frame, same application materials, uh, underwrite similarly, though with the slightly different criteria, and advance those.

And with those recommendations, the Office of Housing alone is creating the recommendations and bringing them to city leadership, and then ultimately to you all for consideration.

Okay, so now we get to talk about the projects.

And you heard a little bit about them earlier, but wanted to kick us off with kind of high-level view of what the requests look like when they first came in, right?

So this chart demonstrates the level of need.

We were oversubscribed by close to uh $30 million compared to what we advertised.

So we advertised 20 million dollars for the housing stability program, 34 million came in total for that.

For the Affordable Housing Fund, we advertised 10 million, 19.9 million in requests came in for that fund.

Um, and then in comparison, we see um Arch is advertised here in gray, so they advertised the three and a half million, but they got about 14.4 million in requests.

As you can see across all three funds, the uh requests far exceeded what we advertised.

And before we jump into the projects, I just want to highlight that you'll see that we went slightly over what we advertised in the awards that we are recommending today.

The um purpose of that is to ensure that these projects truly are able to move forward and through to their development phases without any additional obstacles in the way.

So with that, I will hand it back to Patrick to walk us through.

So here are the funding recommendations that we bring forward to you here today.

Uh the first project on the list here is uh Bellwether Housing's uh project they're currently calling the Bellevue TOD.

This is a little bit of a unique award.

We're recommending an award for pre-development funds.

So this developer has been selected to create affordable housing, 127 uh homes on a city of Bellevue owned land, piece of land, which we're proposing to lease to Bellwether to create these homes.

And so this $2 million award is to support the uh the pre-development design entitlement phase of that project.

Uh, note the asterisks on the on the unit counts on both the units and the HSP units for that project.

Those are not included in the totals below because we do anticipate they'll uh return and request additional funds from us in subsequent rounds, and so we wanted to keep the counts consistent since this award itself on its own won't yield those unit counts.

We're not including those in the totals here today.

Uh but we are bringing forward recommendation of a two million dollar housing stability program award for that project.

Uh we've talked about the Habitat for Humanity Orchard Garden Development to create the uh 25 home ownership units, and we're recommending an award from the Affordable Housing Fund because that's the eligible source.

The housing stability program can't serve households at that higher income level.

And then we do have two projects that are leveraging the low-income housing tax credit program.

And these projects are really uh gonna be able to take advantage of an opportunity created through some federal tax reform last summer, and the fact that Bellevue is has the amount of money that they they do and are recommending these.

We'll be able to advance two very large projects uh in a single year, which might normally take two or three years to advance.

So really exciting to uh to talk more about the Altair at Eastman project uh and its split request uh split recommendation from both the housing stability fund and the affordable housing fund, as well as a $517,000 annual operating maintenance and services uh recommendations to support uh on site case management and other services there.

And the final project for recommendation is the Imagine Housing Forest Edge Development on the Surplus St.

Um Andrews site.

Uh and again, this is also a bifurcated award.

Some of the funds coming from the housing stability program and other coming from the affordable housing fund with a recommendation for 120,000 of annual operating maintenance and services dollars.

So getting a little bit more into the projects themselves, uh, and want to spend a few minutes here on the Bell VT site uh proposed by Bellweather Housing.

This is to create homes affordable from the 30 to 80 percent area median income level, one to three bedrooms.

At this point, they're committing 13 of the units for households exiting homelessness, and this pre-development award uh would be a proposed to be a deferred contingent loan uh after some other uh debt that's advantageous uh to the project so probably not beginning repayment until year 21 of the project's operations.

The next next project, the Habitat Orchard Gardens.

You can see here uh we have similar pretty pictures as the last agenda item, but we did want to break out the recommended source here of which source of Bellevue resources we're recommending for this.

And so for this project, we're recommending a grant uh secured grant for this project of 1.7 million dollars to create these uh 25 three bedroom townhomes.

The uh next project is the Alter at East Main project.

Again, this is ranges in affordability from 30% area median income to 60% area median incomes, one, two, and three bedroom units, uh, 37 of the units for households exiting homelessness or survivors of domestic violence.

And uh we're really recommend we're recommending funds from both sources of capital as well at uh in the form of deferred contingent loans deferred until year 21, and then uh the um annual 517,000 for the operating maintenance services for five initial five-year period, which could be renewed.

Uh and the contracting for the OMS awards, I I uh failed to mention earlier, is done by the human services department.

So that is part of the the partnership between these groups.

We're here presenting the capital awards and human services works on the contracting for the OMS contracts.

Uh and then finally the uh Forest Edge project, the 100 units uh for one, two, and three bedroom uh unit types, serving 25 households with dis uh for people with disabilities.

So uh really having an opportunity to be accessible to have a place where people can call home in an integrated community near near grade amenities.

Uh, we do have uh again deferred loan recommended from both the housing stability program and affordable housing fund and the OMS uh five-year OMS award at $120,000 per year.

Uh so in closing, go back to the summary of the the funds that we've talked about today, and the the consideration for the two two boxes in the blue uh there for the 22 million uh dollars of housing stability capital as well as the 11.3 million dollars from the uh affordable housing fund to create uh 271 homes here in Bellevue and leveraging the resources either from Arch King County, state, and federal resources.

Um, this uh recommends uh presents a deep partnership across the board between the city, the development community, the the sellers, whether they're faith-based organizations, uh, the city themselves, and and other public funders.

So we're really uh excited to advance this here today.

Thank you so much again, Bianca, Sabrina, uh Patrick and Lindsey and everyone who worked on this funding ground.

I appreciate that this round advanced different models, uh, rental housing, homeownership through the land trust model, faith-based development, and supportive housing partnership.

39 million is a serious money.

And we are able to deploy that strategic strategically shows how much progress Bellevue has made in building a real housing infrastructure.

But I just wanted to use this opportunity to thank this council and everyone on this council and all of the former council members, Zon Lee, Robertson, Barksell, Stoke, and others, because that housing stability program, that's 0.1% sales tax, that's was because of this council and why we can spend this money for this amazing work.

So just wanted to use this opportunity to thank them.

Uh Councilmember Robinson.

We'll start with you.

Okay.

Patrick, thank you, Mayor.

Um, you described bifurcated funding awards.

This is like the such complex work.

Uh, it's just like most cities can't do this.

And the fact that you're doing these bifurcated funding awards is really incredible and a real testimony to uh the vision of this council and the direction of the city manager to create an office of housing, Bianca, you and all the staff that have worked together and everybody at the table here working together to create this opportunity.

Uh the 1590 doing that, that was one of the scariest and boldest things I think we as a council ever did.

That was money that was going to be collected by the county anyway, and we had the opportunity as a city to collect it for our own purposes, and uh it was really important that we share it with Arch and really um work not just to create supportive housing opportunities for the city of Bellevue, but the entire East Side.

And so uh working with Arch and seeing the fruits of those labors, it's really gratifying.

So thank you.

This is this is great.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Robinson.

Uh Councilmember New Enhaus.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, yeah, echo those words.

I think uh the 1590 decision was uh was uh was was was a great one uh and I think that will prove beneficial to the city um for for for for many years to come.

Um but that's only one part of it is the is the funds, but obviously we need uh count on the expertise and uh the the well management of the program to make sure that um the the funds are allocated uh correctly and the projects are are are the right projects to invest in.

So great job all around.

I don't have any questions.

I'm ready to move this forward, so thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilmember Newman House.

Uh, Councilmember Samodovirio.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, I don't have any comments.

I just want to say thank you so much for doing this work and lifting, I think the um the most marginalized group of the community so we can meet somewhere in the middle together.

Thank you.

Um, and I'm also honored to be part of this council.

Okay, move this forward.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Bargabo.

Yeah, thank you.

Um first of all, thank you for the incredible work.

I can say it again.

I'm gonna say it again.

I said it maybe 25 minutes ago, but this is really incredible.

Uh I also, you know, want to say, no kidding, man, 30 nine million dollars.

So, what gives me a lot of pride is the fact that the city has, you know, I've said this before to a smaller group, but putting your money where your mouth is.

We talk about the prioritization that we have for housing and affordable housing in Bellevue, and I feel really proud to support this allocation of funds because it really shows it's not just words, but it's truly a commitment to try to create this opportunity for more affordable, diverse housing within Bellevue and support our residents.

So, this is a very proud moment uh to be able to do this and move this forward.

So that's that's fantastic.

Um I did have uh two really quick other comments.

One is a question.

Uh, I do appreciate the um the bellwether allocation for uh sort of a you called it preliminary, or not sure what words you used, but one of the questions I had was why are we prioritizing that versus something that has more immediate near-term delivery of units?

And I can appreciate the transit-oriented nature.

I can also appreciate sort of the strategic nature of seeding that, but I'd like to understand how you thought about that trade-off, because you're oversubscribed by a lot, and I would imagine there'd be a lot more low-hanging fruit with immediate deliverables or faster deliverables.

So that's my first question.

Do you want to talk about that?

Yeah, sure.

Um, so speaking to the Bellwether site, um, I think the priority here was really that this is a city-owned um surplus property.

