The deadline for comments on the City of Edmonds’ draft Comprehensive Plan has been extended until Nov. 11.
You can review the document at this link.
The Comprehensive Planning process (known as “Everyone’s Edmonds”) began about two years ago. A final adopted plan, which looks out 20 years, is due to the state by the end of 2024. 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.
Ultimately, the Edmonds City Council will decide on the adoption of the plan, including any changes, after hearing from the public, having discussion and considering the Edmonds Planning Board’s recommendations.
For additional information, visit www.edmondswa.gov/everyonesedmonds.
I would like to see Edmonds come together with the other communities, towns, and cities, and challenge the state’s housing mandate. The only people, from what I can see to benefit from this, are builders and developers. I can’t find one citizen who is in favor of this massive growth in areas that are already built out. I love my neighborhood and town, and I don’t want it to change. We are a small city, and to increase our population over 25% is ridiculous.
This is my come by as I responded to the plan by email.
“This seems so obvious but instead of changing neighbors that are fine to live in, why not invest in the problem area along Aurora hwy 99?
Our neighbors in Shoreline and even Ballard continue to build housing buildings along their major roads. With proper regulation we can make Aurora beautiful and a nice place to live especially for lower income families.
This simple approach kills 2 birds with one stone.”
Mr Neuman, the property development business is not that simple. In 2016 the City rezoned all of Hwy 99 and increased max. building height to 75 feet. They also made the landuse type very flexible: apartments, commercial business, mixed use, light manufacturing, micro brewery, etc. They assumed that would trigger redevelopment, but it didn’t. only 1 parcel on the highway has been redeveloped since then. Why? In some cases, the owner doesn’t want any redevelopment. In another case (Burlington Coat Factory site) the owner was willing to sell to a developer only after the primary tenant did not renew their lease. Although we see the ownership turnover in many Hwy parcels within the Shoreline City limits, we also can see many parcels in the Seattle city limits that have not been redeveloped. The city has been studying ‘regulation’ on this highway ad nauseum (my opinion) for decades. If you have any new ideas, talk to the City Council immediately. The landuse map for Hwy 99 will be finalized soon. The public comment period for the landuse section of the Comprehensive Plan ends on Nov 11th.
I would like to see Edmonds stop dragging its feet and just commit to the plan. At this point there is nothing that they can do. The time is up. Submit the plan to the standards that the state has implemented and be done with it.