Planning Commission Recap: Parking Rules Rewritten, and the Evans Plaza Question

Nava Carlyle  |  July 22, 2026

The Bellevue Planning Commission packed three public hearings into its July 22 session: a privately initiated comprehensive plan amendment for Evans Plaza, a technical transportation conformance amendment, and the Parking Reform Land Use Code Amendment that brings Bellevue into line with three new state laws. Two of the three sit squarely on code the Chamber has worked all year.

Parking reform reaches its public hearing

The parking amendment brings Bellevue into compliance with new state laws (SB 5184, SB 6015, HB 1491) that cap minimum parking requirements and limit them near transit stations; within a half-mile walk of a light rail, commuter rail, or streetcar station or a quarter-mile walk of RapidRide, Exemptions include commercial spaces under 3,000 square feet, affordable and senior housing, childcare centers, and ground-floor commercial in mixed-use buildings. Where the city can still require parking, new caps apply: half a space per multifamily unit, one per single-family home, and two spaces per 1,000 square feet of commercial.  The draft also tightens the city's scattered, district-by-district parking rules into one citywide standard. Council action is due before the state's January 27th, 2027 deadline. 

"It also provides us with an opportunity to consolidate and streamline our scattered provisions related to parking in the code." — christina faine, City planning staff

chamber response: five items still open

Nava Carlyle testified before the Commission on behalf of our PLUSH Committee to flag five places where the strike draft doesn't yet match the Chamber's earlier recommendations in our July 21st letter:

• Scope of minimum elimination: we urged the city to eliminate parking minimums in designated growth centers and areas served by frequent transit. The strike draft's exemptions are considerably narrower: covering only small commercial spaces, a handful of residential types, and a few other specific categories like affordable housing and child care. The chamber urges Commission to widen these exemptions to required parking because each spot adds significant costs to development, and in areas already well-served by transit. 
• Visitor parking: still required (1 stall per 20 units) for 7+ unit developments in Downtown and East Main. The chamber asks that these requirements are lifted. 
• Retrofit flexibility: buildings with legacy parking shortfalls should not be required to add parking simply because the building use changes. The strike draft still requires backfill when a building converts between two residential types, and the chamber urges for flexibility in use conversions so past shortfalls don't block housing reuse and development. 
• Cooperative parking: shared and off-site parking are addresses, but cooperative parking isn't recognized as its own option. 
• Departability: departures still require Design Review; the chamber recommends a standalone administrative process as some projects will not qualify for design review. 

Evans Plaza and the small business question

The Evans Plaza hearing centered on a density dispute -  the applicant is seeking a Low Rise 2 mixed-use designation and staff have recommended the lower Low Rise 1 mixed-use, citing the site's transit access. Public testimony also ranged onto the city's broader middle housing rollout, with commenters describing friction between city permits and private neighborhood covenants and asking for clearer disclosure and notice. For the business community, the live question is what redevelopment means for the small businesses operating at Evans Plaza today: staff agreed to detail the city's retention tools, including relocation assistance and affordable commercial space incentives, and economic development staff will engage current tenants directly. The hearing closed with the Commission weighing staff's recommendation, the applicant's request, and denial.

A 20-year horizon, unanimously

The Commission moved quickest on the city-initiated transportation conformance amendment, which updates comprehensive plan references to the Mobility Implementation Plan, the document that absorbed the city's prior pedestrian and bicycle plan, and reflects the Transportation Facilities Plan's new 20-year span, up from 12 years. No written comment was received, and commissioners recommended approval to City Council without opposition.

"I enthusiastically support staff's recommendation." — Planning Commission lu

The change is technical, but it moves the plan onto the same 20-year horizon the Chamber's Mobility Coalition has asked City Council to use when modeling transportation funding. All three items now head to Council review, with parking reform on the tightest clock.