The cities of North Bend and Snoqualmie are eyeing a deal between King County and the city of Bellevue that will trade development rights in the county for increased retail and residential densities in the Bel-Red Road corridor.

The deal, for a 900-acre redevelopment of former industrial areas south of State Route 520 and east of Interstate 405, allows developers to use transfers of development rights, or TDRs from land in the Snoqualmie Valley, to build at higher densities in Bellevue.

When a developer buys development rights, that property can no longer be developed.

Development rights transfers are among other incentives, including walkable areas and affordable housing, that developers can use to reach higher densities.

“The whole idea of revitalizing the Bel-Red corridor is for green reasons,” said Darren Greve, King County’s TDR Program Manager.

Under the deal, developers can transfer rights for as much as 6,000 acres for the project. Of those, the first half must come from the county’s existing TDR bank, which includes hundreds of acres in the Raging River valley.

The other half can come from land in the White River valley in South King County, as well as farmland in the lower Snoqualmie Valley and land near the Snoqualmie Parkway and Interstate 90 interchange, as well as near North Bend. Land in Snoqualmie Valley was selected to protect wildlife corridors, scenic views and the rural farmer’s markets that serve urban areas, according to Greve.

The deal has some Valley cities wondering if it will lock them out of developing near Interstate 90.

Snoqualmie has eyed the Interstate 90 interchange for some time as the logical next step for commercial growth.

Efforts by Snoqualmie Valley Hospital to develop a new campus at the I-90 interchange stalled in 2007 during an amendment process to the King County Comprehensive Plan that also involved transfers of development rights. If that effort had been successful, that area would have been annexed into the city.

North Bend City Administrator Duncan Wilson said that none of the sites to be placed into conservancy are within North Bend’s UGA.

“North Bend would therefore be impacted directly only if properties we would later want to be designated as UGA are placed into conservancy, and therefore be ineligible for urban level development,” he said.

“There are certain properties that the city has no expectation would or could ever be future UGA, Wilson said. “Other properties may be considered.”

Until those properties are identified, it’s hard to say what the impact to the city will be.

No developer has yet bought any of the TDRs, and Greve said developers must exhaust their portion of the county’s TDR bank.

“That will take many, many years to happen,” he said.

The county and the city can also work together to allow both local development and protection. There are ways to protect rural land without binding the hands of cities on growth, Greve said.

The agreement, he added, “is in now way seeking to limit the city of Snoqualmie’s growth.”