Good evening and welcome everyone for being here, taking the time to engage in work of our city.

Your voice matters, and we are so glad you are here.

Uh, with that, City Claire, can we please do a roll call?

Thank you, Mayor Malikutin.

Here.

Deputy Mayor Hamilton.

Here.

Councilmember Bargava.

Here.

Councilmember Breyer.

Councilmember Breyer.

Okay.

We see your mouth moving and we see your face.

But we don't hear you.

We're gonna fix that on our end.

Thank you.

Okay, now we can hear you.

Council Member Newman House.

Here.

Thank you.

Councilmember Robinson.

Here.

Councilmember Sumodworia.

Here.

Thank you.

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

Thank you.

I pledge the legions.

Thank you so much.

We have two proclamation.

The first one is Women's History Month, that Councilmember Robinson will read.

Before that, I would love to invite our city manager, one of our fear fearless and amazing leader that we have to sit and receive that proclamation and tell us few words after Councilmember Robinson reads the proclamation.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the honor of reading this.

We have three strong women on the council.

I'm proud to be amongst them.

Whereas Women's History Month is a time to celebrate the vital contributions women have made to society and to recognize their achievements in shaping history, culture, and progress across many fields, and whereas Women's History Month originated as Women's History Week, 1981, when Congress passed a resolution establishing its observance beginning March 7th, 1982, and was later expanded to the entire month of March in 1987.

And whereas women of every race, ethnicity, and background have played a pivotal role in the development, strength, and resilience of our nation, state, and local communities, often in ways history has not fully recognized.

And whereas women, including women of color and immigrant women, have long been at the forefront of movements for justice and equity, leading efforts in civil rights, labor rights, suffrage, environmental advocacy, and many other causes.

And whereas, despite decades of progress, women and girls, particularly women of color and immigrant women, continue to face systemic inequality inequities, including disparities in wages, caregiving responsibilities, barriers to health care access and challenges in the workforce.

And whereas the City of Bellevue remains committed to equity, access and opportunity for all, as reflected in its diversity advantage plan and vision for an inclusive and thriving community.

Now, therefore, Island Robinson, for Mayor Malikutian, Mayor of Washington.

I hope so.

Mayor of I haven't said this in so long.

Mayor of the City of Bellevue, Washington, on behalf of the City Council, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as women's history month in Bellevue and encourage all Bellevue residents to honor this month through programs, ceremonies, and activities that recognize and celebrate the remarkable achievements of women past, present, and future.

Thank you, Councilmember Robinson.

Our city manager, we are here to hear your comments.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Robinson and Mayor Putian and the Council.

Thank you for this proclamation.

I am uh truly very honored to accept this on the behalf of the women of Bellevue.

Um it is uh true that women of every background have strengthened our community, often without recognition.

Uh they've done that through leadership, service, creativity, and resilience.

And their contributions have shaped our civic history, our business environment, our neighborhoods, uh, and they've also advanced uh equity and opportunity within this city.

This proclamation also reminds us that women and girls still face real challenges and barriers from wage gaps to caregiving burdens and unequal access to opportunity, and then our work here in the city is not finished.

Bellevue's vision and commitment to diversity and equity calls us to keep pushing for a community where every woman can thrive.

On behalf of women who make Bellevue strong, including many women who work here within the city who are colleagues, I want to thank you for this recognition and thank you for your continued commitment to inclusion and opportunity for all.

Thank you so much.

And we will take picture with you and everyone else after the second proclamation.

And I should acknowledge there are many, many mayors who are women in the state of Washington, and I am very proud we had our former mayor for six years, former Mayor Lynn Robinson.

So and we have two council members uh here, three total that's uh our woman.

So uh amazing uh proclamation.

The second proclamation is American Red Cross Month uh is going to be read by our Deputy Mayor Hamilton, and I would love to invite Monica Wellner, uh American Red Cross King County board member and volunteer to the table, and we will hear uh from you after he's done with uh reading the proclamation.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

Whereas for more than a century, the American Red Cross has been at the forefront of helping Americans prevent, prepare for, and respond to disasters, large and small, providing critical support to families and communities in times of need, and whereas the American Red Cross depends on the generosity of the American people and the dedication of volunteers to carry out its humanitarian mission and provide relief to those affected by emergencies, and whereas in Bellevue, Washington, the American Red Cross works tirelessly through its volunteers to support the community when disasters strike, when someone needs life-saving blood, or when a helping hand is needed, and whereas the Red Cross also provides vital services to members of the military, veterans, and their families, and offers training in CPR, aquatic safety, and first aid to help individuals prepare for emergencies and save lives, and whereas through the disaster response blood drives and preparedness training, the American Red Cross of Northwest Washington helps ensure that Bellevue residents and families have support and resources when emergencies occur.

And whereas the American Red Cross helps make Bellevue safer and stronger, and the city recognizes the important work of the Red Cross and the contributions of the King County chapter in supporting the well-being of our community.

Now, therefore, I, Dave Hamilton, on behalf of Mo Malicutian, mayor of the City of Bellevue, Washington, and the City Council do hereby proclaim March 2026 as the American Red Cross Month in Bellevue and encourage all residents to support the mission of the American Red Cross and recognize the volunteers and donors whose generosity helps provide hope and assistance to those in need.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor Monica Wellner, please.

Yes.

Thank you, Deputy Deputy Mayor Hamilton.

My name is Monica Wellner, and I'm a board member and a volunteer with the American Red Cross in King County.

And I want to thank the many American Red Cross volunteers in Bellevue.

I'm also the laboratory director at Seattle Children's.

And in my role, I oversee transfusion services at children's.

So in my daily work, I can see firsthand the life-saving impact of the American Red Cross Blood Service.

At Seattle Children's, we perform over 10,000 transfusions every year.

10,000.

So thank you to our volunteers that are organizing blood drives, and those of you that are donating blood and platelets.

I know there's many drives in Bellevue at the library at Overlake at Kaiser, so we thank you.

Blood Services is, of course, just one component of the Red Cross mission.

So thank you for responding to local disasters, home fires, floods, windstorms, teaching families skills that can save a life, standing beside our military community and extending help and hope around the world.

This Red Cross Month, we thank the community of Bellevue for recognizing this ongoing support and the people that deliver on our mission.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

If you're okay if you are coming down to take pictures with you,

If you're okay if you're coming down to take pictures with you, we're going to be able to do that.

Thank you so much.

Do I have a motion to approve the agenda?

Move to approve the agenda.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Great.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

City Killer, can we go through the oral communication, please?

Thank you, Mayor.

This evening there are 13 preregistered speakers.

So I don't believe we'll be able to get to all of our speakers, but we will get to as many as we can.

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

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

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 in both of those categories.

The presiding officer has authorization to provide preference to those who have not spoken to council within the last sixty days, or who will be speaking on items that will come in front of the council within the next sixty days.

Each speaker is allowed up to three minutes to speak, and only three speakers will be allowed to speak to any one side of a particular topic.

And then one final reminder that in compliance with Washington State campaign laws regarding the use of public facilities during elections.

No speaker may support or oppose a candidate for election, um, or may support or oppose a ballot measure.

And so if people do start talking about those topics, you will be asked to stop.

So it's that I'll call our first speaker who's Kirsta English.

Welcome.

Hello, my name is Kirsty English.

I'm a mother of three children and the founder of Trees for Livability.

Um here to talk with you a little bit about the 2023 urban assessment on tree canopy.

Um at first glance, this looks pretty good.

We're at thirty-nine point three percent tree canopy in Bellevue.

Our goal is 40%.

Um we're practically there, right?

The fact is though, we're not quite there because to reach 40 percent, Bellevue needs to add the equivalent of 100 football fields of tree canopy, which sounds like a lot.

Um so I looked into it, and that's about 150 acres or 15,000 mature trees.

Between 2021 and 2023, we lost 7,000 mature trees.

So doesn't feel like we're quite there, but remember we have some new tools in our arsenal.

Um, in 2024, we passed new tree codes.

You guys were instrumental, some of you in that effort, and it was a big community push toward preserving tree canopy, which is really our shared treasure, our generational wealth that we want to pass on to the next generation.

And so I'm just here to encourage um council to consider consider tree canopy as you move forward with new development projects.

Uh so we see an opportunity to protect existing mature trees in residential neighborhoods to preserve and expand canopy in parks and to look at street trees.

That wasn't really part of what we focused on earlier, but there's all kinds of opportunities across the city to add street trees for new builds or for remodels, and that's one way to use existing space to expand canopies.

So I'd just like to encourage that.

And for citizens in our city who want to get involved, um take a look at the new tree codes and consider uh donating time to 300 trees.

They're doing some awesome work planting new trees, but just remember that every tree that comes out pulls us back from our goal.

It does take a long time for these trees to grow and reach maturity, so we just want to try to encourage um preserving trees where we can.

So thanks for your attention to this issue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Court Olson.

Welcome.

Good to uh see you all again, council members.

Thanks for letting me speak tonight.

The leaders of the Bellevue chapter of people for climate action really appreciate the opportunities that we've had to speak individually with each of you over the past few months.

Thanks very much for listening as we explain why and how the city must dedicate substantially more funds in the next biennium.

Much more funding is needed so that staff can launch highly impactful emissions cutting programs that would take us to the 2050 emissions target, which you all stand behind.

When you look at the recently released Bellevue emissions inventory for 2024, a person can see that emissions drop that year from where they were in 2023.

You might easily conclude that our city's work toward reaching the 2050 emissions target is starting to have significant impact.

Unfortunately, though, when you dig deeper into the data as we have done, one finds that's not the case.

If they had the much needed funding that we've outlined and shared with you.

But they didn't have that funding in 2024, so the city staff didn't have the resources to significantly impact remissions that year.

When we dug into the data details, we found that most of the emissions drop in 2024 was caused by two circumstances.

First, the warmer local weather caused by an L NEO.

And second, the increasing shift to electric vehicles.

If you were to look back at your total home energy consumption for 2023 and 2024, as some of us have done, nearly everyone would find that they have used about 5% less energy in 2024.

That's because a large part of the energy we use in our homes goes towards the heating of interior space.

So in the warmer winter, we use less energy and records show that the seven coolest months of 2024, the average outdoor temperature was over two degrees warmer than in 2023.

So while we don't expect that the switch to electric vehicles will discontinue, we don't expect that the El Nina warm occasion will continue dropping in emissions.

Much work remains to be done.

If you don't put $9 million per year in the next biennium budget, city can't get to its 2050 commitment.

Mr.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Deborah Joint.

Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor Malakushin, Deputy Mayor Hamilton, Council Members, City Manager Carlson, and staff.

My name's Deborah Deutsch, and I've lived in Newport Hills for 45 years.

And I thank want to thank you for the opportunity to share with you about HOMA.

I am here tonight representing the Newport Community Coalition.

As a reminder, we're a large and growing group of residents from Newport Hills, Lake Heights, Greenwich Crest, and Newport Shores.

Our entire focus has been to be a positive voice in advocating for the opportunity to redevelop the Newport Hills Shopping Center.

I'm sharing with each of you for one purpose to express our gratitude and our excitement about what the future holds.

There are so many of us in the community who've wanted something positive to happen at the shopping center.

And now, because of the new comprehensive plan and the updated land use code through HOMA, we are finally at a point where this can actually happen.

Specifically, we are excited about the opportunity to have different types of housing and housing that is affordable for families and all of the people who work in our city.

We are excited about having a gathering place that is walkable and has retail and coffee shops and restaurants along with open space and trees.

And we are excited about a redevelopment that will create a place that we can all be proud of.

So thank you again to city staff, the planning commission, and to all of your hard work on HOMA and for your service to the city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Michelle Hillhorst.

Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor Malikushin and Council members.

My name is Michelle Hillhorse, and I speak to you tonight as a longtime Bellevue resident and former chair of the Bellevue Planning Commission.

I've spent many years working within Bellevue's planning framework, and I care deeply about preserving the integrity of the process that shapes our city and its unique characteristic neighborhoods.

As you consider ordinance 6907, I want to express serious concern about the use of a legislative rezone under Luca 20.35.015, a tool historically used only for very large multi-year sub-area plans such as Bell Red, Eastgate, and Wilburton.

Those efforts involved full environmental reviews, extensive public engagement, and comprehensive district-wide planning.

What makes ordinance 6907 unprecedented is that it applies a process for legislative rezone to implement the new 2044 comprehensive plan and HOMA in a way that could now extend to smaller embedded commercial districts.

Legislative rezons have never been used to upzone neighborhood business areas, never been used immediately after a comprehensive plan update, and never been used to reclassify low-rise neighborhood centers.

The ordinance explicitly states that legislative legislative rezones do not require a comprehensive plan amendment, yet still declares them consistent with CPA criteria.

This creates a new pathway for council to upzone a neighborhood business district without a CPA, without threshold review, and without the neighborhood specific protections that have long guided Bellevue's planning decisions.

So I'm concerned to see Newport Hills listed in this ordinance when no rezone is being discussed or comprehensive plan amendment is under consideration.

It suggests that tonight's action is setting a concerning precedent, one that risks breaking trust with the community and the very community that asks you to place its trust in you.

The city's own recent planning process continues to reaffirm the low-rise vision for Newport Hills.

The 2025 Newport area plan confirms low-rise development as best suited.

2044 comprehensive plan emphasizes neighborhood scale and low rise mixed use, generally two to three stories, a maximum of four under specific NB conditions.

And during last year's election cycle, four of you publicly committed at our candidate forum to not supporting more than four stories at the Newport Hills Shopping Center.

