Council approved contract to draft citywide design and construction standards, liaison says

Council Member Johnson told the Planning Commission that, at the council's last meeting, the City approved a contract with consultant Pertit to begin drafting a single set of City of Snoqualmie design and construction standards.

"The way that it currently works is if you look up a zoning map of the city, there are a whole bunch of colors downtown and pretty much most of Snoqualmie Ridge is a big grayish, tannish blob," Johnson said, describing how the existing standards and development agreements are spread across multiple documents. He said the consultant work is intended to "figure out what this would be to effectively bring the rest of the city into the code, which, yeah, would be used citywide."

Johnson said the contract does not itself adopt standards; it begins the process of consolidating existing development agreements, mixed-use plans and other documents into a single code so future private and public projects would be handled under a consistent standard. He said the effort will be a "large lift," will take time and will involve the Planning Commission because the commission reviews code amendments and forwards recommendations to council.

Johnson invited commissioners' questions; none were substantive. The council-approved contract and any draft amendments will return to the Planning Commission for review during the code-amendment process.

No dollar amounts or contract dates were given in Johnson’s report.

Ending: The item was informational; staff and the Planning Commission will participate in later steps when draft standards are ready for review.