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Council adopts 20 Seventh Street business-district subarea plan
Summary
The University Place City Council voted 5-0 Sept. 15 to adopt a subarea plan for the 20 Seventh Street Business District, endorsing recommendations on walkability, parking and future housing choices while noting the plan’s nonbinding status for specific code changes.
The University Place City Council unanimously adopted a resolution Sept. 15 approving the 20 Seventh Street Business District subarea plan, a more detailed element of the city’s Regional Growth Center strategy that lays out recommended actions for redevelopment in the district. The vote was 5 ayes, 0 nays.
City staff said the subarea plan refines the city’s comprehensive plan and the Puget Sound Regional Council Regional Growth Center plan with recommendations that range from sidewalk improvements and added crossings to guidance on future housing density. Kevin Brisky, Community and Economic Development director, told the council the plan grew from an advisory group, public survey and outreach and is intended to guide future decisions, not to impose immediate code changes.
The plan was developed as part of the regional growth center work adopted in 2017. Brisky said outreach included an advisory group of business and property owners that met four times, a public survey that received 681 responses, and presentations at community events. He and consultant Mandy Roberts also briefed council in prior meetings on market analysis and projected traffic impacts. Council members discussed recurring concerns raised during outreach, including pedestrian safety, crosswalk placement and speeding on 20 Seventh Street, and asked staff to pursue follow-up studies should the council direct changes to code or capital work.
During the council discussion, members highlighted three goals from the plan: support for small businesses such as dining and retail, provision of diverse housing choices to meet a range of household sizes and incomes, and creation of public gathering spaces. Council members noted the plan’s intent to balance new development with the existing district character and emphasized that specific improvements — for example, where to locate new crosswalks or higher-density housing — would require additional study and, if needed, separate council actions. When asked explicitly about eminent domain, staff responded the plan contains no proposals for exercising eminent domain.
The resolution approving the plan is the council’s formal endorsement of the subarea plan and its recommended actions. Staff said the plan will be posted online as a draft and can be used to guide future planning commission work, development review and targeted code amendments if council chooses to direct them. The council’s approval does not automatically change municipal code; any code amendments or public-works projects identified by the plan would return to council for separate authorization.
Councilmembers urged the public to review Section 5 (Recommendations) of the plan online and said they expect future agenda items to follow as the city considers implementation steps such as traffic studies or planning commission referrals.