Uh, and so the intent is to partner with this developer on long-term sustained affordability for this property.

Um the pre-development ask fit well with the housing stability program priorities, and we do anticipate that they will come back in the future with a fully fleshed out development plan uh and an ask in a future round.

Um, but overall it did kind of check all of the uh appropriate boxes for the housing stability program, and that's why we had it live really just in that fund for um right now.

Um, but uh big picture as a city um supporting development of affordable housing on city-owned land uh lines very well with our strategic target areas, with our um future affordable housing strategy, uh, and so it met all of those priorities as well.

I hope that answered um your question.

Yeah, uh okay.

Uh and the second one I had was uh really related to that.

Um in some ways it gets across all the projects.

Now that we're allocating this funding and we have more control, whether it's C1 or with Bellwether or uh Orchard Gardens, and we're actually allocating more funds than what was originally thought about.

I think it's really important that we find ways to accelerate the delivery of these units, to streamline these processes and hold a very high bar on accountability for the delivery.

And I just want to know, you know, how you're thinking about that other specific, uh not just standard uh metrics.

I'm sure that is, and you outlined that in your prior presentation for Arch, but things that we can do to accelerate the process.

Yeah.

I think uh, and and to go back to to link your two questions together.

I think making the pre-development award is a tool to accelerate that.

That two million dollar commitment uh takes away some of the risk capital that Bellwether, the City of Bellevue did a really good job of attracting a really strong slate of potential developers for that site, and Bellwether stood out amongst uh a uh a pool of impressive uh applicants wanting to develop affordable housing here.

And this $2 million commitment uh gives them confidence in the city's partnership with them and will help them accelerate their design and feasibility work as fast as possible, eliminating all the uh some of the risk elements that they might experience in attracting that working capital to get to the place where they can secure all of the final financing and get to uh permit ready state.

And so this uh awarding a pre-development award is a technique in accelerating that.

Um, so we're really looking at that as one technique.

A second technique is making sure we're fully funding projects.

Uh, I mentioned during the Arch presentation, some of the applications were coming back for a second or third time, and uh and the recommendations the Office of Housing has advanced to you all today uh advances whole projects so that way they don't need to wait for another year, which then includes escalation of all the construction costs, other pieces increases uncertainty.

And so by making whole awards of of the requests to make sure the capital stack is there, accelerating the timeline of that commitment are two of the tools to help accelerate.

Just to add to that, for the um bellwether project in Wilburton, and I realize we're doing this a little bit out of order, but in if in a few weeks you'll have the opportunity to look at the pre-development and lease agreement for that project.

Um those documents also include milestones specifically where delivery of uh certain um uh you know design uh thresholds and funding thresholds and then construction need to be met in order to uh stay within the terms of the agreements.

Um so we're building in additional um uh you know uh incentive to move the project forward uh on an expedited timeline.

And then for all of the projects that are 100% affordable housing, they have the opportunity to work with a specialized team in development services that will help to move those through the development approval process in a in a faster way.

Um, and then Office of Housing staff will also stay in touch and follow along with us to make sure that uh that they're meeting milestones.

That the projects are meeting milestones and development services staff is able to review them.

Yeah, that's great.

So gonna just give you huge kudos um to Bellevue.

I think they they've stood out among the jurisdictions Arch works with in achieving those permitting milestones, which actually helps us be more competitive for other funding.

And then the other thing I would be remiss if I didn't say the stability of the funding resources and the um sustained nature of that is another hugely important thing for developers.

So the fact that you've got that 0.1% sales tax is really important.

It's why we're seeing that that demand for the resource grow.

The affordable housing fund is more of a one-time resource, so I think that'll be a continued question.

And thing Arch is always trying to explore with members how we create more stable permanent funding sources.

Okay, appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilmember Borgalbo.

Councilmember Breyer.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, this is just fantastic work.

It's vertically integrated.

Uh it is outcome-based, and I wish I had more to say.

I mean, I'm just blown away, really.

Thank you so much for your incredible work, and I'm fully supportive.

Thank you so much.

Uh, Deputy Mayor Hamilton.

Uh, thank you, Mayor.

Thanks for the presentation.

Um, housing night in Bellevue, so that's super exciting.

Um, just want to acknowledge this has been said earlier, but I want to acknowledge the foresight that council members had in 2020 when they decided that we needed to find a way for the city to fund its own efforts to increase affordable housing.

Some efforts are more effective when we work in partnership, and some more so when we pursue our goals on our own.

It's widely acknowledged that the deeply affordable housing requires government funding support.

The types of housing that is contemplated by these funding recommendations can't be built any other way.

This is something we must do or else it doesn't get done.

The funding award recommendation before us tonight is bold, represents a significant investment in affordable housing in Bellevue.

I have nothing but praise for the up to $37 million figure.

It's uh it is appropriate and necessary.

And this level of investment represents a level of seriousness, commitment, and leadership that our community expects from us.

Also have to heap some praise on our city manager and her team.

We can't take bold, impactful action if we don't do all the planning and preparation it takes to be in a strong position to move forward when the conditions are right.

City Manager Carlson and her team were thoughtful and strategic.

They've ensured that we are in a position tonight to say yes to what is a significant step forward in building affordable housing in our city.

And our strong financial commitment in this effort can serve as an example for other cities in the region when they make similar decisions.

It's what it takes to build 271 units of affordable housing, and it is what it takes to reach our goal of producing or preserving the big number of affordable units we have committed to building.

Bellevue is the second largest city in the country, county, and the fifth largest in the state.

This level of investment and affordable housing is one way for us to act like it.

100% in favor of these funding awards.

Hope to see it come back to us on consent soon so that the funded projects can move forward quickly.

Thank you, Mayor.

Great remark, great delivery, sir, as always.

Uh I submarine, I have a test for you.

I am going to throw you acronym, tell me what they are.

Sure.

HTF.

HTF is the housing trust fund.

HSP.

Housing Stability Program.

A H F.

Affordable Housing Fund.

MFTE.

The multi-family tax exemption.

Okay, this is a real test.

M-A-H.

M-A-H.

Mandatory affordable housing.

Well, this SMAH.

Vin Via Supercharger tweet.

Yeah.

So joke on the side, we are layering all of these acronyms that you threw at us, and I was trying to test you, and you pass if it's a flying collar.

I just recommend there should be a dashboard that kind of have all of these say what result to what, how many affordable housing is generated.

And I think that would be a good thing for public to see that uh to how all of these fit together and what total leverage of our achieving per dollar invested, especially when we have these 10 years goal of 5,700 units.

That's some of them majority and half of that is 30% AMI below.

So I think, and then some of them is workforce housing.

I think we would be great to can kind of have that map somehow that when I wanted to brag about RCT, I can go and check that and say, okay, all of these acronyms resolve it to these.

Do I have the motion, please?

I move to direct staff to prepare legislation for consideration at a future meeting, approving up to a total of 37 million 37,659 in project funding awards, including 22,544, 778 in capital and 637,852 in annual OMS funds for a five-year term with an annual inflation factor from the housing stability program and a total of 11,303,621 from the affordable housing fund.

Second mayor, may I ask that we add on to bring it back on consent?

Yes.

Can you uh and bring it back on consent?

Second.

It has been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by Councilmember Brayer to come back on consent.

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

Thank you so much.

We will take 14 minutes break, and we will be back by 8.15.

Thank you so much.

We are back.

City manager, we have our pair study session items by the name of HOMA.

Thank you, Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Council members.

The presentation tonight and what's before you with this land use code amendment represents another step in the city's efforts to expand our housing opportunities.

And if you recall way back, this was part of the next right work initiative.

This housing opportunities mixed use areas, land use code does support increased housing production and affordable housing in these mixed use areas.

I want to thank the code and policy team and the planning commission.

This is really complex and difficult work, and they have managed it by being very providing a lot of communication, being very iterative in the work that they've done, taking comments and hearing feedback and modifying.

And so what you have before you tonight is the planning commission's recommended land use code amendment for the HOMA areas.

And then you'll also hear uh recommendation from staff regarding the multifamily tax exemption program as it relates to the mandatory affordable housing requirement.

Um so at the uh table we have our planning commission chair, Nikine Hanlu, uh Nick Whipple, Code and Policy Director, Matthew Minard, our senior planner in development services, and then Robin Zhao from our Office of Housing.

And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Nick to kick off the presentation.

Great.

Thank you, City Manager, and good evening, uh, Mayor Malikutian, Deputy Mayor Hamilton, members of the council.

Um we are here adding a couple more acronyms to the night with our housing opportunities and mixed use areas, our HOMA land use code amendment LUCA.

Um so uh for our presentation this evening, want to provide a bit of background and context on this project.

It's been a two more than two-year effort.

Um, so wanted to recall some of the history.

Um, also, as mentioned, we're joined by Chair Conloo.

Um, so she'll be helping us um with the planning commission recommendation and explaining that.

And then uh Matthew will walk through the components of the LUCA, and Robin will also touch on, excuse me, within that portion of the presentation, um, how we are um thinking about multifamily tax exemption, um that program.

