The City of Edmonds Planning and Development Department hosted part one of two public meetings at Edmonds-Woodway High School Tuesday as part of the 2024 Edmonds Comprehensive Plan Update, also known as Everyone’s Edmonds. The presentation was divided into three sections: Land use, housing and economic development.
Washington State’s Growth Management Act (GMA) requires that cities and counties update their Comprehensive Plans on a periodic schedule. The purpose of the 2024 update is to ensure the city is planning for the next 20 years of population and employment growth. It gives the city an opportunity to review and revise the plan and development regulations to ensure they comply with GMA requirements.
The City of Edmonds must comply with new state housing legislation and needs to accommodate the expected growth of 13,000 people over the next 20 years, as required by the GMA. According to GMA projections, these new residents will require 9,069 new housing units, and Edmonds currently has the capacity to add only 5,000 units. Also, Edmonds has the capacity for 2,548 jobs, and 510 additional jobs must be added.
“We need to focus on housing choices at all affordability levels, like duplex, triplexes,” said Edmonds Planning and Development Director Susan McLaughlin during Tuesday’s meeting. “By state mandate, we’re enabling at least two homes per lot and four homes per lot within a quarter mile of a major transit, like the BRT [Bus Rapid Transit].”
Land use
McLaughlin also highlighted the following goals based on two years of community feedback:
- Focus growth in areas with existing infrastructure, parks, schools and transit.
- Discourage development on long corridors.
- Update future land use designations and zoning regulations to reflect changes.
- Distribute growth in centers and hubs.
- Promote accessibility and inclusivity in public gathering spaces.
- Encourage mixed-use land development (not just single-family homes).
- Establish minimum density standards that will support the transit network and increase service.
- Provide incentives to encourage new building types.
- Encourage the City of Edmonds to be more active in incubating art and cultural uses.
- Transition areas along Highway 99 from a single or commercial use to a mixed use with more walkability.
“Twenty-one percent of our working population in Edmonds work from home. That’s huge,” McLaughlin said. “That means more people who may have spent an hour and a half to two hours commuting elsewhere are now part of our community 24/7. That has residual benefits for us. We want to make sure that we foster building types that will continue that kind of use.”
With no further growth planned along Highway 99 as part of the proposed 2024 Comprehensive Plan update, McLaughlin said that “strengthening identity” along the Edmonds section of the highway is part of the goal.
Other returns for a stronger Highway 99 identity include having a “high-quality public ground” where people can meet, community centers and low-income housing.
Another focus of the Comprehensive Plan land use element is looking at additional pedestrian facilities beyond the developers’ obligations, McLaughlin said. “For instance, if the developers just require to do a sidewalk along the [one side of the block], maybe an incentive is to carry it around the block.”
In response to an attendee who asked if the Edmonds Planning Board had looked at other cities’ centers and hubs, McLaughlin pointed out Woodinville, Bothell and Redmond maintained their residential character while fostering economic development. “If something is working well in other cities, there’s no reason to not give it a go,” she said.
The all-volunteer Edmonds Planning Board is tasked with reviewing elements of the Comprehensive Plan draft and providing recommendations to the Edmonds City Council.
Housing
Based on requirements of HB 1220 – approved by the state Legislature in 2021 – the majority of growth in Edmonds will need to be low-rise and mid-rise apartments and condos and 1,987 accessory-dwelling units (ADUs), and 126 duplexes and triplexes, McLaughlin said.
She pointed out that most of Edmonds’ housing stock was built in the 1950s to 1980s, and nearly 60% of that housing is single-family homes. However, there has not been much housing built since the 1990s.
McLaughlin reported that the city council-appointed Edmonds Citizens Housing Commision (CHC) in 2021 recommended new “‘urban villages’ within accessible areas to share growth more equitably, adding that “this really speaks to the Comprehensive Plan’s approach to growth in our neighborhood centers and hubs.”
Housing considerations includes:
- Do people own a vehicle?
- Income
- Language(s) spoken
- Occupation
- Family size
- Accessibility for the disabled and seniors
- Risk of homelessness
- Green-built homes
Economic Development
Edmonds Director of Community Services and Economic Development Todd Tatum said that about 63% of the Edmonds working population drive alone to work – and likely leave the city – with a majority of residents working in the health care, education, scientific research and management, and retail industries. With a workforce of about 21% remote workers, Tatum said that one of the goals of the Comprehensive Plan update is to make Edmonds a “more desirable place” for such workers.
“We’re looking for an integrated place to create economic development,” he said. “It has a focus on growing the economy on placemaking, on focusing on quality of life and on governing effectively.”
