Brief Thought...

Problem: Bellevue's old downtown is a ghost town. Buildings have been sitting for years with plywood covered windows, peeling paint and no commercial tennants. Bigger problem is that these buildings are probably being neglected leading to serious damage.

The commercial zoning of these buildings in an area with no demand for retail space makes these buildings virtually impossible to sell - nobody can get money from a bank no matter how cheap the space is.
Is there a type of zoning that will allow people to officially live in the fronts of these spaces while still leaving the opportunity for business use in the future? If the bulk of these old buildings were rezoned to allow residential use in the storefronts could the municipality tell people, "yup, you can live in there but you have to restore your building to a heritage standard - essentially forcing people to restore the fronts in exchange for zoning that would make living in.... and convince banks to allow financing of"
Imagine just a couple of the old store fronts fixed up. Signs of light and life at night in just a couple storefronts. Nice heritage colors. Next thing we have turned Bellevue's old downtown back into a beautiful spot where maybe a little shop or 2 and a cafe would want to be. A beautiful, authentic little piece of paridise in the mountains. Sounds better than letting these buildings and the history they represent fall into disrepair.
There are people out there with dreams of finding their own personal mountain paradise. These people want to live idealistic lives. They want to be a part of a community. They want to be a part of something funky and fun. Bellevue's old downtown could be alive with color, light, life, personality, celebration of history, ideas. I know there are people who will find this crazy. Please let what I'm doing in my old building give some idea of the possibilities we have in Bellevue. This old forgotten downtown could help attract new types of residents, inspire new ideas, bring more visitors who will export better impressions of the Pass. This place used to be a coal mine. It is now a gold mine of possibilities.