Tonight I am asking that you reconsider this ordinance or process four as a mechanism to rezone commercially community embedded properties such as NB or MU low zones, but follow the correct comprehensive plan amendment process to ensure we honor proper planning planning and community engagement.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Don Marsh.

Welcome.

You should have gotten a couple pages here that have a map on it.

It's just you can follow along if you'd like.

So good evening, Mayor Malikutian and Council members.

My name is Don Marsh, serving as co-founder and vice president of 300 Trees, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization helping to build and preserve tree canopy in Bellevue, Redmond, Issaqua, Sammish, and neighborhoods throughout King County.

Over the past seven years, we have distributed approximately 10,000 free trees through our own tree giveaways and the municipal giveaways we enable.

Tonight I would like to comment on the tree canopy section of Bellevue's environmental stewardship report.

We are encouraged by the city's programs to offer young trees to residents, as well as tree code amendments to protect existing canopy.

It is evident that trees planted in parks are helping to keep our tree canopy percentage close to the city's long-term goal of 40% tree canopy coverage by 2050.

However, the 2023 tree canopy assessment raises concerns regarding tree canopy in the neighborhoods where we live.

I have provided a graphic to show which neighborhoods are gaining canopy and which are losing it.

This graphic is based on the data table in the assessment report, but it helps us understand the shape of the challenge we face.

Six neighborhoods in the southwest part of the city lost one to two percent of their canopy in two years, which is a very significant and unsustainable rate of loss.

Five neighborhoods in central Bellevue lost canopy at a lower but still worrisome rate.

Two neighborhoods stayed about the same, and three neighborhoods had a 1% gain.

If these results were representative of long-term trends, we would be very worried.

However, some of the tree loss is due to infrastructure projects that won't be repeated very often, and our new tree code may begin to turn the tide.

What would we recommend?

Continue tree code enforcement and tree giveaways, and planting trees in parks.

But a robust program for planting and maintaining street trees would be very helpful to shade hot pavement in the summer, mitigate stormwater in the winter, and keep trees near where people work and live so they benefit from clean air, reduced noise pollution, and the natural beauty we all enjoy.

Let future generations appreciate the legacy of your service to our city by preserving what we love today and planting the canopy they will enjoy tomorrow.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Diana Leal.

Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor Malikoutian, Deputy Mayor Hamilton, and fellow council members.

My name is Diana Leo.

I'm the VP of Government Affairs for the Bellevue Chamber, and I'm here to testify on behalf of the Plush Committee.

Thank you for the time and attention you've dedicated to the HOMA amendment.

We value your continued leadership on housing policy and your work on the MFTE program.

We also recognize the changes that were worked out prior to the proposal coming to council, as well as the openness and engagement of staff throughout the process.

We look forward to the next steps in the upcoming weeks.

I want to emphasize the importance of ensuring that the tools you adopt directly impact housing being built.

Specifically, we continue to underscore the need for a flexible MFTE to support the success of the proposed MHA.

MHA introduces a significant additional cost to development.

And while the goal is to create more affordable housing, the reality is that without a flexible MFTE supercharger, many projects that are financially feasible today will simply no longer pencil.

Right now, Bellevue is seeing strong multifamily permitting activity.

That's a good thing.

It reflects a regulatory environment where projects can move forward and housing is getting built.

But when MHA requirements are layered onto the same projects, whether through fees or on-site obligations, feasibility often breaks down.

If a policy turns feasible projects into infeasible ones, it doesn't produce housing.

And in a region facing a housing shortage, that's a risk we can't afford.

What we've seen from rail project proformers, the kind that actually determines whether housing gets built is that MFTE enhancements make the difference.

Whether through an eight-year or 12-year program, these superchargers help projects reach or approach the threshold needed to move forward.

That means more housing gets built and affordability goals are still achieved.

This is key.

Up zones only create value if projects are actually constructed.

If the financial reality shows that MHA without MFTE results in no housing, then we need to reconsider how these tools are paired.

We also encourage the council to allow more flexibility in how these programs work together, specifically projects that choose the fee and loo MHA option, which should still be eligible to participate in the MFTE and provide on-site affordable units.

These tools are not duplicative, they are complementary.

One supports broader citywide affordability, while the other ensures mixed income housing within individual developments.

Bellevue is operating in a tight housing market, and this is a moment where every effective tool matters.

Flexibility and feasibility are what will turn strong policy into real-built outcomes.

For example, Wilburton is a positive outlier and a beacon of success in Bellevue's approach.

I would like to emphasize the importance of taking this approach in HOMA with a subsequent supercharger.

Thank you for your leadership and your willingness to dig in the details of the housing tools.

The chamber and our plush committee are eager to continue collaborating to make sure Bellevue is a vibrant, inclusive, and attainable place to live.

You did it.

Okay.

I yield the floor.

Our next speaker is Martin Seelig.

Welcome.

Good evening, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, mayors of the camp, members of the council.

In spite um part of my Latvian Hebrew Hungarian heritage might have been Irish.

I don't know, but I at one time I had a nickname of O'Marty, believe it or not, as a kid.

I wish the council great luck of the Irish tonight and passing the HOMA ordinance, and in particular the incentives, the superchargers, the creative ideas that the council and the staff can have to make sure we have plenty of home and plenty of uh multifamily housing opportunities available to all.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Daniel Nygard.

Welcome.

So, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council.

So thank you for allowing me to speak on behalf of the Newport Hills Coalition.

I appreciate all of the time and energy that you have spent and the planning commission has spent on this difficult, difficult topic.

I know that there are many variables to be considered.

There's a lot of people that have input, but I was so pleased at how much time and attention that the staff has taken to to reach out and to get our input and our opinions on things.

And so as you approach sort of the final uh race deadline or the the crossing mark today, I want to um you know appeal to your your sense of community and your sense of commitment to this process and and thank you again for your work on this project.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is John Tis Cornia.

Welcome.

Good evening, Council and Mayor.

Um, the reason for my uh presence here today is to talk about the low frequency sound emitting from the East Channel Bridge from Sound Transit.

Uh it's similar to taking uh jet taking off, similar to what you hear down at Renton.

The sound is traveling throughout the neighborhood at all hours.

In fact, it was at three in the morning the other day when the trains were running.

And it's it wouldn't be so bad if it was just one train car, but it's multiple train cars with multiple trains going across.

So a little bit about the background.

Bellevue has an ordinance between uh 10 p.m.

and 7 a.m.

The agreement with sound transit was mitigation and noise that would not exceed the ambient level.

Clearly, this is not the case.

So a couple possible solutions are study the sound levels and reduce them between seven and ten, slow the trains down in mid-span on the East Channel Bridge.

Third is add acoustic panels to change the sound waves.

So today I'm help asking for your help, identifying the correct person that we can talk to about sound mitigation, enforce the quiet hours from 7 a.m.

till 10 p.m.

And start a neighborhood outreach program with anti neighborhood to understand and address these issues.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Heidi Dean.

Looks like Miss Dean might be joining us virtually.

Miss Dean, can you hear me?

I can.

Perfect.

We can hear you now.

Your time begins now.

Thank you.

Mary Poppins spoke of a pie crust promise, easily made, easily broken.

Like a delicate, flaky pie crust.

These promises appear solid at first but crumble easily under pressure.

In government, that pressure comes from wealthy donors, NGOs and special interest groups, and political parties.

In Bellevue, Pie Crust Promises are especially vulnerable to the pressure from commercial property owners, developers, and those who lobby on their behalf.

Here's a review of City of Bellevue's Pie Crust Promises.

2017.

Council made the commitment to keep growth in the growth corridors before turning to the neighborhoods.

The growth corridors are now known as the citywide, or excuse me, the countywide and mixed-use centers.

Councilmember Robinson was running for re-election that year.

June 28th, 2023, planning commission voted to study NB and CB properties in the mixed-use low rise designation at two to four stories in the comprehensive planal EIS.

Councilmember Bargawa was one of those commissioners.

July 24, 2023, Council affirmed Planning Commission's recommendation and directed staff to study NB and CB properties at two to four stories in the final EIS.

Council members Robinson and Newenhouse took part in that unanimous vote.

July 10th, 2024, Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend that to council that neighborhood center properties be split into mixed use low rise, which was NB and CB properties, and mixed use low mid-rise, or the three CB properties.

Councilmember Bargava voted, and Mayor Malicucian was there as council uh liaison.

The same night, Plan and Commission unanimously voted to recommend requiring an annual comprehensive plan amendment when changing from one zoning designation to another versus a simple rezone.

October 2022, 2020 uh 2004, excuse me, 2024.

Council unanimously adopted the 2044 comprehensive plan update with the aforementioned plan and commission recommendations, including the future land use map with the mixed use low rise one at two to four stories and mixed use low rise two at four to six stories.

Mayor Malicotian, Deputy Mayor Hamilton, and Council Members Robinson and New Enhouse voted.

And as mentioned by Michelle, four council members sitting on the dais said they would not upzone the Newport Hill Shopping Center past four stories at our our uh council can did it um forum.

And that was council members Robinson, New Enhouse, Samadawaria, and Breyer.

So voting to Pass Homa for neighborhood centers turns all of these previous planning commission and council actions into pie cut crust promises.

And if the residents of Bellevue can't trust you to keep your word about land use issues, then how can we trust you to make good decisions on our behalf on any topic?

I ask this.

How can we trust you?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Steve Kassner.

Welcome.

Mayor Moe, Councilmember, City Staff, concerned residents of the City of Bellevue.

I'm Steve Kassner, proud president of the Lake Hills Neighborhood Association.

I want to look back for one second to recognize four people that got us to this day.

For the last multiple decades, those four people have supported our neighborhood and this city in moving forward.

I am here tonight because we are about to embark upon the greatest neighborhood experience in the history of the city of Bellevue, with so many activities happening between our neighborhood, the city, and the council.

Starting tomorrow night, neighborhood enhancement program comes virtually to Bellevue with Teresa and Councilmember Jared.

We are the largest neighborhood in the city, 7200 homes, and we have $622,000 allocated to our neighborhood to make it the best it could be.

That's only the beginning of the fun.

March 21st, Evan Reed and the Keep Bellevue Beautiful comes to Samamish High School to clean up our neighborhood.

On March 25th, Lake Hills will take two new staff members throughout our neighborhood, which all but one council member has been on those trips that Jerry started.

March 28th, Sound Transit, Light Link Route 2 opens.

Not directly related to Lake Hills, but all of us have spent blood making that project come to fruition.

Then we move into April.

Communication is vital between the cities and neighborhoods.

Multiple years for Earth Day.

Neighborhood events conflicted with the city event.

The city event is the 18th, Saturday.

Lake Hills is going to do a neighborhood cleanup in the morning on the 19th, followed by our neighborhood Earth Day event to make it an Earth Day weekend.

Moving forward, we move to our pitnic, the largest and bestnick that I'm aware of.

And for the first time I've managed to make it the only event on that day.

So I'm not racing all over the city.

Why is it the greatest?

Every single one of you and most of the people over there come out and meet residents, and they say I've had an opportunity to meet the people that run our city.

You've asked me what makes us different.

We are a family.

We do not do anything different without your consultation or the people in the city supporting us as suggesting how we might do it better.

We have other things later in the year, including my favorite neighborhood sub-area planning after our candidates forum.

I'm out of time.

Thank you all for all of you've done for decades for this city.

Thank you so much.

Oh, and I have RDB center in the back.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Does bring us to the tail end of our 30 minutes?

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

Uh thank you so much.

Again, thank you, everyone who took the time to share comments with us.

We really appreciate your engagement.

Do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar?

I move to approve the consent calendar.

Second.

It has been moved by Deputy Mayor and seconded by Councilmember Robinson.

Any discussion.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

We have our public hearing.

Our city manager is going to introduce that.

Thank you, Mayor.

Deputy Mayor and Council.

The purpose of this public hearing is to solicit input on the proposed release of an existing sidewalk, utilities, lighting, and landscaping easement.

Lauren Matlick, our real property manager, is here to describe the easement that's being released along the border of the subject property and the transit center grand connection.

And with that, I'll hand it over to Lauren to go through the description and then it'll go back to you, Mayor.

Thank you, Ms.

Crossman.

Good evening, Mayor.

Council members.

Our staff report this evening is on our request to release a portion of a sidewalk and utility easement located at 633, 110th Avenue Northeast and 640108th Avenue.

On February 10th, the council declared this easement as surplus to the city's needs and set today as the date for holding the public hearing.

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

There we go.

There we go.

There we go.

Located on Northeast 6th Street between 108th and 110th Avenues, directly adjacent to the Bellevue Transit Center and northwest of City Hall.

The subject property is being developed into a two-tower office building with retail on the street level.

The easement shown outlined in red was reserved for benefit of Sound Transit in April of 2008 and signed to the city in September of that same year.

In place of the easement being released will be a public access easement for the Grand Connection.

This new easement will cover a greater surface area than the one it is replacing and allow use for both pedestrian and bicycles.

This release and replacement ease are separate from and do not impact any efforts for other bicycle-specific lanes within the right-of-way or through this area.

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

This ends our staff report and will be available to answer any questions should you have them.

Thank you so much.

I move to open the public hearing.

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

The motion passes.

Okay, thank you, Mayor.

There are no pre-registered speakers for the public hearing.

So at this point, I would ask if anyone joining us in the audience tonight would like to make a comment under this public hearing.

If you would please raise your hand, and that goes for those of you online as well.

Please use the raise hand function.

I do not see any hands, Mayor.

I'll turn it back to you.

Great.

Now we can close the public hearing.

Do I have the motion?

I move to close the public hearing.

Second.

