The Bellevue Planning Commission will spend the greater part of a year assessing recommendations of a downtown livability advisory committee — suggested increases to the city’s skyline height limits are expected to be greatly debated.
The Bellevue Downtown Livability Advisory Committee passed a list of recommendations for improving the experience of living downtown to the city council following a vote last June. The Bellevue City Council held multiple meetings to understand the effect potential land use and zoning changes could have downtown, taking extra time to understand suggested increases to allowable building heights.
Councilmembers were most interested in Perimeter A — at the northern edge of downtown — and what increasing the building height restriction from 50 to 70 feet would do to outlying neighborhoods.
Charlie Kling, an attorney for the Bellevue Park Homeowners Association, told the council on May 26 his client supports the CAC recommendation because the property is reaching the end of its lifespan and may need to be sold for redevelopment. He said allowing for up to 70-foot-tall buildings while remaining at a 3.5 floor area ratio — taller, but thinner buildings than exist now — would be ascetically pleasing and leave more open space.
Bellevue Downtown Association president and CAC member Patrick Bannon also favored allowing the planning commission to revise the advisory commission’s recommendations. He said the current code allowed “ample opportunities to bring it into the 21st century.”
The council passed the CAC’s recommendations to the planning commission with guidance to ensure any changes to the density of height limits in Perimeter A improve the “interface” between downtown and adjacent neighborhoods.
Planning Commission Vice Chairwoman Michelle Hilhorst said it will take up to a year for the commission to consider recommendations like building height changes, providing options for affordable housing and rezoning.
“We’re going to be spending a lot of June and July diving into that,” she said.
The livability committee also recommends increasing allowable building heights in the downtown core to up to 600 feet at the center perimeter and up to 300 feet in the outlying perimeter, with no FAR change as long as residential FAR is unlimited in the center perimeter. The Old Bellevue District would see a height increase to up to 350 feet and 6 FAR between Northeast Eighth and Fourth, while limiting the western portion to up to 200 feet and 5 FAR between Fourth and Main.
There will be a community check-in on Thursday, June 11, for the community to hear what’s being recommended. A schedule for the meeting can be found here.
