The City of Edmonds Planning and Development Department has scheduled the next series of public meetings as part of the 2024 Edmonds Comprehensive Plan Update.
Two citywide forums, focused on different elements within the Comprehensive Plan, are scheduled for May 28 and May 30 in the Great Hall at Edmonds-Woodway High School, 7600 212th St. S.W., Edmonds.
Tuesday, May 28
- 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. Land Use
- 5.30 – 6.30 p.m. Housing
- 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Economy
Thursday, May 30
- 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. Transportation
- 5.30 – 6.30 p.m. Urban Design
- 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Environment
Community members can attend individual element discussions, or stay for the entire meeting, depending on their interest. These meetings will focus on developing the Comprehensive Plan goals. There will be a brief presentation and opportunities for the public to share their thoughts addressing different issues within each of the elements above.
RSVP here. Staff will distribute a few questions in advance of the meeting to people who have RSVPed to inform the discussion, the city said in a news release announcing the forums.
This is a family event, and there will be children’s activities. For more information, please visit the webpage.
Interpretation is available on request. Email everyonesedmonds@edmondswa.gov.
interpretación disponible a pedido. por favor contactar everyonesedmonds@edmondswa.gov.
요청 시 통역이 가능합니다. 문의해 주세요. everyonesedmonds@edmondswa.gov.
可根据要求提供口译服务。请联系 everyonesedmonds@edmondswa.gov.
Will organizers arrange a way for people to ask questions and provide comments after the meetings?
Read all the comments. Wondering why these important meetings can’t take place on Saturdays? There will still be folks who can’t be there but perhaps more could be. Second, they mention “family” & “children’s sctivities”. Srsly? During the time of day when kids are hungry (dinner time) & perhaps needing to do homework & start to gear down for sleep time. Not a parent so plz don’t shame me. Just seems like 4:30 to 7:30 on week nights/school nights is less than ideal which gives the appearance of exclusion even if not intended. Lots of frustrated folks commenting on what appears to be a tone deaf attitude of those requesting citizen input. Just my 2 cents.
Unfortunately, this May 28th public meeting on the Comprehensive Plan conflicts with the regular Tuesday meeting of the Edmonds City Council.
So, planning and development has scheduled public meetings at a most inconvenient time for most people, especially working people. Beginning a meeting at 4.30? Really? Most working people don’t get off work and back to Edmonds until 5.30 or 6.00pm, at best. And I understand that this meeting conflicts with a City Council meeting. My experience with the planning and development staff is, they prefer not to interact with the public. Every meeting I have attended, I found it difficult to hear what they are saying, no effort is made to face the audience, they sit with their backs to the audience, no microphones are used. It is very public unfriendly. Now they’ve scheduled a 3 hour meeting during many people’s work day. Unbelievable, as usual.
I keep hoping the planning and development team will be more considerate since all of this is so important to all of the citizens of Edmonds. I remember thinking on Valentines Day that that night choice was sure to leave out so many. I wanted to watch that one, but I didn’t want to hurt my husbands feelings. I expect many people had plans for that night in Edmonds. So many people go out and eat for Valentines Day. I also think those early 4:30 meetings are not convenient at all for most here. I know our Mayor has asked we Citizens to watch all the meetings and participate and try to come up with ideas and compromises etc. SO, we all need to be able to view these meetings in real time in person or on zoom. Yes, they are recorded but once it was a week before the recording was available and yes, the sound on zoom is often not good hard to hear what they are saying etc. I hate to think that these choices and malfunctions are deliberate but after a while I just have to wonder. These employees are paid for by we citizens. It’s as simple as that we should be paid attention to always. We are trying Mayor Rosen. Help us all out. You can I know.
I think it would be helpful to review the apparent hierarchy order for the city:
Edmonds Pyramid Hierarchy
1st. Special interests (includes political parties, and or Developers)
2nd. Consultants (paid and unpaid)
3rd. City Directors and staff
4th. Mayor
5th. City Council
6th. Transient population (Includes homeless as well as tourists)
7th. Edmonds local citizens
I’m fully aware that the Edmonds hierarchy that I am documenting is provocative. At least three ex-city council members confirm that something isn’t right in the way the city is being administrated. Local citizen input is being treated as a facade. Unelected directors are running the city, why the mayor mostly has a ceremonial role, and council members rubber stamp developmental and environmental decisions that are lacking common sense.
Sadly, Brian I think it seems like that is about right these days. Now in reality Brian who is supposed to be #1. I thought the Mayor. I thought number 2 was the City Council and #3 was the Citizens of Edmonds. I would assume when we hire consultants it is only opinions on what we already want both Directors and CC. We hire consultants often for work that should be pretty well figured out and consultants to possibly add to ideas our city has. Special Interests should have little bearing on our decisions and plans and well so many of these positions as far as hired staff and volunteers too should be non-partisan. IF not them how about they all tell us which party they favor? It’s all screwed up around here and I don’t know what is going to change it, but I like boycotts and peaceful demonstrations myself. No camping out just organized day events with signs is fine. Ha.
Deborah,
The citizens are at the top of the hierarchy. Ken Reidy has reminded City Council and the Mayor of this (current and former) innumerable times. It has done absolutely no good. Our taxes pay all of the city employees salaries, infrastructure improvements, public safety- we’re on the hook for everything.