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

Any discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

I've heard all of the ayes.

There is no oppose.

The motion passes.

Now can I have the actual motion, please?

I move to adopt resolution number 10594 authorizing the execution of documents necessary to release a portion of a sidewalk, utilities, lighting, and landscaping easement located at 633 110th Avenue Northeast and 640 108th Avenue, which has been declared surplus to the city's needs and is no longer required for providing continued public service.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Is uh been moved by Deputy Mayer and seconded by Councilmember Robinson.

Any discussion?

All those in favor.

Yeah.

Yeah, thank you.

So you know, this is a primo piece of property, Primo sidewalk area, and it goes between light rail and our transit center and our Grand Connection.

Yes.

And so we don't have, I'm looking at what uh Amazon has built for that sidewalk, and you say it's open to bikes and pedestrians, but it certainly isn't like a dedicated bike route there at all.

And it seems like a missed opportunity to have owned this piece of property and then to hand it over to a developer and say, no, you know, this is fine.

I mean, we I feel like we really should have required that they put in some more bike-friendly infrastructure there rather than just asking pedestrians and bikes to share the sidewalk on a super busy segment, and at least to put some paint down to say, you know, this is a shared sidewalk or something that it just feels like a missed opportunity.

So I guess my question is is there any way that we can ask for better infrastructure for bikes and peds than what is being the bare minimum, which is this wide sidewalk next to a beautiful design architecture and land.

Sure.

Um a couple things on that.

There um this was a at least the initial one that we were um uh uh releasing tonight.

Uh that was one that was, as I mentioned, uh granted in 2008, um, as you know, two Sound Transit transferred to us.

The one that we are replacing it with, uh, the Grand Connection easement that does allow that.

Um fit the land use code and requirements of the time when um this building was permitted and uh what their plans were.

Um I do I was able to uh have a conversation with um a transportation planning, and um I understand that they have made efforts to uh work with uh King County Metro to uh obtain a bike lane separate of this easement.

Um they are still you know ongoing, but there's nothing that is um uh concrete moving forward on that.

Again, a missed opportunity.

I don't disagree.

I know that we didn't in 2008 have a ped bike plan for that area.

And I know when I got on the council in 2014, we didn't support very much ped bike infrastructure in Bellevue.

So we've changed a lot, and it's really uh I'm sad that we aren't more nimble to look at an asset like this while we had it and and require some kind of uh infrastructure that is in keeping with our comp plan and all the work that we've done.

So I just wonder if we can be looking forward, city manager at other opportunities that might come up where we might require some uh adherence to our goals and our comprehensive plan before it's too late.

Uh Mayor, what I can't say.

What I can tell you is that uh the transportation department uh staff is working very closely with the property owner on property owners on both sides here to try to achieve that um connectivity here for bikes and pedestrians through that section of the grand connection.

So while this happened a while ago, and we're um living up to our commitment to release but also retain an easement through that area.

Um I think that retained easement allows us to continue to have conversations with the property owners about how we can best use that public access easement on that side of the street as well.

Great.

All right, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for your question.

Any other discussion?

And I cannot see our uh council members online.

I assume there is no questions unless they tell me something great.

I see councilmember New in House.

Um all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

I haven't heard any opposed.

The motion passes.

Thank you so much.

Uh city manager, if you have uh, I think two ordinances.

Do you want to please uh introduce them to us?

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Deputy Mayor and Council members.

Um February 29th at the study session that you held, council gave direction to prepare two ordinances, as you mentioned.

Uh one amending the land use code to expand housing opportunities in mixed use areas that would support housing production and affordable housing.

And then the second is rezoning of the mixed-use areas that are currently in inconsistent with the comprehensive plan, uh, future land use map.

Council also gave direction to develop the multifamily tax exemption catalyst options for the HOMA areas, and staff is working to return to council in May for a study session to provide the options to you and to have a conversation with you about the the next steps on the MFTE program.

Uh this is a culmination of a significant process with the community and the planning commission and resulted in a recommendation to you from the planning commission.

To review the homework tonight, I will uh welcome back Nick Whipple, our code and policy director from the Development Services Department, and Matthew Minard, our senior planner.

And then I'll hand it over to Nick.

Great, thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Malik, Mayor Malikoutian.

Uh, Deputy Mayor Hamilton, members of the council.

Um, we are excited to be here tonight um to bring back the HOMA housing opportunities mixed use areas land use code amendment.

Um, for our direction this evening, or we'll first our agenda, we'll touch on the background, just do a quick recap for you all.

And then, as noted, um, you all received the planning commission recommendation on February 24th.

There was some direction provided at that meeting, so we'll recap that and then touch on the LUCA process.

For direction this evening, we are looking for council action to adopt ordinance 6906.

That's the land use code amendment.

And then following that action, um, we'll be looking for direction to adopt ordinance 6907, which is the rezone ordinance.

Also want to clarify at the top um that rezone ordinance does not include a legislative rezone of Newport Hills.

That zoning is staying the same.

Um so just wanted to make sure that was clear.

So we'll turn it to Matthew to walk us through the presentation.

Thanks, Nick.

We have a very brief presentation for you tonight.

We'll start with the project background.

This was initiated by council in 2022.

Uh began with what we called FAR phase one, which was an intern ordinance of control for downtown.

Uh that was really a test bed for the future permanent regulations that you see now as HOMA.

Uh, we did update the scope with council in December of 2024 to uh anticipate some changes in the market, especially around the office market, which had cooled substantially between 2022 and 2024.

This is a land use code amendment that is aimed at encouraging more housing throughout the city's mixed use areas, those mixed use areas being defined as areas that currently allow for both multifamily residential and commercial uses on a this a single site.

It amends key zoning standards that are inhibiting housing development on those sites and creates a straightforward and consistent affordable housing program.

We are proposing a mandatory housing program with HOMA, similar, almost identical to what was adopted through the Wilburton Land Use Code Amendment earlier in 2025.

As mentioned, it does rezone parcels consistent with the comprehensive plan future land use map to make sure that there is consistency between the land use code and our comprehensive plan.

We are really looking to encourage a range of housing types on these parcels, anywhere from townhomes to large apartment buildings.

We are trying to expand affordable housing opportunities specifically through that mandatory affordable housing program.

And with all of this, we are trying to encourage more vibrant, more well-served neighborhoods where people can go about their daily needs within their neighborhood.

In many of these areas that are designated as neighborhood or mixed use centers, we are requiring some sort of what we're calling pedestrian-oriented uses, which is going to be that ground floor retail use.

That's something we heard very clearly from the community in these areas that that retail use and that day-to-day use was very important to their lives, and so we are making sure we maintain that through this land use code amendment.

We did, as Nick mentioned, bring the planning commission recommendation to you on February 24th with a study session.

We did have direction at that point to prepare the rezones and Luca for final action.

There were a few changes we've made to the draft since then that we noted at that meeting and one uh direction from council at that meeting.

So we added a FAR exemption to the 3% office floor plate increase downtown.

That was uh a miss on our end.

We meant to add that in the draft, so that's been added to the draft.

Uh council did give us direction to retain the existing stepbacks on Main Street between 100th and Bellevue Way in downtown.

So those have been retained through the updated draft.

There is uh opt-in language that's been added to the ordinance.

So at the study session, you all did not have that ordinance to review.

That ordinance has now been given to you to review.

Uh, this essentially allows projects to opt in or out of HOMA if they are in the entitlement process and their downtown.

So that gives uh existing projects or projects in permitting some flexibility on whether they want to change their project right now or if they want to continue with the old code and maintain their permitting status.

And the rezone map has been updated.

There were three parcels that are being rezoned that were excluded uh from that map for the study session.

Uh they are just south of Crossroads uh mall area.

I do want to note, as Nick noted, uh the NB areas, while we are changing dimensional standards and some other standards that apply to the NB areas, they are not proposed to be rezoned.

So current NB parcels remain NB despite the change in dimensional standards and other standards on those parcels.

This has been a long and comprehensive process.

Uh the first draft of HOMA was released over a year ago.

We've done substantial outreach to community groups, public hearings or public information sessions, other groups, basically anyone that's asked us to have a meeting with.

We've had meetings throughout the process, uh, and HOMA has been substantially updated through that public input process and through the planning commission process.

We are on draft eight of HOMA now.

We are hoping this is the final draft.

We are at council action this evening, as Nick noted.

Uh, there are two ordinances.

Uh they are sequential on the agenda tonight.

So the first ordinance is the Luca ordinance, and the second ordinance is that rezone ordinance.

And with that, Mayor, I will hand it back to you for questions.

Thank you so much.

Uh I've heard that you've been to, as part of your public engagement, you've been to people invited you to their home, and you were talking to them in their living room.

Is that true?

That is true.

Uh we were invited by uh the Newport Community Coalition to present in the living room.

We have done that.

Um we've presented in churches, uh, schools.

We presented at the Eastgate Community Block Party, which was uh I got quite wet at, which was outside in a rainstorm for part of it.

Um we prevent presented in City Hall, and we've done virtual presentations as well.

So uh we've done our best to reach out to people where they are in as many manners as possible.

As part of our outreach, we also always create a website where people can find information on how to contact us and sort of updates on the project.

And we do send out quite frequent newsletters that uh go to around 16,000 people who receive receive those.

So we've tried to keep anyone interested as updated as they'd like to be on this project throughout the process.

Great to hear.

I have one question, and then I would love to go to my colleagues uh so to hear if there uh is any questions there.

We have received many comments via email and in person, especially regarding to new Port Hills proposal.

And we heard tonight too.

We have heard on the board side uh those with concerns about building highs, increased density, traffic, a potential business displacement, as well as those who believe this change are necessary for future vibrancy, or perhaps we didn't even go further enough.

I've heard that in planning commission meetings.

Can you provide a summary of what have you heard from uh new Port Hills stakeholders during uh HOMA LUCA process, and how in your opinion, this uh HOMA LUCA balancing this competing interests and ensure our neighborhood remains uh viable place for small businesses and also vibrant for residents.

Sure.

Um so what we've heard throughout the process is essentially what you've heard tonight.

So uh there are two sides to the Newport Hills discussion.

Uh we've heard from community that there are concerns over building heights, uh, which are proposed for uh 45 feet unless you provide us an additional 5% affordable housing, and then you would be allowed to go up to 60 feet.

Uh we've heard concerns over traffic and parking, which are concerns we hear with uh most land use amendments at this point.

Um but we've also heard um from the other side that there is a need to redevelop this area, uh the shopping center could support more uses, could be revitalized.

Um we've heard from both sides that these retail areas in the center of the neighborhood are the center of the neighborhood, are very important to the residents of the neighborhood, and uh sort of unanimous desire to make sure that that retail neighborhood center element has been maintained through so through HOMA in the NB districts, uh you do have to provide 50% of the street frontage, so your linear street frontage as what we're calling pedestrian-oriented uses.

So those are going to be businesses that bring people in and out during the day, uh, and those do have to be at back of sidewalks.

So really trying to encourage that vibrant public life and maintaining that retail element of these neighborhood centers that are so desired by the community.

Uh, we've also heard uh substantially from the community, though not from everybody, uh, that they recognize the need for affordable housing.

Uh so the mandatory affordable housing proposal does achieve that, uh, and also a desire to maintain grocery stores.

Uh, we've also heard the need for daycare and some other uh desire for affordable commercial space.

So we've tried to incentivize those the best we can through the land use code as well.

Uh so we are trying to balance those competing interests.

Obviously, um not everyone is going to be happy with that balance, but we do think we are also very consistent with uh what the comp plan calls for for that sort of low rise development typology at five stories, maintaining that retail element, maintaining that neighborhood center element of these areas.

Uh thank you so much.

Again, thank you you all for spending two years on this, and also thank you, Planning Commission, uh, for uh really investing in uh this uh land use code uh like everything that they do.

Uh Councilmember Robinson, do you have any questions?

No.

Uh Councilmember Summoderia, do you have any question?

Um actually I do have one question.

Yeah.

Um thank you by the presentation by the way.

I just have a question because I can see the um I think what it could be for the introduction of traffic.

Uh if that does happen, is there any flexibility?

How we can improve and help the neighbors navigate the traffic.

I mean, infrastructure improvements are going to be outside of the land use code generally, especially when we're talking about roadway infrastructure improvements.

That's something that council would um look at through capital improvement planning through transportation funding often.

Uh Nick, I don't know if you want to add anything to that.

Uh just as part of, I guess, natural course of doing permitting, um, a project is gonna have to assess what the impacts might be to traffic.

And so that project level analysis is provided when they have a proposal in mind.

Um, it's not necessarily contemplated as we're looking at some of these bigger changes, but it's certainly something that they will have to address as part of the permitting process.

Any upgrades, improvements that's all borne um typically by the developer.

And then the information would be is it shared publicly in the case?

Yes.

Yeah, so especially so all of the mixed use areas that um are subject to HOMA are also subject to design review.

So there's a public process notice that goes out that'll hit a radius of 500 feet from um the property that's being redeveloped.

Great, thank you.

And where can the neighbors' residents find out about that information?

Is that so uh people should, if they're not already subscribe to the weekly permit bulletin.

Um that'll be uh published every Wednesday um by the department.

And then if you happen to have a project that's in your neighborhood, um you'll also get that notice directly to you if you're within 500 feet.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Smotovirria.

Councilmember Bargao.

Okay, thank you.

Uh just some brief comments.

And maybe there's a couple of quick questions.

Uh one, you know, I I continue to believe housing and affordability are really big important issues for Bellevue.

So thank you for this for this work.

Um also thank you for the community community engagement, as our mayor called out, going into individual resident homes and talking about it is uh not typical.

