After hearing last week that Edmonds may miss the state-mandated deadline of Dec. 31 for completing its 2024 Comprehensive Plan update, the Edmonds City Council Tuesday night received an update on the plan’s status from Acting Planning and Development Services Director Shane Hope.
Hope, who worked as Edmonds’ Development Services Director until her retirement in 2021, was hired after the departure of Planning Director Susan McLaughlin in August.
City staff and consultants have been working on development of the Comprehensive Plan for two years. To facilitate its completion, Edmonds contracted with VIA Perkins Eastman and Herrera, which studied a “no action” (status quo) alternative, and two growth scenarios involving neighborhood centers and hubs that were aimed at accommodating the city’s allocated growth targets. The growth scenarios are designed to account for and comply with the state’s housing bills and the mandatory Comprehensive Plan elements, and to align with multicounty and countywide planning policies.
The next step is the issuance of a draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), which was originally scheduled to be released for public comment at the end of August. The DEIS, which focuses on environmental impacts and mitigation measures, is an informational document that will help the city in developing the final Comprehensive Plan.
The DEIS “is not quite ready yet, but very close,” Hope told the council Tuesday. “That was something that was planned to be in August and we are now looking at Sept. 30.”
A 30-day comment period will follow the DEIS release, and that will end Oct. 29. A public hearing/meeting — likely virtual — will be scheduled during that comment period. “The advantage of virtual is that lots of people can come,” Hope said. Written comments will also be accepted.
Hope said that all comments “are all collected and categorized and there’s a response to each of them,” and those are “kept for the record,” she added. “You all as council as well as anyone in the public can see those comments and know how people were thinking.”
After that, a final EIS will be issued “as soon as possible after the comment period,” she said. That final document will include an appendix with comments from the DEIS as well as any modifications made from the draft. The final EIS “is an analysis of the impacts, the mitigation opportunities and the alternatives,” she explained.
Hope added that while a preferred alternative isn’t required as part of the final EIS, it’s a good practice to include one because “it gives the public a chance to know where things are leaning.”
The draft Comprehensive Plan “will also be coming out next week,” Hope said, which will be followed by a public comment period, meetings and eventually a public hearing.
“We believe that if everything goes well, that [the plan] could be adopted before the end of this year,” Hope said. “Having said that, [we’re] working on a very tight timeframe.” Staff starting to schedule dates for city council and planning board meetings, as well as plenty of community engagement. “If anything goes awry or there become complications. we won’t make that deadline,” she added. “It’s my obligation, I believe, to do my best to meet the state law, and we’ll see how close we can come.”
In other business on Tuesday, the council:
– Held a public hearing on permit processing timeline and public notice code amendments to achieve compliance with mandates required through state legislation: Senate Bill 5290 and House Bill 1105. No one commented during the public hearing. Acting Planning Manager Mike Clugston said that the legislation was designed to consolidate, streamline and improve local land use permit review processes. Clugston explained that in the past, state law required was a 120-day review period for such permits, but now the timeframe has been changed depending on the type of permits being issued. Under the legislation, cities that don’t meet the new timelines could be required to refund a percentage of the permit application fee, but Clugston said he doesn’t anticipate the city will have a problem addressing the new requirements.
– Received additional information regarding draft code amendments related to green building incentives. After making an initial presentation to the council Aug. 6, City Planner Tristan Sewell and Building Official Leif Bjorback returned with more details regarding the incentives, which are included in both the city’s 2020 Comprehensive Plan and its 2023 Climate Action Plan.
According to staff, the goal is to incentivize green building in pursuit of climate neutrality by 2050 through:
– Leveraging well-established certification programs. Two options were recommended for green construction standards: The Built Green program for single-family residences and the LEED Gold program for multi-family, mixed-use and commercial structures. Both programs award points for various green categories and handle program monitoring.
– Reducing permit review timeline 50% for certified projects
– Granting height bonuses, reduced setbacks, reduced off-street parking and increased dwelling unit density to certified projects. Sewell and Bjorback provided a chart outlining draft permit review incentives indicating the time savings for green projects.
– Providing deeper incentives for higher levels of certification
– Limiting scope of eligible projects to certain zones and land uses, prioritizing each zone’s primary intent
– Enforcing follow-through via performance bonds, if needed
They also provided a chart supplying more details on draft land use incentives for certified green buildings:
And they shared layouts of what those incentives could look like at the building level. Some examples are below but more can be found in the council agenda packet at this link (starting on page 484).
Councilmember Vivian Olson reiterated her concern, expressed in August, that the amendments are being proposed prior to the completion of the Comprehensive Plan, and it’s uncertain how the two would interact with each.
Councilmember Michelle Dotsch said she didn’t like the idea of developers with deep pockets gaining an advantage over single-family homeowners when it came to receiving such incentives.
“I’m…very concerned about letting people jump to the front of the line that can pay more,” Dotsch said.
The council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the matter during its Oct. 8 meeitng.
Also during the meeting, Mayor Mike Rosen proclaimed National Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15-Oct. 15, with Edmonds resident Dr. Ileana Ponce-Gonzalez accepting the proclamation. Ponce-Gonzalez is the founder and executive director of Community Health Worker Coalition for Migrants and Refugees and also is a clinical faculty member in the University of Washington’s Department of Health Services, School of Public Health.
In addition, as part of its consent agenda the council approved two appointments to the Edmonds Arts Commission: Alexandria Leggett and Robby London.
— By Teresa Wippel
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