Everett planning staff outline major update to critical-area rules, sparking debate on stream buffers

Planning Director York Wachtel told the Everett City Council on April 1 that the city is moving forward with a comprehensive periodic update to its critical area regulations to improve clarity and align local code with state best available science.

The briefing described the scope of critical areas (streams, wetlands, priority wildlife habitat, steep slopes, seismic hazard areas and flood zones), explained the legal framework under the Growth Management Act and Washington Administrative Code, and outlined structural changes to Chapter 19.37 intended to make the rules easier for residents, developers and staff to use.

Wachtel said the update includes both organizational changes and substantive edits: clearer definitions, a reworked sequence of avoidance/minimization/mitigation, expanded lists of exemptions and allowed uses, a new section on nonconforming structures in critical areas, and provisions to incentivize voluntary daylighting of piped streams. "We restructured the chapter so someone dealing only with streams…