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Commissioners consider 300–1,000 foot buffer options for emergency shelters; many favor 500 feet
Summary
Staff showed maps tying proposed buffer distances to parks, schools and child-care sites and discussed procedural effects of larger notice areas; commissioners generally supported a roughly 500-foot buffer while asking staff to require site management and supportive services.
City planners presented mapping and draft code language on Sept. 17 to show how protective-distance requirements around emergency shelters would affect siting in Lake Stevens, and commissioners gave staff feedback that tended toward a 500-foot buffer from a subset of sensitive uses.
Principal Planner David Levitan told the commission that state legislation (referenced in the packet as “house bill 12 20 from, way back in 2021”) requires that emergency shelters be permitted in zones that allow hotels. Staff mapped the city’s commercial subareas—Downtown Lake Stevens, Twentieth Street corridor, Lake Stevens Center, Soper Hill and Frontier Village—and then overlaid buffers around parks, schools, licensed child-care centers and libraries to show potential impacts at 300 feet, 500 feet and 1,000 feet.
Why it matters: larger buffer distances substantially restrict…
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