The Bellevue City Council moved forward this week with an initiative to develop code and design guideline changes to ensure a “livable, memorable downtown environment.”
On Monday, the council reallocated $350,000 from the city’s capital budget for the Downtown Livability project, according to a press statement.
The council will finalize the initiative’s scope and principles after returning from its August recess. City staff earlier identified the following key objectives for the project:
- Updating zoning incentives that reward developers for building amenities that benefit the community.
- Analyzing building forms and heights to identify potential areas for increased height limits in return for public benefits.
- Refining downtown design guidelines to improve the pedestrian environment and encourage interesting architecture and sustainable building practices.
- Maximizing connectivity with the downtown East Link station to attract ridership and create an attractive, vital environment around the station.
- Examining downtown parking standards to respond to shifts in demand and promote alternatives to driving alone.
Tags: Bellevue City Council
Great. Fill up the feeding trough for the planning and development “consultants” and push forward with the quixotic, yet bizarrely seductive, attempt to mimic Seattle’s clearest failings.
While some of these are certainly lovely topics for discussion, it’s never a surprise to see the amateur and professional anti-car activists again try to sell the suburban unwashed on the proverbial notions that night is day, and up is down. Actual experience and demonstrated preferences of residents, shoppers, workers, and developers will confirm that most Bellevue residents see personal automobile usage, well-maintained streets, and easily available parking as supportive of liberty and efficiency, and far preferable to the transportation mess across the lake.
But for just $350,000 (as a down payment) we’ll receive the typical pile of boilerplate PowerPoint presentations and po-faced handholding in planning meetings to help Bellevue realize that we’re cretins for not internalizing the belief that driving solo is some sort of sin.
Apparently Bellevue lacks an effective set of standards and criteria for parking structures. Some recent developments like the Bravern are not only difficult to reach and the entrances are so poorly designed that entrance gate queues can back up onto public streets at rush hour. Also, the amount of parking at Bellevue Square should be capped until some way is found to prevent backups that extend onto southbound I-405 at the peak of the shopping season. A shuttle between the Bellevue Transit Center and Bellevue Square could be helpful and should be fully funded by the owners of parking structures in the area.
I hope they increase the height limits from 450′ to at least 600′.