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Mill Creek adopts comprehensive plan updates, focuses future growth on South Town Center
Summary
Council and staff completed a 10-year comprehensive plan update required by the State Growth Management Act and concentrated projected growth in the newly defined South Town Center subarea to protect single-family neighborhoods and leverage transit corridors.
Mill Creek leaders said the city completed its 10-year comprehensive-plan update and concentrated most projected growth in a South Town Center subarea to protect single-family neighborhoods and align growth with existing transit corridors.
The update matters because it responds to the State Growth Management Act requirement that cities plan for population projections every decade; placing growth in a subarea aims to direct development where infrastructure and transit already exist.
Mayor Brian Holzklaw said the planning process, led by staff and the planning commission with council review, deliberately focused future growth “down there” in what the city now calls the South Town Center, extending zoning south to the South side of the QFC near South 160th. Holzklaw said the change reflects two aims: promoting economic development in a location served by transit and protecting single-family neighborhoods after residents asked for that protection. “What we heard loud and clear from the residents was protect the single family neighborhoods,” he said.
The mayor and staff said the decision was informed by regional transit plans; Holzklaw referenced the Green Line along 527 and the Orange Line on 160th as transit investments that support concentrating density in the subarea. Council and staff also toured comparable developments in surrounding cities to see how mixed-use nodes can look in practice.
Council members and staff emphasized that the update places capacity “on paper” — meeting state planning requirements — and does not itself dictate immediate development approvals. The city also flagged a separate but related planning effort: a financial due-diligence study on potential annexation of portions of the urban growth area to determine whether annexation would be revenue-positive and align with long-term goals. Holzklaw said staff expect that report in the coming months and that no annexation decisions have been made.
Another ongoing topic is the DRCC property. The city has invested roughly $8.4 million in that parcel over the last 15 years and officials said they are evaluating realistic long-term uses — from a public-works facility to a community facility that could include partnerships with local organizations. Holzklaw said site topography and cost have limited some earlier ideas, such as developing sports fields, and the council is working to narrow options.
Officials asked residents to engage in planning conversations as the council refines subarea planning and potential facility decisions so the city can align public investments with community priorities.
