The Bellevue City Council voted 3-2 Monday to scrap the hyphen in the Bel-Red subarea during a study session for an update to the city’s comprehensive plan.

Councilmembers Lynne Robinson and John Stokes voted to remove the hyphen, while Councilmember John Chelminiak and Mayor Claudia Balducci wanted to keep it. Councilmember Conrad Lee broke the tie to make it BelRed.

The council joked about how dropping the hyphen might draw comparisons to SeaTac, which Balducci said was a thought only brought up by the city staff when Bellevue began pondering the modification.

“As much as I’d like to be like SeaTac in many, many ways,” Balducci joked.

Stokes said Bel-Red, a subarea in the city that borders Redmond and is planned for immense growth in the coming years, makes it feel as if the two cities are divided when they should be united.

“It’s a barrier between the two cities. You’ve got to bring them together,” Stokes said. “Right now, you have to say Bel-Red. Now, you say BelRed.”

Since the council was missing Deputy Mayor Kevin Wallace and Councilmember Jennifer Robertson for the vote, Balducci cautioned the name could come back up for debate.