Planning director outlines color‑palette changes, retail overlay, mill‑site and museum updates; commissioners flag parking and Ridge business losses

Mona, the city’s community development director, briefed the Economic Development Commission on May 21 about recent planning and development items and the next steps staff expects to take.

Mona said the planning commission approved a revised historic downtown color palette and will forward the change to the city council. "We increased 4 groupings of color to 52 colors... 53 colors that can be used," she said, adding the change is intended to make it easier for businesses to repaint without lengthy variance processes.

Mona said the city is moving a retail overlay and revised retail development standards through council to require a retail component for 90% of properties along downtown Railroad Avenue; a resolution to extend the retail overlay to Center Boulevard is expected afterward. She said the sequencing is necessary to align municipal code updates with the Ridge’s mixed‑use final plan.

On redevelopment projects, Mona listed current items in permitting or pre‑application discussion: the mill site (cleanup and pre‑application meetings), a Bridal Train Museum proposal (site under study, potential location near the bowling alley/King Street), the approved Roundhouse project and a Snoqualmie Valley Health expansion that has site plan approval but is in the SEPA appeal period. "The Snoqualmie Valley health expansion received their site plan approval and their SEPA decision last week. So that's currently in the appeal period," she said.

Commissioners raised near‑term issues that would follow from new attractions and development. Gary and others asked whether downtown parking would be adequate for a museum; Nicole noted the city had identified roughly "353 parking spots in Downtown Snoqualmie that we've identified that do not currently include the street lot." Mona said proposed museum teams would submit traffic and visitation studies as part of permitting and that staff would review parking demand and turnover.

Several commissioners also discussed commercial vacancies in the Ridge/business park and impacts from Highway 18 commuting patterns. Mona said staff has recently received data showing more departures from the business park than expected and is working to inventory what remains, validate contacts and consider options for incentives or outreach. "We need to get a better handle of what is actually going on at the business park," she said.

Commissioners asked about a major retailer/pharmacy tenant change: Bartell Drugs is expected to close a Ridge location; staff said the city will begin conversations with the large supermarket operator (Safeway) and other stakeholders about covering pharmacy services, building reuse and tenant transitions.

Mona said her office is hiring permit‑tech and planning staff and expects greater capacity this summer to process permits and support the EDC’s business outreach and code‑implementation work.