Mountlake Terrace planning commission lays out 2025 work program, flags June 15 middle-housing deadline

The Mountlake Terrace planning commission on Thursday reviewed its 2024 accomplishments and presented a packed 2025 work program that will focus on middle-housing code changes, a critical-areas update, and implementation steps arising from the recently adopted comprehensive plan.

Christie Osborne, Community and Economic Development Director, told the council the planning commission helped prepare the city’s comprehensive plan update, reviewed an environmental impact statement and recommended multiple code amendments last year. "They worked on all of the elements in the plan, which include utilities, capital facilities, land use, transportation, and the like," Osborne said.

The nut of the commission’s 2025 agenda is implementation. Osborne described items staff and commissioners plan to finish this year: a housing action plan funded with ARPA dollars to analyze feasible housing types; code updates to comply with state requirements for unit- and fee-simple lot subdivisions; a refresh of the city’s critical-areas ordinance to reflect best available science on wetlands, frequently flooded areas, fish and wildlife habitat, aquifer recharge, and hillside areas; and the state-mandated middle-housing code changes that "need to be adopted by June fifteenth of this year," she said.

Chair Bautista — a planning commissioner the presentation described as a long-serving member — asked staff to begin preliminary discussions on remaining sub-area updates so the commission can phase that work into future cycles. Council members who commented praised the commission’s work on the comprehensive-plan update. Council member Murray said it was a "huge body of work," and Mayor Pro Tem Wall emphasized that 2025 is critical to implement the plan and update development regulations so the city’s vision is reflected in its codes.

Osborne also flagged non-code work: a water- and sewer-plan update led by public works, a second review of the engineering design manual after a year of use, permit-processing timeline changes required by the legislature and new staffing support for development-review tasks. Chair Bautista and commissioners also want to reexamine the size and boundaries of sub areas so neighborhood identities and targeted regulations better match local conditions.

The commission did not take a formal council vote during the presentation; commissioners will return recommended code changes and ordinance language to council as those items are ready for formal review. Staff said it will bring draft code amendments and proposed ordinance language on the middle-housing and critical-areas updates to planning commission and then to council for action before the stated June 15 deadline.

Planning staff will continue to brief commission and council on six-month development-review updates that show current proposals and construction activity around the city.