I would say that at this point, the Directors are controlling decisions made by Council, as Council listens to staff over the citizens and over common sense. As Clinton Wright says our new tagline should be — Edmonds, where common sense comes to die.
Joan:
Your comments are precisely correct. And yes, the Directors, who are not the quality of their predecessors, are evidently controlling decisions made by the elected officials.
Thanks Joan for clarifying this.
Hi Deborah. Thanks for your involvement with City Government and thanks for all the times you speak at Council Meetings.
As Joan states, I have discussed the City’s Organizational Chart for years in the hope City Officials would respect and honor it. City Council is not elected to represent City Staff. Despite this, City Council grants City Staff unlimited time to make their case during Council’s meetings while sharply limiting the amount of time citizens can speak. City Council interacts with City Staff during Council’s Meetings while refusing to interact with citizens who show up to try and participate with their city government.
Lately we’ve seen a practice where Public Hearings end suddenly after the last citizen comment is made. There is no discussion whatsoever related to anything said by a citizen during the Public Hearing. I wonder where this idea came from.
I authored a Guest Column back in 2011 that started as follows:
Guest column: A call for open government and transparency
Posted: October 21, 2011
The City of Edmonds’ organizational chart clearly establishes that the Mayor, Municipal Court and City Council report directly to the citizens of Edmonds. This is a very important concept to fully comprehend. I believe it critical to the proper execution of our representative democracy, known as a republic.
Why don’t they Zoom this so everyone can watch? Same old smoke and mirrors going on here and we as citizens have the right to see it and hear it in real time. We may not be able to comment during this but to see it in Real Time is important for all of our citizens in Edmonds. RSVPs really? The Comp plan affects every single person in this city forever. It doesn’t get much more important than that in my humble opinion. ZOOM it. If you don’t we will all know why and relations will not get better with this division. Thank You.
I have thought for a long time that Citizen comments should be after we have heard ideas from the Boards and Directors of everything, so they are heard after the presentations and before voting decisions by the CC. I don’t know who makes those decisions. Yeah 3 minutes is a short time, and it would be hard for some to really gather thoughts that quickly, but some here would be capable of doing just that. So many sharp minds here in Edmonds. Minds from all sides of our spectrums. I like that about our city. I am not very articulate in that platform so I don’t speak much at the CC meetings or the Planning Board meetings, I attend every CC meeting by Zoom and try to zoom the Planning Board meetings when I can. I try in my own way to reach out here in Edmonds. It’s a difficult situation we are all in here right now. I care so deeply about so much I think it is obvious that most of us do too. I just want well thought out decisions and non-partisan behavior from us all. I am Independent and it is because I have found thru my long life that extremes just don’t work. SO, I try really hard to look at all views and give a little in all directions.
Have read many comments today and every single day for years. I believe that every single part of our city should be willing to take on equal amounts of housing and it should all be the same criteria. I believe that we need lots of mixed housing types, everywhere and I think setbacks should be the same distance for every single area. This way no one has to give up water views, territorial views and frankly destruction of their eco systems, retentive grasses and plantings (trees) if we all take equal parts of this no one will be angry, and we can work together to get more action so to speak in all of our many bergs. From Ballinger to 196th and from 99 to the water’s edge in the Bowl of Edmonds. Start to have more markets and more art viewing and more meetings other places so everyone can participate. I think for instance if our HS can be used for PB etc it can be used for example DEIA, ECA, All of them. Move stuff around to get true participation and views and help and entertainment and strength in numbers for all areas. No reason to rush and increase too much building right now. Some yes but let’s see what is going to happen first with sidewalks and water safety and all it.
With the State essentially taking over housing and population planning and the fire service being farmed out to a Regional Authority on the theory that it is more efficient and not an appropriate City function to begin with; I’m starting to wonder why we even keep trying to have a real and unique city identity? We’ve had a series of Mayor’s and some Council People who are highly involved in trying to have a say in Regional politics and problem solving at the expense of what many Edmonds citizens want and need for the place where they choose to live and need services. We have many citizens that love Edmonds with knowledge of local history and scientific knowledge about our unique water sheds and location next to the Salish Sea; and these folks are routinely ignored by Mayors and Councils and Directors who just know better about what is good for “Everyone’s Edmonds.” Too many people just want to be important and loved and not enough just want to get what needs to be done, done. That’s kind of the problem with our whole country as well. We hear about lots of town halls and getting listened to until the election is over. Then it’s business as usual.
The really sad thing for everyone in Edmonds is that Its Business as usual that got us into this financial mess in the first place. It’s been going on for a long time. It looks like years from what I am reading here in comments. So, if the city is broke then everyone from wealthy to poor Stem to stern will suffer in one way or the other. So, it’s time to stop accepting Business as Usual Edmonds Citizens. It’s time for total transparency and well thought out solutions. Yes, some will feel the brunt of these decisions but that is the way it goes. If you are going to suffer it is because you didn’t try hard enough to please all of the citizens. I know some are trying to do this and I appreciate that but it’s not enough yet. and like I said all will suffer. People will stop giving so much as well that is human nature. The ones who continue to give and support will feel the drag and they too will stop caring as much. This is human nature, and we can’t change human nature regardless of our political preferences. We can’t have our wants or needs Rich or Poor. I hate to see that but that is what I think is on the Horizon. Think!