Commissioners consider 300–1,000 foot buffer options for emergency shelters; many favor 500 feet

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 where shelters could be sited in the city’s commercially zoned areas. At 300 feet, downtown is constrained but still has siting options; at 500 feet most of downtown would be excluded; at 1,000 feet virtually no downtown commercial land would remain available for shelters, staff said.

Key points from staff and commissioners

- Levitan said the draft supplementary-use regulations treat emergency shelters and emergency housing differently from permanent supportive housing and transitional housing. The latter uses would follow a different regulatory approach and are not subject to the same buffer discussion.

- Staff noted that proposing a 300-foot public-notice area would likely trigger a Type 2 permit (which includes public notice and opportunity for comment) rather than a Type 1, because the 300-foot notice area is typical of a Type 2 process.

- Commissioners debated which protected uses should generate buffers. Several commissioners said schools should be prioritized; others said parks should not necessarily receive the same weight because parks are used primarily by adults and not by children during school hours. Commissioners discussed the practicalities of siting near transit and supportive services.

- Commissioner Connor Davis cited regional shelter examples and urged keeping shelters away from schools; Commissioner Doer (also referenced as Dewar in parts of the record) and Commissioner Packard said they favored a defensible 500-foot standard; Commissioner Morgan said 300 feet could be reasonable if schools are prioritized differently.

- Levitan said the city currently has no facilities that qualify as emergency housing and that council member Jorstad has noted the likelihood of shelters being sited in Lake Stevens is relatively low because of limited transit and services compared with denser nearby cities.

Staff direction and next steps

Staff said it will relay commission feedback to the city council at a briefing next week, refine draft code language to clarify which uses and triggers would apply, and continue preparing materials for public hearings. Staff also said they would keep the supplementary-use regulations that emphasize site management plans, sanitation and supportive services; commissioners asked that those requirements be explicit and sustained as a condition of approval.

Ending

Commissioners provided preliminary direction favoring a middle-ground buffer (many cited 500 feet) with clear site-management and supportive-service requirements; staff will present updated draft language and maps to the council and return to the commission before public hearings.