Snoqualmie committee backs planning commission retail-overlay boundaries, directs ordinance to council

The Snoqualmie Community Development Committee on May 5 directed staff to advance amendments that would require a minimum of 90% of storefronts in defined downtown areas to be retail uses and to forward an ordinance and a companion resolution to the City Council for consideration.

The change under consideration would apply the 90% retail, 10% nonretail threshold to storefronts facing Falls Avenue, select parcels on Railroad Avenue and storefronts along Center Boulevard, and would remove the existing retail-waiver process that allows exceptions.

"To require that a minimum of 90% of those storefronts consists of retail uses as defined in the code," said Andrew Levins, a land use planning consultant assisting the city, describing the proposal and the boundary alternatives staff prepared after the committee’s April discussion. The committee heard staff recommended following the Planning Commission’s earlier recommendation for the downtown boundary.

Committee members discussed how the overlay would treat four parcels on Falls Avenue that are currently used as residences. City attorney (identified in the meeting transcript as City attorney) said the municipal code provision for nonconforming uses generally applies in these cases: "it's section 17.55 0.04 of the of, Snoqualmie's code under section c 3. It's if it stops for 24 months Okay. Then it has to remain." Committee members and staff clarified that those residences are already nonconforming ground-floor residential uses in a retail zone and could continue as residences unless the residential use ceased for the code’s vacancy period.

Members also debated how broadly to draw the Center Boulevard boundary. Staff presented three maps: the existing extent, the Planning Commission’s recommended polygon focused on walkable storefronts, and expanded alternatives that would add the commercial building housing Dollar Tree and Starbucks and, in one scenario, larger retail parcels south of Snoqualmie Parkway including Safeway and former IGA property. City Administrator and council members said larger, big-box or automobile-oriented sites such as Safeway should be handled differently because of their scale and tax implications; one council member said Safeway closing could be "the most nightmare scenario" for sales and property tax revenue.

Council members pressed technical questions about measurement and definitions: whether the 90% threshold counts storefronts/doorways rather than square footage, and whether certain uses such as banks or childcare centers count as retail. Andrew Levins said definitions differ between the downtown and the ridge (Center Boulevard) and that some automobile-oriented or drive-through uses currently would not qualify as retail under the code’s pedestrian‑oriented retail definition. One committee member suggested the Dollar Tree/Starbucks building could reasonably be included in the walkable area, while others said the former IGA/Safeway parcels are outliers better handled in a broader zoning review.

Staff also proposed a code cleanup to rename the existing "Downtown Historic District retail overlay zone" to "retail use overlay zone" to reduce public confusion between historic-landmark overlays and the proposed use-focused overlay. Mona Davis, community development director, noted the change would make interpretation easier for the public: "we had a discussion at our last meeting, which was on April 21, to talk about the, retail overlay." Committee members emphasized that the proposal is not a rezoning but an overlay addressing permitted uses and that the ordinance would need to precede a related resolution that updates mixed‑use final plan conditions.

Action and next steps: the committee directed staff to prepare the ordinance and related resolution consistent with the Planning Commission’s recommended boundaries for downtown (attachments 1 and 3 in the staff memo) and to bring the ordinance to City Council for readings in May, with the companion resolution to follow in early June. Staff and the committee agreed to clarify in council materials that the change is an overlay (not a rezone) and to include the code‑cleanup renaming.

The ordinance and resolution will return to the City Council for formal consideration; the committee did not take a final legislative vote at the May 5 meeting.

Background: The amendments aim to preserve walkable downtown storefronts by limiting the number of nonretail ground-floor uses in the overlay area, while leaving currently nonconforming residential uses in place unless they cease for the vacancy period specified in the municipal code.

What’s next: Staff will prepare the ordinance and updated agenda bill language reflecting the committee’s direction for City Council review.