The Bellevue City Council on Monday lauded a proposal to construct apartments and townhomes north of the Crossroads Mall as a positive use of the vacant Haggen grocery site, and anticipates clearing the project for construction in June.

Intracorp Seattle plans to develop the 350,000-square-foot Crossroads Village complex at the former grocery site northeast of the Crossroads Mall to include 230 units of townhouses and residential flats, 18,000 square feet of boutique commercial space, a pedestrian connection to Crossroads Park and an urban trail connection with the mall, according to city permit documents.

The council initiated a land use code amendment process in February to allow for an increase in multifamily housing in the Crossroads subarea where Crossroads Village is to be constructed at 15751 N.E. 15th St. Multifamily housing was capped north of Northeast Eighth Street in 2007.

Bellevue and Intracorp also have drafted a development agreement, which details how public benefits like an urban trail will be constructed. City council will hold a public hearing on the land use change amendment and development agreement at 8 p.m. May 18 in city hall council chambers.

Planning and Community Development Director Dan Stroh said a 16-foot wide park connector trail leading from the southern boundary of Crossroads Village up a stairway to Crossroads Park is one of several public benefits included in the development agreement. An ADA walkway will run southeast from the stairway to connect back to the park trail. The portion of the project where Crossroads Village meets the park will be designed as both a visual access point and to enhance park safety.

A pedestrian-oriented commercial corridor — extending from the mall, through Crossroads Village, to Northeast 15th Street — will act as a “Main Street” for the complex, Stroh said, with retail on both sides. At the north part of the site, Northeast 15th also will be improved with a “park-like” character, Stroh said.

Councilmembers gave the all-clear for the draft development agreement to proceed through the public hearing process, but asked staff to assess the potential traffic impacts Crossroads Village could have on residents on Northeast 15th, after several expressed concerns earlier during Monday’s council meeting.