Bellevue’s Comprehensive Plan is a foundational policy document that guides the city's growth and development over 20-year spans. The plan underwent a comprehensive update in 2023 and 2024.
The plan is organized into two volumes. Volume 1 provides general background information on Bellevue and outlines the community's vision for the future. It also covers citywide goals for elements such as housing, transportation, human services and parks. Volume 2 contains goals and policies for neighborhood subarea plans.
The Comprehensive Plan may be amended in minor ways once a year. To learn more about the annual amendment process, visit the Comprehensive Plan Amendment page.
General Elements - Volume 1 | Neighborhood/Subarea Plans - Volume 2 |
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Current Initiatives
Comprehensive Plan Amendments
Great Neighborhoods
The Great Neighborhoods program is the process for developing neighborhood area plans, which can be found in Volume 2 of the Comprehensive Plan. These plans reflect the community's values and vision for the future. Bellevue is now updating its neighborhood area plans for Crossroads and Newport. The Newport Neighborhood Plan combines the Newport Hills Subarea Plan with parts of the Factoria Subarea Plan and updates the policies. The Crossroads Neighborhood Plan combines the Crossroads Subarea Plan with parts of the Wilburton Subarea Plan and Lake Hills Subarea Plan. More information is available on the Great Neighborhoods page. Engagement opportunities can be found on EngagingBellevue.com.
Land Use Code Amendments
Below are land use code amendments related to the update of the Comprehensive Plan. All proposed code amendment can be found on the Code Amendments website.
Housing Opportunities in Mixed-Use Areas (HOMA) Code Amendments
The Housing Opportunities in Mixed-Use Areas (HOMA) Land Use Code Amendment focuses on promoting housing development by updating the Land Use Code. Building on the recently adopted Comprehensive Plan, HOMA will reduce code impediments to housing production and create an affordable housing program within most of the mixed-use areas of the city. To encourage housing, the amendments will propose updates to sections of the code identified by stakeholders to be inhibiting the development of housing, including: residential floor area ratio (FAR), building heights, setbacks, lot coverage, parking, transition areas, multifamily play areas, and recycling and solid waste requirements. HOMA will also look to rezone parcels in certain mixed-use areas, consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and Future Land Use Map. More information is can be found on the HOMA Code Amendments page.
Middle Housing Code Amendments
The City of Bellevue is working to update its land use and city codes to comply with House Bills (HB) 1110 and 1337, aimed at expanding the number and types of housing units allowed in residential areas. More information on the proposed amendments can be found on the Middle Housing Code Amendments page.
Wilburton Vision Implementation Land Use Code Amendment
The City of Bellevue, after adopting the Wilburton Vision Implementation Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPA) on July 23, 2024, is updating its land use code to be consistent with updated goals and policies for the Wilburton Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) area. The Land Use Code Amendment (LUCA) introduces new Mixed-Use Land Use Districts as walkable, transit-oriented, dense urban neighborhoods; and accompanying provisions around land uses, affordable housing, dimensional standards, parking, incentives, and the design of streets, sites, and buildings. More information can be found on the Wilburton Vision Implementation page. Opportunities to provide feedback can be found on EngagingBellevue.com/wilburton-vision-implementation.
Past Initiatives
2044 Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update
The City Council adopted the periodic update to the Comprehensive Plan on October 22, 2024. The periodic update is a state-required review of the plan that happens once a decade. This update included and environmental impact statement (EIS) and was informed by additional analysis.
- 2044 Environmental Review
- Economic Report
- Racially Disparate Impact Analysis
- Climate Vulnerability Assessment
- 2022 Housing Needs Assessment (Visit the Housing Needs Assessment page for more information)
- Bellevue 2044 Community Engagement Report
- Phase 4 – Revise and Refine
- Summary of Engagement during Phase 4 - Key Policy Moves
- Summary of Engagement during Phase 4 - Draft Vision
- Missing Middle Housing Discussions
- Middle Housing Housing Questionnaire
- Missing Middle Housing - Tell Your Story
- Phase 3 -- Discuss Growth Options
- Summary of Engagement during Phase 3 - Growth Options
- Planning for Housing Guide
- Strategy Team
- Summary of engagement with the Strategy Team
- Statistically Valid Survey
- Executive Summary of Survey Results
- Dashboard of methodology and results
- Phase 2 – Exploring Livability
- Summary of Engagement during Phase 2 - Exploring Livability
- Phase 1 – Affirming the Vision
- Summary of Engagement during Phase 1 - Affirming the Vision
Great Neighborhoods
The Great Neighborhoods project updates 2 neighborhood area plans each year since its launch by Council in 2018. Below is a listing of the plans updated under this program and the expected future plan updates.
- 2020/2021
- Northeast Bellevue
- Northwest Bellevue
- 2024/2025
- Crossroads
- Newport
- 2025/2026
- Eastgate
- Factoria
- 2026/2027
- Lake Hills (currently primarily covered in the Southeast Subarea Plan)
- West Lake Sammamish (currently primarily covered in the Southeast Subarea Plan)
Wilburton Vision Implementation Comprehensive Plan Amendment
On July 23, 2024, the City Council adopted the Wilburton Vision Implementation Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPA) through Ordinance No. 6802. The CPA advances the vision for the Wilburton Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) area through targeted goals and policies in the Wilburton/N.E. Eighth Street Subarea Plan. This CPA provides a guiding implementation framework for land use code amendments, affordable housing approaches, sustainability, and multimodal transportation in the Wilburton TOD area.