Snohomish County Council unanimously adopts four ordinances, including flood grants and Bothell road design amendment

Snohomish County Council members unanimously approved four ordinances during a public hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, advancing flood mitigation grants, a road‑design interlocal amendment with the City of Bothell, corrections to county code, and a clerical fix to the county’s 2024 comprehensive plan ordinances.

The measures passed on 5‑0 roll call votes with no public testimony taken for any item. Chair Nehring and Council members Dunn, Low, Mead and Peterson voted in favor of each ordinance.

The most consequential actions included ordinance 25‑004, which awards Snohomish County Flood Damage Reduction Grant Program funds to three diking districts and authorizes the county executive to execute interlocal agreements with grant recipients to govern expenditure of those funds; and ordinance 25‑002, which approves amendment No. 2 to an interlocal agreement with the City of Bothell for design work on road improvements to 220 Eighth Street Southeast from Fifth Avenue Southeast to Ninth Avenue Southeast and requests an additional authorization of $1,019,313 to complete the work. According to staff, the Bothell project would widen the listed stretch from three lanes to four, add bike lanes, improve intersections, install curbs, gutters and sidewalks, and update lighting and signal integration; the project appears in the adopted 2025–2030 TIP under project E63 and was presented under RCW 39.3403 and Snohomish County Code 13.010.02 subsection 5 as noted in the staff report.

Ordinance 25‑006 would restore subsections 5 through 8 of Snohomish County Code 13.11.0.01 that were inadvertently omitted following codification of ordinance 21‑032 (related to requirements for utilities in county road rights of way) and makes a minor punctuation housekeeping amendment to subsection 8. Council staff told members the change corrects transcription errors from the earlier codification.

Ordinance 25‑010 corrects a clerical transcription error in the effective dates of three amended ordinances (24‑031, 24‑032 and 24‑033) tied to the Growth Management Act comprehensive plan 2024 update and would retroactively adopt the corrected effective dates. Staff reported the item had been briefed to the Committee of the Whole on Jan. 28 and that no questions had been received since that briefing.

Council staff presenting the items included Ryan Himbry and Ryan Countryman; Deb Bell provided the reports on the Bothell interlocal amendment and the Title 13 corrections. For each ordinance the council opened and then closed public testimony with no speakers in person or online.

Votes at a glance

• Ordinance 25‑004 — Flood damage reduction grant program: approved 5‑0 (Dunn, Mead, Low, Peterson, Nehring). Public testimony: none. Staff: Ryan Himbry. Outcome: authorizes awards to three diking districts and interlocal agreements.

• Ordinance 25‑002 — Amendment No. 2 to interlocal agreement with City of Bothell for design of road improvements (220 Eighth St. SE between Fifth and Ninth Avenues SE; TIP project E63): approved 5‑0 (Dunn, Mead, Low, Peterson, Nehring). Public testimony: none. Staff: Deb Bell. Additional authorization requested: $1,019,313.

• Ordinance 25‑006 — Corrections to Title 13 (Snohomish County Code 13.11.0.01) restoring omitted subsections and a minor punctuation fix (codification follow‑up to Ordinance 21‑032): approved 5‑0 (Dunn, Mead, Low, Peterson, Nehring). Public testimony: none. Staff: Deb Bell.

• Ordinance 25‑010 — Clerical correction to effective dates in amended ordinances 24‑031, 24‑032 and 24‑033 (2024 comprehensive plan update under the Growth Management Act): approved 5‑0 (Dunn, Mead, Low, Peterson, Nehring). Public testimony: none. Staff: Ryan Countryman.

Why it matters: The flood grant awards provide program authority to disburse mitigation funds to local diking districts. The Bothell interlocal amendment moves forward a multimodal road redesign that includes lane widening and new bike lanes and requests a one‑time additional funding authorization of $1,019,313 to complete design work. The Title 13 corrections and the clerical effective‑date fix are administrative but necessary to ensure the county code and the comprehensive plan ordinances accurately reflect the council’s prior actions and legal effective dates.

What’s next: For the grant awards and interlocal agreement, the ordinances authorize the county executive (or designee) to execute interlocal agreements and related documents as needed to implement the projects; staff did not provide additional timelines at the hearing. No public testimony was recorded during the Feb. 19 public hearing.