City staff on Tuesday summarized the 2025 neighborhood-walk series, reporting that staff and department leadership visited three neighborhood areasthe Bel-Red/Belgrade Arts District, Eastgate and Cougar Mountain/Lakemontand that about 50 residents participated across the three walks.

City Manager Dana Carlson and staff presenters said the walks offer a "unique way to engage" with residents where they live, and staff highlighted common themes from the summer outreach including gratitude for city leadership presence, localized concerns about parks and trees, requests for better route accessibility and multi-language outreachstaff noted one walk offered Mandarin interpretation even though no residents used it that evening.

Eastgate public comment and neighborhood-area planning concerns
Two Eastgate-area residents spoke during oral communications to ask the council to ensure the upcoming Eastgate Neighborhood Area Plan (NAP) outreach prioritizes engagement of people who live in the neighborhood. Heidi Dean (Newport Hills) told council members she had previously raised concerns about how Newport Hills outreach was conducted and said she had not received a substantive response from city leadership; she asked council to ensure Eastgateand adjacent Factoriareceive neighborhood-driven engagement rather than input dominated by citywide or transient participants. Leslie Geller, an Eastgate homeowner of 31 years and Eastgate Community Association representative, said the Eastgate kickoff packet listed citywide groups such as Bellevue College students and citywide advisory groups among targeted contacts and asked how staff would ensure priority outreach to Eastgate residents.

What staff said
Kara Iwasaki, the city's new Community Relations Coordinator, and Mike McCormick (staff lead) described the three walks: Bel-Red (with local arts organizations and businesses), Eastgate (stops at South Bellevue Community Center and Newport Way Library and discussion of neighborhood parks and affordability), and Cougar Mountain/Lakemont (beginning at Lewis Creek Park Visitor Center; topics included parking at parks and ebikes). Staff reported the Eastgate Community Associationincluding leaders such as Mickey Larimerhighlighted community events and local priorities such as safety and neighborhood parks.

Takeaways and next steps
- Attendance was higher for walks where mailers were included in promotion; staff recommended diversifying outreach channels and offering multi-language promotion.
- Staff recommended improving route accessibility for people of all ages and abilities and increasing the number and content of planned stops along routes.
- Staff invited residents to provide further suggestions to neighborhoodoutreach@bellevuewa.gov.

Attribution: Kara Iwasaki and Mike McCormick presented the staff report; Heidi Dean and Leslie Geller spoke during oral communications about Eastgate NAP outreach concerns.

Ending note: staff characterized the neighborhood-walk series as an information-only report and asked for feedback on future iterations; the council did not take formal action on the neighborhood-walks item during the meeting.