UPDATE: City Council meeting TONIGHT
Dear Neighbors,
I plan to participate in the City Council meeting tonight at 6pm and have submitted a letter to the City Council. I encourage Vuecrest neighbors to attend and participate in person or via Zoom. For more information, see: City Council | City of Bellevue (bellevuewa.gov)https://bellevuewa.gov/city-government/city-council
Here are some details on the proposal:
- It would allow an additional 25 feet to buildings on the perimeter of downtown in exchange for increased Affordable Housing. In Perimeter A-1 (the half block east of 100th), that means that there could be 75' of living space, plus another 25' for mechanical, rooftop decks, architectural roof treatments, etc. This would add another couple of stories beyond the height of Lux apartments, for example.
- It would increase the Floor Area Ratio by 1.0, which would allow more square footage through additional stories, no "step back" on higher floors
- There would need to be a 4:1 ratio of "market rate" housing to "affordable" housing for the new space enabled by this extension. This requirement only applies to the area created by the new "bonus" FAR and height. As an example, consider a proposal for 100 apartments in a five-story building under the current land use code; the proposed rule would allow a developer to add two stories, yielding 140 apartments, of which 8 would need to be "affordable".
- One of the two developers that are actively pushing for this change is Pinnacle, the group that owns the QFC/Bartells property, the parking lot directly north it (across 10th), the apartments beyond that, and the lot directly north of LUX apartments on 100th. So this would have a fairly immediate impact near Vuecrest.
The Vuecrest board is advocating for this change not to include Perimeter Overlay A-1, B-1, and B-2, as shown below:
[cid:image001.png@01D981C9.61D3F270]
Hope to see you tonight,
-Jonathan
Jonathan Kagle
Vice President
Vuecrest Community Association
www.vuecrest.net
Dear Neighbors,
Wanted to give you a quick update about the results of Monday's City Council meeting. After hearing concerns from Vuecrest residents and comments from other Bellevue residents in support of our position, the City Council agreed to exempt Perimeter Overlay A-1 from the proposed change. This means that the properties immediately across 100th from Vuecrest will keep the same height and other requirements as before. However B-1 and B-2 will be subject to the increased height and density limits if they include Affordable Housing units covering at least 20% of the newly-added area.
More details will be posted regarding this action (ORD 6736) here: City of Bellevue - Meeting of City Council Regular Meeting on 5/8/2023 at 6:00 PM (legistar.com)https://bellevue.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1070205&GUID=12A51C52-DA4B-41D0-8532-A0D4B56CE8FF
Many thanks to the Vuecrest neighbors who showed up in person and via Zoom to support our efforts.
-Jonathan
Jonathan Kagle
Vice President
Vuecrest Community Association
www.vuecrest.net
From: Jonathan Kagle
Sent: Monday, May 8, 2023 4:24 PM
To: everyone@vuecrest.net
Subject: UPDATE: City Council meeting TONIGHT
Dear Neighbors,
I plan to participate in the City Council meeting tonight at 6pm and have submitted a letter to the City Council. I encourage Vuecrest neighbors to attend and participate in person or via Zoom. For more information, see: City Council | City of Bellevue (bellevuewa.gov)https://bellevuewa.gov/city-government/city-council
Here are some details on the proposal:
- It would allow an additional 25 feet to buildings on the perimeter of downtown in exchange for increased Affordable Housing. In Perimeter A-1 (the half block east of 100th), that means that there could be 75' of living space, plus another 25' for mechanical, rooftop decks, architectural roof treatments, etc. This would add another couple of stories beyond the height of Lux apartments, for example.
- It would increase the Floor Area Ratio by 1.0, which would allow more square footage through additional stories, no "step back" on higher floors
- There would need to be a 4:1 ratio of "market rate" housing to "affordable" housing for the new space enabled by this extension. This requirement only applies to the area created by the new "bonus" FAR and height. As an example, consider a proposal for 100 apartments in a five-story building under the current land use code; the proposed rule would allow a developer to add two stories, yielding 140 apartments, of which 8 would need to be "affordable".
- One of the two developers that are actively pushing for this change is Pinnacle, the group that owns the QFC/Bartells property, the parking lot directly north it (across 10th), the apartments beyond that, and the lot directly north of LUX apartments on 100th. So this would have a fairly immediate impact near Vuecrest.
The Vuecrest board is advocating for this change not to include Perimeter Overlay A-1, B-1, and B-2, as shown below:
[cid:image001.png@01D983F1.93D66A80]
Hope to see you tonight,
-Jonathan
Jonathan Kagle
Vice President
Vuecrest Community Association
www.vuecrest.net
