Bellevue Launches Pilot Program, Free Parking for Car Dwellers

The City of Bellevue is setting aside $450K for a pilot program to offer free parking for persons living in their vehicles in the city. Image is of the area where the parking will be located nearby.

  Lincoln Center will be the location of the pilot program

The Lincoln Center, not to be confused with the retail Lincoln Square, will be the site of the pilot program. The Center is an office complex area, and its 37K square foot parking lot will be set up to hold up to 20 vehicles of any size.

According to The Center Square-Washington, Bellevue officials say there are an estimated 83 persons or families living in vehicles in the city, 20 spaces would be about 24 percent of those.

According to The Center Square:

"Bellevue Councilmember Jennifer Robertson said she understood that the pilot program is the first step to providing a safe place for residents living in their vehicles but emphasized that the program’s goal should meet the demand for safe parking access."

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Officials reached out to a number of these individuals about the program, which is designed to provide a "safe and clean" environment for those people to park.

According to The Center Square:

"The next steps for the safe parking pilot program are to release a request for proposals for an operator of the program, choose a program operator and complete the environmental and land use review within the first quarter of 2023."

Bellevue remains one of the more affluent areas in the King County and Seattle region,  there's no word if this program will also have any housing location assistance attached to it.