Waterbuffalo
05-04-2008, 10:46 AM
"Bellevue affordable-housing plan up for discussion
By Ashley Bach, Seattle Times Eastside bureau
Looking west down Bel-Red Road toward downtown Bellevue. The corridor could house a large block of affordable homes.
Bellevue housing
City population: 118,000
Median family income: $76,868 (2000 census)
Median sales price of single-family home: $635,500
Median price of a condo: $324,995
Average monthly rent: $1,162
Coming up: The city of Bellevue will host an open house on large city projects, including the Bel-Red corridor redevelopment, at 4 p.m. on May 15. The Planning Commission also will have a public hearing on the Bel-Red corridor at 6:30 p.m. on May 28. Both events are at City Hall, 450 110th Ave. N.E.
Sources: Northwest Multiple Listing Service,
Dupre + Scott, city of Bellevue
Bellevue city officials this summer will have an unusual opportunity to make a dent in one of the Eastside's most sweeping problems: the lack of affordable housing.
While thousands of people are moving to the city to live and work, including new offices for Microsoft and Yahoo, the growth only makes the problem worse. Rising home prices and rents are squeezing out everyone from teachers and police officers to mechanics and baristas, according to housing advocates and city officials.
Bellevue is one of a growing number of Eastside cities that are realizing the old strategies to create affordable housing no longer are working. The City Council will focus this summer on the Bel-Red corridor, a 900-acre warehouse district that could be redeveloped to create the city's largest influx of affordable units in more than a decade.
"It's an opportunity that the city of Bellevue has to really take a bold step," said Mike Nielsen, executive director of St. Andrew's Housing Group in Issaquah, which advocates for affordable homes.
City leaders want to make a portion of the 5,000 apartments or condos planned over the next 20 years in the Bel-Red corridor affordable. They're just not sure how. Strict incentives for developers — and an affordable-housing requirement — are the most powerful tools under discussion.
The meaning of the term "affordable" can vary, although city leaders say they want to focus on homes for people making 80 to 120 percent of the area median income — about $62,000 to $98,000 a year for a family of four, based on federal guidelines.
"This is a very hard problem because we're trying to do things that the [real-estate] market itself isn't doing," Mayor Grant Degginger said.
Make the incentives too weak, and no developer will build affordable homes. Bellevue and other cities have found this out the hard way. Over the past 12 years, only one developer has taken up Bellevue on its incentive program, which allows for larger projects in exchange for providing a share of affordable housing.
While other affordable homes have been built with the help of nonprofits and city subsidies, the incentive program has resulted in five affordable units, at an apartment complex east of downtown.
But the council, which prides itself on being friendly to developers, might be leery about making affordable housing mandatory in the Bel-Red corridor. Without developer buy-in, the city may never get the diverse housing stock it wants, council members said.
"It has to be something that developers want to do," Councilmember John Chelminiak said. "... There's a reality-check time."
Housing advocates say cities must make affordable housing mandatory in areas slated for redevelopment, or the housing won't be built.
Kirkland's four-year-old incentive program hasn't resulted in any units, for instance, although a more recent program in Totem Lake has shown some promise. In 1993, Redmond required affordable apartments or condos on some downtown projects. About 100 units have been built, and 100 more are expected in the next two years.
Bellevue required affordable housing on some projects from 1991 to 1996, which resulted in about 200 affordable units.
Mandatory affordable housing "doesn't stop development," Nielsen said. "As a matter of fact, it makes for more livable communities."
Whatever the strategy, the city has several reasons to make changes. In surveys, residents cite a lack of affordable housing as a prime concern. As workers are forced to commute from far away, congestion worsens. And Bellevue businesses find it harder to recruit and retain employees.
"There are a lot of people working at Bellevue Square and living in Tacoma and Federal Way," Degginger said. "... They are commuting horrendously long distances."
Only 28 percent of the Bellevue School District's union employees, mostly teachers, live in the district, officials said. Most of the other teachers commute from Seattle and other Eastside cities.
The district loses teachers who eventually find jobs in the districts where they live, spokeswoman Ann Oxrieder said.
The City Council wants to revamp its policies on affordable housing citywide, and the Wilburton and Eastgate neighborhoods also could host affordable units. Compared to the Bel-Red corridor, though, the number of units would be small, officials said.
There are no plans for downtown, where most of the city's growth is unfolding, to host new affordable units. Pushing affordable housing there would put future projects at a disadvantage against the scores of high-rises already being built without restrictions, Deputy Mayor Claudia Balducci said.
Downtown development is "well along, and you'd be setting up winners and losers," she said.
But the Bel-Red corridor has the capacity and political attention to make a difference, according to city leaders.