Uh there was a commitment to council that any time there was a recommendation forwarded to you all that pertains to a mandatory inclusionary zoning approach, um, we would be taking a look at our MFTE code, doing some analysis and bringing forward our um recommendation on whether or not adjustments to that program uh would be important or necessary to support the recommendation in the code for a mandatory approach.

So this evening we are seeking direction from you all to um finalize the land use code amendment ordinance for final action at a future meeting.

So we'll dive right in first with uh what is HOMA.

So this is a land use code amendment.

It was um first conceived as part of the city's next right work effort.

Um, that was after the affordable housing strategy, the 2017 version was nearing its end.

Um, the council was looking for what's some of those next items that we might take up and uh really work to advance some of the housing goals of the city.

Um so it was aimed at just that, encouraging housing and affordable housing in our targeted mixed use areas throughout the city.

It took a close look at some of our zoning standards that were not getting us to the outcomes that we were wanting to realize in our city as we evolve from a more suburban type urban pattern to a more urbanized community.

It also was aiming to create some affordable housing through this, so creating some straightforward and consistent programs that we will be able to administer, and then update the land use code consistent with the comprehensive plan.

That was another opportunity of a more protracted schedule for this project is the comp plan was updated in 2024, which allowed council to put a finer point on the scope that HOMA was going to address.

So that's where it's also responding to some of the policy aims of this Bellevue 2044 plan, looking at opportunities to create more diverse housing opportunities, and then also speak to some of the vibrancies of this mixed use areas.

So here's just a map of the geographic scope.

All the areas outlined in orange are the areas that HOMA is looking to address.

And so what maybe is easier to talk about is the areas not included in the HOMA scope.

So when you look at the map, you'll see east main area around the light rail station.

It's not included.

That was a code effort that council had recently completed in 2021.

The other area is Wilburton.

You all had a separate effort that was adopted last summer responding to that area.

And then the Bell Red Corridor is another area that's not included on this map.

That's again another planning initiative that's underway.

And then the project is also, as Matthew is going to talk about providing some rezones to some areas of the city just to provide consistency with the comp plan.

So we'll talk a bit about the LUCA process and then pass it over to Matthew to get us through the code recommendation.

So as we noted, this is a more than two year process with council initiation first in December of 2022.

Since then, we've begin working with the community.

We've taken a phased approach to our outreach.

We first met with the development community to understand kind of task one.

What are those standards that are inhibiting some of the residential development that we're wanting to achieve in the city?

That information was then shared with community to help understand what are some of those community priorities we should be really looking after as we're working to update our code and find that balance.

So we had conducted six public information sessions.

It also doesn't include all the tabling that happened throughout the two year period, more than two year period at multiple city and neighborhood events.

There was an iterative code drafting process for this.

We first published the draft in March of 2025.

So we are just going on a year of that draft being out in community, and we are on our seventh draft that you are reviewing tonight.

So that was a lot of work to get us to that version to help find that better balance.

We've incorporated feedback along the way.

It's been a very iterative process.

So now without further ado, we'll have Matthew walk through the code.

Thanks, Nick.

So I'll talk about the meat of the HOMA changes, which is really the dimensional standards that we're looking at changing through the HOMA process to encourage more housing in these areas.

As you all know, many of these mixed-use areas in the city currently are large malls or strip malls, often single-story development surrounded by parking.

So what we are trying to do with HOMA is encourage as these parcels redevelop into new uses, encourage more mixed-use development with apartment buildings and retail on site.

So we are proposing increases in floor area ratio to allow larger buildings on these sites.

Many of these districts are currently also controlled by dwelling units per acre limits, which are very restrictive towards housing development.

So we are proposing eliminating all of those restrictions in favor of this FAR increase.

Through our outreach to the development community, we've heard there's two suite spots for building height around housing, which is five and seven stories, now eight stories with the updated building code.

So looking at providing building heights that are in that five to eight story range.

There are a few districts as well through the comp plan that are looking at much higher building heights than that, too.

We heard right at the end of the planning commission process through our public input process that our impervious and hard surface limits.

So basically, how much pavement or other non-permeable surfaces you can put on a site were much too low to support the FARs that we were proposing through HOMA.

So we have proposed lifting those significantly to allow more development on site.

In concert with that, currently the code has very restrictive structure lot coverage limits, which really limits the size of the structure based on the size of the lot with high impervious surface limits and low lot or structure lot coverage limits.

You are really encouraging smaller buildings with larger parking lots, which is the opposite of what we're trying to achieve with HOMA.

So we have removed that structure lot coverage limit, and it would all be governed by the impervious surface limit at this point.

We have also removed all setbacks in the mixed use areas.

Some of these were very restrictive, up to 50 feet in some districts.

The only setback that does remain, and we'll talk about this a little bit later, is a transition area setback between these districts and neighboring residential only districts.

We have also proposed removing the multifamily play area requirement.

As you all know, Bellevue is very well served by parks and open space, and we do think that serves the community in a way that every development doesn't necessarily need to provide a play area if they are providing multifamily residential.

We heard significant input that this is a large cost driver and takes up a large portion of the lot, so they can't build housing on that area of the lot.

We are proposing an affordable housing program with HOMA.

We gave Planning Commission two options for affordable housing.

Option A being a mandatory inclusionary zoning program, and option B being a voluntary incentive-based program.

Planning Commission did recommend the adoption of a mandatory program with essentially identical standards to the program adopted with Wilburton.

So we are creating more consistency for affordable housing throughout the city by implementing this through HOMA.

We are also providing a fee and loo option and a land transfer option.

The land transfer option does have some criteria of when the city will accept that land, and the land would have to be dedicated to the city and also needs to be within a two mile radius of the original parcel of the original development.

We have provided FAR and height increases where affordable housing is required.

And for ease of use for both ourselves and the public, we have reorganized the affordable housing section of the code into a new chapter.

As we add more affordable housing standards, that one section of the code was getting quite large and quite difficult to navigate your way through.

So this has been reorganized, which will hopefully re streamline our development permitting process as well as the ease of development applicants in using that section.

I will note that this does not apply downtown.

And with that, I will hand it off to Robin to talk about MFTE.

Thanks, Matthew.

Yeah, so as Nick mentioned at the beginning, you might remember at our MFT study session back in January, we talked about coordinating with development services to really look at MFTE and see if any adjustments are needed alongside the upcoming LUCAs.

So we've done that here for HOMA.

And I'll start kind of up front with our findings and recommendation, which is that adjustments to the MFTE program are not necessarily needed alongside HOMA as kind of an offset for some of the costs associated with providing mandatory affordable housing.

So our recommendation is not to introduce a permanent supercharger alongside HOMA as a reminder, the existing 12-year program as well as the new eight-year program that was formally adopted earlier this month will be available, and that's an option that incentivizes units at the 50 and 60% AMI level.

So first we uh updated some of the economic analysis, so dug in deeper into some of the work that DS had previously done around HOMA, of course, layering in some of the work that the Office of Housing did a bit more recently, specific to MFTE.

And that's where we really come to the finding that changes to MFTE are not needed as a cost offset for mandatory affordability.

And that the incentives under HOMA really do a lot of that lifting.

And one incentive that I'll kind of highlight here is the FAR bonus structure under HOMA, which is actually a bit more favorable than what was under Wilburton.

That's because HOMA allows the mandatory on-site units to count towards the FAR bonus instead of just affordable housing provided in excess of that baseline mandatory requirement.

And what that means is that the effective mandatory requirement is actually closer to 7% of units at 80% AMI when a project is able to fully utilize that bonus, which we do think that a lot of the parcels are large enough to take advantage of that.

So what that means for MFTE essentially is that there are fewer of those double counted units that would that would uh, you know, that the supercharger would aim to eliminate in the first place.

We were also mindful of some of the different planning contexts between Wilburton and HOMA, you know, where Wilburton is really meant to stimulate this dense TOD redevelopment in a specific neighborhood.

Uh HOMA is is more about encouraging disappropriately scaled residential uh development across the city.

Uh so um in terms of a supercharger program, it's likely it's less likely to uh incentivize that kind of high-rise uh development uh to the same extent that you would see in in Wilburton.

And then lastly, I'll just noting that the uh Wilburton had these additional access and open space requirements, which uh do add costs to projects.

Uh, those are not uh proposed as part of HOMA.

Uh so there's you know less of kind of those added development costs.

Uh so for those reasons, uh, our recommendation is uh to not uh move forward with this permanent supercharger, uh expand that to uh HOMA areas.

Um, we do recognize that uh this supercharger can be a very helpful tool to advance development under tough market conditions, um, and for that reason uh there's uh a lot of interest from market rate developers for the program.

Uh one idea specifically that has come up is for a catalyst kind of temporary supercharger program, uh, really meant to uh incentivize development in in the near term, uh which we have been kind of looking at.

Um, and just as a reminder, uh MFT lives in a different uh part of uh the city of the code, it's not in the land use code.

Um so if uh council wishes to kind of uh look more into uh a catalyst option or look at any other changes to MFTE that can be done separately from the Home ALUGA.

Thanks, Robin.

