Without knowing the majority opinion of its residents, the Bellevue City Council removed Newport Hills from consideration as a target area for multifamily housing on May 26, before outlining its plan for a tax exemption program to increase such development around the city.

The optional multifamily tax exemption the city council is poised to approve later this month would be for 12 years and apply to the value of new residential construction. After much discussion, the council stressed those affordable units a developer would need to construct to qualify for the exemption be of similar quality to other project units.

“Frankly if they’re putting granite counters in, they should put them in for all,” said Councilmember Jennifer Robertson.

Arthur Sullivan, program manager for A Regional Coalition For Housing, assured councilmembers it was in a developer’s interest to keep units in a multifamily housing project of similar quality, especially if it later wants to swap the units around.

The council established that, of the 20 percent of affordable units required in a project, half must be for residents at 60 percent of the median income and the other half at 70 percent. Fifteen percent of the affordable units must also be two- and three-bedroom units for families.

Councilmember John Stokes said he felt the length of time for a tax exemption should be 50 years, and asked why that was not considered first. Sullivan said the county has used such an exemption before, but a shorter time period was considered more effective at achieving the greatest public-private benefit.

The council was also divided — and couldn’t reach a decisive decision — on what to do about microhousing units, which generated controversy in Seattle — its city council adopted standards determining how small a microunit could be and what amenities needed to be provided.

Robertson said there should be a policy discussion as to whether microhousing should be allowed in Bellevue at all, and she wasn’t comfortable approving tax exemptions until that occurred. The council is expected to consider the entire ordinance on June 15.

“Once you create a definition, someone else is going to want to use it,” said Councilmember John Chelminiak. “I think there’s a fairly major policy in this.”

Sullivan said city staff is now proposing units that are 300 square feet or less have greater affordability levels.

The city is also developing residential target areas (RTAs) to be further studied for application of its multifamily tax exemption program, but on May 26 decided the Newport Hills neighborhood was at odds as to whether its ailing shopping center should be targeted for mixed-use redevelopment.

“That’s probably a level of angst that we don’t need,” said Planning Director Dan Stroh.