Many Bellevue residents chose to live close to Downtown, Eastgate, and Factoria, Crossroads, East Main, and Wilburton because we love having walkable neighborhoods. These are the places where children play, neighbors meet, and families thrive. 

While the state’s recent legislation dictated that Bellevue allow 24 units of co-living housing on each of the lots that is within a five minute walk of Link and Rapid Ride (over 250 parcels), Bellevue’s City Council is taking the initiative to allow more 24 unit buildings in other parts of Bellevue, covering thousands of parcels.

This is a risky experiment to run, since HB 1998 limits required parking to either zero or one spot per four units, and many are quite far from transit, in areas where residents typically have cars. 

If we believe it makes sense to put 24 units on a lot that formerly held a single family home in these areas, please use the Arizona Housing Innovation Tour as an opportunity to see how Tempe’s Culdesac was able to ensure that their car-light experiment didn’t result in more street parking in the surrounding area. We need a promise that these new residents will walk and bike if we want to avoid having streets that are car sewers like Seattle’s.

The simplest approach would be to modify Table 20.20.128.E.2.b. and set the fee-in-lieu for the seventh and eighth units on each lot at $10,000 instead of $0 in these areas, which will also raise money for affordable housing. We would then not fall under the six units by right (since the attached ADUs don’t count toward those six), and we’d be allowed to create rules that make sense for these parts of Bellevue and avoid overwhelming the neighbors with excessive street parking. 

This will also reduce costs for the cyclists and walkers living in the building, since they wouldn’t have to pay monthly rent that prices in free use of the adjacent street parking.  

Please sign this petition to advocate for smarter growth in Bellevue that maintains family-friendly neighborhoods. 

https://bellevuewa.gov/code-amendments/co-living-housing-land-use-code-amendment

https://culdesac.com/

https://bellevue.municipal.codes/LUC/20.20.128 

https://newbellevue.com/?p=502

(please note that the auto-generated image shows buildings that are taller - there is a 35' above average grade height limit for these co-living buildings)