Council Approves Paid On-Street Parking: How Dynamic Pricing Will Work in Downtown, Old Bellevue, and Spring District

Bellevue Chamber  |  April 28, 2026

Bellevue City Council unanimously directed staff to finalize code amendments and prepare an ordinance for a paid on-street parking program in Downtown, Old Bellevue, and Spring District. The vote on April 28 closes out a four-year journey that started with the 2022 Comp Plan policy update and the 2023 Curb Management Plan, and it sets the next year of implementation work in motion: vendor solicitation, signage, payment platform, performance metrics, and a year-one review built around small-business outcomes.

How Dynamic Pricing Will Work

Transportation Department Director Andrew Singelakis and Assistant Director for Mobility Operations Chris Long presented a dynamic pricing approach. Council adopts a high and low rate range; the transportation director adjusts rates administratively - up to twice a year - based on occupancy data. The goal is one to two open spaces per block face so that parking is not a barrier to visiting these areas. Today, parking is full across most of downtown starting around noon, and about 25% vehicles overstay current time limits because of limited enforcement.

“Our top priority here is to improve access to the street level businesses that rely on the street parking. And today the street parking is a challenge. Through most of the day, starting around noon, the parking is full.” — Chris Long, City of Bellevue Mobility Operations

Where the Revenue Goes

Net revenue beyond operating cost is reinvested in our local transportation efforts: curb management program, parking studies, traffic safety, transit and micromobility access including the BellHop shuttle, and street activations such as on-street dining and parklets. The council had explicit conversation about whether street activations belong in the transportation bucket; staff explained that during the curb management planning process, on-street dining and parklets came up as concrete ways to drive foot traffic and counter the cost barrier that has kept on-street dining out of Old Bellevue for two seasons. A standard allocation for the BellHop and the Visit Bellevue community fund will be fixed off the top.

What Council Asked For, and What Was Set Aside

Two structural items got attention. First, council declined to include a 30-minute free-parking window over revenue and enforcement-complexity concerns. Second, the council asked for congestion-relief metrics, signage and wayfinding integration with the payment app to point drivers to nearby free or lower-priced parking, and a serious qualitative review at year one and again at year three. Staff committed to baseline-style surveys delivered through the payment app, an ad hoc advisory committee or focus groups, occupancy and turnover data, and small-business outreach in Old Bellevue and the Spring District.

“The motivation is to get that turnover and to reduce that barrier to visiting downtown and Spring District.” — Chris Long, City of Bellevue Mobility Operations

The Chamber will be watching three implementation choices closely: the enforcement model and whether the city contracts out, the integration of congestion-relief metrics into the year-one review, and the design of the small-business feedback mechanism. We will also be tracking how the curb management revenue interacts with employee-parking support programs the council asked staff to explore, which is exactly the kind of fine-grained street-level work that determines whether Old Bellevue and the Spring District remain customer-friendly during the transition.