Snoqualmie committee prioritizes comp-plan rezoning and affordable-housing retention amid staffing constraints
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Summary
At a Snoqualmie Community Development Committee meeting, members prioritized a comprehensive plan amendment and rezoning of the ridge to meet a PSRC conditional-certification deadline, emphasized retaining existing affordable housing, and asked staff to return with resource needs and timelines.
Snoqualmie’s Community Development Committee agreed on a narrowed set of priorities Wednesday evening, placing the city’s comprehensive-plan amendment and rezoning work tied to a Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) conditional certification at the top of the list while flagging the urgent need to retain existing affordable housing and to bolster department staffing.
Community Development Director Davis told the committee that rezoning the ridge will require updates to the zoning map, revisions to the housing and land-use elements and a buildable-lands analysis as part of a comprehensive-plan amendment. “So the first bullet is rezoning. So that's basically updating our zoning map and rezoning the area on the ridge that is entirely zone mixed use to reflect what the built out developments entail,” Director Davis said, summarizing the technical work that a consultant and public outreach will need to support.
Davis said the PSRC-related package is time-sensitive: “So the work that PSRC has given us conditional certification on is due by the 2026. The climate element update is not due until 2029,” she said, noting that some climate-element work has grant support that can be resumed in 2028. The director added that the comp-plan amendment must be adopted by the city council by the end of the year to receive full certification and preserve access to certain state capital grant funding.
Members repeatedly returned to capacity and sequencing. The mayor cautioned the committee not to set expectations the city cannot meet without additional staff, saying the administration is hiring and will report back with resource estimates. “This list, we do not have staff to do this list,” the mayor said, and later noted the city had received multiple applications for an associate-planner position and will likely need outside firms for parts of the work.
Council members discussed balancing the long, resource-intensive rezoning effort against more immediate actions to sustain the city’s housing stock. Council member Johnson urged care in any zoning overhaul and suggested exploring newer approaches such as form-based codes; Council member Murphy emphasized tracking state requirements and said retaining existing affordable housing “rises to the top” as a near-term priority.
The mayor also reminded the committee that the city already has a private development agreement intended to deliver a substantial number of housing units, including a significant affordable component, and said staff will continue to coordinate with the developer. “The fifth bullet, which is creating new affordable housing… we have a development agreement with a developer who's gonna put in a significant number of housing units, including a significant portion of them that are affordable,” the mayor said.
Procedural items were handled without objection: the agenda and the minutes from Feb. 2 were approved, and Council member Murphy moved to adjourn at the end of the meeting. Chair Louis Washington closed the meeting at 6:51 p.m.
Next steps: committee members directed staff to (1) treat the PSRC-related comprehensive-plan and rezoning work as the top priority, (2) prepare specific resource and timeline estimates for the committee’s review, (3) pursue near-term measures to retain existing affordable housing where feasible, and (4) return quarterly with progress reports and any recommended contracting or budget requests.
