Mill Creek planning commission reviews South Town Center draft, presses on commercial space, parking and stormwater

The City of Mill Creek Planning Commission spent its Jan. 15 study session reviewing an early draft of the South Town Center Master Plan and pressing staff for more data on commercial square footage, parking capacity and stormwater resilience.

Staff framed the presentation as a review of a rough preliminary draft and said the plan responds to four priorities from earlier outreach: pedestrian flow, public gathering spaces and restrooms, retail diversity and preservation of green space and trail connections. The team presented three development alternatives: a baseline that retains current rules (roughly 60-foot height limits), a higher-density option that would allow up to 80–85 feet and require more ground-floor commercial, and a mixed-density middle ground with variable heights between 60 and 85 feet.

Commissioners repeatedly pressed staff on the plan’s economic and infrastructure assumptions. When asked for a current figure for commercial space in the subarea, staff said the town center currently contains about "581,000 square feet" of commercial uses but noted the number includes medical and office uses and that a chart under review suggested a somewhat lower effective commercial total (staff said it could be closer to 530,000–560,000 sq ft depending on classification). "All of these commercial square footages are lower than what exists now," staff said, adding that the alternatives present a smaller gross commercial footprint but a different, higher-value mix of retail that could…