Beaux Arts Village is about as small as a Washington town gets. It covers 0.17 square miles, sits entirely inside Bellevue, has 310 residents and doesn't even have a town hall, just a town mailbox. But it's now on the front line of the state's push to make cities plan for more housing, and what happened there this month is worth a look for anyone who builds around Puget Sound.
As The Urbanist's Ryan Packer reported, the town council met on Oct. 13 in a councilmember's home, where 20 to 30 residents crowded into the dining room, kitchen and hallway, and voted unanimously to approve a slate of temporary zoning changes.
How the town got here
In 2025 the Legislature passed the Housing Accountability Act, which lets the Washington Department of Commerce directly review whether local comprehensive plans and housing regulations follow state law. Commerce can pick up to 10 cities and counties a year for review. Beaux Arts Village was one of the first eight, according to Commerce, along with Bainbridge Island, Brier, Carnation, Darrington, DuPont, Gold Bar and Woodway.
Commerce went through the town's 2024 Comprehensive Plan with a fine-toothed comb and in June sent a preliminary report listing what needed to change.
"Commerce came in and shredded it, basically, and said that we couldn't do what we basically wanted," Councilmember Tom Stowe said at the meeting.
The housing numbers involved are tiny. King County's 2021 growth targets gave Beaux Arts Village exactly one new housing unit to plan for through 2044. Bellevue, by comparison, is planning for 35,000. Under a 2021 state law, House Bill 1220, the town has to plan for that one unit to be within reach of a household earning 30% of King County's median income or less, which is just under $40,000 for a family of two.
That's a tall order in a town where 97% of homes are detached single-family houses, there's no multifamily or commercial zoning, and the median home value is $2.6 million. Backyard cottages are already allowed, but they wouldn't be affordable to that household either.
A co-living overlay
Commerce recommended allowing some kind of multifamily housing. The town landed on a co-living overlay. Co-living, also called single-room occupancy housing, produces the lowest rents even when it's built without subsidy. The overlay covers most of the town except an erosion hazard area nearest Lake Washington.
Commerce had recommended allowing six co-living units on lots in the overlay. The planning commission deadlocked 2-2 on scaling that back, and the council ultimately cut it to four. Even council members doubted anything would get built. "If we think this is about somebody coming in and building, nobody is going to build this," Councilmember Stacy Saal said.
The stick
What pushed the council to act was the Builder's Remedy. Under the new law, jurisdictions found out of compliance can lose eligibility for some state grants and loans and can't deny affordable or moderate-income housing developments. As The Urbanist explains it, that means approving any complete building permit that meets certain on-site affordability requirements, even if the project conflicts with local zoning.
"Any low income builder comes in and can submit plans that totally ignore our zoning code," Mayor Aletha Howes told the crowd. "The only thing they have to follow is setbacks and tree code."
So far no Washington jurisdiction has actually triggered the Builder's Remedy. Carnation got fully into compliance this summer, and Bainbridge Island adopted a temporary ordinance like Beaux Arts did. Woodway, Darrington, Gold Bar, Brier and DuPont are still working toward compliance.
The Beaux Arts ordinance is interim and expires Feb. 4. Howes called the state review "overreach" and an "unfunded mandate," and said she is still pursuing changes in the 2027 legislative session along with state lawmakers and the Association of Washington Cities. Commerce will announce a new slate of jurisdictions for review next year.
Why it matters for Contractors
Beaux Arts Village won't turn into a busy job site any time soon, and its own council says as much. The bigger story is that Washington's housing laws now have real teeth. A city that falls out of compliance can lose the power to say no to affordable and moderate-income projects. If you build multifamily or middle housing in Washington, keep an eye on which towns Commerce picks next year. Those reviews could open up lots that have been off-limits for decades.