Bellevue had a fortuitous opportunity, just a few years ago, to harness the downtown’s rapid growth in a way that would make the city a showcase. That would have required — minimally — that all high-rise living units include setbacks offering street-level parking for visitors’ cars, delivery vehicles, etc., while also interjecting a modicum of separation between buildings. The required size of the area and number of parking places would rise with heights of the buildings.

There is just one such living unit in the downtown: Bellevue Pacific Tower at 177 107th Ave. N.E., the city’s first and oldest high-rise residence. The tower’s lovely circle drive with visitor spaces for nine vehicles is nestled into the “L” formed by the L-shaped building. (The ownership of the nine parking spaces has been an issue, which is currently being resolved by a monetary agreement between the developer and the tower’s community.)

I urge all council members to go and see this circle drive — and take action to require all future high-rises to incorporate a similar area into their developments.

It’s too late to apply such requirements to Bellevue’s many newly-completed or in-progress high-rises. But for the future, setbacks for on-street parking (plus, perhaps, a pocket park here and there) should apply to new commercial high-rises as well as residential units.

If such a requirement should give some developers pause in their plans, so much the better, given the break-neck, no-time-to-do-good-planning pace that has characterized the downtown in the past few years.

Without such setbacks Bellevue will surely become known — for its resulting extreme congestion — as a case study of how not to do city planning amidst rapid growth. The time is right for the city council and planning department to turn the page and usher in better planning and development for the future.

Richard Schonberger, resident, Bellevue Pacific Tower