Council holds public hearing on Lynnwood Public Facilities District master plan and development agreement

City staff and the Lynnwood Public Facilities District (PFD) presented a proposed development agreement on Sept. 22 that would guide redevelopment of a 13-acre city-center site around the Lynnwood Event Center, including multiuse housing, a hotel, an expanded event center and a parking garage.

The city’s director of development and business services, Director Walters, told the council the agreement would “guide the master plan redevelopment of the Lynnwood Public Facilities District campus” and that the plan “provides mixed use development for housing, retail, hotel” while accounting for public benefits such as open space, art, stormwater improvements and affordable housing. Walters said the term proposed for the agreement is 15 years to allow for the scale and phasing of the project.

The proposal sketches a conceptual site plan that shows residential buildings with ground-floor retail, a hotel (currently envisioned at roughly 300 rooms), a planned parking garage to serve the event center, and an expanded event center footprint. Walters said the plan anticipates “a 500-plus parking garage” and that the PFD and city are discussing a financing and maintenance arrangement for a ring road to serve the site.

Residents who testified at the legislative public hearing raised repeated concerns about parking, noise, traffic and the project’s potential fiscal exposure to the city. Ted Heichel, a longtime Lynnwood resident, told the council the development agreement “is full of holes,” asked whether the parking garage would be in place when the expanded event center opened, and urged the council not to approve an agreement that leaves the city financially exposed. Several neighbors from streets abutting the project said conceptual parking levels—0.5 stalls per unit for multifamily in the plan’s baseline—were inadequate and predicted spillover street parking into adjacent cul-de-sacs.

Rosa Maria Graziani, who said she and other neighbors signed a petition, said, “We are dreading having a huge apartment complex that don't have two spots per unit. So they will park in our street.” She urged the council to require developers to cover the costs of parking and infrastructure rather than relying on city funds.

Several speakers representing the PFD, local hotels and business groups argued the redevelopment would yield economic benefits. Chip Peterson, general manager of the Hilton Garden Inn, told the council an expanded event center and additional hotel capacity would attract multiday conventions and overnight stays, increasing lodging tax revenue and local business activity. PFD board members and legal counsel said they had worked closely with city staff on the master plan and had attempted to design mitigation and landscaping to reduce neighborhood impacts.

Janet Pope, executive director of the Lynnwood Public Facilities District, said the district supports a residential parking zone and is working with the city on strategies to protect adjacent neighborhoods during large events. Legal counsel Ray Liao described design measures and a future off-site parking/shuttle model for peak large-event days.

City staff repeatedly emphasized the phased nature of the project and the existence of regulatory and financial safeguards. Walters said the development capacity proposed would fit within the environmental review and City Center subarea plan and that the municipal code and state law authorize development agreements when they are consistent with the comprehensive plan. The staff presentation noted alternatives for residential capacity (a baseline of just over 400 multifamily units, with a higher-density alternative up to 550 units and a still-higher scenario up to 795 units) and reiterated that the agreement would set design standards, phasing triggers and a process for future amendments.

Councilmembers and staff confirmed key schedule milestones: a PFD board vote on Oct. 7 and a city council vote on Oct. 13 (dates provided by staff during the hearing). Walters said schematic design for the ring road could be completed about a year after agreement approval, with schematic design for an expanded event center taking longer (18 months or more).

The public hearing closed after roughly an hour of public testimony and council clarifying questions. No final legislative decision was taken at the Sept. 22 meeting; the hearing record will accompany later council consideration and a future vote. PFD officials and staff said they will continue design work and outreach, and the city pointed to existing tools (for example, the city’s on-street residential parking permit authority, LMC chapter 11.48) as mechanisms to mitigate parking pressure if it occurs.

The hearing produced detailed questions about financing, phasing and neighborhood mitigation that council members directed to staff and the PFD. Walters and PFD representatives said financing would likely be a combination of private development, grants, PFD bonds or loans and potential state funding for an expanded event center, and that specific financing decisions would be the subject of later approvals.