Everett staff present complete draft of Critical Areas Ordinance update; commissioners seek site-level impact examples

City planning staff presented a complete draft update of Everett's Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) at the Planning Commission's Nov. 4 meeting and asked the commission and outside agencies for review before returning Nov. 18 for deliberation and a public hearing. Planning Director York Steven Swadge and environmental planner Teddy Holbrook said the update reorganizes Chapter 19.37, clarifies mitigation sequencing and mitigation-banking language, and aligns local rules with state 'best available science.'

The draft is intended to reaffirm the city's policy of "no net loss" to ecological functions while balancing existing development and property rights, staff said. "The best available science applies throughout the state," Holbrook said, adding that larger stream buffers recommended by updated science (in some cases moving toward 100 feet for greater pollutant reduction) may in practice have less effect in Everett where many streams are flanked by wetlands and slopes.

Why it matters: updates to the CAO can change how development near streams, wetlands, and steep slopes is reviewed and permitted. Commissioners pressed staff to provide concrete, site-specific examples of how proposed buffer and enforcement…