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Bothell planners seek community input for downtown subarea plan update
Summary
City staff briefed the Landmark Preservation Board on a planned update to Bothell’s 2009 downtown subarea plan, citing $200 million in public investments, recent growth, and new regional transit as reasons to revisit land use, urban design and historic-resource protections.
City of Bothell senior planner Eric Jasewski told the Landmark Preservation Board on Sept. 10 that the city will begin updating its downtown subarea plan to guide the next 20 years of growth and to implement targets in the recently adopted comprehensive plan. "The original downtown subarea plan for the city was adopted in 2009 and amended periodically," Jasewski said, adding that partners have since invested about $200,000,000 in downtown public improvements.
The update is intended to coordinate private and public investments, regulate land use and development, and plan city actions to support revitalization, Jasewski said. He described the downtown study area as stretching from the SR 522 bend to the QFC and Rite Aid on the northwest and from the Sammamish River to the University of Washington Bothell campus on the east.
Why the update matters: the city’s recently adopted comprehensive plan increased downtown growth targets. Jasewski said the comprehensive plan calls for 1,894 additional dwelling units and 730,000 square feet of commercial space downtown, and the update will plan for how to accommodate that growth while addressing design, housing, transportation, economic development and historic resources.
Jasewski outlined the proposed scope, which is subject to change after public engagement: public spaces and urban design, housing (with cross-reference to the citywide housing action plan), climate and resiliency measures, economic development, transportation in a constrained geography, redevelopment opportunity sites, and review of the downtown historic-resource regulations (cited in the packet as Bothell Municipal Code section 12.64.0505).
He said the update responds to recent investments such as the Bothell–Everett multi-way boulevard, the SR 522 realignment and a new city hall, and to about 19 new high-density residential and mixed-use developments that together added roughly 2,600 housing units (excluding about 1,000 UW Bothell campus dorms) and about 148 new downtown businesses since 2009.
Jasewski described the public engagement plan and consultant procurement: the city issued a pre-engagement survey in June and has selected Burke Consulting to lead a broader visioning and engagement program planned to begin in the fall. The engagement approach will include open houses, virtual forums, tabling at community events, walking tours and targeted outreach to underrepresented groups to incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion principles.
Board members asked about the composition of engagement—whether the city would again use a standing stakeholder group that met regularly during the 2009 process—and about how the plan would address Indigenous contributions. Jasewski said the outreach will both recreate past useful stakeholder convenings and expand proactive outreach, and that the plan will include a more robust section on pre-European-contact history and coordination with tribal nations during engagement.
Jasewski closed by asking the board for input on the scope and on how historic and cultural resources should be addressed in the update.
