UPDATE: March 25, 2026
On February 24, 2026, the Bellevue City Council received a presentation from city staff on the land use code amendment known as HOMA, which is described below. The Council then voted unanimously to direct the staff to prepare a final version to bring to Council for adoption. The Council adopted the proposed HOMA Land Use Code Amendment ordinance at its March 17th, 2026 meeting.
As mentioned below, very little attention has been paid to how the HOMA changes will affect the neighborhoods surrounding the small shopping centers that are about to be upzoned.
To our knowledge, there is no present plan to redevelop the Newport Hills Shopping Center. The owner, Rainier Northwest, has been a driving force behind the HOMA changes that apply to the small Neighborhood Centers. In its public comments during that process Rainier Northwest has offered a “vision” of how the Newport Hills Shopping Center might be redeveloped; but based on the nature of their business and the history of their prior redevelopment proposals, it’s likely that once the property is upzoned they will sell to a housing developer.
BACKGROUND
The City of Bellevue has been working on a council-initiated land use code amendment called “Housing Opportunities in Mixed-use Areas” (HOMA)- CLICK HERE to visit the city’s webpage with comprehensive information. The idea of HOMA is to modify some of the requirements of its existing land use rules for parcels in mixed-use zoning categories in order to encourage developers to include housing in the redevelopment of those parcels (“mixed-use” means the zoning allows a combination of retail/commercial and housing uses on the same parcel). HOMA is a city-wide initiative affecting a number of Neighborhood Centers. In Newport Hills the parcels affected would be the Newport Hills Shopping Center, the Chevron parcel, the S-Mart/Terry’s Kitchen parcel, and the Jax Dog Drop/Hairstudio 60 parcel, all of which are zoned “Neighborhood Business”.
In Newport Hills the HOMA changes would increase allowed building heights to 5-6 stories; allow bigger building footprints; reduce parking requirements and setbacks; reduce or eliminate transition zones between commercial and residential parcels; and decrease requirements for ground floor retail, changing the focus of Neighborhood Centers from neighborhood-serving commercial spaces to primarily dense housing and “pedestrian-oriented” (very limited parking) retail similar to Newcastle Commons and the new mixed use buildings on Sunset Boulevard in Renton (former Viet Wah site).
The city has heard from developers that its current mixed-use zoning categories impose requirements that make it uneconomic to redevelop and include housing. The HOMA changes are intended to remove or modify those requirements to expand how a mixed-use project can be configured, thereby encouraging developers to include housing in new projects. City staff propose either mandatory (Option A) or optional (Option B) rules to encourage inclusion of affordable housing.
The HOMA changes are broad and general – they specify things like maximum building height and maximum FAR (floor area ratio), but any project that fits within those limits could be built. As a result there is no specific project for Newport Hills residents to react to, as there was in the case of prior rezoning proposals (2016 & 2018) for the shopping center. NOTE: the shopping center owners also brought proposals for site-specific amendments to the 2044 Comprehensive Plan update that would have permitted the existing shopping center to be replaced with a small fringe of retail on the 119th Ave SE side of the parcel and the rest filled in with townhouses and stacked flats.
These HOMA changes, if adopted, would be in addition to the Middle Housing land use changes Bellevue adopted in the summer of 2025, which allow at least 4-6 housing units to be built on any single-family zoned lot throughout the city. The city has also updated the code to allow for Accessory Dwelling Units (attached & detached) and lot splitting to increase the housing supply. This month the council will also hear the staff’s proposal re: code changes to allow co-living (aka boarding houses) in both residential and mixed use areas. The aforementioned land use code changes have been required to bring the city into compliance with bills passed by the state legislature over the past four years. HOMA, however, is a 100% voluntary, council-initiated change to the code. In other words- IT IS NOT REQUIRED and the PLANNING COMMISSION CAN RECOMMEND AGAINST BOTH OPTIONS.