UmA does propose some changes to downtown, uh specifically around affordable housing.

Um does propose to add affordable housing as an amenity incentive into our amenity incentive program.

Um currently, under the code, if you would like to build a uh taller or larger building above base FAR and base height, you have to participate in our amenity incentive program.

Most of those uh amenities are geared towards open space and plazas, which is why you see so many plazas around downtown Bellevue.

What we are proposing through HOMA is to uh add affordable housing as the first step on the amenity incentive program, so that the first 25% of amenity incentive points would be required to be affordable housing, and then the next 50% of amenity incentive points would be required to be those open space uses, and then the last 25% being developers' choice on the list of menu for amenity incentive points.

Um we are also proposing to increase the affordable housing FAR bonus under the current code for every square foot of affordable housing you provide, you receive 2.5 square feet of exempt uh market rate residential FAR, up to one FAR.

We're proposing to increase both the bonus and the amount of FAR.

So the bonus is proposed to be to a four to one bonus.

So for every square foot of affordable housing you provide, uh, you get four uh square feet of exempt market rate housing FAR.

That also layers with the amenity incentive program.

So for every square foot of affordable housing, you get that four to one bonus as well as four amenity incentive points.

Uh that bonus can be utilized up to 50% of the base FAR in the district.

It is the building is located in as well.

So it's a much larger bonus.

Uh this is the ratio we tested under the original intern ordinance of control that was phase one of this project that only applied to downtown.

And we did find that that bonus was effective in promoting more affordable housing downtown.

We had a much higher uptake from developments on providing affordable housing than we had in the past.

With that bonus, uh, the internal ordinance of control also uh provided some flexibility in the perimeter overlay in exchange for affordable housing.

That is being carried through here in a permanent fashion.

So the intern ordinance has expired uh long ago at this point.

Um so this would memorialize that permanently and allow development in the permanent overlay to permanently use that program.

That does uh propose increasing lot coverage, reducing upper level stepbacks, increasing building heights, and allowing unlimited floor plate uh size for buildings under 85 feet.

Uh for that, they have to provide uh 0.5 FAR of that exempt space.

So at that four to one ratio, uh so 0.4 FAR of exempt market rate housing and 0.1 FAR of affordable housing.

Uh we are also proposing reducing the outdoor plaza requirement by 3% to exceed the trigger height.

Uh, right now it's 10% of the lot area has to be provided as outdoor plaza uh to exceed that trigger height or build build a taller building essentially.

We're proposing to reduce that to 7%.

Uh what we found through our outreach is that that requirement was essentially eating all of the amenity incentive points.

So the layering of these two were actually getting developments more incentive as amenity incentive points than they were required.

So by adding housing to the amenity incentive program, we weren't actually providing much of an incentive because it was all going to open space already.

So lowering that, so that this is an incentive.

So that was an oversight by staff.

So when we come back to you with draft eight of HOMA, we will be providing that FAR exemption for this 3% space as well.

Stakeholders also requested that we update the green building assurance device.

So right now in the amenity incentive program, if you provide green building something like LEED certification, you can receive amenity incentive points for that.

It's very prescriptive in the downtown code how you assure us that you're actually going to do that when the building is completed.

Essentially, you have to provide a bond to us, which is dissuading developments from doing that because of that restrictiveness.

Through the Wilberton program, we did update some code that allows more flexibility that allows the director of the department to determine the appropriate assurance device.

What we were requested is that the downtown code point to that bit of code as well.

So that's the update here is that providing more flexibility in that device by pointing to that code rather than the strict standards in the downtown code.

Currently, in the downtown code, you can provide up to 65% of your parking as compact parking.

You do need an administrative departure to do so.

This administrative departure is requested a lot.

It is granted almost every time.

So what it ends up becoming is more work for both a development community and for reviewers who have to review this departure every time and basically approve it every time.

So just a small streamlining of the permitting process to allow compact parking up to 65% of the total spaces without that departure.

You just allowed that by rights.

This is already allowed in a portion of downtown.

What we were finding is that many developments downtown are large developments and do cross property lines, and they were essentially buffering themselves from themselves.

So it didn't make much of an impact on downtown to have these other than causing complications in these projects.

So proposing to remove those.

Great.

Thank you, Matthew.

So just a note on downtown Old Bellevue, as council uh will recall on February 10th, an interim official control was adopted for the area of Main Street in Old Bellevue between 100th and Bellevue Way.

And as Matthew noted, HOMA is really bringing a lot of flexibility to the perimeter overlay district when affordable housing is provided.

And Old Bellevue is entirely within a perimeter overlay district.

So they would be the benefactors to a lot of the public benefits that are offered through HOMA when they provide a certain amount of affordable housing.

And so that includes the ability to reduce the upper level step back, eliminate it.

What we wanted to note is that the old Bellevue IOC does not conflict with HOMA in any way.

It actually would layer with HOMA.

And so the IOC would govern during its effective period, which the effective period would be up to that six months.

So that puts us at about July, August timeframe.

And it would layer with HOMA in that the redevelopment, any project that comes in for redevelopment along the stretch of the IOC area on Main Street, would just have more rules that they'd have to consider through their redevelopment projects.

So they would have to ask the IOC notes, look at retaining the facade or preserving the historic facade.

And then they would kind of move to that next door of having to provide more detailed design within the first two floor levels.

It would still allow them the ability to remove the stepbacks, have larger floor plates, but it is going to the IOC is going to clarify the design of those first two floor levels while it is in effect.

Once it's expired, then the development regulations would revert to whatever the underlying code is, if that's HOMA.

So just wanted to highlight that interplay given the recent action for that IOC in the area.

So outside of downtown and the two other special districts that are included in HOMA, which are Factoria and the East Kate TOD area.

So the areas in purple on the map there are going to be governed in a consolidated section of the land use code that we're calling the community mixed use design district.

This sets out design standards and requirements for these developments.

And it does incorporate the transition area.

So through the middle housing updates, the city did repeal our transition area requirements.

The old requirements were very restrictive on building height for those parcels that are in commercial or mixed use districts adjacent to residential districts.

We are proposing to bring some of those requirements back for these mixed-use districts that are adjacent to residential districts.

So what is being proposed for a transition area through HOMA is a 25-foot landscape setback and then a 45-degree daylight plane for buildings over 60 feet in height.

So essentially, if your building is 60 feet, it can be 25 feet from the property line, but any building height beyond that has to step further away from the property line at essentially a one-to-one ratio.

So for every foot taller you are, a foot further back from the property line.

That can be achieved either by moving the whole building back or doing stepbacks in your building as you get taller.

So that was a large point of discussion at planning commission and a very iterative process to get to that point.

We are also proposing requiring pedestrian-oriented uses in many of these districts that are intended to be neighborhood and community centers through the comprehensive plan.

Something that we have heard loud and clear through our community outreach process is how important these neighborhood retail centers are to the neighborhood and to their quality of life and how much they love these areas.

So we want to make sure that that retail element is maintained in these areas.

So what we are proposing is that in the neighborhood business and the community business districts, at least 50% of the linear frontage of the street frontage of these parcels has to be what we're calling pedestrian-oriented uses, which are going to be those uses that bring people in and out during the day.

So things like restaurants, bars, bookshops, gyms, medical offices, would have to be on the ground floor, and those would have to be within the back 10 feet of backup sidewalk or along a plaza that is also adjacent to the sidewalk.

The plaza was a late request by the development community, and we do think this gives them better flexibility to better design their site and provide some open space as well.

These pedestrian-oriented uses will have to face the sidewalk and have doors that open onto the sidewalk with weather protection and transparency.

So we are really looking at maintaining that retail element that's so important to the neighborhoods while also achieving our comprehensive plan goals of encouraging vibrancy in these areas, encouraging sidewalk life, and encouraging walkability in our neighborhood centers.

There are other districts where this is required at a higher rate, those being the Factoria 1 district, the two new districts, mixed use eight and mixed use 16 districts as well.

There are districts where this would not be required where we found that they were not as well connected or were not intended to be these neighborhood centers.

So the OLB districts, which you heard the Boeing campus or the old Boeing campus be mentioned earlier, that is an OLB district.

It would not be required to have pedestrian-oriented uses in those areas.

So we have been judicious with where we have applied these.

We have also heard several requests from the development community to allow flexibility with these pedestrian-oriented uses for site-specific constraints.

So we have proposed a couple of departures to this requirement.

If there are topographic challenges, or if you are not doing only townhomes, if you are providing other uses that can increase that sidewalk life and vibrancy.

So we have tried to work with the development community on this as well to make sure that these don't prohibit viability of these developments while also still achieving our planning goals.

Through both the comprehensive planning process and our outreach process, there are specific uses that are very important to the community.

You've heard about affordable housing already.

We are proposing an FAR bonus for affordable housing.

So for every square foot of affordable housing you provide, you are allowed to exempt four square feet of building from your total overall FAR calculation, allowing you to build a larger building.

So for every square foot of grocery store, for example, you provide, you get one extra square foot of building space, essentially.

Uming the public comment this evening, we did have a discussion with planning commission about the length of the required covenant for grocery stores.