So appreciate all the effort that the staff has put into this uh process.

Um I also really appreciate the balance that you're trying to bring.

So those are three sort of overarching things that I think are very commendable um in the approach you've taken.

But two really quick questions are um the proposal that we are in front of us.

Is there any departure from the planning commission recommendations as we see it today?

So if that is, just to highlight that, if there is any.

Uh yes.

The only uh departure from the planning commission recommendation is the direction that council gave us at the study session.

Okay, so there's nothing else beyond what you just outlined in a presentation.

So that is fully aligned with the planning commission recommendation.

That's helpful.

And then uh the incentives for local uses.

Uh is that any I like maybe you talked about at a high level.

What are just a couple of examples of what those would look like?

Yeah, so uh there's a list of FAR exempt uses.

Um, affordable housing, grocery stores, daycares, affordable commercial space, and open space has a small exemption as well.

Um generally they're a one-to-one FAR exemption.

So for every square foot you provide a grocery store, for example, you can build another square foot somewhere else in the building or on the site.

Um so that's the general incentive process.

There is a larger incentive for affordable housing, it's a four to one FAR ratio.

Um so that's how we're looking at trying to incentivize these uses through HOMA.

Uh, those uses are specifically called out through the comprehensive plan and what we've heard through our outreach process.

Okay, got it.

That's really helpful.

And last comment, absolutely.

The um question that uh, you know, around infrastructure and all of those needs that go into supporting the increased intensity.

When we think about the comprehensive plan and what we studied as a larger capacity yield that we're going to increase, was studied as part of the EIS process, and we are well within those umbrellas.

Yes?

Just want to confirm.

Yes.

Uh, and you know, we followed the CEPA process for this as well using that EIS that we uh produce for the comprehensive plan, and we've been determined to be within those bounds.

Okay, appreciate it.

That's it.

Thank you so much.

And I notice your question about the landing commission as a new liaison.

I appreciate that question.

Uh Councilmember New Enhouse.

Okay.

Absolutely.

We can hear you very well here.

Thank you.

Um yeah, first I just want to really thank uh everyone for uh engaging this evening, all the comments, no matter which side um uh the the viewpoint that you might be bringing forward tonight, and it shows how much um of a special community we have because um so often we see people have such uh care and and love for their for their neighborhood, and I always appreciate uh uh everyone's points of view on this.

I just had a couple of questions, a little bit similar to um some of my colleagues already, but I just wanted to uh just check on uh on a few things that were raised during the oral communications.

And I guess the first one was some of the comments raised by actually a former planning commissioner, um Michelle Hillhorst.

Um is there any or is ordinance 6906 in conflict with either any other ordinance or process, you know, be it the uh CPA criteria or given the um uh the um trying to define the the 2024 comprehensive plan or the uh study that was done within Newport Hills, the 2025 Newport uh neighborhood area plan.

Is there any inconsistency or is it in conflict with anything else at this um at this time?

Uh no, we fully believe that is consistent with all the planning documents.

HOMA has been built um you know off of all of the work that the community development department did with the comprehensive plan.

Uh those legislative rezones are to make the land use code uh fully compliant with the future land use map, at least in the mixed use areas through that comprehensive planning process.

Uh we've been working closely with community development through the Newport uh community neighborhood area planning process as well.

So we believe it's consistent with that.

It's also consistent with some other studies we've seen in the city, such as the retail study, which also calls for the revitalization of a Newport Hill shopping center.

So we do think it is consistent with our entire uh, let's say opus of planning work that we've done throughout the city.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, and I'm um well, what we heard mainly from Newport Hills residents, uh, you know, I'm concerned about you know any area of the city where uh this could be in conflict.

And and I appreciate um uh council member uh Sumadourio's uh comments there about about the congestion, about the transportation.

I've heard a lot about this.

And it it does concern me that as your answer indicated to her question that you know the it's kind of a separate discussion about transportation.

Um, I I I ideally that is not the case.

And um I I think that and and the city manager would have to let me know what uh the tools that we could actually, or if if it's even possible to initiate some work um uh on behalf of the council to the transportation uh either the commission or the department itself to immediately start looking and uh studying uh these areas um in which uh HOMA could be um uh initiated and immediately start looking at the potential impacts so that we could get ahead of any congestion.

Any thoughts on that?

Um I could quickly just respond.

Um, you know, as uh Councilmember Barcava pointed out as well, the environmental process that preceded HOMA did do some analysis.

Um when I was responding to Councilmember Sudamoria, I was uh more mostly referring to the kind of level, the more detailed impacts um that might result from a project are going to be evaluated once that project proposal is in place.

But we have done a pretty substantial amount of analysis as part of the environmental impact statement, which um you know had a bill of over a million dollars for the city and consultant resources to be able to do this citywide analysis and really look at what are all the impacts, traffic, um aesthetics, all the different components that CEPA, the State Environmental Policy Act, will require us to look at and evaluate.

Um that work was done and the HOMA work um relied on that analysis and also did additional analysis through our own SEPA checklist um to fill any of the gaps that maybe weren't covered by that EIS.

So it has been analyzed, but when we're thinking about specific project impacts, that's what's going to be deferred to when those project proposals are in place.

Well, right, and that's what I'm that's what I'm speaking to.

I mean, uh we we've done all the right steps, and I appreciate you mentioning that again about SEPA and other environmental studies, and that's an important to do, but you know, that's that that's not going to address how we're going to alleviate potential congestion, correct?

There part of the EIS analysis did identify um where what intersections might be at risk um of not meeting the level of service um that we've set.

Um and there is work in the transportation department to try and take a look at those impacts.

Um so by potential risk, but it didn't offer any solutions, correct?

I would have to uh follow up with you on that one, Councilmember Newtonhouse.

Typically we do get some mitigation strategies out of that type of analysis.

I don't know specifically what was identified or how those are kind of feeding into work streams, um, but that's a really great question for us to maybe track through and see how that's informing some of the work that we're doing in other departments and with other boards and commissions.

Thank you.

I appreciate that because I think that's an important piece of this.

And as much as we could get ahead of that, um uh I think the better off we'll be.

And I think the the residents would certainly appreciate it, um, especially after um, you know, potentially passing uh uh uh HOMA tonight, um, that uh we're already thinking of the potential impacts and trying to get ahead of that uh that impact in in their neighborhood.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Newenhouse.

Uh Councilmember Briar, if you are still here, please do you have any questions?

Yes, Mayor.

Please go ahead.

Thank you.

Um thank you so much for the uh work conducted on this um uh for the staff and then for also the residents who have uh just demonstrated an incredible amount of of uh civic engagement.

I think this is what makes such a uh special environment that we have here in Bellevue.

Um I wanted to say really quickly, uh I don't want to be redundant, but ditto on to Councilmember Newenhouse's uh concerns regarding uh traffic.

You know, uh Councilmember Newenhouse and I are here in in DC currently uh speaking to our representatives, and one of those things is um, you know, we had investments into our traffic technology, unfortunately that was cut by the admin.

So uh we really got to be creative in terms of uh ensuring that our residents aren't frustrated uh with traffic and sitting in cars and and and adding more hours to their to their daily commute.

Um so just wanted to uh refine that.

Um and then I also wanted to ask, just to be extra clear is a rezone consistent with the comprehensive plan that was sort of brought up by a few residents.

I just want to make sure that we're we have a aligned understanding of that.

Can you help me understand?

Yes, so we are proposing legislative rezones only for those parcels in mixed use areas where the underlying or current land use designation is not consistent with the future land use map designation.

So uh as you can see on that map, it's relatively limited on where those rezones are.

Those rezons are there because uh the comprehensive plan and the land use code are not consistent currently.

I see.

Okay, so this would in fact make things uh more consistent with the comprehensive plan, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

Uh okay.

And then another rather superficial question I have is 45 feet to 60 feet.

I believe you had brought up to maybe it was perhaps Councilmember Barga's uh questions.

45 feet when I did like a quick Google search on this, is is does that translate to floors?

Are you able to say is there a direct ratio there that can be tracked?

Yeah, I mean in terms of building heights.

45 feet is generally gonna be four stories, 60 feet will generally be five stories, especially with that ground floor uh commercial element.

I see.

Okay, and and commercial and retail will not be taken out of this development if HOMA is passed.

Is that correct?

Correct.

So they're gonna uh in the NB district, which is where Newport Hills is, for example, um, they are will be required to provide 50% of the linear street frontage as what we're calling pedestrian-oriented uses.

So that's gonna be any use that sort of brings people in and out during the day.

I see.

Okay.

Would it be safe to say the baseline is four floors?

Unless, of course, there's those bonuses that are added.

That would be correct.

Okay, so baseline would be four floors.

Okay.

Uh last item I had a question on is um, and again, this is brought up to me by so many residents is is um, especially in crossroads, local businesses are concerned.

Um, we we do, I want to just uh sort of extract this reassurance, if you will, uh, that we do have strategies in place to help retain our local businesses that have served residents for decades now.

Is that correct?

Yes, uh there are some, it's quite limited through the land use code.

Uh, we've worked very closely with economic development, and they're working on some outside of the land use code, which seems to be the best way to uh sort of encourage that retention of businesses is going to be those financial incentives.

Um but the land use code does provide a FAR bonus for affordable commercial space.

So we are hoping that that affordable commercial space will be able to be re-occupied by existing businesses.

Uh we've also done some small things uh around phasing of of parking uh that were asked for to retain businesses so uh some businesses can stay on site while the other half of the site, for example, is being redeveloped.

So I'm trying to allow the flexibility in the code to allow development to happen in stages to hopefully uh lessen the time between uh the space going away and the new space uh being available.

Okay, okay.

Well, it's really reassuring to hear that we're not relying on like empty platitudes, but we're we're finding substantial mechanisms here to ensure that small businesses can be kept here.

Um so that's that's a great reassuring point to hear.

Um so ultimately I I've mentioned centering resident voices.

Um I made previous commitments on what I believe the community wanted, and I stand behind that intent to listen to residents and represent their interest above all things.

Um but I have also been invited to many homes in Newport Hills over the past month uh to hear about the support for the revitalization of the shopping center and protecting small businesses in a way that sort of um uh pencils with the current market conditions.

Um it is a meaningful shift that I'm obligated to take seriously.

So it's it's reassuring to hear that the baseline is going to be four floors, but um I've heard from folks that want to make it like 10, 15 floors.

Don't know if that's entirely reasonable, but uh uh a law professor of mine had always mentioned to me that a good compromise is when both sides are unhappy.

So um I think the 45 to 60 feet does make sense.

And so I I wanted to thank you again for your work.

And Mayor, I'll stop my comments there.

Thank you so much.

And uh both Councilwoman Newenhaus and uh Broyard, I appreciate you joining uh very late in DC.

So thank you for caring about uh art of work and your community.

I appreciate your joining online.

Deputy Mayor.

Great uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh, not much to add, no questions.

I think my colleagues really nailed it.

Of course, thank you to the two of you and to everyone who's been engaged in this project.

Um, I think the result is balanced.

I think it does serve the community need and and support what I hear often from the community.

So fully supportive of home and ready to move forward.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much.

Is there any I'm going to give opportunity to anyone else who wants to raise hand and have any last comments?

Great.

Uh, can I have the first ordinance uh to adopt the first ordinance, please?

I move to adopt ordinance number 6906 relating to development in commercial and mixed use areas within the city of Bellevue.

Second.

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

Any discussion.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Everyone says aye.

The motion passes.

Can I have the second ordinance motion, please?

I move to adopt ordinant number 6907 relating to zoning within mixed use areas within the city.

Can I have second?

Second.

It has been moved by Deputy Mayor and seconded by Councilmember Robinson.

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Everyone said aye.

The motion passes.

Thank you so much for your hard work.

We will take just a 10 minutes break because we have people from DC that we cannot make them wait any longer.

So we are going to be back by 7 3.

Great.

We are back.

And we have now two study sessions.

And our city manager is going to introduce the first one, Sound Transit.

Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council members.

It is truly my pleasure to welcome Ariel Taylor, our East King County Corridor Director, tonight, and Alex Krieg, Deputy Executive, Executive Director of Enterprise Planning from Sound Transit.

These are old colleagues of mine.

It's lovely to see them here to share some very good news about the two-line cross lake opening.

In addition to work that Sound Transit's been doing called Enterprise Planning Initiative.

And that is to address challenges that they are facing with funding for the remaining projects of the Sound Transit 3 portfolio.

In addition, we have Andrew Singalakis, our director of transportation, and Lacey Jane Wolfe, Intergovernmental Policy Advisor for Transportation.

They will follow the Sound Transit presentation to provide some draft grant guiding principles for council discussion and consideration this evening.

Those will serve as a framework for communication of the city's interest to Sound Transit through that enterprise initiative planning process.

And so with that, I am going to I believe turn it over to Ariel.

Actually, it was to me.

So thank you, City Manager Carlson, Mayor Malikuti and Dave Hamilton, Deputy Mayor.

And as I am mentioned, the purpose of the study is uh twofold.

First, to talk about uh Sound Transit's recent activities, and then second, providing you with an update of the enterprise initiative, and as Diane had mentioned, uh, with a reassessing Sound Transit 3 to close a $35 billion funding gap.

Uh City of Transportation and uh intergovernmental relations and community development.

Um and Emil King is here in the audience as well.

Uh we developed uh principles to respond to the enterprise initiative, and we do not know yet what cuts are going to be proposed as Sound Transit Board is meeting later this week.

Um, and uh we will seek direction for the council to approve the guiding principles, uh, which will be the basis for submitting a letter to Sound Transit after we know what those uh proposal is.

