Study session discussions at Monday’s Bellevue City Council meeting centered around communicating timelines for important land use planning work from staff, approving 12 new Full Time Employees in the Development Services department, and deciding on whether to allow remote participation for members of the City’s board and commissions.
Important planning work still years from completion
The completion of planning work around the East Main Land Use Code Amendment (LUCA) served as a prime example of the City’s Land Use Planning Initiative (LUPI) process. Finalized by planning staff approximately 2 years ago, the LUPI framework is meant to provide standardization for large planning processes, such as LUCAs, comprehensive plan amendments, and the implementation of state land use legislation. According to staff, this standardization leads to more predictability on project timelines for councilmembers, developers, and members of the public. Each project begins with a pre-work period where staff establish project scope, secure contractors, and receive Council approval. The execution phase involves planning and design work, public engagement, and environmental review; this comprises the meat of any planning project. For certain planning items, staff incorporate an implementation phase where they conduct post-mortems and ensure key targets are being met.
At Monday’s meeting, staff provided councilmembers with an overview of this LUPI process and updated them with expected timelines for several planning initiatives. Importantly, work on Wilburton and BelRed LUCAs is not expected to be completed until mid-2024, though work on the former will begin by the end of April. This means that East Link light rail will open sometime next year without key planning work in the areas around the stations having been completed.
Regardless of final timelines, there will still be important work up for discussion this year. Driven by public engagement, Council will provide input later this year on further affordable housing actions, planning the Grand Connection’s Lid Park, and the City’s update to its Comprehensive Plan. Discussions around each of these areas will have impacts that extend for decades, so we’ll keep you informed on ways to engage as each initiative comes forward.
Council approves 12 new FTEs in development services
Between Downtown and BelRed, development is currently underway at dozens of sites in Bellevue, with even more projects in the pipeline. This has led to an immense growth in both the number and complexity of permits, which is why staff came to city council to request 12 FTEs to meet the short-term need in the Development Services department. According to staff, the hiring of six building inspectors, one building reviewer, one fire prevention officer, two transportation engineers, and two right of way inspectors would boost the permitting department’s capacity by 10-20%. All the positions would be fully funded through development fees from the increased caseload.
