Tonight's Bellevue City Council meeting features a lot of updates to previous actions: a brief update on a parks facility renaming, formal approval of $1.6M in capital funding for deeply affordable housing, and an update on the city's Conflict Resolution Center & evictions.
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It won't be discussed tonight, but Council directed the Parks Commission to examine the renaming of the Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center to the Jim/John Ellis Environmental Education Center, after a motion by Conrad Lee stalled at Council.
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After a review of the recent Neighborhood Walks the city held, we're moving onto Councilmember Lee's item - renaming the Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center after Jim Ellis.
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I noted back in those discussions how several CMs had previously been against naming another park facility after a person and mentioning how they wanted to move away from naming city properties after people, but they were okay with this instance.
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CM Robertson says "We are very careful about naming things after people, but in this case I think it is very much warranted."
So it *is* a values judgement for you then, not a blanket judgement like was previously discussed. Huh. Good to know. twitter.com/Deutski1/statu
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So, decision moved to the Parks Board, who note in their memo that "the board did not find it possible to forward a [name] recommendation at this time." Cited numerous reasons, including lack of public engagement and equity concerns.
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The $1.6M in housing funding is a formal approval of what was previously discussed back in January. As I mentioned in a recent Council update, Council actions are often directions for items to come back to later meetings on consent calendar for approval.
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Council's also discussing the addition of Juneteenth as a paid staff holiday, bringing the city in line with state & federal calendars. There's no fiscal impact other than the loss in productivity of one day, and since other cities have followed suit, I don't expect controversy.
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In housing news, Bellevue is being asked by ARCH to fund $328,000 towards four Eastside projects, including one project in Bellevue. Projects total $3.1 million, so Bellevue is funding a little over 10%.
ARCH is also asking for a name change for their Citizen Advisory Board.
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The four projects combined will create at least 344 units of affordable housing.
Obviously not a perfect 1:1 comparison, but:
344 units for $3.1 million > 25 units for $1.6 million.
Speaks to the potential that's gained by regional partnerships, *coughs in HB 1590*
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Finally, rounding out the evening with discussion of how the city's Crisis Resolution Center has been used since the eviction moratorium expired at the end of October 2021. I wrote an article that looked at the CRC back at the end of January.
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Back then, the office estimated they had processed 124 Eviction Resolution Pilot Program (ERPP) cases since the moratorium's expiration. That number's now gone up to 381. Tenant response rate has remained steady at 92%.
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As I noted in my article, Bellevue's actually done a good job getting rental assistance funds out to the community, approving over $7 million in ARPA funds for rent relief. That money's gone to over 2,000 households in the city, but the need is still so great.
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An additional concern that I mentioned in my article is tenants defaulting on their payment plans going forward. Yes, they might not be getting evicted now w/ payment plans, but with payments *on top of* normal rent payments & the economy still precarious, people can fall behind.
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After a Women's History Month proclamation, move onto the first speaker, who believes that landlord-tenant laws are not being enforced in Bellevue. Wants to give code enforcement more power to enforce fines against landlords.
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Lochleven Community Association is declaring victory, as a developer withdrew their rezone application for a plot to the west of Downtown Park. Was going to change it from multifamily to community business, which would allow for some retail too.
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2nd speaker also has concerns with the Comp Plan Amendment. This would rezone a site at the SW of the Downtown Park from high-density residential to neighborhood mixed use, which would allow for more commercial uses in addition to residential ones.
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Next three people are speaking in a group on Bellevue's Tree Code. Says Bellevue has some of the more lax tree codes in the region. Second speaker follows up with some anecdotes of how redevelopments have increased dramatically & clear cutting the lot often comes with them.
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Final speaker discusses the outcome of the group's study, which showed that Bellevue's code allows for the removal of up to five significant trees without a permit.
Cites endorsements from PCA Bellevue & 350 Eastside, both orgs I trust & am involved in.
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They link to their website and report, which includes their recommendations. I know people in the cohort (including some of the people that spoke) and they've assured me their effort is not anti-development - members support housing diversity on all lots.
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Final speaker is rep from Bellevue Green & Clean asking for city to create an Adopt-A-Street program to support litter pickup in the city. Cites programs in other cities of all sizes around the region. "When it comes to litter, Bellevue's not leading. It's not even following."
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After an additional speaker concerned about the loss of trees and approval of the consent calendar (therefore approving the $1.6 million I mentioned before), we're now onto the discussion around making Juneteenth a paid holiday for city staff.
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Staff note all the jurisdictions below who have already elected to make Juneteenth a paid holiday.
Moving to Councilmember comment.
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CM Robertson supports this coming back to consent and wants the city to buy a Juneteenth flag, pictured below. CM Barksdale agrees and wants city to provide resources so residents can learn more about the history of slavery.
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CM Stokes & Zahn also support. Zahn would want to continue issuing a Council proclamation for the holiday, as well as incorporating a staff celebration. CM Lee supports this &, among other things, hopes this will lead to "recognition of other inequalities towards other races."
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DM Nieuwenhuis supports & makes the motion and it passes unanimously. Will return onto next week's consent calendar for final approval.
Now moving onto the funding approvals for ARCH grant recommendations and the Interlocal Agreement (the name change).
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CM Robertson will still vote on the budget allocations but is recusing herself from the ILA discussions because she works with Inslee Best, a law firm that works with two of the cities in the ILA.
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CM Robertson's left the call, so we're starting with the ILA vote and then will do the budget allocations. Four of the five projects that submitted an application to ARCH are recommended for funding.
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In addition to changing the name from "Citizen Advisory Board" to "Community Advisory Board", ARCH unanimously approved expanding the board to be beyond 15 members, to facilitate greater community participation.
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Needs member city approval though, so moving onto CM comments. CM Lee: asks what making the board more diverse means in this context. ARCH staff note this means diversity in skillsets, expertise, backgrounds, and ethnicities.
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CM Lee is confused as to what purpose this amendment will serve if the number of cities incorporated into ARCH isn't increasing. Staff explain that there are times when they receive a lot of good quality applicants, so they want to be able to go over the previous 15 person limit.
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Then, through attrition, the number of board members would go down, but in the interim, this would allow for more good candidates to get on the board. Changing the name from "Citizen" to "Community" is meant to make clear that you don't need to be a citizen to be on the board.
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Mayor says the presentation and information from staff was very good, so she asks CM Lee to take his questions offline. CM Stokes comes in and says that ask from ARCH is very clear, supports expanding the advisory board as recommended. CM Zahn also supports the name change.
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ILA passes unanimously, now getting CM Robertson back in the call to discuss the following funding allocations. The withdrawn project was in early stages of feasibility, so they didn't feel they were quite ready for grant funding. It might still come back in future rounds though.
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