And we're likely to be back here sometime in April.

And with that, I'm gonna turn it over to you, Ariel.

Hello, good evening, uh, Mr.

Mayor and members of the Bellevue City Council.

It's so good to be here today.

Thank you so much for that introduction, Diane.

It was great.

Um we are so delighted to be here to talk about not only the cross lake connection, but where Sound Transit's going next with our Sound Transit 3 and Enterprise Initiative.

So I'm gonna start off the presentation here, but before I do, I want to take a moment to acknowledge one of the public comments that you all received today about some noise complaints in the Enatai neighborhood regarding our light rail guideway.

We hear that.

We have been hearing this from that community, and actually Andrea Burnett, who's right behind me from Sound Transit, is actually out there engaging with the community and uh is here to provide any um resources for community members that still may be in the audience.

We're happy to make sure that uh Andrea is connected with that constituent of yours.

So just to close the loop on that one.

Um I'm gonna go ahead and kick us off.

Here we go.

What are we gonna cover today?

Hey, guess what?

We're gonna talk about a train crossing a floating bridge.

This is a this is a pretty big deal.

Um I'm gonna just say a few words about that up front, and then I'll pass it over to my colleague Alex, who will introduce himself here in the second half of the presentation.

There we go.

Okay, so super high level.

Uh, who are we?

Who is Sound Transit?

Uh we are a voter-approved high capacity transit agency that is tasked with delivering high capacity transit to the three county region.

So this is Pierce, King, and Snohomish Counties.

These are the incorporated areas or the urban growth boundary areas of these three counties.

We operate Link Light Rail Service, we operate Sounder Commuter Rail, and we also will be operating Sound Transit Express, or excuse me.

We operate Sound Transit Express Bus Service, and we will also be operating Stride Bus Rapid Transit, which will be coming online in the next set of capital projects, which we'll talk about later.

So I'm not gonna bury the lead.

March 28th, I hope everyone listening and everyone here in the room uh saves the date for March 28th.

It's gonna be a massive day for this region, not just here in East King County, but literally all over the region.

Um we are for the first time crossing Lake Washington with Link Light Rail.

Trains are out there right now in testing.

I'm sure you've seen them.

Mr.

Hamilton, thank you so much for uh joining us for the date unveil we had just a few weeks back about announcing this very exciting milestone for the region.

So, a little bit about the two line.

Um, I remember being here two years ago, about this time, giving a presentation to the Bellevue City Council on the first initial segment of the two line that opened in 2024.

Um at the time, Mayor Robinson, I remember you asking me some very detailed questions about ridership and what we were going to expect.

Um, I will just take one moment to note that if you were here with us in 2024 right here at Bellevue Downtown Station.

We had 35,000 people join us for the opening day of that celebration or opening day of that light rail extension.

We are expecting quite a few more to join us for the Cross Lake celebration on the 28th.

So uh just a little bit of a preview for what's to come.

Uh the second phase of the two line opened to downtown Redmond last year.

That was two additional stations into downtown Redmond of the two line, and then of course the final uh segment of the two line, which will cross Lake Washington, connecting Mercer Island and the standalone Judkins Park station in the city of Seattle to the rest of the light rail network.

All right.

Um, this was one of those photos we took uh when we announced the opening day of the Crosslake Connection.

Um, Deputy Mayor Hamilton, I think you're in here.

There you are, over on the right-hand side.

Um, we had lots of folks across the east side come and join us that day.

In fact, Lacey Jane sitting here to my right, was also there.

Um, but you can definitely make out a whole bunch of the east side stakeholders here.

Linda Hoffner from the Spring District, uh, Barb Wilson from Microsoft.

Lots of folks came out to uh celebrate with us on this very cold uh January day.

And as you can maybe see right uh right in the background, you can actually see downtown Bellevue right there in the background.

That was purposeful for this date announcement in this press conference.

We wanted to make sure that we uh the photos of this announcement were capturing the Eastside community and Lake Washington.

I will also just note that we are currently testing.

As I mentioned earlier, we've got trains going across the floating bridge right now.

People are sending me pictures of it all the time.

And like, please continue to drive.

Please put down your phone.

Um testing is going extremely well uh for how complicated this project was and is uh testing is great.

I will say I have been out on the train, I have been out on the bridge.

You would never know these tracks were so complicated to build.

We are building the first fixed light rail system on a floating structure in the history of the world.

We wanted to make sure we got this right.

Yes, that took a few more years to do, but guess what?

It's up, it's running, and we can't wait to welcome people on the 28th.

So, what can you expect?

Oh, March 28th.

We will have a ribbon cutting celebration.

Surven cutting will be at the Judkins Park Station.

I know Mr.

Mayor, you and I had a little bit of a conversation about this.

Hey, this is an East Side project.

Uh, why is this at Judkins Park Station?

Uh Sound Transit picked this ribbon cutting location because of the very big open space that is directly adjacent to this particular station.

Um, it can accommodate this 35,000 plus uh group that we expect on opening day.

We want to make sure we've got the space for people to access.

I will also point out, especially Councilmember Robinson.

I know you are a bike user.

We are encouraging folks to take bicycles, walk, take transit, or uh take one of our shuttles to this opening day celebration at Judkins Park Station for the ribbon cutting because there is no parking.

So we will have a bike valet offered by Cascade Bike Club.

We will have uh shuttles leaving from the South Bellevue station from about eight a 7 a.m.

to 10 a.m.

will be running.

So there'll be a Sound Transit shuttle bringing folks from that South Bellevue Park and Ride back over to the Judkins Park station.

Once we cut the ribbon, the line will be open and folks can take it wherever they would like to go, maybe back to their car at South Bellevue.

Um, but please, if you are planning to come, plan to take an alternative mode of transportation to this event.

Um, I will just note too that we will have other community-centered celebrations across the system, which I'll talk about next.

Um, we have a lot of station activations on March 28th, including Judkins Park Station, which I just mentioned.

We will have a celebration at Mercer Island Station, where we're actually expecting 90 community organizations to be joining with the Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce there at Mercer Island Station.

We will have station activations at both connection points for this cross lake connection, uh, both at Chinatown International District Station as well as South Bellevue Station.

We will have Sound Transit sponsored events happening there.

Big thank you to Bellevue Fire Department for offering a fire truck for a touch a truck event at the South Bellevue Station, very fun kids activity, trying to encourage folks to get out there and do some fun activities.

We will also have uh the Bellevue Downtown Association will be uh taking over uh the Bellevue Downtown Station and doing some station activations there in partnership with Amazon.

We will also uh be partnering with Wright Runstad at the Spring District Station.

I believe Linda Hofner is bringing in a petting zoo as well as some other merchants there at the Spring District Station.

Bell Red Station will be activated by Bell Red Arts District, um, as well as uh Microsoft will be um handing out coffee and cookies at the Dote Cafe at the Redmond Technology Station.

And lastly, before I run out of breath, uh we will also have uh activations from the Seattle Orcas, the cricket team at Merrymore Village Station.

Well, there they will have some players and some uh other fun activities out at Marymoor Village Station.

Now, these are just the stations uh that are really, I think, um part of the new extension.

We will also have the Seattle Symphony playing at Symphony Station in downtown Seattle.

We'll have Snow Co Libraries with a kids' book fair at the Linwood City Station.

So we are planning on this being a regional day of celebration, no matter where you're getting on the system.

All right, here's just a few uh photos of um what you can expect on opening day.

If you are with us in 2024, you'd probably see Carrie Pravitz's face up there on the window cling.

Um, but we are doing these similar types of marketing.

Uh, oh my gosh, what am I gonna call these?

Uh images uh for opening day, where we'll have the ribbon, we'll have the plexiglass number two, we'll have the window clings.

We really want them to make this a welcoming environment for anyone who may be joining us on opening day.

All right.

I spoke a lot about the crosslight connection, and that's what's coming at us immediately.

And Alex Krieg now is going to talk about well, what is coming next for Sound Transit and some of the things you may be hearing in the news.

Uh thank you, Ariel.

Um Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, members of the City Council.

My name is Alex Krieg.

I work at Sound Transit here to talk to you about uh the Enterprise Initiative, which is Sound Transit's effort to maximize the delivery of ST3 mobility benefits within available financial capacity.

I work at Sound Transit here to talk to you about the Enterprise Initiative, which is Sound Transit's effort to maximize the delivery of ST3 mobility benefits within available financial capacity, an effort we are approaching comprehensively, considering planning, transit operations, finance in addition to our capital program.

Through this work effort, the board will adopt an updated ST3 system plan, which will necessarily include a balanced and affordable long-range finance plan that provides a high degree of confidence that we can deliver on ST3 commitments.

The consequence of not acting will be an unaffordable finance plan and ST3 program.

So while we formally launched the Enterprise Initiative with the Sound Transit Board of Directors retreat in May of last year, we were seeing certain leading indicators suggesting affordability challenges before that.

This included updated cost data for the West Seattle Link extension project from late 2024, which the board responded to by directing staff to develop a cost savings work plan that expanded across all projects and planning.

Another leading indicator related to system resiliency and some of the challenges the agency has faced following this period of rapid light rail system expansion to ensure we can deliver safe and reliable service.

We had also seen a couple of rounds of lower sales tax and revenue projections, which partially reflected general economic uncertainty, but also included post-COVID factors that are important considerations for all transit agencies as we adapted to change mobility patterns and preferences in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Such that these indicators speak to the range of factors contributing to our overall cost pressures.

They also informed our need to take an agency-wide approach.

So in August of last year, we were able to initially quantify the scale of our affordability challenges, which were subsequently refined in our fall update of the agency's long-range financial plan.

In short, the agency must identify $34.5 billion in cost savings and new funding to deliver the full ST3 program or approximately 25% in new research resources beyond existing financial capacity.

This figure represents cost growth in the capital program and specifically the up uh the incorporation of updated cost data on eight projects in the ST3 program, as well as cost risk for transit operations related to potential new investments to improve system resiliency and the increasing costs for new light rail vehicles necessary to deliver the ST3 program.

However, between the August board meeting and our uh fall update of the long range financial plan, we did see an improved uh revenue forecast of approximately $2 billion.

And we also incorporated some minor changes to financial planning assumptions that added another $2 billion in financial capacity.

And it's important to realize and emphasize that the agency's long-range financial plan projects almost 150 billion dollars in financial capacity with more than 50 billion dollars of that towards ST3 projects that are not yet baselined.

There's another dimension of the problem that is different than that 34.5 billion dollar figure.

Uh, like other agencies delivering large infrastructure programs, we plan to issue debt backed by our local revenue streams to finance the ST3 program.

Uh in the met and uh we uh use certain metrics for assessing program affordability that are tied to our ability to finance uh the capital program in particular.

Um the graph on this slide illustrates that affordability challenge over time.

The blue area under the dashed line represents expenditures that are affordable within projected revenues.

The orange area represents the expenditures above that affordable capacity in any given year.

And you can see that the challenge that we're facing really presents itself starting in the mid-2030s when heavy civil construction is occurring on several of our light rail mega projects simultaneously.

Uh, and then that dark blue area represents the impact of those $2 billion in financial enhancements that I just mentioned.

So you can see that that functionally extends capacity in time, but the continued growth in project projected expenditures means we still hit a debt ceiling a year or two later.

And so the challenge that we face isn't simply a matter of cutting projects and services or adding funding to quote unquote balance the budget.

Uh, while cost savings across both the capital and operations programs at Sound Transit will be critical to how we solve this problem.

We also must think about the amount we spend in any given year of the program and the tools and opportunities that will increase our capacity throughout time so we can deliver as much of ST3 as possible.

We believe thinking about the different dimensions of the affordability challenge can also enable us to think creatively about how to solve it.

And so the board has been really actively engaged trying to solve this challenge in front of us.

In November, they held another retreat to review a work plan to deliver on the enterprise initiative.

The direction from that retreat was to develop plausible affordable scenarios or approaches for an updated ST3 system plan.

We'll do so by building off of elements within each of the four work streams within the enterprise initiative, which I'll describe in a moment.

And finally, we are being wide-ranging in our approach to identify opportunities that save costs, save time, or expand financial capacity.

We also anticipate some of these opportunities will require additional time to analyze and consider, or may require with engagement with or action by others to fully realize commenting, reflecting on the recently concluded state legislative session as one example.

So our charge right now, and in fact, tomorrow at the next board retreat down in Tacoma is to review plausible affordable scenarios or approaches.

And so I just want to touch on the general rules we are following to develop these scenarios and which are listed on this slide.

So as a starting point, the purpose of the exercise is not to say here are three or four or five scenarios, pick one.

It is instead to identify the very real trade-offs and policy choices that the board will face.

We'll also focus on components that have a meaningful impact on easing our affordability challenges while emphasizing simplicity and service to highlighting those policy trade-offs.

And finally, we'll leverage the work that teams across Sound Transit have been doing, whether that is cost savings, developing cost savings opportunities in our capital program or completing feasibility studies around system resiliency in transit operations.

Ultimately, we expect a hybrid that combines elements from different scenarios or approaches.

So this slide is just a simple process graphic for how we are getting from the last board retreat in November to the next retreat tomorrow morning, and to bring back these plausible affordable scenarios.

We defined an approach for scenario development through the end of 2025.

In January, we focused on developing different building blocks for these scenarios, which enabled us to begin developing some initial approaches that have been informed by board engagement we conducted in March or sorry, in February, and then finally having these scenarios for the board tomorrow morning.

And then I just want to spend a little bit more time on the component pieces of these scenarios, which we will build up from the different work streams that make up the enterprise initiative and which are shown on this slide.

