Bellevue College has submitted its site master plan to the city of Issaquah for its campus in the Issaquah Highlands.

The plan includes six buildings each with four-stories. Ray White, vice-president for administrative services, said at total buildout the campus will include 427,000 square feet.

White said the college will start with one or two buildings, but this is a 20 to 30-year plan. At total buildout, 4,000 students could be accommodated.

“If we have a strong reason to get bulldozers in there, it would still be about three years before we’d open the doors,” White said.

One thing that could jump start it is to have a partner, White said, such as a professional-technical program that has immediate training needs. Bellevue College is building a new health building on its main campus in Bellevue.

But with the population growth Issaquah and the Eastside are experiencing, White said that could spur them on to move dirt.

“We have some potential candidates for the site, some early programs,” White said.

Some of those include continuing education, retreat facilities, and very targeted high school programs such as STEM.

White said that given the location of the campus, environmental sciences would be a good fit. The 20-acres the college owns includes a wetland and abundant forested area.

“We’re going to use as little as we can – maybe 10 acres,” he said.

The city is reviewing the site plan, which will more than likely come before the City Council sometime in January.