While no discussion occurred regarding the city’s draft biennial budget Monday night, the Edmonds City Council unanimously approved the design for a new Edmonds Boys and Girls Club building at Civic Park.

The new $6 million facility — with funds being raised by the Boys and Girls Club of Snohomish County — will replace the 100-year-old former Edmonds School District field house at Civic Park. The Boys and Girls Club has a ground lease agreement with the city — approved in February 2023 — that allows for construction of the new building in the allocated 12,000-square-foot area of the park.

The 16,000-square-foot facility, which will meet LEED Silver standards, will be three times bigger than the current building and includes a gym with club space.

One new feature highlighted during Monday night’s presentation was a proposed set of concrete stairs at the front of the building aimed at integrating the club into the park.

The city council held a public hearing on the building design in July 2023, and the club incorporated public and council feedback into the design. It will now be reviewed as part of the city’s building permit approval process.

In other business, the council reviewed the city’s draft state legislative agenda, with the city lobbyist Debora Munguia and Community, Culture and Economic Development Director Todd Tatum presenting.

Munguia said that the session, which starts Jan. 13, is scheduled to last 105 days and explained that state lawmakers will be facing challenges related to the operating budget.

“They’re estimating right now that there’s a $10 [billion] to $12 billion hole when they walk in the door,” Munguia said, adding “that doesn’t even include the collective bargaining for state employees.”

In terms of transportation issues — a major issue for the City of Edmonds with its Highway 99 Revitalization Project — the Legislature’s goal is “to finish what they started in both Connecting Washington and the Move Ahead [transportation] packages that they have adopted and to address the backlog of maintenance and preservation.” Lawmakers are also committed to making key investments to keep the economy moving, like the US 2 trestle, Munguia said, adding that “traffic safety is a very big issue as well.”

At the top of Edmonds’ draft legislative agenda is the Highway 99 Revitalization Project. The city is asking lawmakers to maintain the $22.5 million in funding the state has already allocated for the Move Ahead Washington package across 2025-27 ($4.3 million) and 2027-29 ($18.2 million) biennia for Stage 3 of the project.

“The City of Edmonds places a high priority on both safety and social and environmental justice throughout our community,” the legislative agenda draft reads. “This significant public investment will also promote private investment along the corridor, and bring needed jobs, affordable housing and services to an underserved community of Edmonds.”

The draft agenda also urges lawmakers to help expand city revenue options, such as lifting the 1% property tax cap, increasing the city’s share of real estate excise tax and exploring state revenue-sharing. Director Tatum said Edmonds has joined other cities in signing a document supporting a lift of the property tax cap.

Other top agenda items included behavioral health and public safety; indigent defense standards; increasing housing supply; supporting the viability of Tax Increment Financing and addressing the impacts of state environmental and housing legislation on cities.

There were also other agenda items related to environment and climate; salmon recovery and watershed; transportation and safety; and economic development. You can see the complete draft list here.

Councilmember Neil Tibbott raised the issue of cities including Edmonds unable to afford the increasing number of unfunded mandates passed by state lawmakers.

“The state continues to pass requirements that cause us to divert funding from stuff like sidewalks and paving our streets and parks and programs that we’d like to pursue in our city,” Tibbott said. “And I’m wondering if there could be some legislation that requires the state to estimate the cost to cities before they pass a mandate…for them to estimate what they’re actually passing on to cities and understanding that we don’t have bottomless bag of revenues.”

Tatum said one solution would be to clearly communicate those impacts to the city’s state legislative delegation. The council is tentatively scheduled to hold a dinner in January with the legislators representing Edmonds.

As for next steps, Tatum said he would incorporate councilmembers’ comments about the draft legislative agenda into a final document that would appear on a future council consent agenda.

The final agenda item of the night was meant to be a brief update on Edmonds 2024 Comprehensive Plan as well as a report on a draft future land use map. The map follows the council’s unanimous approval earlier this month of preferred growth targets citywide.

The Comprehensive Planning process (also known as “Everyone’s Edmonds”) began about two years ago. Under state law, the city must accommodate an additional 13,000 people, 9,000 housing units and 3,000 jobs over the next 20 years. State requirements also direct that new housing should be affordable to families of low to moderate income levels.