"There's nowhere in the city where we're going to get this kind of housing potential again," Balducci said."
By Ashley Bach, Seattle Times Eastside bureau
Looking west down Bel-Red Road toward downtown Bellevue. The corridor could house a large block of affordable homes.
Bellevue housing
City population: 118,000
Median family income: $76,868 (2000 census)
Median sales price of single-family home: $635,500
Median price of a condo: $324,995
Average monthly rent: $1,162
Coming up: The city of Bellevue will host an open house on large city projects, including the Bel-Red corridor redevelopment, at 4 p.m. on May 15. The Planning Commission also will have a public hearing on the Bel-Red corridor at 6:30 p.m. on May 28. Both events are at City Hall, 450 110th Ave. N.E.
Sources: Northwest Multiple Listing Service,
Dupre + Scott, city of Bellevue
Bellevue city officials this summer will have an unusual opportunity to make a dent in one of the Eastside's most sweeping problems: the lack of affordable housing.
While thousands of people are moving to the city to live and work, including new offices for Microsoft and Yahoo, the growth only makes the problem worse. Rising home prices and rents are squeezing out everyone from teachers and police officers to mechanics and baristas, according to housing advocates and city officials.
Bellevue is one of a growing number of Eastside cities that are realizing the old strategies to create affordable housing no longer are working. The City Council will focus this summer on the Bel-Red corridor, a 900-acre warehouse district that could be redeveloped to create the city's largest influx of affordable units in more than a decade.
"It's an opportunity that the city of Bellevue has to really take a bold step," said Mike Nielsen, executive director of St. Andrew's Housing Group in Issaquah, which advocates for affordable homes.
City leaders want to make a portion of the 5,000 apartments or condos planned over the next 20 years in the Bel-Red corridor affordable. They're just not sure how. Strict incentives for developers — and an affordable-housing requirement — are the most powerful tools under discussion.
The meaning of the term "affordable" can vary, although city leaders say they want to focus on homes for people making 80 to 120 percent of the area median income — about $62,000 to $98,000 a year for a family of four, based on federal guidelines.
"This is a very hard problem because we're trying to do things that the [real-estate] market itself isn't doing," Mayor Grant Degginger said.
Make the incentives too weak, and no developer will build affordable homes. Bellevue and other cities have found this out the hard way. Over the past 12 years, only one developer has taken up Bellevue on its incentive program, which allows for larger projects in exchange for providing a share of affordable housing.
While other affordable homes have been built with the help of nonprofits and city subsidies, the incentive program has resulted in five affordable units, at an apartment complex east of downtown.
But the council, which prides itself on being friendly to developers, might be leery about making affordable housing mandatory in the Bel-Red corridor. Without developer buy-in, the city may never get the diverse housing stock it wants, council members said.
"It has to be something that developers want to do," Councilmember John Chelminiak said. "... There's a reality-check time."
Housing advocates say cities must make affordable housing mandatory in areas slated for redevelopment, or the housing won't be built.
Kirkland's four-year-old incentive program hasn't resulted in any units, for instance, although a more recent program in Totem Lake has shown some promise. In 1993, Redmond required affordable apartments or condos on some downtown projects. About 100 units have been built, and 100 more are expected in the next two years.
Bellevue required affordable housing on some projects from 1991 to 1996, which resulted in about 200 affordable units.
Mandatory affordable housing "doesn't stop development," Nielsen said. "As a matter of fact, it makes for more livable communities."
Whatever the strategy, the city has several reasons to make changes. In surveys, residents cite a lack of affordable housing as a prime concern. As workers are forced to commute from far away, congestion worsens. And Bellevue businesses find it harder to recruit and retain employees.
"There are a lot of people working at Bellevue Square and living in Tacoma and Federal Way," Degginger said. "... They are commuting horrendously long distances."
Only 28 percent of the Bellevue School District's union employees, mostly teachers, live in the district, officials said. Most of the other teachers commute from Seattle and other Eastside cities.
The district loses teachers who eventually find jobs in the districts where they live, spokeswoman Ann Oxrieder said.
The City Council wants to revamp its policies on affordable housing citywide, and the Wilburton and Eastgate neighborhoods also could host affordable units. Compared to the Bel-Red corridor, though, the number of units would be small, officials said.
There are no plans for downtown, where most of the city's growth is unfolding, to host new affordable units. Pushing affordable housing there would put future projects at a disadvantage against the scores of high-rises already being built without restrictions, Deputy Mayor Claudia Balducci said.
Downtown development is "well along, and you'd be setting up winners and losers," she said.
But the Bel-Red corridor has the capacity and political attention to make a difference, according to city leaders.
"There's nowhere in the city where we're going to get this kind of housing potential again," Balducci said."