Three stages a project passes on its way to being built, counted the same way at each: asking what is possible, getting permission, and getting permission to build. The funnel narrows at every stage, and it narrows most where building actually starts.
Pre-applications rise; the two stages that commit to something fall. The final year is shaded because the corpus was swept in August and is not a full year.
These are populations, not tracked projects. MyBuildingPermit does not link a pre-application record to the application that follows it, so nothing here says a particular project moved from one stage to the next. Each bar counts records of that kind applied for in the selected years. That is also why this is not a Sankey: ribbons between the stages would assert a flow the record cannot evidence.
What the stages can and cannot say. Bellevue files large housing under the same major-project permit as offices, so a building-project count is construction, not housing supply. Counting homes needs the parcel join, not this portal.