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Key takeaways
- Council discusses and agrees to place minor tree code ordinance on next week’s consent agenda.
- Councilmembers discuss Edmonds Planning Board recommendations on North Bowl Hub.
- Council approves employment contract for new public works and utilities director.
- Councilmember Olson encourages community to turn out for Saturday’s Halloween Howl dog costume party at the Edmonds off-leash park.
Few people filled council chambers Tuesday night as the Edmonds City Council discussed plan and code updates and employment.
Minor tree code revisions
Senior Planner Brad Shipley returned to the Council for approval of the “minor tree code revision” as part of the larger update to tree-related regulations. The Council held a public hearing on the topic in September.
These revisions are aimed at ending a four-year process to address dated information and also address recent tree litigation. Shipley reminded the Council a more comprehensive landmark tree code will be discussed at length later.
Councilmembers discussed two changes in an effort to find the right balance among tree preservation, housing development and potential legal action.
Councilmember Chris Eck made two motions to remove two subsections. The first motion stated that “No appraisal required if maximum reached,” which removes the required appraisal work by the developer and the city if a maximum number of trees is identified. It does not remove the fees or mandatory tree replacement. The second motion removed the $2 cap on fees “fee-in-lieu” tied to square footage when calculating the cost for tree replacement fees.
“I really feel like this [current proposed code] opens us up to losing more tree canopy and… I’d like to wait until we have an urban forester,” Eck said.
“The cap [for the appraisal] is artificial and it harms the keeping of our largest trees,” said Councilmember Paine in supporting Eck’s amendment.
“I appreciate the spirit of Councilmember Eck’s amendment. But I am very concerned this could place us in jeopardy of litigation,” said Councilmember Jenna Nand. “If the burden is considered unreasonable we will have more property owners taking us to court.”
Councilmember Will Chen said that lifting the cap “is an undue burden” when the price to remove a tree is $100,000.
Councilmember Michelle Dotsch proposed an alternative amendment to raise the $2 fee-in-lieu to $4. The money raised would go toward planting park trees. This amendment seemed to meet the spirit of Eck’s proposals and councilmembers agreed it was a good balance.
Councilmember Vivian Olson asked Shipley to provide the math for that proposal before the amendments return to the consent agenda next week. Councilmembers agreed to this final motion with a 7-0 vote.
Comprehensive Plan amendments
Council discussed changes to the North Bowl Hub, a piece of the Edmonds Comprehensive Plan that covers new housing rules for hubs and centers. The small neighborhood lobbied to remove Grandview Street from the proposed upzone and worked with the Edmonds Planning Board to find a different way to meet the rule’s intent.
The Planning Board recommended the option that removes Grandview Street from mixed-use development and removes properties adjacent to North Stream creek (blue line shown above). It also adds more multi-family housing to the south side of Puget Drive (seen above on the bottom) across from other commercial development and closer to Edmonds Elementary School.
Community members, the Planning Board and the Council praised the six months of on-going collaborative conversation to get to this decision.
Resident Scott Anderson attended the planning board meetings and spoke during public comment. “I am impressed how the Planning Board weighed the options for the North Bowl Hub amendment. They listened to us property owners and our concerns… while also achieving the goal of the hub,” Anderson said.
The council agreed to the change, but it must get state approval before it is inserted into the full Comprehensive Plan update scheduled for a November Council vote.
Public works and utilities director confirmed
Council by a 7-0 vote confirmed Mayor Mike Rosen’s appointment of Andrew Rheaume as the city’s new public works and utilities director. Rheaume thanked the council and said he looked forward to his position. Rheaume held the same position for the City of Anacortes and also served in utilities positions for the City of Redmond. Rheaume starts Nov. 17 and will earn a salary of $190,441.11.
Councilmember comments
Council President Neil Tibbott shared there is an opening on the Edmonds Planning Board. “It’s where I got my start. It’s very rewarding. It meets two times a month for about two hours.”
Councilmember Olson encouraged pet owners to check out the Halloween Howl, a costume party for dogs at Marina Beach off-leash park Saturday, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Money raised goes toward the park.
This shouldn’t get buried. What happened with the North Bowl Hub isn’t “collaboration”—it’s carve-out politics.
A small, well-organized pocket lobbied to pull Grandview Street out of the upzone, and the Planning Board/Council obliged—then backfilled density somewhere else (south side of Puget Dr., across from Edmonds Elementary) to keep the numbers looking tidy. That isn’t planning; it’s spot-relief for the loudest ZIP+4.
If the City believes in hubs/centers, apply clear, citywide criteria and stick to them. Don’t exempt one street after months of pressure and then shift the burden onto different neighbors—especially next to a school corridor already strained by traffic and safety issues.
“State approval” isn’t a rubber stamp. Under the Growth Management framework, process matters. Moving density by political convenience sets a precedent: organize hard enough and you get an exemption—everyone else gets the density.
Planning should be predictable, fair, and data-driven—not a prize for who shows up with the most yard signs.
Lee, I could not agree with you more on these sentiments. Allowing this to happen here opens up Pandora’s box for other areas to do the same thing.
Lee and Jeremy, the properties south of Puget are already currently upzoned in the North Bowl Hub comprehensive plan map. There was some wording in the article and meeting that made it sound like the Grandview properties are to be removed from the upzone and then the properties south of Puget drive will have additional multifamily units added as a trade off but this is incorrect as these properties to the south of Puget Dr are already upzoned for more units in the north bowl hub comprehensive plan. I’d personally prefer no additional development but Puget dr is a 3 lane road and it can probably support a little bit more apartments and traffic (there’s already apartments on the road and new apartments can have a turn lane in) where as Olympic View is 2 lane and would be a traffic nightmare if apartments added. In addition, future developers likely will not be able to develop within 200 feet from the Northstream creek anyway with the new critical areas update coming so the idea to have grandview and creek properties upzoned for apartments just did not make sense which is why the neighborhood was concerned. North bowl residents and myself feel like council and planning listened and addressed these real concerns that many neighbors brought up as best as they could.