These are the elements that we can really modify, expand, contract, and when combined with other work stream elements will form ultimately an updated system plan for board consideration.

So for policy and planning, this includes policy changes, whether by the Sound Transit Board or other authorities that save cost, accelerate project delivery, or expand financial capacity.

This will also include alternative service designs and assumptions for all modes, but especially light rail.

These updated assumptions will also tie into the capital delivery and transit operations work streams.

For capital delivery, these will reflect various arrangements that incorporate cost savings opportunities across discrete capital projects, potential project phasing or resequencing, examining how specific project and regional asset costs are shared, and the potential for deferring certain project investments.

For transit operations, this will include a range of potential resiliency investments like upgrading our current signal technology and adding infrastructure to the existing downtown Seattle transit tunnel, as well as how projections for overall operating and maintenance costs change as a result of different service assumptions, and given the size, shape, and schedule of our capital program.

And for finance, this will include updated financial planning assumptions, including our federal grant strategy, which will also be informed by the size, shape, and timing of capital investments, as well as looking at policy changes and any modifications to available revenue authority, as well as the potential for third party funding opportunities.

And so this is my final slide, and it lists out some of the emerging policy questions, implications, and considerations we're starting to see through this scenario development activity and in advance of tomorrow's retreat.

I won't go through these in detail, and this isn't intended to be an exhaustive list.

Our objective in reviewing this is simply to share some of the topics and to set expectations of what we expect board members to engage in as they review and engage in these scenarios.

A fundamental point to make is that the voter approved plan's financial policies require that we have an affordable plan at the system level while ensuring that each sub-area is also affordable.

Indeed, a central tension in this exercise is balancing the delivery of a regional high capacity transit system against the varied and various sub-area priorities in the face of the agency's affordability challenges.

An important note is that our initial attempt at developing capital program focused scenarios will focus on this system-wide affordability question and acknowledge that uh some of the levers in other work stream categories will help address affordability at the sub-area level.

And so some of the policy considerations system wide include questions of relative modal priority between Link and Sounder and STExpress and other investments like parking investments, as well as within these different categories.

Uh, how costs are allocated and shared, and how board policies and the broader policy environment provide opportunities to deliver as much as ST3 as possible.

At the sub area level, and I know I'm in East King County talking to the city of Bellevue.

Uh, sub-area equity is still guiding and foundational policy for sound transit.

Uh, this really is a function of proportionality and about financial capacity relative to the tax base of each sub-area.

So this does occasionally raise big questions about uh what can each sub area afford to do given that the size of their tax base.

And so the notion that projects and investments made in sub-areas are proportional to the benefits received by that subarea will inevitably be constrained by the revenues a sub-area can generate.

Um, as such, we have heard through the board in their committees and at the full board, uh, that information about sub-area priority priorities is really important, recognizing the need to incorporate these in an eventual update to the ST3 system plan, while being mindful of uh overall plan composition, the effects on system performance, and of each sub-area's financial capacity.

Um, we expect questions and discussion about sub-area-specific trade-offs, particularly related to the level of investment of remaining ST3 projects in the different approaches we're putting together for board consideration.

And so I will conclude here by inviting feedback questions or discussions, or I'm not actually sure if I'm passing it off to add one more thing uh before we pass it over to Lacey Jane.

Um, is I would just be remiss if we did not point out some of the current ST3 investments that are happening over here in East King County that are not affected by this enterprise initiative.

The stride bus rapid transit program that we are building on I-405, two lines between Linwood and Burian with both termis here in downtown Bellevue, are not affected by this enterprise initiative.

Those projects are in construction and well on their way to delivery starting in 2028.

Thank you, Ariel.

Um, my name is Lacey Jane Wolf, and I'm an intergovernmental policy advisor supporting the transportation department at the City of Bellevue.

Tonight, staff is requesting.

That did not work.

Tonight, staff is requesting direction from council to prepare a letter to Sound Transit Board members based on the Bellevue guiding principles for the enterprise initiative, which is included as attachment A in your packet.

I want to note tonight that as Andrew mentioned earlier, this would be the first of likely multiple opportunities for Bellevue to weigh in on our priorities for the Enterprise Initiative.

So it's likely that we will be back in front of you again as the discussion continues and as more information is made available.

So Alex did a great job of briefing you on the Enterprise Initiative.

I want to underscore just a few points about that.

Then I'll provide a reminder about the South Issaqua, the South Kirkland to Issaqua Light Rail project.

And finally, I'll walk you through the draft guiding principles recommended by staff.

So I want to reiterate Alex's comments that by June, the Sound Transit Board plans to make decisions about certain ST3 projects.

It's just one of many avenues, as Alex explained that Sound Transit is investigating potential cost-saving avenues.

But it's important, especially for us because uh certain ST3 projects may be delayed or reduced in scope.

And we don't yet know what the affordable options are.

As Alex mentioned, those are going to be provided to the Sound Transit Board at a retreat tomorrow morning.

Bellevue staff does anticipate that potential delays and reductions in scope will be on the table.

Fortunately, as Ariel mentioned, the two-line and stride bus rapid transit are not impacted by the Enterprise Initiative.

The only capital project in Bellevue that may be impacted is the South Kirkland to Iszaqual Link project.

So let's just re fish ourselves on what that project is planned to include.

As a reminder, this project will build a new at grade station adjacent to Eastgate Park and Ride and an elevated station at Richards Road in Factoria, in addition to the South Kirkland and Central Isaqua stations.

Sound Transit 3 included a provisional station at Lakemont, provisional meaning it's unfunded.

Additional funding will be needed before that station can be built.

This part project is planned to add a net 730 stalls in South Kirkland and Isquah, and no new parking is planned for the Bellevue stations.

And finally, just a note that the project is currently planned to be delivered in the 2041 to 2044 timeframe.

So because this project is facing potential delays or reductions in scope.

These guiding principles are based on Bellevue's comprehensive plan, transit master plan, and the five letters that Bellevue City Council sent to the Sound Transit Board during development of the Sound Transit 3 plan.

Staff is seeking council's feedback on these draft guiding principles, and in total, we have six recommendations.

As a reminder, Sound Transit's district is divided into five sub-areas shown here.

And as Alex said, the Sound Transit Subarea Equity Policy says that, for example, revenue generated in the East King sub-area will be proportionate to the revenue spent on projects that benefit this sub-area.

The East Link project was built primarily with East King sub-area revenue, for example.

During the ST3 development phase, Bellevue didn't take a position on whether the four line should be light rail or bus rapid transit.

And mode choice may come up again as Sound Transit identifies affordable options.

Bellevue staff recommend remaining open at this time regarding whether the project is built as light rail or bus rapid transit as more information is shared and the discussion continues.

The third recommendation is that Sound Transit should minimize delay to projects.

We all know projects don't get less expensive when they're delayed, they only get more expensive.

In terms of stations, Bellevue staff recommends supporting implementing both Richards Road and Eastgate Station simultaneously.

During the Sound Transit 3 development phase, Bellevue supported upstream parking, and staff recommend maintaining that position.

Finally, staff recommend continuing to support Sound Transit's regional express bus service, which are of course those routes that begin with the number five.

Route 556, for example, connects Bellevue to the U District.

Route 560 connects Bellevue to South King County, and 566 connects Bellevue to South Redmond.

So this concludes Bellevue's staff recommendations.

So once again, staff is seeking your direction to prepare a letter to the Sound Transit Board based on Bellevue Guiding Principles for the Enterprise Initiative.

And we would love to take your feedback.

Thank you so much.

Such a dense and great presentation.

You covered a lot in 34 minutes.

Thanks for being here.

And of course, Lacey Jan.

I also wanted to share your excitement about the March 28, the opening of the two-line amazing historic moment that we can connect Bellevue to the whole entire region.

So we are very, very excited about that.

It represents years of planning and investment that this body, the city of staff and all of our stakeholders has done.

And thank you for getting back to John T.

I assume you can get their email about the sounds.

And I'm so happy that you are addressing that.

And I know the official opening is held in Seattle because they expect the crowd of 35,000.

And we all know that every 4th of July we host uh 65,000 plus here in Bellevue.

And I think we can handle some parkings for 35,000 person train party here in Bellevue, maybe next time.

But now let's go through questions.

First, I think how we want to do this is we go around the room, the Dais and Councilman Briar via Zoom and ask any questions we have, any clarifying questions.

And after we finish the round of questioning, then we go and express our opinion about the guiding principle after the questioning phase is done.

And then we can uh have the motion.

Um in that note, anyone has a question.

Please go ahead, Councilman Bargaba.

Hey.

Uh thank you.

Uh for a really complex topic.

Great succinct presentation.

Thank you so much.

Really appreciate all the work that's gone into that.

Uh I only have a more sort of let's call it uh fundamental question on the affordability challenge.

Um 35 billion is a lot of money.

And uh I appreciate that you know this can happen over time through various inputs, etc.

And you also sort of put together a year by year outlay of the gap, etc.

My question is what what do you think are the primary inputs to the gap?

And then how do we have confidence that that gap isn't going to increase on an ongoing basis?

I guess those are more not specific but more structural questions.

Yeah, I so the main driver of our affordability challenge is cost growth on our capital program.

Um the board in late 2024 was acting to select the project to be built for the West Seattle Link extension.

So that was kind of the end of the environmental phase for that project.

Um that is a typical moment in which we do update project costs so that there is some understanding of what it will take to deliver the project to be built that the board selects.

Um in late 2024, we were seeing that post-COVID inflationary period really catch up to our program through that West Seattle link extension project.

Uh, we're not unique in facing cost growth and delivery of large infrastructure investments.

Um what that precipitated was the board both directing staff at Sound Transit to find cost savings, and what uh leadership in our capital delivery department did was um take a proactive step to update the cost estimates on all of our projects in development, recognizing that likely what we were seeing in West Seattle was what we would be seeing in projects like Ballard, like Everett Link, like Tacoma Dome, like the two infill stations that are in our program.

Understanding that even though we aren't actively developing that, the trends in the broader infrastructure delivery environment would likely manifest there as well.

And so part of the maybe sticker shock is the fact that we do have a large capital program, the trends that we are not alone in seeing.

We decided to be proactive and not wait until those those other projects reached a milestone in which they would be updating their cost estimates, but instead wanted to be proactive and then wanted to be transparent.

And because this the objective of the agency is to deliver these investments.

This is a big challenge, but it doesn't mean we therefore can't do it.

It just means we're gonna have to do it differently.

Um yeah, so I will add just one other quick thing to Alex, excuse me.

Alex's comments is this is a national trend, right?

So Sound Transit is not the only agency uh facing these challenges on massive capital makeup project infrastructure.

Um the other thing I was just going to note is the reason it's called the enterprise initiative is that we are literally taking a no-stone unturned approach to this.

We want to look at not only our capital program and the efficiencies in there, but how can we set ourselves up operationally in the long term to also bring some of these costs down?

So it's really a bottoms-up approach that we're taking.

Okay.

Thank you.

Appreciate that.

Thank you, Councilmember Bargabo.

Any other question in the room before I go to Councilmember?

Yeah, Councilmember Robinson.

I just wanted to ask, you know, uh, well, that's a huge numbers what we're talking about.

That budget is a beast.

And um I appreciate thinking outside of the box and looking at every opportunity to make this work because obviously we're growing, we continue to develop, we see you know, development happening outside Issaqua further east, and I can see a future where we're going to need light rail servicing those homes as well and businesses.

So I guess my question is if we compromise and focus on BRT, which actually would be to Bellevue's benefit.

How does that uh how do we keep the promise of light rail going east?

It's a good question that I don't know that I have a great answer for.

Um, I think this is really the hard choices and trade-offs the board of directors is gonna have to face because the four line is an example of we haven't really started any kind of project development activity.

So it is a it is a line on a map, quote unquote.

There's more room to maneuver than the West Seattle project, where we do have a record of decision.

We have spent uh a good amount of money to develop that project in that way.

Um there are there are approaches and and options, you know.

I think the certainly um seeing uh Lacey Jane's presentation, which suggests um BRT in place of light rail, we've certainly heard from the city of Issaqua and Mayor Mullett about um, you know, the utility of just getting Issaqua connected into the system.

That could also be a cheaper approach.

Um, but ultimately until the board, certainly the East King delegation of the board and uh their constituents, including their jurisdictional constituents engage in and really what are some of those preferences and priorities.

Um it's hard to say.

And I think there certainly are things like BRT convertible light rail where you you sort of make investments in the the right-of-way and the alignment.

Um, but uh I don't think we're there quite yet.

I think with something like the four-line project, even just getting started will help understand what is that range of possibility.

Um, and so it's probably an unsatisfying answer, but I'll stop there.

I'll just add just one quick bar there.

Um Alex said just getting started would help.

When when we say that it's just a line on a map right now, it is literally voter-approved.

That is how much design has gone into the South Kirkland to Issiquoi extension.

It was what was approved by the voters in 2016.

The um way Sound Transit had programmed that line was that in 2016 we got the voter approval.

We started with some projects, and we were phasing projects.

We would rotate our planning staff to other projects as that planning work got done on the West Seattle extension or the effort extension.

So the plan to start that planning work for uh the South Kirkland to Issoqua or the four line was actually not start until the late 2020s.

So that is where the um project development timeline really kicks off.

Starting that work in identifying where we could see cost savings or mode shift or the promises to get to ISICWA would happen during that project development and planning work that we would kick off in the next couple of years.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Robinson.

Any question?

Any question?

Great uh councilmember Briar, do you have any questions?

No, Mayor, just comments.

Great.

