Shoreline unveils draft five-year economic development strategy; council urges focus on small business and place-making

City economic-development staff presented a draft five-year economic development strategy to the Shoreline City Council on June 23, detailing six interrelated focus areas intended to translate the comprehensive plan’s 20-year goals into near-term actions.

Esteban Daum, who led the presentation, said the strategy "sets the next 5 years" and is grounded in the comprehensive plan, the newly adopted city strategic plan and resident input. Staff highlighted the city’s planning assumptions — 13,000 new housing units and an aspirational goal of 10,000 new jobs over the 20-year planning horizon — and said the five-year strategy will focus on smaller-scale actions to support local business, placemaking and jobs closer to home.

The strategy emphasizes small-business supports as foundational, including expanding partnerships with the Washington Small Business Development Center, exploring use of city-owned property to host business services, and piloting pop-up activations such as food-cart pods, night markets and other low-cost opportunities to incubate new businesses. Staff cited the farmers market and recent rail-station events as examples of activations that catalyzed local activity. "Small businesses are the backbone of the economy," the presentation said.

Staff proposed several illustrative initiatives: assessing feasibility of using city-owned office space to incubate businesses, tailoring the multifamily tax-exemption (MFTE) program to neighborhood conditions, pursuing placemaking projects around transit stations, promoting the creative economy (including film production and live music), and preparing for tourism opportunities tied to major events such as the World Cup. The draft also called out life-sciences growth potential tied to Shoreline Community College and identified Shoreline Place, the 140 Eighth Street station area and the Fircrest site as key opportunity areas.

Council members broadly praised the report but sought sharper prioritization. Council member Scully said she values the staff's productivity but asked the department to focus on a shorter list of the most achievable near-term items. Council members and public commenters raised several concerns and suggestions: whether the 10,000-jobs target is realistic or appropriate as a short-term organizing metric; potential environmental and infrastructure implications of explicitly calling out artificial intelligence and data-center growth; and opportunities to recruit medical and zero-waste businesses. Council member Ademasu recommended deemphasizing AI on the growth-industry list and adding health-care and zero-waste sectors for outreach.

Several council members asked staff to consider adjustments to the MFTE program to reflect local affordability realities and to identify where incentives or requirements could better support neighborhood commercial diversity. A council member asked staff to explore more public–private partnerships for parks and activations; staff pointed to an ongoing parks acquisition and to examples in the draft where private partners and grants could help deliver amenities such as a pump track and adjacent retail.

Staff said the draft will be brought back to the council for further discussion and potential action; the item is scheduled for the July 14 meeting and staff offered to return with revisions based on council direction. "We can certainly continue the discussion," Daum said. Council members asked for a tighter set of prioritized near-term actions and clearer measures of success when the strategy returns for further consideration.