And we have proposed or planning commission recommended a change which has been brought into the strike draft on that.

So we are proposing that that covenant be uh limited to 25 years as consistent with the comment we heard, which at that point, if you can no longer support a grocery store on site, you can basically switch to another one of these exempt FAR uses or use the affordable housing fee in lieu to cover that space.

So the city is made whole while we're not locking the development into having a grocery store for the life of the structure.

Uh planning commission did also discuss the requested three to one FAR exemption ratio around grocery stores that you all heard tonight and declined to make a recommendation to increase the FAR exemption uh to city council.

There are uh a few rezones proposed with HOMA.

We will be rezoning the mixed use areas that are inconsistent with the future land use map that was adopted in the comp plan.

There are two new districts proposed that were proposed through the comprehensive plan, uh, that being the mixed use eight-story district, which would apply to Kelsey Creek and Lake Hill shopping centers, uh, and the mixed use 16-story district, which essentially applies to uh the crossroads mall building area.

We are also proposing one rezone downtown, uh, which takes one of the downtown office two uh standards south of uh the center of downtown and also apply that to the west of the center of downtown.

This essentially uh surrounds the entirety of the most dense district of downtown with the step down.

So we have that wedding cake style uh all four sides around uh the most dense area in our downtown.

I do want to note uh that there was one small omission in this map, so we will be providing you with a new map.

But there are there's essentially one corner just to the southwest of the crossroads mall that is also proposed to be zoned to neighborhood mixed use that's not on the map.

Uh it is the uh India Metro Hypermarket, if you know where that is, it's at uh 8th and 156 and the parcels across the street, which is a gas station and a grocery outlet.

So we will update uh that map for you with the next council meeting, and it will certainly be included in our legal description for the rezones.

Um council through the Wilburton process directed us to uh consolidate the city's non-conforming code and make them consistent with what was adopted with Wilburton.

So we have done that through this process.

Um we want to make sure that there is proportional compliance.

So when you have a phase development, uh, one phase of the development is not uh prematurely triggering improvements on the second phase of your site.

This gives development a little bit more flexibility and a large uh decrease in potential upfront costs.

Um, for example, if you have a sidewalk that wraps all the way around the site, you may not have to improve that entire sidewalk until that second phase of the project comes in.

And with that, I will hand it off to Chairman.

Okay, hello.

Um, we had five study sessions on one public um hearing.

As you heard from um Nick and Matthew, we have seven drafts of the HOMA, and maybe more comes.

Um we hold the um public hearing on December 10th.

Uh we pushed a public hearing two times.

We had a session on February 2025, May, September, October, and public hearing on December.

And after that, we had another study session because during a public hearing in December, we heard more than 41 new um requests.

And uh 19 of that has been incorporated, and uh half of them has remained because it's gonna go be specifically for downtown and planning commission decided to have it in the downtown um liveability 2.0.

Uh entire uh planning commission uh voted for mandatory affordable housing, as you know, and there was a minor changes to downtown office for a plate.

We discuss about grocery um store as you um heard from our staff, and then we had a mixed use um a to storey district, and we decided to recommend that one.

Thank you.

And the last topic I'll cover here is vesting.

Uh, we had many requests from the development community that are in have uh permits in the permitting pipeline to allow them to either opt in or opt out of the HOMA changes.

Um, this is not something that we would add to the land use code.

This is something that would happen through the uh city council ordinance process, and we do recommend that council add uh this option to the to the ordinance to allow uh developments that are that are into our pipeline to either choose if they want to uh use all of the HOMA changes or if they want to opt out out of all of those changes and use the code pre-HOMA.

Uh finally, uh, this is the schedule.

I'll be very quick on this one.

We are at phase three.

This is the last step in the HOMA process.

We are asking for direction this evening to finalize the LUCA and prepare an ordinance for you at a future meeting.

And with that, Mayor, I will hand it back to you for questions and comments.

Thank you so much as former liaison of planning commission.

I go first, and then we go to other council members.

Thank you, Rebecca, Nick, Matthew, and Bianca, Robin, and the full team.

I also want to thank Chair Condu and the entire Planning Commission.

USPEN six meetings on these.

This is serious time and attention.

US state focused on balancing housing production, affordable housing, feasibility, and neighborhood compatibility.

I saw uh planning commissioner Johnny Luan in the room.

I just want to thank him also and other planning commissioners.

This has been a long and thoughtful process.

Staff conducted a structured two-year outreach effort.

It has started with the development community to understand real barriers to building housing in mixed use areas.

That input has then brought to the broader community to understand neighborhood priorities before code language was drafted.

The outreach was extensive.

Community meetings, neighborhood events, the Bellevue International Festival at Crossroad Park, formal information session, a small group conversation in leaving rooms and churches at the invitation of residents.

Matthew, thank you for accommodating everyone's needs.

You met them where they wanted to meet you.

Once draft code was published, engagement reopened so people could, of course, respond to the actual language.

Since the first draft, we received well over 100 requests.

Roughly more than 60% were incorporated directly into HOMA.

And other were redirected into related efforts like parking reform, Bell Red, Downtown Livability 2.0 were defeat better.

As uh Chair Hanlu mentioned at December 10 public hearing alone, they were 36 uh specific requests.

Uh 19 were incorporated, nine were forwarded into future work, and just eight were not included.

And the flexibility added is real.

I think you had maybe four or five slides talking about that, and that's not all of them.

Residential parking was reduced by half.

We shifted from dualing units pay acre to FAR to allow more housing capacity.

Setbacks and transition rules were adjusted to make to make sites more workable.

In previous surface limits were increased.

There is more flexibility in how affordable housing requirements can be met, including land transfer options and lower fee in Lou amounts, vesting flexibility, and many more.

This is now the seventh version of the LUCA.

That matters matters a lot.

It reflects listening and real adjustment.

And I appreciate you for all of the work that you have done.

Now I would like to hear from my colleagues.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Chair Conloo, the entire planning commission.

I know a ton of work has gone into the HOMA LUCA.

Also appreciate all the efforts of Rebecca, Nick, Matthew, Bianca, and Robin that have put into this work.

The stakeholder involvement has been significant and is appreciated.

I've heard a lot of praise expressed for the highly collaborative process that has taken place.

This process has been remarkable and the high quality of the final product is proof that everyone involved was engaged, thoughtful, and compromising.

I am completely in favor of moving the recommendation forward without any modification beyond the technical fix that was mentioned in the presentation.

I understand that based on the most current analysis, staff has concluded that modifications to the current MFTE program, such as we have in Wilburton, are not necessary.

That is not a universally held opinion, and there is some compelling evidence that contradicts that conclusion.

I think we need to dig a bit deeper, re-engage with our housing suppliers, and look for options that can address current market conditions and spur growth in the near term.

I'd like to ask staff to come back to us within the next 90 days and present some options, like the Wilburton supercharger that can provide some additional support to housing development that can't move forward under the current market conditions.

There have been plenty of conversations about pairing mandatory affordability.

I appreciate that that was included in the presentation earlier.

I want us to remain committed to continuing that conversation with Homa and in other parts of the city as we move forward.

That makes sense to me, and I'm in favor of allowing the option.

This LUCA has been in the works for over three years.

As mentioned, we're considering the seventh draft version of the LUCA.

All of the engagement work that staff has directed, all of the input from stakeholders, all of the thoughtful input from community members, and guidance from our city manager and her team has produced an impactful plan that will help ensure that we deliver on our commitment to build more housing, minimize business displacement while we do so, and ensure community voices are heard throughout the process.

What we have before us does all of that.

I think this is great work, ready to move forward with the HOMA Luca.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor Hamilton.

Councilmember Bargabo.

Yeah.

I want to reiterate this.

Uh again, two years, six public information sessions.

You said five planning commission study sessions and a public hearing and seven drafts, all coming up to, as our deputy mayor said, incredible work across the board by staff, by the planning commission, Chair Kanlu, uh Vice Chair in the back there, uh, and the entire city staff.

This is really, really strong work, moves us in a direction that's very positive.

So I really appreciate that.

I want to start by just giving big kudos for that.

Um, I also really uh appreciate the dimensional standards and the mandatory affordable program that uh you have come with a recommendation with.

Uh both seemed really well thought through and uh very aligned with the direction that I think that the city needs.

So I really appreciate that as well.

Um you did say changes to the MFTE are not needed as an offset to mandatory affordable housing because we have created adequate value here through the FR bonus and other such uh things.

However, I do believe that there is a need to catalyze housing production right now, especially as it actually creates affordable housing with the mandatory approach that you have taken.

We have received feedback from stakeholders, and you acknowledge that that there's an opportunity to go back and revisit and rethink some of that.

I would encourage it, I would support the idea of bringing in uh uh some of that as a you know, when you think about the current economic conditions, I think that is important.

I also think that it's resiliency and an approach that allows us to think about it irrespective of market conditions because Bellevue's need for housing is not changing as market conditions change.

It is a requirement that is durable, and we need to think about more durable solutions with that.

I think we also need to tip the balance towards residential development.