So we keep the comments.

I have some questions, and then you go through the comments.

And please feel free to say that's not in the scope that you can answer.

It is the boards, and we can just move on.

Uh in the in the materials that you send to us, the Sound Transit, they were talking about scenarios are being built around board-defined principles and policy trade-offs.

Great words.

Do we have a specific framework will the board use to decide which ST3 projects are delayed, reduce, or change?

Um kind of.

I guess what I would say is the board has adopted a set of principles to guide the work of the enterprise initiative.

Uh, there are four of them.

Um it includes um advancing regional connectivity.

Uh so this is about completing the spine, serving uh PSRC designated regional growth centers, that kind of thing.

Uh the second is uh supporting future growth.

So kind of tied to that, but also thinking about where is growth happening in the district in the region, um, and where are investments at in terms of supporting that growth.

Um, the third is around prioritizing the passenger experience.

Um, a lot of that is uh around easy connections, uh the fact that there are multiple transit operators in the region, and we're part of that.

You know, we need to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Um shout out King County Metro.

Um and then the final is protect public investments with fiscal integrity.

And so that really is around being good stewards of of uh public dollars, public resources.

Um, and then finally, because ST3 is a voter-approved plan, um, we do have a set of uh defined performance characteristics and objectives that the plan is trying to achieve that serve as a bit of the foundation in terms of of that original commitment in 2016 to the voters who approved it.

So that really serves those four principles and that kind of uh voter approved plan are the basis for I think how the board will be making their considerations and ultimately their decision to update that ST3 system plan.

Uh thank you for uh the answer.

And I just feel compassion because it's really hard to make those trade-off and decision that if each projects are going to be delayed or reduced or changed based on these four.

Like we cannot say from Isakwa to Bellevue.

Is it no?

Is it yes?

Light trail, is it yes other method by just is four?

Maybe they can, they are more senior than me.

So we leave that to them.

Is the South Kirkland to Issaqua project being evaluated only for delay and scope reduction, or is a no-build option also on the table?

Because I think a slide 26 uh that Lacey mentioned it was just delay and scope reduction.

Is a no build also part of the equation.

So we aren't in the information we're gonna bring to the board tomorrow morning.

Um this is where you know how it is.

You don't want to get in front of your board of directors or your city council.

Uh I would say we're not actually bringing forward options at this point that include delay.

Um, you know, the board has, I think, experienced a lot of uh an internalize this notion of delay is time, time is money.

And, you know, so there are going to be options that for various different projects presume that the delivery, the construction of that project is not affordable in our current horizon with our current resources.

Uh, but I know, having talked to board members over the past several weeks that everyone's objective is to deliver all of ST3.

It is in recognition though of the fact that 34 and a half billion dollars are our real constraints in terms of how we can finance the delivery of the program will mean that uh as we have done in the past following ST2 and the Great Recession, effectively had to distinguish between what what can we afford to do with resources available versus what we can afford to advance to a certain milestone without I would say in the approaches that we share for the South Kirkland Desquoi project, it's really the range of of potential outcomes, not to say pick one again, but to say the trade-offs are around the amount of program in terms of how much we estimate it will cost versus the amount of revenue and how much we project will have in this plan horizon.

So I've heard there is no the no build is not an option.

That's what I've heard I don't we are again bringing forward a bunch of uh iterations to provoke a policy discussion for the policymakers to make decisions.

Right.

And there will be other projects shown as also deferred, meaning we can't afford to do it with available resources.

Um I don't know how to answer.

Yeah, no, you did a great job.

I will I will just say uh our board will be making this decision.

Staff is in kind of an awkward spot here where we have been asked to produce these plausible affordable scenarios or approaches.

When when these are daylighted to our board of directors tomorrow, they are not gonna be here's option A, here's option B, here's option C, option D, whatever.

They're not gonna be a you have to pick one of these, right?

It's going the effort that we're putting into these as staff is to show the board the magnitude of the problem, and as Alex said, the trade-offs that they're gonna have to take a look at.

So the last thing we want to do is to defer a project, right?

That is the ultimately last thing, the last thing the board wants to do, because they have to answer their constituency.

So you are gonna see a range of options for all of the light rail projects inside ST3.

And I think you are absolutely both of you right.

I think we need to make some hard decision, but we need to make those decisions, and we should move forward.

Uh, based on what you just said, do you have any are you going to provide any metrics to them or do they have any metrics that they can do some comparison between light rail and BRT?

Not at this point for uh the for example the South Kirkland Dissequa project.

Um we are going to show how these different um sort of illustrative approaches or scenarios um perform against criteria we've derived from the principles that I described.

Um, and that will be shared tomorrow.

Um it is, I guess I would say I will be sharing it with some ambivalence because any time you show these things as how they perform, it it does suggest like, well, one of these is better than the others.

And that's really not our objective tomorrow.

Objective is there are going to be choices around the amount of light rail investment versus the other kinds of investment in ST3.

Um, the trade-offs between advancing projects that are moving forward versus those that haven't yet started project development.

Uh, the the challenge of trying to um ensure that all sub-areas are getting some investment, but the the issues that that will raise, not just with sub-area equity, but in terms of of what that might mean for projects that are further along.

Um, none of these will be easy.

Um, and I suspect uh, as I said uh to the board, or at least the executive committee, I feel pretty confident that uh everyone will not like one of these approaches.

I think uh the the concern is how we protect in practice the two maybe competing priorities, a system-wide affordability against uh sub-area priorities.

And great.

I think now we can that's my all of my question.

Thank you so much for answering them as best as you could.

Uh I start with my remarks about the guiding principle, and then I wanted to go through my colleagues.

Definitely sub-area equity, as you mentioned, remains our top priority in City of Buildview.

It is not just for the bill view, it is shared interests among all east side cities.

Voters approve ST3 with sub-area equity in place, and the commitment is very, very important part of how sound transit has maintained a public trust over time.

I think people on east sides uh we need to know when we pay into the system, the sub-area will see a fair return and real mobility benefits.

And again, this is not just Bellevue issue.

I just wanted to emphasize that this is across the entire Eastside.

Each city has different needs and opportunities.

Just as the needs of Bellred is different from Newport Hills, I think the priorities in Redmond, Renton, Kirkland, Issa Coal will not all look like the same.

Protecting sub-area equity gives all of our Isaiah City the flexibility to pursue the transit solution that best fit their specific communities while still standing together as a region.

Great.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for the presentation.

Thank you, Carol.

I really appreciate all the great work uh you're all doing.

And uh, like everyone, I'm really excited to know that folks will be able to start making the cross lake connection in just over two weeks.

That is truly amazing.

I know our Bellevue team has been closely coordinating with the Sound Transit team for many years.

The collaboration has resulted in a system that will bring much needed transit service to Bellevue and to our east side neighbors.

We're in a unique situation in which we're going to actually be able to build thriving, vibrant, sustainable transit-oriented neighborhoods.

This is certainly true for Bellevue, but it is just as true for all of our East Side East County neighbors.

While Bellevue certainly has critical unmet transit needs that must be provided for, the way for our needs to be met in a meaningful, impactful way is for the entire East King County sub-area to continue to be treated as the priority that it is.

So much time, effort, and expense has gone into our collective effort to get us to the point we're at now with our transit and light rail system.

We have asked our communities to believe in the vision of light rail on the east side and to invest in that vision.

We owe it to our community members to deliver on our promises and to make good on their investments.

There is no way for us to revisit the sub-area equity policy and honor our commitments to our community, our workers, and our businesses at the same time.

We asked folks to sacrifice to invest and to patiently wait for light rail to deliver a critically needed transportation option.

Eastside voters said yes to Sound Transit 3 because, in part, the sub-area equity policy is in place.

Maintaining the policy is so important to retain voter trust in Sound Transit.

It's critical that residents paying into the system, understand where those contributions are going, and that those residents can see how they benefit from the taxes and fees.

There is no revisiting, there's no rethinking, and there's no going back on our commitment to sub-area equity.

As they say, that train has left the station.

When we do our own sub-area planning here in Bellevue, we ask our neighbors what they want to see for their neighborhood.

We keep them at the center of the process, but we never forget that each neighborhood is a part of the whole city.

Each neighborhood deserves care and attention and investment, and each has a responsibility to support and further the goals of the whole city.

I see the sound transit system much the same way.

Each sub-area has an obligation, and I've seen the commitment to support the entire system.

In turn, Sound Transit has an obligation to each sub-area to deliver on its promise.

As far as the draft guiding principles, I think uh the ones that we have for the Enterprise Initiative and attachment A provides a good basis for staff to prepare a letter that will restate our strong commitment to sound transit generally and convey our thoughts and expectations with regard to sub-area equity to the Sound Transit Board.

Sub-area equity should be Bellevue's top priority, and we should state that very clearly.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor.

Councilmember Somodaverio.

Any remarks?

Yes, of course.

Thank you.

I'm so excited about March 28th.

The whole day is blocked off.

Yes.

And I would take every station there is.

I'll take you around.

Please, please do take all of us around.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Thank you.

And then I love the excitement when you're doing the presentation.

It makes me so excited.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you for all your hard work.

I think with you know the presentation, I think it was so thorough.

I didn't even have any questions.

It was amazing.

Um and I think that you know, believe I believe that remained open to the both LIRAO and also the bus rapid transition option at this, I think time of uncertainty, the economy and cost of build is really beneficial for us being um I think flexible and then also great communication for all the regional um collaboration.

It's gonna help us to get that goal someday.

We will.

Um, and one thing that I will say that LIREAL is just such a strong catalyst for transit-oriented development.

So for me, I think that's great for affordable housing, we'll force development, and I think that's also a great vital tool that's gonna really encourage our uh regional collaboration for the economic growth together as a region, not just Bellevue by ourselves, but every city around us together.

And then one thing also I want to pay make it out.

I think this build of the Lake Two Lake and then make it happen, it's gonna really make a huge difference about the environmental goals that we're trying to achieve, both achievable and also sustainable in the very near future.

So I'm really grateful for this.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

Uh Councilmember Robinson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so in the 1970, my dad was one of the engineers on the Trans Bay tube in San Francisco.

So for BART.

So I've always been a transit fan.

And um it's amazing how just the promise of light rail in Bellevue has transformed our city.

It really has.

You look around at these new big buildings, and that's really because of you and the work that we have done together to bring light rail to our city and through our city.

Um so thank you for that, and thank you.

I'm really grateful that we have been able to fulfill the goals uh and will you know on the 28th really do that.

Yeah, so that's that that's exciting.

But 35 billion is a is a big gap.

And um Council or Deputy Mayor Hamilton, I figured out that if we just charge a mission fee of a million dollars per person that comes to this opening, we'll fill that gap.

So I solved it for you.

There we go.

But um, you know, I I know we need to look at every uh possibility here, and BRT is not a bad option for Bellevue.

And in fact, I would love to see if you do that, that it goes right into the South Bellevue um station, and maybe we can get more stops along Bellevue Way.

So there's potential for um a win for Bellevue with that, but certainly looking into the future.

Love to see light rail throughout.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Robinson.

Councilmember Briar.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to say it's near midnight here in DC.

I've been up since 4 a.m., but I'm wide awake because of my love for public transit, and I refuse to miss this part.

Um I I remember spending my summers as a young girl in Stockholm or in Oslo in Norway, uh navigating the trains as a young kid, and it gave me such a rush of adventure and independence uh that I will I will never forget.

So thank you so much for the incredible work uh that you are all conducting.

Um just wanted to say ditto on sub-area equity.

I think this is quite logical, straightforward.

Um I think it's a great guiding principle.

Um, for the second contention about staff's recommendation about remaining open um for uh uh the buses versus the train selfishly.

I love trains so much, and so I would want to push for that as much as possible.

I I understand it may not be cost effective and may uh uh um result in delays.

So I understand uh wanting to perhaps opt in for uh the bus option instead.

Um, so I support that uh recommendation as well.

I have no further comments and just wanted to say thank you again.

Thank you.

And thank you for staying awake for your love for public transportation.

We really appreciate all every effort you do for the city of Bellevue.

Councilmember Bargavo.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Uh I've lived in Bellevue for now 14 years.

And uh almost all of those 14 years, five times a week, barring a few years of the pandemic.

I made my way across to Seattle.

So spending countless hours in a car.

And so uh if there's anyone who's uh excited about what you just said about the 28th, it's me.

And uh I wish it had happened 14 years ago, and I would have saved um the hair today, you know.

So it's possible.

But uh that's very, very exciting.

I'm also uh sort of going back to the position on um sub-air equity, I would just say plus one.

I think that is really really important, and for us a very, very strong priority.

I think the deputy mayor said it very eloquently, so I'm not gonna say any more, but just stress that.

And um I do want to say that Bellevue really understands the importance of transit-oriented development.

Uh, you know, our city has a proven track record of making investments that are supportive of DoD.

And we've invested, for example, 300 million dollars in the Bel Red Street District, constructing 10 miles of new roadway to support what we're trying to do.

So it's really very serious about this.

And as a member of the Regional Transit Committee, I know that Sound Transit's regional bus service is just so important.

The regional bus service complements the King County's local service and rapid ride.

So these are really important components uh from Bellevue's perspective.

And I would actually support including some emphasis on that in your guiding principles as well.

Uh but overall, I think uh my other thoughts were captured by my peers.

So thank you.

Great, thank you so much.

Uh, if there is no other comments, can we please have the motion to direct staff to prepare a letter of bell view guiding principle?

I move to direct staff to prepare a letter to Sound Transit Board members based on Bellevue guiding principles for the Enterprise Initiative.

Uh second.

