SNOHOMISH COUNTY—The Snohomish County Council discussed updates its 2024 Growth Management Act Comprehensive Plan during its Public Hearing on Monday, August 19.

By state law the council is required to wait a total of seven days after a Final Environmental Impact Statement is finalized to act or vote on the 2024 Comprehensive Plan update. The Department of Planning and Development Services estimates that the FEIS will be completed on August 27 therefore action on adopting the Plan will be continued on Wednesday, September 11, 2024.

The county updates its Comprehensive Plan every ten years.

There are a total of nine ordinances each with their own set of amendments, some recommended by County Executive Dave Somers and others by council members, that collectively encompassed the Plan update. There are an additional two amendments still being considered.

The first amendment, Ordinance 24-026, amending the Official Zoning Map to Implement Changes to the Future Land Use Map, and Revisiting the Darrington Urban Growth Area, is a proposal by the town of Darrington to adjust its urban growth area. If adopted portions of Darrington’s land would be removed from its urban growth area and some land would become urban as a replacement. This would not affect Darrington’s growth in general, just where that growth takes place.

There is a proposed amendment to this ordinance that would delay its effectiveness until November unless subject to appeal, in which case it would wait for final order by the Growth Management Hearings board or a similar court of law, delaying its effectiveness by several months at a minimum.

The second ordinance, 24-027, is a proposal by CS Real Estate Development to re-designate and rezone properties on Bothell Everett Highway from urban industrial to urban center allowing for mixed use development on the site.

The third ordinance, 24-028, is a proposal by Mike Mietzner to allow taller buildings; 75 feet instead of 45 feet in a certain area west of State Route 99 when built to multiple residential building standards, up to 800 feet on the eastern edge of SR99 from Mukilteo Speedway North to the Everett city limits, up to 2,000 feet west of SR99 on both sides of Mukilteo Speedway.

Councilwoman Megan Dunn proposed a substitute ordinance which would increase the area requested by Mietzner to include all MR regulated property within 2,000 feet of the entire unincorporated length of SR99 in attempt to remove density and lock coverage limits in the area.

The fourth ordinance, 24-029, was proposed by the town of Woodway to expand its urban growth area into Puget Sound. The northern part of this expansion would take part of the existing incorporated town that already extends to the county line in Puget Sound while the southern part of the expansion would take in a pier that would extend beyond the land parcels into Puget Sound which would allow the town to annex the pier thus streamlining any future permitting on the site.

The fifth ordinance, 24-030, would extend the Southwest County Urban Growth Area east of Mill Creek and Bothell – including land along 43rd Avenue Southeast, as proposed by Councilwoman Megan Dunn and voted in favor by council. The Planning Commission also recommended this ordinance include land along Maltby Road.

An existing amendment to this would add a delayed effective date, similar to Ordinance 24-026, as well as a pending second amendment, sponsored by Councilman Sam Low, which is undergoing finalization of language and would increase the utility line from the King County boundary to the south to the border near Sunset Road.

The sixth ordinance, 24-031, makes future land map changes recommended by Executive Somers not addressed in earlier ordinances. Most of these would increase densities in the County Southwest Growth Area primarily.

So far there are two amendments to this ordinance with a third on the way, one adding a delayed effective date, the second corrects an error related to annexation and land that has been put into tribal trust status, and a pending third suggested by Councilman Low which would add additional expansion in three locations around the Maltby urban growth area as well as the Monroe urban growth area.

The seventh ordinance, 24-032, updates the County Official Zoning Map to be consistent with the future land map changes to be consistent with future land map changes laid out by the ordinances previously mentioned. The county uses two sets of maps in its planning. The maps that would be effected by this ordinance provide the specific direction of zoning regulation that implements the broader future land use maps of the comprehensive plan.

The amendments to this ordinance mirror the amendments to the prior ordinances in that it would include a delayed effective date, corrects errors related to tribal trust status, and expanding to Maltby and Monroe as sponsored by Councilman Low.

The eighth ordinance, 24-033, adopts Text Policy and Map Amendments to the comprehensive plan including the land capacity analysis of the plan update.

There are currently seven proposed amendments to this ordinance with County Executive Somers proposing the first four including delaying an effectiveness date, correcting a variety of housekeeping errors, updates land capacity analysis with new information, and updates the land capacity technical report with new information. The last four amendments were proposed by Councilwoman Dunn and includes: expanding the scope of the wildfire mitigation policy, strengthens climate change goals, and expands the scope of parking reductions, among other things.

The ninth and last ordinance, 24-065, adopts regulations for a new mixed use corridor zone – a key component to the rest of the plan – most of which would replace the existing commercial zoning along SR99 while also adding mixed use zones to 164th Street, 128th Street, 112th Street, and other locations.

The first amendment to this ordinance was proposed by Councilman Nate Nehring that would allow a mini self-storage as a permitting use. Amendment two, proposed by the Executive Branch, would allow farm stands on public property.

Public Comment

During the public comments section of Monday’s meeting many expressed concerns of losing rural areas in Snohomish County to dense, urban, development, speaking in favor of imposing a limit to urban development while preserving the county’s natural tree canopies.

The public comments section spanned nearly an hour – half of the two-hour meeting, with the majority of those comments speaking in favor of protecting Snohomish County’s lush greenery.

Alan Gibbs of Mill Creek expressed the necessity of maintaining trees for combatting climate change, urging the council to consider keeping the majority of the county’s tree canopies left uncut for wildlife preservation and other reasons.

Bonnie Headley of Snohomish spoke in favor of maintaining the county’s tree canopy as well, using California as an adverse example of urban sprawl “without a plan.”

Don Dillinger, also from Snohomish – a “small neighborhood group who cherish our green world,” he explained – echoed these comments in support of protecting the county’s tree canopies.

Those in favor of the county’s 2024 Comprehensive Plan as is, primarily business owners, spoke on how the expanded urban development zones would positively affect their businesses.

Electric Mirror, a south Everett-based interior decorating company, CEO Jim Mischel was in support of the County’s proposed comprehensive plan while requesting council add MV2 to the urban growth area to support his company’s plans of a future manufacturing facility.

Clay White of Mill Creek, on the other hand, testified in favor of the Maltby urban expansion, on behalf of his recycling company as well.