If you look at what's happened, for example, over the last few years, you know, a decade in South Lake Union.

The learnings there is we want to make sure that we're putting a heavy hand on the scale towards residential development and outcome to increase that versus non-residential, and this approach that has come through in supercharging it will help.

But I do believe that the balance is really important.

And like you said, a permanent supercharger versus a time-bound approach, which has sort of been suggested.

I think might be the right balance.

So I would go ahead and say that I would actually be supportive of an approach like that for those reasons.

Um I also appreciate the work you've done for downtown and uh specifically things like uh removing the bureaucracy for the parking uh needs and the 3% reduction in plaza, just being sort of being really aware of the real development constraints and bringing that to life.

So I appreciate the work that's gone in there.

Um I also really like the ideas that you put forth for retaining the the nature of businesses and an ability for them to happen in our neighborhood commercial and neighborhood business with the 50% requirement for pedestrian oriented users that encourages the kind of development we need uh in uh in those areas for our city, so strong you know, alignment there as well.

Uh, I know that there was a part of our public comment, two other things that came up.

One of them is pulling out old Maine and old Bellevue from Homa.

I do not support, I don't believe that's the right approach.

So I'm stating that up front that I don't think that's something that I would support.

Uh it should be consistent and equitable and applied uniformly across the city.

That consistency is really important and lays the foundation.

And maybe the precedence of how we approach this, you know, as a framework for across the city.

Um there is more to say, but I'll wait uh maybe for additional thoughts from my peers.

Uh uh, but thank you.

I also want to just do ask a question towards the end of a presentation about the opt-in approach.

I'm I'm behind that.

Thank you, Councilman Gargato.

Councilman Ruber in your house.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

And uh I will also say fantastic work in order to get to this point.

It's been um a lot of staff, obviously planning commission.

Thank you for being here, uh, Chair, and um, and uh being able to present this uh the this the this evening.

Um really appreciate the engagement report that was part of our packet as well.

Thank you.

Like to see more of that going forward.

Um it really gives uh another snapshot of the amount of engagement work that has been done, um, which has been very extensive, obviously, over this over this time, is uh as my colleagues have mentioned multiple times already.

Um a couple of quick questions.

So there are a number of uh recommendations for downtown.

So how does uh how does that um I guess marry with what uh you know downtown livability uh 2.0.

So I know you you put a pause on some other additional recommendations or or thoughts regarding downtown waiting.

So why why did we bring forward some and others we're going to put on hold?

Um I can start with the free to add.

Um we launched, Toma.

Uh it was with uh a very clear stated intent to have a very light touch downtown.

Um, essentially it was to encourage more housing over office development downtown.

Obviously, the market has shifted in the since 2022, and office development is not as feasible as it used to be.

Um but the intent with Homa was to um really tweak housing in downtown and not get dive deep into uh other standards and other requirements in downtown.

Um, so we haven't done the outreach that we would want to do around downtown uh if we are going to start making large-scale changes to things like form requirements or requirements for facade preservation or changes to the amenity incentive system that are not related to housing.

Um, we do think those are more appropriate for downtown livability 2.0, uh, which is really going to look at um some concerns that have come up with the code uh since it was adopted in 2017.

Uh so those will be deeper dives on some of the form standards.

Um we've heard a lot about old Bellevue and trying to encourage um smaller retail spaces.

So it gives us a chance to look at standards uh like those as well and take more staff time and do more outreach around those before we make a less than informed decision.

Okay, fair enough.

Thank you for that.

Um I forget which slide it was on now.

We're talking about some of the um uh what was it, uh daycare was one, which I'm thrilled to see that on there, the grocery store.

Um, also the affordable commercial space.

Would that also um be affordable retail space for for some retailers, or is it just commercial?

And how are we going to define commercial and how are we gonna define affordable in this case?

Uh I can start and then definitely feel free to jump in on this.

Um, it is something that we have proposed through the Webberton Luca, and it's been implemented through the Weberton Luca.

We are currently working on a director's rule to really set the standards for what that means and what the requirements are going to be for that.

Um it would allow things like affordable retail.

It's gonna be based on basically the cost of the space, irregardless of sort of the commercial use that's in that space.

Okay.

Um those standards are not quite completed.

We're hoping to have those shortly through that director's rule.

Um, but it that will set the bounds on exactly what that means to be an affordable commercial space.

And again, I don't know if you want to add anything to that.

Uh, just that the draft initially um of the director's rule that's trying to define what an affordable commercial space means was published for public comment.

We did receive a lot of comments on that.

So we're still working on incorporating that comment and feedback, and we're working with our economic development department as well, just to try and understand a good way to tie a rent amount.

It's a little easier when you have affordable housing or you could just set a rent based on income.

Yeah.

So one of the ideas is more looking at what is the operating expenses of the business, and then setting the rent at no more than, you know, maybe it's one and a half times or two times or two and a half times, whatever that operating expense is.

And then we're also relying on partners in economic development to help manage that.

It's a new to Bellvy program.

There's not a lot of examples out there of folks doing this, but where we've seen success, it's been really promising.

So that's why we thought it'd be a great option to bring given the risk of business displacement through this change that Home is bringing.

We wanted to pair it with a nice tool to help provide space for people to come back to.

So that sounds great.

Well, on your way there to coming up with uh what that looks like or the definition.

How do how do we implement that into this once you know we've come to some conclusions?

And I just want to make sure there's there's there's some certainty and clarity in terms of of you know what what is affordable to those that um might meet that uh that that standard.

Yeah.

The right now the land use code um does reference the director's rule for the details around what that amenity looks like.

And so that gives administrative flexibility to also change the rule if it's not quite hitting the mark.

Um we don't have to come and initiate a land use code amendment, go through a planning commission hearing process.

It gives us a little bit more flexibility or ability to be nimble as we see maybe it's not hitting that policy objective quite as we thought.

We had a comment uh during oral communications about the pedestrian um uh I guess uh oriented uh uses.

Can you walk me through again?

Because I wasn't not really clear how someone might have a project but uh is looking to maybe opt out uh uh out of that.

What would that pro again?

I'm looking for rule clarity here for those that are thinking about um uh uh a project and don't want to go too too far down that path without some certainty that they can probably get that project over the finish line.

Um, but this would be like a major element that they would need some uh some clarity on.

So can you touch on that again?

Yeah, absolutely.

Um so this is a request that we had through the planning commission process.

We have provided uh two administrative departure paths.

Um, an administrative departure does allow allow the development reviewer some discretion on how that is applied.

But those two paths are uh the first one is if you are not on a major or minor arterial, so if you're on a smaller road and you have topographic or other challenges that do not allow access or visibility from the community, uh you can apply for that departure process.

Um, the second departure is significantly more flexible.

Um, so though for those projects that are not providing more than 50% of the unit as town homes, if you provide us other uses that are going to generate pedestrians, essentially, you can request a departure from the strict standards of uh the section.

Um so those other uses may be some sort of residential amenity space that's going to bring those people in and out, or anything else that the developer can kind of come up with uh where they can show us that it's going to create the vibrancy that we're looking for on the sidewalk.

And from a process standpoint, pre-development services is a good opportunity for them to submit that question and get a little more clarity or certainty before they come in for formal application.

It's not uncommon that we'll take a look at that request early in the process so that they understand go or no go on their project.

Okay, okay.

Um, and then final question, although I might have more.

Um related to kind of the and we actually talked about a little bit some of our prior topics tonight in terms of just transparency and how we are gonna be measuring our success here in terms of number of projects that are initiated, and we get this type of housing and retail uh mixed use.

So, how are and and and this kind of folds into the discussion about uh supercharger and uh and MFT as a catalyst, et cetera.

So, how how we how we're gonna how are we gonna measure success moving moving forward here and how are we going to show that to the public?

Yeah, um, as we brought to council on February 10th, the loopy work plan and land use planning initiatives.

We always mention the implementation phase, which is really an important phase for us where we do monitor how are these codes working, how is the policy change working, are we getting the results that we're looking for or that we were aiming for?

Um, it's in that implementation phase that we just keep an eye on things, look at the development review activity that's happening, and make some uh I guess assessments and share with you all too as you start to see redevelopment happen, yeah, whether it's hitting the mark.

Um, and then it's always in your court if you'd like to bring us back and make some changes to this if it wasn't quite right.

Um, in terms of formal tracking, um, we don't have like a dashboard or anything that we're setting up to track HOMA specifically.

Okay, we do share development activity um through kind of different channels as a department, um, but nothing specific to HOMA, but something maybe we can take back and give some thought to.

Well, it would just be interesting too if we were to follow up with some of the property owners, um, for example, if they have or have not taken advantage of some of the incentives or meant or or or or redevelop their um their their center, why why that was um is it market conditions or are the incentives not strong enough?

Um I I would rather us be more um uh proactive than then waiting for them to come to us and say this is not not working, and hence we haven't moved forward with what we want to do.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilmember House.

Uh Councilmember Robinson.

Well, um I too want to thank uh planning commission and staff for all this work.

This is a tremendous amount of work, and this council um it's kind of new, and and this is hugely impactful work that we're doing.

