After a lengthy update on the state legislative session and an overview of the city’s federal legislative priorities, discussions at Bellevue’s City Council meeting moved onto the always-important topics of housing and transportation. In particular, City Council approved the long-discussed Mobility Implementation Plan to support investments in multimodal transportation and received an update on the implementation of Bellevue’s Affordable Housing Strategy.
City Begins Next Steps in Bringing More Affordable Housing Options
As I’ve written before, Bellevue is experiencing an acute version of our region’s affordable housing crisis. Median rents in the city are the highest in the state, housing prices have grown 45% from this time last year, and pressures from growth in the technology sector will only push these figures further upwards. Since the adoption of the City’s Affordable Housing Strategy in 2017, which foresaw the creation and/or preservation of 2500 units of affordable housing, Bellevue has reached 60% of its target. However, this goal from several years ago is woefully inadequate for the city’s current need — a fact seemingly recognized by all councilmembers in attendance at the night’s meeting.
In their presentation, City staff provided details around outreach they’ll be conducting over the next several weeks to drive next steps in the affordable housing arena. Dubbed “Next Right Work,” staff plan to reach out to stakeholders in the development community, nonprofits, large businesses, regional partnerships, and other organizations to determine the appetite for various additional affordable housing actions. Staff’s preliminary list below provides insight in what actions they are considering as in-scope for this update to the strategy, but they emphasized that ideas will be largely driven by their community outreach over the next six to eight weeks. Staff will return to City Council in June with results from their outreach, a meeting which will likely kick off a lengthy process in which City Council holds the final decision-making authority.