It has been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by Council Member Robinson.

Any further discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

There is no opposed.

The motion passes.

Thank you so much.

I think you guys all want me to push to roove to the next SI session, but that's not correct.

We are going to take a 10 minutes break.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Thank you for giving us another 10-minute break.

We have our last study session.

City manager, would you please introduce that to us?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Deputy Mayor and Council members.

Tonight, staff is presenting a proposal to create a land use code amendment to establish a development agreement pathway, specifically for projects that are public-private partnerships where the city is involved.

This will allow for greater zoning and development flexibility to help us advance our policy priorities where the city is a major funder or we control the property.

So to describe the process and also the request of council this evening, um, we have our very hard-working Nick Whipple, Code and Policy Director back again.

He's joined by Charlie Engel, uh senior planner and development services, and then also Edward Butterfield, who's our public-private partnership manager in the community development department.

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

Great.

Uh and good evening again.

Happy to hang in here with you all.

Um, so we are here tonight seeking direction from council to enter a finding of necessity and for council to process this land use code amendment and then direct us to schedule the public hearing on this code amendment.

So for our agenda, we want to cover just briefly what is a development agreement, then we'll jump into the details of the proposed private or public private partnership land use code amendment.

We'll touch briefly on our outreach approach and schedule and then end with the ask for direction.

So to start first with what is a development agreement.

So this is a voluntary contract that the city can choose to enter with a property owner or developer of a site.

Um they are authorized under state law in the local project review act.

And what it would provide is some ability for council to get into some negotiation on sites and projects that are being redeveloped.

So it would establish oftentimes different development regulations that would apply different standards, different kind of conditions that apply to a specific project.

Um, this is something that is processed by the city council.

You ultimately would be um approving that contract, and then it would guide the development, so it'll run with the land.

So the purpose of it is typically to provide some of that certainty for developers.

Everything would be negotiated with that contract, and it would ultimately control whatever happens with that site in the future.

And it does allow the city to secure some public benefits.

So typically you would see a development agreement used when there's a lot of public benefit to be gained on the other side.

In part because it's a pretty onerous process.

It involves direct council involvement on project level review.

And it kind of pulls you away from your typical position of setting high-level policy and a code framework that can work for most projects.

So when we think about how to deploy this tool, we really want to make sure that there's a clear public benefit to be gained given the amount of uh effort it takes to kind of move through this type of process.

So Charlie will walk us through the current development agreement pathways in the code and then some of the details of the proposed code.

Great.

Thank you, Nick.

So on this slide, we wanted to highlight some of the existing development agreement pathways that are in the code now.

One of the more familiar cases is in the Bell Red Spring District.

That was a 2009 development agreement that was really intended to catalyze redevelopment in that area.

And that's shown on the bottom photo of the slide there.

There are also some possibilities for development agreements when constructing pedestrian bridges downtown or when proposing flexible amenity, which would be a different amenity or unique amenity other than what's listed in the amenity incentive system now that would improve downtown livability in East Maine.

The flexible amenity system is also available through a development agreement.

And then for projects near transit that provide additional affordable housing above the minimum requirement.

In those cases, there's a development agreement pathway as well.

In Wilberton, we see a development agreement pathway for projects in the Grand Connection.

And then there are also a few for citywide development agreements, such as when citing homeless services uses.

And the kind of key theme throughout all of these is that there's a specific policy priority that comes out of them, or they're used to develop conflict complex infrastructure like the Grand Connection.

So those were the existing pathways in the code now that we'll continue to retain.

And as far as the proposed new pathway with this LUCA would be to establish a new development agreement pathway for public-private partnerships.

So this includes when the city owns the land or is a major funder of a project.

So those are the two arms that would be new for this project.

And Nick touched on it a bit.

It's really narrowly scoped with these two options to be an effective tool when it's really intentional.

Like you said, it has to be reviewed by council, and it's a project level agreement.

So there's a lot of time and resources impacted there.

So it's not always the most efficient way to secure public benefits, but carefully constructed, it can be effective for delivery of those key policy priorities for things like affordable housing, sustainability, and economic development.

With that, I will pass it over to Edward to talk more about the applicability and use cases.

Yeah, so we really have two exciting opportunities coming up that we built this policy around.

The first one is we would authorize it when city owns or controls the property, as we do in the Bell Red neighborhood, excuse me.

And this would be where 10% of the project costs are greater, the city is contributing to that, where there's a five million or more in city funding.

And the other one would also be in the Wilverton neighborhood where that would be an affordable housing development.

Great.

So in addition to the two new pathways for city-owned and city funded development, this LUCA aims to also consolidate some of those existing provisions that we looked at in Bell Red, downtown Wilburton.

They're currently scattered across the code.

And so moving them into one chapter where they can be easily found and used just to kind of streamline the process.

In addition, this look also will define when the P3DA is authorized.

So kind of what Edward touched on, when it's city funded development, that threshold, that's all outlined in the code very clearly, along with application, its middle requirements, what the council direction to initiate and negotiate the DA, what that process looks like, and how to review.

And it also includes evaluation framework for these agreements, and if the mod if the agreement needed to be modified, what that procedure might be.

So in general, to give an idea of what this process would look like, getting the DA through council, we anticipate that it would generally be around three touches.

The first one to be initiate the DA and scope the changes and get a good idea of what the development flexibilities are the city looking to give, and also in exchange what the provided public benefit would be.

So really sourcing out the details there, and at that point council could decide whether or not they'd like to enter in a negotiation to continue with the DA.

Assuming if yes, the second touch would be a said study session to look deeper into the details of the development agreement, um, go over any modifications as necessary, and also direct staff to schedule the public hearing, which brings you to the third touch, which would be to hold the public hearing and take action on the development agreement.

And while it's maybe anticipated to generally be three touches, of course, you could always schedule additional study sessions in between initiation and action as needed to work out the details.

With that, it brings us to our outreach and schedule.

We are of course doing process for noticing requirements, which includes notice in the weekly permit bulletin.

We also launched the project web page earlier this month, which includes background information on the project and staff contact information for comments and questions.

And since this is mostly kind of an internal tool with the city-owned and or city-funded development agreement pathway, um, we took the time to coordinate with internal departments such as economic development, the office of housing, and the city attorney's office to make sure that this project is workable for future projects that are on the horizon so that they have the ability to advance key policies that council has prioritized.

So tonight we're looking at the schedule, we're doing the study session, looking forward to a public hearing, hopefully in April, and then once the lookout is adopted, the P3DA path will be available.

And with that, we're looking for direction from council to retain processing and direct staff to schedule the public hearing.

Thank you.

No, thank you.

Thank you so much, Charlie.

Uh Nick, thank you for being here the whole full time.

And Edward, thank you so much.

Thank you to Rebecca and the whole team.

Uh I'd love to learn new acronyms, uh P3 public-private partnership DA development agreements.

Um yeah, let's go around the room and see if you have any question.

Uh Councilor Bargoa, Sort of V2.

Do you have any comments, question?

No, I really appreciate uh uh this as a as a as a tool to try and get uh, you know, uh it's like you said, the key here is the balance between the increased engagement and oversight required and balancing out with the increased public benefit.

I also like that you have sort of narrowly defined this uh for now because I think this can be a springboard for more opportunities potentially over time when we have a broader set of uh you know opportunities to consider, but this may be more applicable, but we do already have uh established swim lanes uh and I like that uh as well.

The only question I have, maybe this is more educational for me, and you know, no specific uh concerns with your timeline and the layout that you put for put forth is the definition of the public benefit.

Is that purely a council-driven assessment?

Or is there how do we get more input on the validation on the adequacy of the public benefit?

Yeah, um, I can start and then would welcome Edward to jump in as well as our P3 manager in the city.

Um typically, so what staff has been doing in preparation of bringing this LUCA forward to you all is thinking about those public benefits that could be realized in the projects.

And we understand kind of some of the policy areas that the council is really um wanting to pursue, um, those being economic development, uh, affordable housing and sustainability.

And so part of the negotiation process is the applicant, um, which will usually be the city uh since this is city owned or city funded, um, will show all the areas that we're departing or proposing to depart from the code, which all has a value kind of associated with it.

If you want an extra hundred feet of building height, for example, um, that's going to be valuable.

And so then that's when we begin to assess what might we ask for in exchange for that public um that benefit being afforded to the developer.

Um, that benefit being uh relaxing some of the development standards or providing more um value to their project.

And so um, yeah, we've done some work to identify at least an initial list of benefits.

Those would typically be brought forward with council as part of the proposal as well, um, get confirmation from you all.

Is this the right kind of benefits to be pursuing as part of the agreement?

And then we'll begin that negotiation process, which you all would authorize the development services director to negotiate.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Yeah, and I think in addition, we'd we'd ensure that the city's financial commitment risk and overall participation matches those public benefits.

Got it.

Uh well, just one quick follow-up uh on that.

Like, are there established like let's call them protocols uh for the other frameworks, protocols for the other DAs that you have, the other paths that you've established, where you can say here's how we are evaluating the magnitude as well as the prioritization of our strategic sort of thrust on uh where the benefit and what kind of benefit it should be.

Is it more generalizable, something that we can use more scalably across?

Um so it really depends uh in the areas that we're authorizing DAs.

So, for example, in East Maine, um the priority that was identified by council during that code development process was we want more affordable housing than the baseline code would authorize, and in exchange we'll give additional FAR up to 5.3 FAR, which is I think more than a one FAR increase, and up to 400 feet in building height, which is about I think about a hundred to a hundred and twenty feet of building height to be gained.

And so those were the benefits that we would be pursuing as part of that, and of course, the council would have at their discretion to target other items that might be emerging.

Okay, and other areas were way less defined in terms of what we want to prioritize.

Okay, so I I guess the only uh suggestion based on what you said I I would have is because this is city-owned properties and we have the opportunity to be more nimble in this process, potentially in the evaluation and setting up what public benefit would mean, is that we could use this as an opportunity for us to have uh more well-defined framework that we can apply to more privately owned properties where the negotiation becomes more equitable and and more and more predictable as well over time.

I know it's site specific and I know there are those elements in place here.

Um, but I think it's a great opportunity to try and do that.

I say that because um it gives us more confidence that the trade-offs will stay somewhat consistent and aligned with the strategic priorities.

What you're doing with sustainability versus affordability versus something else.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Borgalba.

Council members mode.

Thank you for that.

Um thank you for the presentation.

I just have I see on slide six there's list of um I think almost like benefits of that.

Can you share with me like a few of like the short-term benefits and also like long-term benefits having this agreement in place?

Like this type of um framework to the short term would be the advancement of the Bell Red sites, and then I think long term it would be really creating a tool for the city to um be more creative on implementing its policies and and plans.

I think the long term it allows us as staff to go out and maybe do mixed use development with city city services or roadways or public open spaces that maybe we can acquire the land, but it could be part of a larger development.

So I think that there would be a lot of long-term applications to this also.

Okay, what about is there any downside?

Um I think the downside is ensuring that we're matching the public benefit to what we're the developers gaining from this, and that will always be something we need to be stewards of.

Okay, thank you.

That's a my question.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Councilman Robinson.

Uh council member Simon DeWerria asked all my questions.

So no, it was good.

And I appreciate the answers.

I I love a good DA.

I see really good thoughtful development with these, and it's nimble and it's um gives you the opportunity to to respond to emerging needs of the city of the city.

So um council member Summer DeWaria kind of asked this, but I'll be a little more specific.

Is there an example of um uh an area that you haven't mentioned that we're could use this on?

So the pipeline uh the city site.

So the city owns metro site.

Right, right.

Um that's an example of where a DA could really apply be used for the redevelopment of that site.

Okay.

Yeah, right outside the right outside our window.

Yeah, and where we're thinking about delivering grand connection um in that area as well.

Anytime you're trying to pull off complex infrastructure or really expensive kind of public uh benefits, this is a really helpful tool to be able to make sure that you're providing some benefit to the developer in acknowledgement that this is going to be complex to pull off.

Does it ultimately decrease the price of the project?

Would you say?

I think it would actually increase the price because it would bring more certainty to the developer.

It increases you say.

I'm sorry, let me reverse that.

It would decrease the price by increasing the certainty to the developer.

That's exactly it.

So in a case like this, we'd be integrating the development with a grand connection.

And that would give us more ability to be flexible on the land use code to achieve that.

Yeah, that's great.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh no questions or comments.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much.

I like Councilman uh Robinson.

I really like uh this kind of development agreement, uh, especially when we are doing a very complex project on publicly owned or even uh maybe we can do some uh catalyst the development.

And I really appreciate you guys are making it this more clear and more transparent.

Two suggestions I have one is maybe uh expanding on what Councilman Bargawa mentioned.

How we are going to evaluate public benefits being offered are proportional to the flexibility being granted, and I think that's a really uh equ is a great equation to be solved, so I leave it to you all as how you're going to do that.

But also, I think we should not uh all of these uh agreements they are going to customize the development standard.

We really need to be transparent with our public to tell them what benefits they are getting and what all of those customized development standards will be in a very transparent and understandable base, uh understandable to our public.

Besides that, thank you so much.

We need a motion.

I moved to enter a finding of necessity for the council to process this Luca and direct staff to schedule the public hearing.

Second.

It has been moved by deputy mayor and uh seconded by councilmember Robinson.

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye aye.

There is no opposed.

The motion passes.

We do have uh two re thank you so much.

We do have two written reports.

Uh, one is about update on the great neighborhoods program, Eastgate and Factoria, and the other one is sustainable bell view plan implementation updates.

Please for sure um read that on that note.

We can adjourn the meeting.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you so much.