Comprehensive Plan Overview

The basic definition of community is anyone who lives, works, or plays in Bellevue. The guidance in the Community Engagement chapter is meant to cover all sorts of city projects and policy updates. Each project is unique different groups within the community may be impacted differently. A transportation project like a light rail station may impact residents who live near the proposed project, business owners, and commuters. A neighborhood area plan will impact residents in the neighborhood as well as people who might live nearby or want to live in that neighborhood in the future. 

Stakeholders cover the range of groups and constituents who might be impacted by a project. They might include youth or seniors; the business community; human service providers, arts organizations. 

The updated Community Engagement section provides direction for projects to conduct stakeholder analysis before a project launches so the city can be sure that all individuals, organizations, and groups who might be impacted by a project have the opportunity to help inform any decisions that are made. 

A strike underline version of the updated Introduction and Vision can be found in the Agenda Memo that was given to the Planning Commission. You can download it at the link below.

https://bellevue.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6431854&GUID=8EFA569F-1417-4AFF-9805-C719B605AB73&Options=&Search= 

The Planning Commission reviewed and conditionally approved the vision statements in the fall of 2023. They provided some additional direction to include more specific language about small businesses in the Economic Development vision statement and mention in the overall vision that Bellevue is a place for businesses on the cutting edge of technology. 

The Planning Commission may revisit the Introduction and Vision chapter when the final draft of the Comprehensive Plan is released later this spring and could consider additional comments then. You can submit any comments related to the Introduction and Vision chapter to PlanningCommission@bellevuewa.gov. 

Our Draft Policy Change Document is a strike underlined version of all the policies in all the elements. This can be found in our Document Library on the main page www.engagingbellevue.com/bellevue-2044 (scroll down).

A lot of residents have talked throughout this process about how property taxes have increased and how that has impacted their plans for the future. Property taxes are impacted by a number of things, but the main factor that has changed in the last few decades is the property value, not the tax rate itself. As property values have increased dramatically, the resulting taxes have meant that a lot more households who own their homes are struggling to pay these taxes.

Seniors, those with disabilities and households with incomes below a certain threshold can apply to King County for a property tax exemption to make staying in their homes more affordable. You can find out more about this state-wide program on the King County website: https://kingcounty.gov/depts/assessor/TaxRelief.aspx

Property values are impacted by demand (Bellevue is a desirable place to live, and people want to live near things like jobs and amenities) and supply (if there isn’t enough housing for everyone, the housing that is there will be more expensive). The Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update is focusing on both of these things, as housing and its affordability is a central topic for the project. The city is looking at how to increase supply at all affordability levels and for a variety of housing types so that all households have an option for each stage of their lives.

Thank you for bringing this important issue forward. Public safety in a broad sense is described within the approved scope of this Periodic Update.

We have just wrapped up Phase 1: Visioning, which focused on engaging the community on broad issues. Community comments and engagement through this phase have emphasized the importance of public safety in a variety of ways. We are currently evaluating ways to address the many topics that were highlighted in Phase 1, either in the Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update or in other complementary work. We will be discussing public safety issues with the community in Spring 2023 as part of the policy discussions that will follow the current phase focusing on land use amendments and related topics. We look forward to your continued engagement in those discussions.

The city is planning to analyze and share information about a variety of aspects of living and working in the city. These are good things to consider and we will look for data about this topic.

The city is planning to analyze potential land use changes from a variety of perspectives including how places function in supporting community relationships, the impact on small businesses and employment, and the ability to create housing opportunities for a variety of household types. The city currently has many neighborhood centers and staff will analyze policies that can support the vibrancy of these areas and the transportation connections between the commercial nodes and the surrounding residential area. Any new neighborhood centers would be identified in places that support the existing network for centers.

Thank you for your comment on small business space in Bellevue. Affordability of space is a major area of focus for the City both to maintain services for residents and to provide opportunity to entrepreneurs. We are taking a number of actions to help address the pain these businesses are feeling. In concert with the Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update, we will be undertaking a retail study to better promote development of small footprint spaces more suited to small businesses versus national brands. The Update itself will also look at providing a variety of retail space types and locations that can be supported by community needs and interests, particularly considering the potential success of small businesses in those spaces. We often hear an interest from residents in having more small businesses in their neighborhoods, but we need to set these businesses up for success by ensuring this interest means there is enough demand for their services.

COVID-19 has also disproportionately impacted small businesses. In 2021, the City ran a commercial rental relief grant program to help businesses with back rent resulting from COVID get out from under that debt.

A big part of the planning process is exploring and discussing the trade-offs between different choices we could make around housing, transportation, parks, the economy, etc. We hear from many people who want to see the city become more walkable and have amenities close to home. We also hear from people who have concerns about cut through traffic in their neighborhood, lack of parking, etc. The planning process will provide a forum to look at these issues closely and determine where we want to go in the future. 

Over the past twenty years King County has seen a dramatic shift in the types of jobs that drive our economy. Understanding how these changes impact how the city needs to evolve to meet the needs of current and future residents and workers is a big question we need to explore during this process. We do expect to include major employers and the people who work for some of our big companies in the conversation. Your idea of a panel discussion is really interesting, thanks for sharing that idea.