The Bellevue City Council admitted there had been a mistake in a code application relating to parking in Old Bellevue, causing a small parking deficit.

The council unanimously passed an ordinance Oct. 5 to right old wrongs made in a 1998 ordinance.

Prior to 1998, the city didn’t require parking for the first 1,500 square feet of a property constructed for restaurants or retail in Old Bellevue. The ordinance adopted in 1998 introduced an exemption that allowed the parking requirement to be waived for existing buildings.

Due to a lack of clarity around the definition of “existing building” since the 1998 ordinance, the parking exemption has been inconsistently applied, the city reported. As a result, the Main Place Apartments, One Main and Borgata developments received an exemption they should not have been subject to.

The mistake caused a deficit of 24 parking stalls, the new ordinance shows, but 29 on-street parking stalls added between Northeast First and Fourth streets over the last few years have alleviated the deficit.

Under the ordinance adopted Oct. 5, the city clarified that any building in existence or vested in as of Dec. 31, 2006 will be allowed the exemption. The Main Place Apartments, One Main and Borgata developments were grandfathered in, and will not need to construct new parking.

The new ordinance was not without discussion, and underwent three versions as the council decided on the grandfather clause. Area business owners also contended that the ordinance as passed would disadvantage them against the residences on Main Street.

“Some points that I really want to make are what you’re actually voting for: Increasing cost of monitoring private and public parking adjacent to the Borgata and One Main, allowing Borgata and One Main customers to take up private and public parking intended for neighboring businesses … allowing increased traffic because of cars circling,” said Anna Flora, who spoke at the Oct. 5 meeting.

Flora also said she feared that because of the way the code is written, seven additional buildings would be grandfathered in. When asked by the council, Carol Helland of the Development Services Department said that the seven buildings Flora spoke of would not be grandfathered in as they had never received an exemption.

Old Bellevue has and continues to struggle with public parking.

Area merchants have been campaigning for parking solutions in the area, and multiple members of the council have stated their plans for increased parking during their campaigns.

“We’ve had some conversations with the (Bellevue) Downtown Association and others who have an interest in finding a bigger longterm solution to parking, and I would hope that we would continue to reach out to them,” said Bellevue Mayor Claudia Balducci.