The economic development goals include:
- Attract new employers and jobs and address business and worker displacement
- Reduce the need to commute
- Promote unique opportunities in center and hubs
- Market Edmonds as a year-round destination
- Create dynamic, mixed-use places
- Align the City of Edmonds’ investments and programs with economic goals
- Offer business support, financial or managerial assistance, and technical training
- Recognize, support and empower businesses with cultural significance
“Edmonds Food Bank is looking to build a new facility outside of their current one in downtown [Edmonds, and is] asking for funding from the federal government,” Tatum said. “[The City] had provided the connector to the funding. Places like the food bank help keep people functioning and stay in the job market.”
Part two of the 2024 Comprehensive Plan update meetings will be on Thursday, May 30, starting at 4:30 p.m. in the Great Hall at Edmonds-Woodway High School, 7600 212th St. S.W. These sessions will cover transportation, urban design and environment.
Details of Tuesday’s presentations can be found here.
— Story and photos by Nick Ng
In response to Susan McLaughlin’s comment that Woodinville, Bothell, and Redmond have retained their residential character, I would wholeheartedly disagree. Having lived on the Eastside for 10 years, I can honestly say that those three cities are virtually unrecognizable today. I would never trade our lovely city for what Woodinville. Bothell, and Redmond have become.
The city staff/volunteers/consultants have an agenda to push and facts will not be allowed in their way. A quick drive by Bothell, let alone Redmond and Woodinville, show that “residential character” is in the eye of the beholder.
I would love to hear from someone who actually believes or can defend the nonsense coming from the mayor’s planners. Woodinville. Bothell, and Redmond have have been ruined by thoughtless development. Woodinville without Molbak’s, is an improvement? The whole Edmonds local development process is shameful.
Interesting picture of the “crowd” at this event. Counting McLaughlin at the podium I count about 28 or so people, out of a town of over 42,000? It seems to me like mighty few people are making some pretty major decisions and conclusions about what Edmonds could and should look like in the future.
Several years ago my Nephew and family moved here from Virginia, purchasing a home in Redmond. Two years in, they were so sick of Redmond congestion and the Microsoft culture that they moved back to Virginia because it was, “just more livable there.” They got higher paying jobs and bought a much better house for half the money.
Very few still go to those meetings because the planners and city council have no credibility about doing what is best for the city’s population, and have been only running a dog-and-pony show to “collect input” just for appearances. I stopped going to those “planning” and city council meetings because I do not want to waste more of my time.
Pretty much the same of what those in Olympia do about the public input in their agenda-driven self-serving legislation.
The current plan’s Land Use Element includes the provisions for the defunct Edmond’s Crossing and the current Waterfront Vision.
I see no mention of these issues was reported. Were they discussed?
Earlier citizen input strongly supported changes for these.
There will be a separate discussion of waterfront issues on June 4. More info here:https://www.edmondswa.gov/cms/one.aspx?pageid=20153021&portalid=16495016
Seriously-many people in this town are conservatives-yet we elect people that play the game. Our city has a deficit, yet they say we should spend millions for the Burlington property. We elected a new mayor that is the same as the old boss-The Who from 1970-Won’t get fooled again-liberalism is destroying our city and culture
I don’t think any of our problems, local or national, will ever be solved by “Conservatism” or “Liberalism” per se. Or, at least they will never be solved by the EXTREMES of these two concepts of what constitutes the good life and right now we are pretty much operating at the total extremes of both political approaches to life in the various states. The States of WA., OR. and CAL. have gone too far to the Liberal side, while States like FL., TX. and S.C. are way too far to the Conservative side of things. We can’t seem to decide whether we want to be a nation of ONLY the necessary laws that apply to everyone equally or a nation of no laws except the law of survival and well being of only the biggest and most powerful among us. It is a dangerous time in America. Things we used to have lots of faith in, like the our three tier Court system and free Press have been denigrated and abused by ideological over thinking and hyperbole, not to mention interference from foreign nations’ disinformation campaigns. Real truth about anything is hard to come by now.
I have a good friend who works for one of the largest property development firms in Seattle. Essentially, speculating code changes on current properties so they can be scooped up, purchased cheap, developed to multi family, and profit ensues. And we are talking about market rate, here. I can confirm that Edmonds’s decision is being closely watched due to the fact it is in a desirable location with high property values. Basically, just mouths watering over next steps. Anyone that thinks this won’t be a developers dream is fooling themselves. Anybody that thinks every square inch of a property is built to the max allotment, is fooling themselves. Anyone who says people won’t sell the second they are offered – to them – far above their current property value in these areas, is fooling themselves. If any of the above wasn’t true, you wouldn’t see the results in the mentioned cities as they have turned out. Take that for what you will. By the way… you can’t undo anything here.