The Edmonds City Council has revised its agenda for the Tuesday, April 15 virtual Committee of the Whole meeting to include a request by two councilmembers to withdraw controversial amendments related to possible future sale of several city park properties, among them Hummingbird Hill Park and the Frances Anderson Center.
The council has been inundated with comments from residents upset that the council was considering — as part of its priorities for 2025 Comprehensive Plan amendments — whether to further study the idea of selling several city-owned properties to address the city’s $20 million budget deficit. Among those properties were Hummingbird Hill Park, the Frances Anderson Center, the Wade James Theater and the Meadowdale Club House. A large group of residents crowded into the council chambers April 1 to protest the idea.
The council was originally supposed to have two committee meetings — work sessions with no action taken — on Tuesday under its new format. But the 3 p.m. Committee B meeting was canceled due to councilmember availability and those agenda items were folded into the later Committee of the Whole — including all councilmembers — at 6 p.m. In addition, a new agenda item was added that calls for discussing 2025 Comprehensive Plan amendments, including the withdrawal of the properties that drew the community’s ire.
Because the 6 p.m. meeting via Zoom is a committee meeting, there won’t be any action taken on the withdrawal requests from Councilmember Vivian Olson and Council President Neil Tibbott. There also won’t be any public comment under the work session format.
The agenda memo for Tuesday’s meeting notes that Olson has proposed removing three of her proposed amendments, including those related to Hummingbird Hill Park and Meadowdale Clubhouse. Tibbott, meanwhile, has proposed removing two amendments, related to Frances Anderson Center and the Wade James Theater.
You can see the updated Commitee of the Whole agenda here.) It also includes an update on code language for STEP housing, neighborhood centers and hubs and middle housing. In addition, there will be a presentation of an April 2025 budget amendment and a resolution recognizing Earth Day 2025.
To view the meeting virtually, visit https://zoom.us/j/95798484261. Or join by dial-up phone: US: +1 253 215 8782. The webinar ID is 957 9848 4261.
For members of the public who can’t access the virtual committee meetings with their personal devices, a monitor is provided at the city council conference room, first floor of city hall, at 121 5th Ave. N., Edmonds.
Will Olson, Tibbott, and the Mayor be addressing the “research” and money already spent on these now removed proposals?
The original amendments related to possible future sale of several city park properties by council members, was about as intelligent as sticking a fork in the wall socket. with similar results.
Instead of Selling property, Why can’t we RENT? Anyone consider this option?
Golly, what a surprise that people already upset over having increased density rammed down their throats by state edict (in a Bill actually sponsored by an Edmonds citizen who is a State Representative) got a little upset about Tibbott and Olson deciding to look into selling off some of our assets the minute developers put out the feelers to them. Remember Tibbott was almost our Mayor and Olson has rumored designs on the job so keep that in mind as we sort thru the RFA property tax grab and how to put Edmonds back in the Black with a big G.F. property tax hike. We have quite the movers and shakers working in our behalf. One Council Person managed to see that a developer Pal got $100K of our tax money just given to him in a failed land deal, another CM trying to sell off a neighborhood park/open space to a developer, and another CM trying to turn FAC into a Restaurant/Bar/Hotel complex. Following Edmonds City Government has become like watching political intrigue shows on television; only this is real and you can’t make stuff like this up. We should start having CC meetings at our town Center for the Arts (highly subsidized over the years) and sell popcorn, beer and cocktails to bring in more revenue.
Thank you for listening to the citizens of Edmonds, setting aside ‘gain for greed’ agendas and preserving these spaces for future generations. Although I’m not a resident of Edmonds, I frequent these parks when I’m in the area. Also, this is a generous contribution to all of Snohomish County with the annual celebration of Earth Day coming upon us on April 22. My hope is restored for the moment, common sense still works!!!
And kudos to the ‘grass roots’ efforts of the citizens of Edmonds! Well done!
Hopefully all can see that placing the parks on the agenda for possible sale is just a ruse by the Mayor and certain CM’s. It’s the “vote for the RFA or we’ll need to sell your parks” message. Are we all better than that? Maybe not.
Mr. Douglas,
Good observation. As I think about it, the pro-RFA advocates would be wise to layer on levels of fear to encourage voters to vote for annexation. If the messages are 1) voting against annexation puts your safety and the safety of your family at risk, 2) voting against annexation can cause your fire insurance rates to rise dramatically, 3) voting against annexation will cause the city to sell precious park space, 4) voting against annexation will cause us to have no fire protection at all since no other options exist, the hope may be some voters will believe one or more of these ideas. Frankly, I don’t believe any of them and sincerely hope RFA annexation is not approved so we can have time to do two things: 1) negotiate better terms for our taxpayers with the RFA (including full remittance of the $7 million plus of unpaid EMS transport money the RFA is obligated to pay Edmonds per the terms of our contract) and 2) fully vet each and every alternative to RFA annexation to assure voters that analysis has been fully and impartially done. Only after that work has been completed should our taxpayers be asked to vote for or against RFA annexation.
Terry, thank you for calling out the obvious timing of this Comp Plan docketing exercise.
And the piece meal decision making process is frustrating. There has not been a plan a, plan b, plan c (with different assumptions and priorities) presented to the public for resolving the structural deficit and restoring the reserves over the next 8 years. I voted ‘ no’ on annexation, but I am prepared to vote ‘yes’ on the levy lid lift this year if 1)all the seniors in the property tax exemption program pay none of that new tax, 2)the city reduces headcount ,3) the city reports headcount changes by department and program since 2020 so we can see where that part of the money went 4) the city increase a broad set of taxes and fees using a ‘share the pain’ approach and stops putting so much emphasis on property tax increases 5) the city renegotiates the ridiculous price for Fire/EMS in the 2026 contract and 6) the city collects all the EMS transport fees that the RFA has illegally withheld from Edmonds under the current contract.
There are downtown properties that we would probably be smart to sell for a tidy profit and perhaps move all the city government functions from there to one of the other so called “Hubs” that is more centrally located. A public safety building and City Hall complex would make more sense somewhere else now that the city has grown so much in population and physical space. What we really need is more grassroots input from citizen’s commissions that anyone can join that wants to, to determine how we are going to allow ourselves to develop as a city. We have too much influence and sway about growth from Mayors and Staffs who really just lead mostly compliant Councils around by the nose. On top of that our Mayors and Councils are either deathly afraid of violating any state mandates or joined at the hip with the Democratic Party state activists who create the mandates. It seems the only thing our Mayors and Councils really understand are a bunch of angry citizens on the City Hall lawn chanting and waving signs or jammed to the rafters at a CC meeting to give their three minutes worth of Hell.