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 intent to add clearer definitions and diagrams so developers and reviewers know whether to apply the green-building incentive or a community-benefits bonus floor incentive when a project qualifies for both.

Community commenters raised concerns about how rezoning to mixed-use hubs could affect longtime residents. Mike Henderson, who said he has lived in Edmonds about 30 years and walks the neighborhoods, told the board he was surprised by the proposed rezoning and worried new rules would allow future owners to build taller structures than current homeowners could under past rules. “It is surprising to me that we feel a necessary need to rezone this area…someone who buys the property can do things that I couldn't do for the last 30 years,” Henderson said.

Other residents described site-specific constraints in the “North of” neighborhood: Marty Ronish said Grandview Street is essentially a narrow dead-end alley with storm-drain and sewer challenges; Rick Hood said GIS maps have errors showing a through street where there is not one; and Tara Allen said recent internal rules limiting changes to existing footprints had already prevented a planned remodel on her small lot.

Navisha said staff heard those concerns at the public hearing and will test standards against typical lot sizes and produce massing illustrations to show how proposed heights and setbacks would affect surrounding single-family homes. She said critical-area rules and the tree code remain in force and note that any development will still have to satisfy those existing environmental and tree-retention requirements.

Staff announced a tentative outreach schedule: an online open house and materials going live in early March, walk tours in mid-March, a City Council briefing April 8, a Council public hearing April 9, and a final Planning Board recommendation on May 14. Navisha said the schedule is tentative and that staff will post updates on the city webpage and email subscribers.

Planning board members pressed staff on specific items to include in the permanent code: clarifying how the bonus-height incentives can be tied to affordable units; establishing systematic setback rules (for example, limiting height to 30 feet within the first 20 feet adjacent to single-family property lines); and whether the quarter-mile radius used to define “major transit stops” should be applied consistently or only when transit stops meet certain criteria. Jeremy, a Planning Board member, asked staff to include quarter-mile radii around major transit stops on maps used during future walk tours.

Navisha said staff will return with draft code language, graphics, and block massing models and will test those standards on prototypical lots in each center and hub before the permanent ordinance is released.

The board did not take a formal vote on the permanent ordinance at this meeting; staff sought guidance and said it will return with draft language and graphics for further review.