Bellevue College approves extensive master plan

The Bellevue College Board of Trustees voted Friday to approve a master plan that would more than double the campus’ buildings and cost as much as $500 million.

“I want to repeat, this is aspirational. What actually happens or unfolds depends on the funding,” Raymond White, vice president of administrative services and co-author of the master plan, told the board Feb. 10.

The plan is broken into 10-year and 30-year phases.

In the first phase, the college will replace or renovate a couple of existing buildings that are now 50 years old and contain dated infrastructure. This portion of the plan would cost an estimated $100 million.

Most of the proposed changes would occur in Phase 2, including several new academic buildings, parking garages and a community partnership space. It also includes six residence halls, construction on the first of which will begin next month.

Overall, the plan includes more than 20 new buildings, increasing the campus’ square footage of academic buildings from 835,000 to 1.4 million.

The plan will be reviewed on an annual basis and may be amended in the future.