Architectural board warns staff‑led design review rewrite could curtail citizen oversight as council reopens code for HB‑1293 compliance

The Edmonds City Council continued a public hearing on May 27 on proposed design review code amendments intended to comply with state streamlining requirements and to replace subjective language with clear, objective standards.

Planning staff said the changes respond to House Bill 1293 and are aimed at eliminating the two‑phase downtown review process, consolidating scattered design criteria and replacing non‑measurable language with clear, objective standards that staff can administer without discretionary hearings in most cases. “HB 1293 requires us to streamline design review. It allows us or requires us to have no more than one public hearing,” planner Brad Shipley told council; staff described a phased approach that would place compliance‑required changes before council while moving non‑required refinements to a later…