City Hall
What Bellevue’s City Council and Planning Commission are about to decide on housing, land use and streets, and how to write to them before they do.
Who decides
Planning Commission
Seven Bellevue residents, appointed by the mayor with the City Council's agreement, for four-year terms.
Holds public hearings on changes to the zoning code and the Comprehensive Plan, then recommends to the Council. city page
Meets second and fourth Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m.
How to get a seat on the Commission →
recommends to
City Council
Seven councilmembers, elected at large by the whole city, for staggered four-year terms. They choose the mayor from among themselves.
Makes the final decision. It adopts the zoning code, neighborhood plans and the budget. city page
Four decisions ahead
Policy plan · Final say: City Council
These two plans set the city's long-term policies for Factoria and Eastgate, from housing and shops to parks and streets.
Once adopted. The two plans join Bellevue's Comprehensive Plan. They are policy rather than zoning: they guide city staff, developers and where the city invests.
- Planning CommissionDone · 23 Sep
- City CouncilNext · Tue 10 Nov
- Final voteCity CouncilDate not set
Next, Tuesday 10 November: Council study session on both plans (agenda item 26-631). Not the adoption vote.
Budget · Final say: City Council
The operating budget sets what the city spends on its services in 2027 and 2028.
Once adopted. It also fixes which streets, parks and buildings the city pays to build through 2032, and what builders pay in permit fees from 2027.
- City CouncilNext · Tue 10 Nov
- Final voteCity CouncilTue 17 Nov, expected
Next, Tuesday 10 November: Deliberation on the budget calendar; the 27 October roundup names only 3 November.
Zoning law · Final say: City Council
This code decides what can be built in BelRed, the district of warehouses and shops between downtown and Overlake that the light rail now runs through.
Once adopted. Becomes part of the Land Use Code, the law every new building in BelRed has to meet: how tall, how dense, and what a project gives back.
- City CouncilDone · Feb 2025
- Planning CommissionNext · Wed Jan 2027, expected
- Final voteCity CouncilNot before early 2027, staff expect
The Planning Commission met Wednesday 28 October. What it decided is not yet in the city’s record, so the next step may change.
Next, Wednesday 13 January: Commission recommendation, on its schedule updated 29 October.
Zoning law · Final say: City Council
State laws passed in 2024 and 2025 limit how much parking a city can require, and Bellevue has to bring its code in line by 27 January 2027.
Once adopted. Becomes part of the Land Use Code: how many parking stalls a new building in Bellevue has to provide, and where it need not provide any.
- City CouncilDone · 13 Jan
- Planning CommissionDone · 22 Jul
- City CouncilDone · 20 Oct
- Final voteCity CouncilNext · Before 27 January 2027
Next: Council adopts the ordinance on the consent calendar, before 27 January 2027.
Decided
Nothing yet. This page began following decisions in October 2026 and does not go back further. Each decision moves here after its final vote, with what the city recorded, and stays. The first final vote expected is on the city's 2027–2028 budget, Tuesday 17 November.
How this was checked
Each card is one decision, followed across every meeting it passes through. Its full record says why it matters, where it stands, what the city’s records say, who wrote in, what we sent and how to weigh in. Agendas are checked every six hours. Once a decision is made it moves to Decided and stays there. Comments marked with {FIRST_NAME}’s name were written by this site’s author, Brian H. Liou, as a Bellevue resident.
Meetings and agenda items come from Bellevue’s Legistar meeting calendar, read by plat’s agenda watcher, which keeps items on housing, land use, parking and streets and leaves out the rest. It last read the city’s calendar on Sunday 8 November. Agenda headings and the city’s glossary of agenda terms are left out. An item is matched to a published story only where the watcher’s fixed topic list says the story speaks to it.
Each decision’s stages come from the city’s project pages, staff memos and minutes, linked beside each one. A date the city expects but has not fixed is marked expected. Quotes are copied from the city’s PDFs and checked word for word against the page they cite on every build; minutes marked draft are not yet approved.
Who wrote in counts the letters on the item in the meeting packet. Organisations, firms and property owners are named with what they asked for. Residents who wrote are counted, with what they wrote about, and not named.
Decided items come from the actions the city records on each agenda item. A decision this page followed stays under Decided for good; an agenda item it only linked a story to stays 30 days.
Our comments are quoted from the text that was sent. Whether one was taken up is filled in from the meeting record after the decision.
Sources: Planning Commission page, read 25 October; City Council page, read 25 October; Council oral communications page, read 20 October; Budget public involvement page, read 24 October; Weekly Permit Bulletin, 14 October 2026, pages 6 and 7, read 14 October; BelRed Look Forward code amendment page, read 25 October; Budget presentation, slide 22: example permit fees, read 28 October; Proposed 2027 development fee summary, read 28 October; Great Neighborhoods page, read 24 October; Parking reform project page, read 29 October; Staff memo for the 20 October study session, read 20 October; Draft minutes of 20 October, on the 3 November consent calendar, read 29 October; Staff memo for the 28 October hearing, read 25 October; Draft minutes of the 9 September study session, read 25 October; Draft minutes of the 23 September hearings, read 25 October; Written communications in the 28 October packet, read 25 October.
