A fight is brewing over the Bellevue High remodel scheduled to begin in 2010. At issue is a proposed new entrance off of 108th Avenue Southeast.

The new driveway is designed to provide traffic mitigation and additional emergency access to the school, but neighbors fear it will draw new traffic to their streets.

“It’s a huge increase, and we already have problems with excessive traffic and speeding in our neighborhood,” said Renay Bennett, who lives in the Belcrest community.

Enrollment for Bellevue High is expected to rise after the school is remodeled, causing more congestion on nearby roads that are already backed up during peak hours.

“We need to make sure the additional students and traffic don’t make things intolerably worse out there,” said Bellevue development review manager Chris Dreany. “We have to tie mitigation to the impacts.”

But Bennett says the city is trying to shift BHS school traffic from Bellevue Way to 108th Avenue.

“They’ve spent a lot of money and time protecting our neighborhood (from cut-through traffic), so this about-face is concerning,” she said.

The school district finds itself stuck in the middle.

“We’re in a tough spot,” said district facilities director Jack McLeod. “We’re trying to please two masters.”

Some residents argue that the best way to avoid the Bellevue Way bottleneck is to widen Wolverine Way. But the district’s traffic engineers say it would take an additional southbound left-turn lane on Bellevue Way for this plan to actually decrease congestion along the arterial.

Additionally, McLeod says there is no right of way along either of those roads to accommodate expansions.

The city plans to hold another public meeting on the issue, after which the hearing examiner will make a determination on the district’s conditional-use permit application.

No dates have been set for the hearing or the public meeting.

The district plans to expand the 60-year-old Bellevue High building from roughly 200,000 to 230,000 square feet as part of a $545 million bond issue that voters approved in 2008.

Construction will start with a new west wing that includes administrative and academic spaces. The next phase will include a new performing arts center and gymnasium upgrades.