This is going to change the feel, uh, the character, um, the amount of people living in downtown.

And uh I remember when we upzoned downtown in 2017, we went from 450 feet max to 600, and it was a huge deal.

We went in um Old Bellevue, we went from four stories to six stories, and uh we knew the impact that was that was gonna have on the experience of people living here.

So we put in stepbacks, and uh even Kevin Wallace supported putting in stepbacks because we knew that that increased height was really going to impact the experience.

And so I'm I'm sad that we're taking out stepbacks, to be honest with you.

I think there's a place for them.

I think it brings good architecture, I think it brings a better uh public experience.

Um I will say that on Old Main, which is a two-lane road, you know, the bonus that we're looking at for affordable housing is going to add two more stories.

So now we're at to eight stories on an area that we called out in the comp plan is having a specific character.

Uh it's called out in our our council values that we were going to preserve the character.

And the people who live and work there are really, you know, not comfortable with the idea of removing these stepbacks.

They're not gonna be happy with the height, and we're also going to increase the floor plate, the lot coverage.

You know, there's a lot going on here, but I'm just asking, and I will make a motion that we retain the stepbacks at the level that we have them, which is the second or third floor, um, as they are, because they're there for a reason.

And I think it's really important that for such a historic part of town that we kind of retain the character a little bit.

Um I do want to continue the conversations about Old Bellevue with our downtown livability discussions in the future, and I like that you are talking about retaining small businesses, creating affordable retail spaces, and creating smaller retail spaces with incentives.

So that's gonna be a great conversation to have.

I'm looking forward to that.

I do want to allow pipeline projects to opt in or out of HOMA changes.

I think that's a great recommendation.

And I also know that uh some of our developers have talked about uh an MFTE uh special treatment and maybe a supercharger and maybe a catalyst.

And I I would like if we can have if there's a consensus on the council to have staff come back for that conversation.

But um, I I'm very supportive of HOMA as written.

Uh, the one amendment I will make is just to retain the stepbacks as they currently are in Old Bellevue.

Thank you, Councilmember Robinson.

Councilmember Sumodovere.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, great work.

Um I'm relatively new, but I can see how much effort you put into listening and then also adapting to um common ground, how to move forward this big project.

And thank you for Chair Kong Lu and also the whole planning commission spending so much time, Johnny.

And that's so much to learn.

And then that takes a lot of resilience and also uh discipline for you too, both of you too being the liaison for the planning commission.

I want to give big clause about the green building incentive for that.

It's just a really great movement to encourage our building to take care of the planet we live on.

So our many generation ahead can be called this place home.

Let's see.

And I love the part that we have.

We're gonna streamline the downtown because this is not a downtown that when I moved here over 30 years ago look like anymore.

So it's actually really smart to think about what is um how make it relevant and also adaptive to the current residents because it's very different from many years ago the city is.

I let's see.

And also I second with um Councilmember, like in your house about the child care and also the space.

That's a great exemption, especially for the nonprofit charity partners because it's really crucial to nurture them, having an affordable place for them.

So thank you for doing that.

Um also I segment um with uh council member Bagwa about the time boxed um MST.

I think that because the market is so volatile, we have no idea what's going on.

Um, having uh predictability is gonna really encourage the stakeholder invest in the city we love.

And that's really crucial because we can't do this alone, so it's uh it takes two persons to tangle.

So we need everybody's stakeholder show up for us.

I do have a question about the there is the um let's see, the M M T MFT and HOMA analyst report.

So on the page attachment, there's side by side.

Uh one is the HOMA and MFT not layering together the benefits, and then the second one is layering them together.

Um you can come back to me later.

So I'm just looking at it.

It's because it's that's obvious, that's like it's very clear that there is a benefit to adding MFT to the value, right?

Can you just kind of elaborate that a little bit more so I can see the differentiator?

Yeah, so the analysis that we looked at is basically um looking at if there was no HOMA, right?

If we were just looking under the current code and seeing uh what it what that project would look like if it used MFTE, what does development feasibility look like there basically just as it is right now?

And then we also looked at it uh from uh the once we add in HOMA and we have this uh new uh you know, now this new rule uh regarding how MFTE overlaps with the mandatory units uh kicks in.

So we kind of compared those two side by side to see how development feasibility looks.

Uh we found that uh under HOMA, even with our current double stacking rules, um, that development feasibility is greater having HOMA and being subject to those rules.

Um, and then we then added on the supercharger program, which eliminates uh the double counting requirements, and of course we see that uh then the development feasibility uh increases even more beyond that.

Okay, so from this graph um it looks like doesn't matter what downside upside of that scenario with the market, it looks still attractive.

Yeah, so um, yeah, you're referencing basically we did like a sensitivity analysis to look at under different market conditions, uh kind of what that interaction looks like.

And the finding is that under kind of the base case and as market conditions improve, um, the benefit uh of MFTE is going to increase along with that.

Um, and then our finding in the downside scenario is kind of consistent with uh what DS found with their economic analysis is that you know when uh development is challenged, then HOMA, the benefits provided under HOMA are not as accretive to a project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's helpful.

Um my next question is about the uh affordable commercial space.

So um we were talking about how we can have support for the base rent based on operational expense.

And do we have take on can take consideration both on the base rent, also the triple net for the commercial space?

Um I appreciate the language of using uh sorry.

Uh I I wish I had my economic development friends here to support with the response, but happy to follow up with you.

Yes, I would love to learn because I think depending on the on the industry of the business is the triple net and then which is the share common space for the amenities and the base rent could be very different.

And also it includes the insurance and other amenities you need within the space as well.

And I was also encourage our team to kind of do more engagement with what type of business it is as well, and also the structure of the lease they're looking for.

Because I mean, as you know, sometimes it's just a flat fee, right?

And sometimes a percentage of sales.

Um, so like a great example is um Cafe Hagen, their contract is a percentage sale from the top line, and that's a very different from a baseline of the sales.

So I think um different what that goes to my um thought about because every business is different, every commercial space is different, and then you know, the also the property owners goal of um having our downtown above you more inviting for small business, that I think I would love to see that's an encouragement for commercial uh developers wanting to invite small businesses by um supporting an incentive way to like making it affordable.

So just yeah, we can follow up on that.

Um let's see, and then my last um thing is about the setback at Old Main.

Um, I actually really agree with Councilmember Rob Business.

I felt like as a young mom with three kids, it's just such a safe and inviting place when the setbacks are wider, and then it's it's one of the first places.

I think this our unique Belleview, we don't have anywhere else.

Um, I think that should you know stay in the HOMA, but I think the setback would make the whole space very unique, different, and that's the attractiveness.

With FIFA coming, I think we want the world to see how Belleview is and have that quint space we maintain it is will be really exciting.

That's all my thoughts.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Smotoviria.

Councilmember Breyer.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I appreciate the thorough analysis conducted here, especially six public hearings.

Is that correct?

That is quite extensive.

So I commend this this tremendous work.

Um I'll begin with slide 12, which mentioned that there are limited opportunities to incentivize high-rise development under HOMA.

So, meaning some of the neighborhood shopping areas will be developed in accordance to that neighborhood character, there won't be super high rises, right?

Uh outside of crossroads, obviously.

So there's one other district uh that's shown in the comp plan as high-rise in Homa outside of downtown, uh, and that is the factory mall area, is also proposed for 16 stories.

Okay, I see.

Um what I'm curious about is local businesses.

So I've spoken to a lot of family friends who own several businesses across uh crossroads, uh, even the Indian Hydro Mark in next to the CBS that used to be the Bartels Rest in Peace.

Um but uh how do we ensure that local businesses can remain where they have functioned for years?

Obviously, there's development naturally that'll enable some displacement, but will there be uh, you know, I the affordable retail space was one tool that was brought up.

Will there be a first right of return after development or any other additional tools?

Could we possibly expand that?

It's so we very briefly discussed first right of return.

Um we got a lot of do not do that um from the development community.

Uh, we've also coordinated with economic development on better ways to try to prevent commercial displacement.

Um, it's something we've heard very clearly from council and from the community that we're trying to prevent.

Okay.

Uh their response to us is it's probably not best achieved through the land use code.

Um, there's there's better ways to do it often through financial incentives through economic development programs.

I think um we've had a few small things that have been requested around phase development that allows uh developments to sort of build around existing building or uh uh commercial spaces or you know, take half the building or not.

Um, one of those is phase parking requirements.

So uh we have tried to do our best for the land use code to allow these buildings to sort of manage through the construction process, um, but we're not we're under no illusions that you know when a new development happens, often the the businesses get displaced.

Um and we've been trying to coordinate as best we can with economic development on how to help that process.

I'll be very honest.

The best grape leaves that I purchased for Dolma at the European grocery store.

Uh, it's only available there.

Uh, and if I do not have that, we will have some problems, Matthew.

So just letting you know of that.

Um, so I understand that uh HOMA benefits are great when market conditions are good.

Of course, I'm gonna be a little bit redundant here, uh, but less valuable when market conditions are bad.

I'm open to supporting a catalyst.