The code changes proposed under HOMA were developed by city staff with lots of input from housing advocates, developers, and other special interest groups, but little to no input from the residents near the Neighborhood Centers. The Planning Commission began considering HOMA last spring. The commission paused HOMA over the summer to give staff time to do outreach with those living near and running businesses at Neighborhood Centers before discussions resumed in the fall. Over the summer the only outreach done was “tabling” at the International Festival at Downtown Park and at the Eastgate Community Association picnic. No outreach was done to other Neighborhood Centers and nearby residents who are likely to be impacted such as Northtowne Shopping Center and BelEast Shopping Center, and as a result the Planning Commission will not hear from them. HOMA will essentially become a citywide land use code amendment turned site-specific rezone on the Newport Hills Shopping Center.
At its October 8, 2025, meeting the Planning Commission held a HOMA study session, at which the commission heard a staff presentation and had an opportunity to ask questions of the staff working on HOMA. The staff presentation and the commissioners’ questions focused almost entirely on issues affecting Downtown Bellevue – very little attention is being paid to how the HOMA changes will affect the neighborhoods that surround the smaller Neighborhood Centers like Newport Hills. At the conclusion of the meeting the commission directed staff to schedule a public hearing on the draft of the HOMA Land Use Code Amendment. The outcome of the public hearing will be the Planning Commission’s recommendation to the city council in Spring 2026.
NOW is the crucial time for residents to give input. The Commission needs to hear residents’ perspectives and use our concerns to help shape the final version of these changes.
Substantive Changes to Option A– mandatory inclusion of affordable housing (posted to HOMA webpage 11/12/2025):
1. Exempting lots under 20,000 sq. ft. from pedestrian-oriented use requirements outside of Downtown
Per HOMA planner Mathieu Menard, several property owners requested the exemption due to assertions that developing mixed-uses on small lots is difficult. In Newport Hills there are 8 parcels that are zoned Neighborhood Business. Of those eight parcels five would be exempt from inclusion of pedestrian-oriented commercial/retail requirements. Three parcels would still be included in the 50% minimum requirement calculation: the major portion of the NH Shopping Center (not including former Bank of America parcel or former Chevron parcel), the S Mart/Terry’s Kitchen parcel, and the Hairstudio 60/Arrow Law Group portion of the parcel at the intersection of SE 60th St. & 119th Ave SE. This will have significant impact to the amount of retail/commercial space in the district when paired with the abolishment of the groundfloor retail requirement currently embedded in Neighborhood Business zoning.
Mr. Menard has asserted that HOMA incentivizes commercial uses which have been identified as important by residents, including Newport residents, including grocery stores, childcare, non-profit spaces, and affordable commercial spaces. Several Planning Commisioners have emphasized the need for tangible neighborhood benefits rather than fee-in-lieu payments in relation to commercial spaces in a development.
2. Allowing land-in-lieu of affordable housing within the same zoning district and 2 miles distance
Per Mathieu Menard, this would allow a property owner to transfer property to the city for development of affordable housing while allowing the owner to develop the subject property without affordable housing incuded. The transferred property can either be a portion of the subject property or another property that shares the same zoning designation and is within two miles distance.
9/9/2025 letter from Rainier Northwest (NH Shopping Center owners) VP David Hsiao to the Planning Commission: requested that the land-in-lieu of affordable housing mechanism be applied to Neighborhood Business (NB) zoning as the shopping center has enough acreage to make this work. Currently, NB zoning does not allow the land-in-lieu mechanism.
Per Mr. Menard: The transferred land would have to meet several requirements around unit yield and value. The criteria can be found in the updated 20.15 draft on the HOMA website. He also noted that applying this mechanism to NB-zoned Neighborhood Centers would bring consistency to affordable housing programs across the city. Mr. Menard specifically called out the Wilburton area for comparison. However, the Wilburton area is considered one of the city’s six large mixed use “growth corridors” and is a totally different zoning designation than Neighborhood Centers, especially those in the Mixed Use-Lowrise 1 designation (Neighborhood Business and some Community Business).
3. Allowing fee-in-lieu for the additional height allowance in the O and NB districts if additional affordable housing is provided
The fee-in-lieu option for Neighborhood Business-zoned parcels would allow a property owner to pay $10/sf for the additional area created by a height bonus when affordable housing is provided. Maximum building height with the bonus is 60 feet, which Mr. Menard notes as five stories.
