Lake Stevens planning commission reviews draft traffic concurrency code and impact‑fee methodology

The Lake Stevens Planning Commission examined draft amendments to the city’s concurrency rules and traffic impact‑fee methodology during its Oct. 15 meeting, with Planning Manager Christy Schmidt presenting deliverables from Transpo Engineering and staff outlining next steps before City Council consideration.

Christy Schmidt, planning manager, told commissioners: “There was a total of 9 items, including the staff report. They are listed above. In short, they contain a clean version and a strikeout version of both the code amendment sections, in addition to a new map for our traffic impact zones, along with summaries of the Concurrency Traffic Study Handbook and the Traffic Impact Developer Workbook, along with our cost analysis document.” Schmidt said the materials are draft and that the city issued the required 60‑day notice to the Washington State Department of Commerce on Oct. 3, which prevents council adoption until after Dec. 9.

Why it matters: the amendments would align Lake Stevens’ level‑of‑service standards with the city’s recently adopted comprehensive plan, incorporate multimodal standards, update trip‑generation methodology (ITE), and set a revised impact fee…