My only caveat is is that if we were to bring something like that back, I would ask that it's strictly in accordance to market conditions as opposed to some permanent uh entity.

Uh, what I'd like to ask is if we were to explore this, uh, Robin, for example, I'd I also want to understand what the tax shift would look like if if that were to be brought back up.

Um another item I have is some edge cases according to some developers.

I know that there's some folks who want to uh develop personally, I'm very very pro-walkability, but I know that some pedestrian center design has impacted development on one-way streets, but it was good to hear that there are departure options available for these folks.

Um for the setbacks on old main.

So I I really like to be as logically consistent as possible when I come to decision making and policy making.

But this one is is interesting because it really is just one street, it's very geographically specific.

I am open to supporting the retention of setbacks.

Um as I understand it, we're not impacting all of Old Main, but strictly just focusing on that on what street.

And so residents have really poured in with support.

Um, and so for those reasons, I'd support retaining setbacks there.

Um that is all I have.

Thank you so much.

Great.

Thank you so much.

I think we do three things.

We first make it just motion for passing HOMA and direct you guys to do this and finalize and come back.

But then we hear Councilwoman Robinson about her motion on the setback.

And then I've already heard from many of us on the dais, but I will go around to see if they want that you guys come back with some MFT additional work hearing, all of the stakeholders, and then if the NOT head is there, then we go with that.

Is does yeah.

Can we do the main street first before we do HOMA?

The main street first?

Yeah.

What do you mean?

What is it different?

I want to put that I want to um put that forward first before we vote on HOMA as a whole.

Please take the motion.

Okay.

So I move that we continue to require the existing step back requirements along Old Main Street between a hundredth and Bellby Way, and not allow reduction or movement of that step back.

Second.

It has been moved by Councilmember Robinson and seconded by Councilmember Breuer.

Any discussion?

Deputy Mayor.

Thank you.

Um I I do have some concerns about this uh motion, and and basically I don't think we've had enough engagement on the topic.

We've HOMA's been underway for three years, two council study sessions, five planning commission study sessions, a public hearing, and as mentioned earlier, seven drafts of the HOMA code.

There's been ample time for all issues to be raised and vetted.

The current standards in Old Bellevue went through a process before they were adopted.

Council didn't just decide to adopt them.

And process matters.

And what are the implications on housing development with the 15-foot setback, for example?

A setbacks, stepback sacrifice density.

How can we be sure that a 15-foot stepback is the right amount?

Why not 10?

How does a step back impact impact a mid-rise building differently than a high rise?

Design guidelines in Old Bellevue, I think do make a lot of sense.

But do we plan to address them as a series of one-offs, or do we take the time and do the work to get it right?

We have an IOC in place, and as I understood uh the argument in support of it, we're buying time to do some deep work on how we want Old Bellevue to look, feel, and function.

Why shortchange that process uh with this effort before us with this motion?

I think we should use the time that the IOC has allowed and get serious about design guidelines and old Bellevue about treating old Bellevue like the unique street that it is.

Uh, right out of the agenda memo uh on HOMA uh we state that council directed a revised HOMA scope and emphasize the importance of affordable housing, minimizing business displacement, and ensuring the voices of the community are heard throughout the Luca process.

I don't think, no matter how well intended, that this amendment or this motion is in line with that commitment, and for that reason I cannot support.

Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor.

Any other discussion?

Yes, uh Councilman Bargaba.

Uh this is a question just to educate myself and to make sure that I fully understand the implications of what we're voting on and what we're proposing here as part of this uh motion for stepbacks.

What is the current stepback that is the underlying code for old Main and what would the expected height for the buildings?

So the the current code pre-HOMA requires a 15-foot upper level stepback on the stretch of Main Street that's being discussed tonight, and that step back has to land um somewhere between 25 feet and the first floor level above 40 feet.

Um so generally at the lower portion of the building.

The change and and there are options under the current code to reduce the step back, but the options are limited to um site size usually or other um constraints.

And so we've exercised that option in a couple of cases, but it's pretty infrequent that we allow that flexibility to reduce the upper level stepback.

Under HOMA, we are providing a buy right option to reduce that, eliminate the stepback when affordable housing is provided.

So that 15-foot stepback could be eliminated when affordable housing is given.

And the other piece of flexibility that's added to the code is rather than landing the step back somewhere between 25 feet and 40 feet, it has to land anywhere below 110 feet.

So it could be placed much higher on the building as well.

Got it.

And just one more clarification, if I can.

Yeah, absolutely.

What is the expected height of if you follow the dimensional standards and the increased FAR with HOMA?

What would be a potential maximum height of building on Main Street with that?

Well, uh it's hard to say because the code may allow one thing, right?

Um, but what we see is that people want to stay within wood frame construction unless it's really worth the cost to switch to steel frame and then gain a few extra floors.

So that said, uh, it's likely, would you say, Matthew, around 85 feet is probably the max that we'd see buildings built at, even when you add that additional 25 feet, it's just not always worth it for them to pull higher change.

And if it switches construction type.

Yeah.

So it's probably an eight-story building, and so if now, sort of synthesizing this a little bit as a point of view, um, if we don't accept this, or at least if we if we reject this, stepbacks could go up well above the the 25-foot mark or 40-foot mark, even at which point if we are doing it with the intent, in my opinion now, if we're doing this with the intent of creating a higher level of pedestrian realm and light and uh sort of the uh appearance of you know more walkable spaces, uh step back at 80 feet of height will make absolutely no difference.

And so um if we are to do it, we have to retain it at a point where the building heights and the stepbacks are still connected to the pedestrian experience, and so that would be part of the consideration set as we think about it.

That's helpful clarification, at least to me, maybe for others.

Any other discussion?

So I am just going, yeah.

Sorry, thank you.

Um just for clarification, if another um neighborhood wanted to um uh recreate a look and feel of old Maine, uh maybe crossroads, for example, under HOMA, could they do that?

They could not, correct?

By choice, um, they would very likely be allowed to recreate that look and feel if they so decide they would not be required to do so.

Right, not a requirement, but could they?

Yeah, so um you know, HOMA removes the step uh setbacks, um, so they can build that building right to the back of sidewalk like old main.

Um, they could put a voluntary step back in like old main, they can put weather protection in as long as our transportation department is okay with where it's located.

Right.

Um, so you could very much um replicate the the feel of old main or other places in downtown through the HOMA code.

Okay, thank you.

Any other discussion?

I am just going to chime that how I am going to uh kind of my thought process is is very similar to the IOC.

Uh to me, Old Bellevue is one of the few areas in our city that's human scale really matters.

The storefront rhythm, the upper level setbacks, the smaller facade, that's kind of gives that vibe that I think we all experience when we are walking and shopping and chatting in old uh Bellevue.

It makes the street inviting to residents.

I think when we have the wine walk, uh it is one of the best experience we have.

Small businesses are thriving, uh, visitors just come for uh old Bellevue, one of the tourists that we have is that uh if we just go without any setbacks, and again, I completely understand Deputy Mayor's comment about removing remove the whole goal of removing setback is more housing and more affordable housing.

But does the main street just that street, just that old main street that is very small?

We can pass a threshold for rethinking and making some decision on this dais that maybe for just that we should uh have a setback.

Um is something that I think we should consider and hopefully vote here.

The second and third story setbacks or even higher long is not a small design detail, is part of uh what gives old Bellevue the scale and identity that uh at least we all agreed it does have.

Uh to me, it's not about resisting growth or preventing more housing, it's about guiding the growth uh thoughtfully.

Uh we can add housing and uh vitality while still uh protecting what makes old Maine special.

So we have a motion, and I think there is no other discussion.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any oppose?

No.

No.

Uh Councilman Smallberry, I didn't hear your aye.

So the motion passes five to two.

The two opposed are Deputy Mayor Hamilton and Councilmember Newman House.

Uh, can I get the HOMA motion, please?

I move to direct staff to finalize the land use code amendment and rezone ordinance for final action at a future meeting.

Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by councilman Breyer.

Any discussion?

Do we need to add the option in?

What option?

Uh the opt in on the uh pipeline.

The pipeline projects to opt in or out of home and changes.

Do we need that in the motion?

I'm looking at the staff.

Um we're just coming back with the final ordinance for action.

I think we heard some consensus to bring that opt-in language in the ordinance.

So it is in great all those in favor say aye.

Aye aye.

Any opposed?

Congratulations.

The motion passes.

The last thing do I have the agreement from you?

Just nod your head or thumbs up that we are directing our MFT experts to come back with some uh new calibration or new study or new proposal for uh MFT or supercharger or some sort of calibration.

Yes, superchargers.

Yeah, yes.

We are uh kindly directing to coming back with uh some recommendation that the staff is going to do their analysis and come back.

Uh great, thank you so much.

Uh you guys got what you wanted?

Yes, congratulations, Matthew.

Thank you for all of the hard work.

Um I think we can adjourn the meeting before we adjourn.

I wanted to note that the March 3rd, 2026, Legoral regular council meeting is cancelled.

We will see you at our next regular meeting on March 10th.

With that, we are adjourned.