The Edmonds City Council met Tuesday night for a study session in preparation for decisions to be made at next week’s meeting. A major focus was a proposal to change the city’s residential parking regulations. Three speakers during the public comment period addressed the proposed changes and the council also heard from the Assistant Police Chief Jim Lawless and Development Services Director Shane Hope.

While both Hope and Lawless noted that these issues affect multiple areas of the city, one particular location of concern involves a multitude of cars in the Maplewood neighborhood.

Councilmembers asked questions about what constitutes an auto-related business in the residential neighborhood. My Edmonds News published an article about the specific situation on Nov. 15. You can read the link here. There will be a public hearing at next week’s council meeting regarding the proposed changes.

Tuesday night’s meeting began with Council President Kristiana Johnson announcing her appointments of councilmembers to various committees. Her appointments included:

Dave Teitzel – Historic Preservation Committee, Port of Edmonds

Mike Nelson – Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, Snohomish County Tomorrow, Lake Ballinger

Mayor Earling – Community Transit

Neil Tibbott – Affordable Housing

Adrienne Fraley Monillas – Diversity Commission, Snohomish County Health

Tom Mesaros – Public Facilities District (Edmonds Center for the Arts),Waterfront Transportation. SnoCOM

Diane Buckshnis – Salmon Recovery (Water Resource Inventory Area 8)

The council also listened to a presentation by Shane Hope about the progress in the Highway 99 business zones.

In other actions, the council forward the following items to next week’s consent agenda.

– Three new job descriptions — for Senior Construction Inspector, Information Services Manager & Accounting Manager.

– Authorization of the Mayor to sign agreements and contracts with sewer and storm water consultants, acceptance of two grants. and a right of way agreement with the Edmonds School District for the 238th Street Southwest walkway project.

City Attorney Jeff Taraday then made his annual report. Taraday recapped what his firm, The Lighthouse Group, had done on behalf of the city in 2015. Lighthouse worked 3,258.7 hours, for which they were compensated $492,000. This made their average hourly rate $151. The largest user of city attorney hours was the City Council itself, with a total of 530 hours. The next largest user was the Human Resources Department, followed by Development Services.

— By Harry Gatjens