Planning staff outlines permanent code changes, schedules community outreach for neighborhood centers and hubs

Navisha, a city planning staff member, told the Edmonds Planning Board that the interim neighborhood-centers-and-hubs ordinance adopted Jan. 14 will be replaced by a permanent ordinance to be adopted by June 2025 and that staff will begin community outreach in early March.

The interim ordinance creates three mixed-use subdistricts (MU3, MU4 and MU5) and sets standards for permitted uses, site development, signage, landscaping, bicycle and EV parking, and design features. Navisha said staff plans to add clearer language for transition zones between taller mixed-use buildings and adjacent single-family areas, to specify setbacks where bonus floor-area or height incentives apply, and to provide graphical examples for incentives that are mutually exclusive rather than additive.

“Right now the interim ordinance says exceptions are not additive. No more than one of the exceptions shall apply to any building, but often this is left unnoticed,” Navisha said, describing staff…