As Edmonds voters consider whether the city should annex into South County Fire Regional Fire Authority (RFA) in April, fire officials gave their 2024 annual report to the Edmonds City Council Tuesday night.

The RFA and its predecessor Fire District 1 have provided fire and emergency (EMS) services in Edmonds, on contract, since 2010. However, the RFA exercised a two-year cancellation clause for the 20-year contract, which will now expire at the end of 2025. The City of Edmonds is placing before voters April 22 a ballot measure that asks whether Edmonds should join the regional authority as a member, rather than as a contractor, joining cities such as Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace and Brier.

Under their contract, officials are required to deliver an annual report to the city council. This year’s report included the number of fire and EMS calls South County Fire responded to (6,334 in Edmonds and 38,676 systemwide). Most of those (84.1%) in Edmonds were for medical emergencies. Communications Director Christie Veley also summarized the range of other services the agency provides, from first-aid training to the community resource paramedic program that reduces 911 calls, to smoke alarm installation and child car seat instruction.

Then, Fire Chief Bob Eastman shared statistics for services provided, ranging from response times (calculated from when dispatchers receive a call to when units arrive on the scene) to turnout time (the time from when a call is dispatched to when fire apparatus leaves the station).

There was also a discussion about the neighboring unit utilization factor (NUUF). It measures the amount of time that Edmonds units respond to calls for service outside of Edmonds and then compares that to the amount of time that non-Edmonds units respond to calls for service in Edmonds.

Under the contract, balance is achieved when those two amounts of time are within 10% of one another. However, in 2021 South County Fire said its data showed that the neighboring cities were responding into Edmonds significantly more often than Edmonds units were responding into neighboring cities like Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace. As a result, the council voted in 2021 to pay South County Fire an additional $1.5. million annually to add an aid car with the goal of improving that balance.

Although that NUFF returned to balance in previous years, Eastman said that 2024 showed an imbalance, with the chart indicating the NUUF from the RFA transports as a whole coming into Edmonds was 239% — a sharp increase from the 92% reported in 2023. (Under the contract, those numbers would have to be at 110% to be considered in balance.)

While councilmembers expressed gratitude for the important work that South County Fire does in the community, some had questions about statistics shared Tuesday night.

Councilmember Will Chen asked about the transport balancing factor, another chart shared by Eastman, which showed the number of total transports — both into and out of the city — had been reduced significantly over the past three years. For example, Chen noted that total transports were 1,035 in 2021; 1,389 in 2022; 1,143 in 2023 and 689 in 2024. A similar question was asked by Councilmember Michelle Dotsch.

Eastman responded that a variety of variables could be at play, adding “it’s just a matter of how the calls fall.” Another factor that could impact the number of transports Edmonds makes is the wait time — commonly referred to as “wall time” — that paramedics often experience as they are dropping off patients at the increasingly busy Swedish Edmonds hospital — and have to wait with them until a bed opens for them to be admitted. “So you’ve got resources in the RFA coming in and covering for them [the waiting Edmonds paramedics] when they’re sitting there,” Eastman said.

Chen also asked about how the RFA controls costs, pointing to a mention during the presentation that the RFA recently purchased a new ladder truck for $2 million.

Assistant Fire Chief Shaughn Maxwell noted that the cost of fire trucks “has skyrocketed” in recent years, pointing to a recent New York Times report “that one or two conglomerates that have bought up all the fire truck manufacturers, and so the entire nation is struggling with the astronomical cost of fire apparatus.”

Eastman added that this cost is top of mind for both South County Fire as well as neighboring jurisdictions and discussions have begun about possible ways to partner with other agencies to share equipment.

During the public comment period, Edmonds resident Niall McShane said he was surprised by the neighboring unit utilization factor metric, calling it “so far out of line that I think it behooves the city to really understand what happened to that metric in 2024. I think we really need to dig into that.”

You can view the RFA presentation to the council at this link.

In other business Tuesday night, the council heard a presentation from Interim Planning and Development Director Shane Hope that outlined new state requirements related to House Bill 1293. The legislation streamlines the design review process for developers with the goal of providing “clear and objective” design standards. It is aimed at addressing complaints from developers about long and costly review processes in some communities, Hope said.

Under the new state law:

“Any design review process must be conducted concurrently, or otherwise logically integrated, with the consolidated review and decisions process for project permits… and no design review process may include more than one public meeting.” That means that design review must take place at the same time that other reviews — such as a site plan and State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) reviews — are conducted.

In addition, rules must be written clearly so that applicants (and the public) know in advance the design criteria that must be met.

The law requires that cities and counties may apply “only clear and objective development regulations governing the exterior design of new development.” Such a regulation:

– Must include at least one “ascertainable guideline, standard, or criterion by which an applicant can determine whether a given building design is permissible under that development regulation”; and

– Cannot result in a reduction in “density, height, bulk, or scale below the generally applicable development regulations” for the proposed project in that zone.

For middle housing projects, any design review must be administrative only. According to the law, “administrative design review” means a development permit process whereby an application is reviewed, approved or denied by the planning director or the planning director’s designee based solely on objective design and development standards. A public hearing would not be required unless such review is otherwise required by state or federal law, or the structure is a designated landmark or historic district established under a local preservation ordinance. The law states a city may utilize public meetings, hearings or voluntary review boards to consider, recommend or approve requests for variances from locally established design review standards.

City staff will be reviewing options for the public to consider and comment on. The Edmonds Planning Board will also be asked to review the matter as part of its advisory role to the council, Hope said.

Code updates related to the new law are planned by June 30.