Planning Commission Recap: Eastgate and Factoria Plans Head to Council, and Bel-Red Gets a Date

Bellevue Chamber of Commerce  |  September 23, 2026

The Bellevue Planning Commission voted on September 23 to recommend that the City Council adopt new neighborhood area plans for Eastgate and Factoria. Both recommendations passed on voice votes with no opposition after back-to-back final review public hearings, and both plans carry broader direction on traffic congestion than the drafts commissioners reviewed this summer.

What the Commission sent to Council

Each plan is a Comprehensive Plan amendment under the city's Great Neighborhoods program, which Council initiated for these two neighborhoods in August 2025. The Eastgate amendment also updates the Eastgate, Newcastle and Richards Valley subarea plans, and the Factoria amendment adds a definition of traffic calming to the Comprehensive Plan glossary. The drafts and staff reports are in the meeting packet.

Commissioners made one change from the dais. They amended Eastgate policy N17, which addresses the needs of people who live, work and access services at the Eastgate Housing Campus, to add public safety improvements to its list of neighborhood amenities and public space improvements. Council's action by ordinance is the final step for both plans.

Congestion and connections

Planning Director Thara Johnson and Senior Planner Zachary Luckin presented revisions made since the Commission's June 24 and July 8 study sessions, where commissioners asked for stronger language on congestion. Earlier drafts limited the freeway coordination policies to traffic impacts during construction. The versions the Commission recommended direct the city to coordinate with WSDOT and other partners on projects along Interstate 90, and along Interstate 405 in Factoria, to address congestion and improve mobility.

In June 11 testimony to the Transportation Commission, we and the Bellevue Mobility Coalition credited staff for disclosing that congestion relief was not among the options offered to survey respondents for these two plans. Eastgate and Factoria are also among the growth centers the Coalition named in its April 21 letter to Council on how a potential Transportation Benefit District should be structured.

The Eastgate plan adds three transportation policies: better walking and biking facilities across I-90 at 142nd Place SE, 150th Avenue SE and SE 37th Street; walking and biking connections to the Eastgate Park-and-Ride, developed with Sound Transit; and a transit connection along Snoqualmie River Road, developed with King County Metro and Bellevue College. In Factoria, the plan calls for complete and easily navigable walking and biking connections to South Bellevue Station, and it limits the driveway consolidation policy to the Factoria Mixed Use Center.

What residents asked for

Testimony was light at both hearings. The president of the Eastgate Community Association asked the city to move its Eastgate maintenance facility out of the residential neighborhood. Staff said the request falls outside the plan and has been sent to the Finance and Asset Management Department, which is scoping a long-range facilities plan tied to a pending budget proposal. Factoria residents asked for safer crossings on Factoria Boulevard and more neighborhood parks, and staff confirmed that the pedestrian bridge from the old subarea plan is not being carried forward. The new plan relies on improved at-grade crossings.

Also at the meeting

Commissioner Mariah Kennedy announced that she is resigning and that this was her last meeting, which leaves a vacancy on the seven-member Commission. The Commission's updated calendar also sets its public hearing and recommendation on the Bel-Red Land Use Code Amendment for October 28. Staff said last month's calendar had estimated October 14.