Eighteen minutes at tonight's Council meeting
The City Council discussed the Co-Living LUCA from 9:48 to 10:06 pm tonight. From the presentation by Associate Planner Charlie Engel, here were some takeaways:
- The outreach approach is just to inform the community rather than request feedback.
- The areas on the map where no parking at all will be required (not even the 0.25 parking stall per unit) is shown with cross-hatching on the map and represents about 95% of the residential areas where co-living will apply.
- There can be no extra review, notice, or public meetings in the approval process for a co-living building.
- Staff is requesting the Public Hearing and council action at the December 2nd meeting.
At 9:58, Mo Malakoutian made a motion to enter a finding of necessity to approve this LUCA, and councilmembers began their questions and comments:
Mo Malakoutian: Do we know of any demand for this kind of development?
Answer from Nick Whipple: One person who has built these in Seattle spoke to staff and at the public comment, and they do a homeownership option that's different from the co-op model.
Mo Malakoutian: Can we encourage an operational standard (encourage, not require) such as on-site management?
Nick Whipple: Can come back with a full response, but the essence is that we would treat it like any other multifamily housing type.
Vishal Bhargava: What do you mean by short term rental?
Answer from Charlie: <30 days
Vishal Bhargava: Is there data on affordability based on real examples?
Nick Whipple: Seven buildings were found that were affordable at 50% AMI.
Vishal Bhargava: Hard to understand the ownership model.
Claire Sumadiwirya: More affordable than regular apartments, and we can find more examples elsewhere on the west coast.
Lynne Robinson: Could compare to apodments - small size is inherently more affordable, but not less expensive per sqft.
Jared Nieuwenhuis: We already have short term rental rules in place. Enforceable is really the important part.
Conrad Lee: Lots of neighborhood streets have lots of cars parked - is that the same requirement as now for 6 persons sharing?
Answer from Nick: Parking is always a comment we'll receive - we're proposing direct compliance with the bill. The development community tells us there's a market for parking, but we can't require them to provide more parking.
Dave Hamilton: Appreciate the presentation, it's something we should promote in the city.
Please email individual Councilmembers to thank them for raising questions that you care about, and council@bellevuewa.gov if you have requests to share with the whole City Council. Please also share this petition with anyone you think might support it!