Both the Edmonds Planning Board and the City Council considered two growth scenarios involving neighborhood centers and hubs, 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 council ended up approving the planning board’s recommendations, which essentially combined the growth two scenarios, with a few council amendments.

Acting Planning and Development Director Shane Hope offered a brief update on the Comprehensive Plan process so far, along with a timeline of next steps. In addition, Senior Planner Brad Shipley — who resigned from the city last year to run for mayor but has now returned — provided a general overview of the land use map. He explained that the map will serve as a guide for creating city development codes to support the Edmonds Comprehensive Plan growth targets. He also suggested not getting into too much detail about the map until further discussion occurs about the development code, which must be completed by July 1, 2025.

Shipley’s presentation and explanation about the draft map sparked concerns from Councilmember Michelle Dotsch, who said she was “really surprised” by the information presented, as it included terms that neither she nor the public was familiar with and provided new zoning definitions that many haven’t seen.

Hope said she would take another look at both the map and the terms being used to ensure they aren’t confusing. Part of the challenge, Hope said, is coming up with ways to describe residential areas following the passage of state legislation, HB1110,  that aims to increase middle housing in areas traditionally dedicated to single-family detached housing.

“The so-called single-family residential areas that have been covered with the biggest share of land in the city, they no longer really have, let’s say, 7,200 square foot lots that are consistent with the zoning designation that used to be there,” Hope said, “because they could be divided or more units could be built on those lots. So the 7200 [zoning] term for six units per acre, which was a common term, doesn’t really apply anymore.”

Dotsch pushed back on the idea of “using these planning terms and new ways of defining our neighborhoods without public input.” During more back-and-forth on the issue, Hope assured the council there would be “big time” public engagement on development code changes as that process unfolds in 2025.

Hope also addressed a proposal from the Edmonds Environmental Council that “Environmentally Sensitive” zoning be incorporated into the Comprehensive Plan to protect certain parts of Edmonds. These include areas “that either should not be further developed or must have infrastructure improvements, additional development restrictions or mitigation requirements to prevent environmental degradation.” The proposal also calls for “a staggered approach” to zoning implementation.

Regarding the first point, Hope said that she doesn’t think having such zoning as part of the Comprehensive Plan “would be very helpful, because usually people look at critical areas map, which is kept separately, and at the development code.

“That’s where the rubber meets the road, and that’s what’s really important, is making sure that the code is really clear and as much information is available as possible,” Hope continued. “The code is good. It protects the areas. That’s the point. The Comprehensive Plan is a great policy direction document, but it is not a substitute for the code.”

Regarding the idea of a staggered zoning approach, Hope described that as “kind of a tricky thing,” because it classifies a hub or center — or property near a hub or center — “into some new overlay that hasn’t been part of the discussion, and then that’s prioritized not to grow. I think it adds confusion.”

As for next steps in the Comprehensive Plan, Hope explained that staff is continuing to make corrections and clarifications to the revised draft plan. A draft final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) related to the plan is scheduled to be issued Dec. 4. At a Dec. 10 special meeting, the council will discuss the final EIS and will also hold a public hearing on the revised draft Comprehensive Plan. The council is scheduled to adopt the plan on Dec. 17.

Councilmember Jenna Nand noted that when Acting Director Hope joined the planning department this fall, Hope was initially predicting that staff might not be able to meet the Dec. 31 state deadline of submitting a Comprehensive Plan. “So I’m very excited to see this very well done, 288-page document, not even in December, but a draft in November,” Nand said.

“I know that development and building is a very sensitive topic in Edmonds. But our staff is apolitical in the city,” Nand continued. “The staff is following mandates from the state, the county, and from our city council and our mayor. So again, just hats off to the planning department and Interim Director Hope for salvaging this document and this process and dealing with a lot of inquiries and questions and handling it all with such incredible grace.”

The council will meet again on Tuesday in two meetings, starting at 5:30 p.m. in council chambers, Public Safety Complex, 250 5th Ave. N.

— By Teresa Wippel