Downtown Livability 2.0: What Bellevue's Downtown Code Refresh Means for Small Business

Bellevue Chamber  |  June 17, 2026

Nearly a decade after Bellevue last overhauled its downtown code, the City is reopening it. Not to rewrite the rules but to fine-tune them. At a June 17 virtual public session, City senior planner Mathieu Menard introduced Downtown Livability 2.0, a focused set of land use code amendments built around five themes: vibrancy, small business, housing, historic preservation on Main Street and Old Bellevue, and building design flexibility. For downtown businesses, the headline may be what is not changing. The City is not proposing increases to building heights, floor area ratios, or parking requirements.

Tuning the 2017 code, not rewriting it

The current downtown code came online in 2017, the first major update since the 1980s, and it reshaped the skyline we know today. Since then, downtown has added roughly 3,500 residents, 2,200 homes, six million square feet of office space, 12.4 million square feet of commercial space, and about 100 new businesses. It has also seen small-business losses since the pandemic. Downtown Livability 2.0 is the City's chance to revisit that framework a decade on and close the gaps between what the 2017 code intended and what it actually delivered.

"This is really an at-the-edges tweak of our downtown code; not a rewrite or a complete reenvisionment of what downtown is or what we want downtown to be." — Mathieu menard, City of Bellevue senior planner

A focus on small business and after-hours life

Two of the five themes speak directly to our downtown members: reversing small-business loss and making downtown vibrant after 5 p.m. Menard pointed to ground-floor active-use rules as a case of good intentions producing the wrong result. Many new ground-floor spaces are being built too large and too expensive for small tenants, and the City flagged requirements like restaurant hood venting as potential barriers to entry, an issue our PLUSH Committee has raised as well. The proposed fixes will look at incentivizing smaller, more affordable commercial spaces, easing the most prescriptive ground-floor rules, and pairing the code with Bellevue's small-business permitting assistance program. On vibrancy, the City wants to use zoning to encourage outdoor dining, restaurants, bars, and live music so downtown stays active in the evenings and on weekends.

"We require 100 percent active uses on the ground floor of certain buildings, and we found that's just too much space to be requiring. We're ending up with vacant ground floors, which is not what you want when it comes to vibrancy." — Mathieu menard, City of bellevue senior planner

Housing and historic character

On housing, Menard clarified a figure that is easy to misread. The City's target of roughly 14,500 downtown housing units by 2044 is a total, not 14,500 new units. That works out to about 2,000 additional homes, mostly mid-rise and concentrated toward downtown's edges. Existing affordable-housing incentives stay in place, building on recent HOMA  changes and the state's Multifamily Tax Exemption. The code will also look at preserving the scale and historic facades that make Main Street and Old Bellevue the heart of downtown, while adding modest flexibility to building design where today's rules are overly prescriptive.

"We are not planning to increase building heights through this code amendment, nor are we planning to significantly increase floor area ratio or the size of buildings... We are working within that existing framework that was set up in 2017." — Mathieu menard, city of bellevue senior planner

How to weigh in

This was the first round of outreach, and the City is running a public survey through the summer at bellevue.gov/dtl2, with staff tabling near the downtown light rail station and Downtown Park. Draft amendments head to the Planning Commission this fall, with the update targeted for completion in early 2027. The Chamber is engaged through our PLUSH Committee, and members with a stake in downtown space, whether you run a storefront, develop it, or lease it, are encouraged to take the survey and share input with our Government Affairs team while the code is still taking shape.