LYNNWOOD — Lynnwood City Council President Nick Coelho and Councilwoman Chelsea Wright returned attended the 34th Congress for the New Urbanism in Northwest Arkansas (CNU 34), where they joined planners, developers, elected officials and designers for workshops on strengthening suburban communities through walkable design, mixed housing and incremental change.
The Congress for the New Urbanism is a nonprofit that promotes human-scaled neighborhoods with walkable blocks, diverse housing types and accessible public spaces as alternatives to post-World War II sprawl. Its charter emphasizes reforming zoning, reducing car dependence and creating sustainable places that work for residents, businesses and local governments.
CNU 34, held May 12-16, 2026, in Fayetteville and Bentonville, featured parallel sessions across the two cities, pre-conference tracks for local government officials and builders, and a community open house. Sessions covered middle housing, suburban retrofit, fire code reform, trail-oriented development and regional growth strategies tailored to fast-growing areas.
Coelho described the conference as focused on “suburban retrofit” rather than turning suburbs into dense urban cores.
“Most sessions were not about turning suburbs into dense urban cities,” he wrote in a statement to the Lynnwood Times. “Instead, the focus was on helping places like Lynnwood evolve incrementally using the infrastructure and neighborhoods we already have.”
Many case studies he studied mirrored Lynnwood’s challenges: aging commercial corridors, disconnected streets and trails, housing affordability and the need for stronger community identity. One example involved transforming underperforming strip malls and oversized parking lots into neighborhood centers with housing, restaurants, small businesses and gathering spaces.
Coelho shared a presentation on the Wheatland Plaza, where a struggling $2.5 million strip mall was redeveloped into an $18 million mixed-use center serving far more community needs.
Workshops he attended also addressed “gentle density,” neighborhood-led street improvements and cutting unnecessary permitting barriers for small-scale projects.
“The greatest theme I picked up on was that cities do not need to demolish themselves to improve,” Coelho said.
His biggest takeaway from the conference he shared was that “suburban retrofit” ideas are “anti-fragility,” focused on adapting everyday spaces to new uses rather than fighting change.
Councilwoman Wright, who attended Local Government Day and workshops on middle housing, the future of suburbia, re-evaluating New Urbanism, building codes in Dallas and Memphis, fire codes and early community engagement, echoed the same practical, hands-on focus that Council President Coelho described.
“New urbanism is kind of like this theory of building strong communities with urban design practices, making things walkable, less cars, having different types of housing, a wide range of housing that fits every type of income,” Chelsea told the Lynnwood Times.
She gravitated toward middle housing solutions — options between single-family homes and large apartments — because Lynnwood residents often say they want to “live, work, and play” locally but current options fall short. Wright lives in middle housing herself after buying and fixing up a condo with her father and is committed to preserving Lynnwood’s small-town charm and green space while adding gentle density.
“I like gentle density. I don’t want it to be so compact that we’re all on top of each other and we lose what makes this area very cool,” Wright said. “I like some densification. But I also like green. I like when you can walk out. You can smell the fresh air. You can see the birds. You can see the green, the trees.”
Wright shared her concerns about Seattle’s HOPE VI projects and gentrification in the Central District, where longtime residents, including Black families, were displaced—something she will fight against.
“How do we leave these legacies of these homes that our families have worked really hard for?” Wright asked adding that housing is a primary means for a lot of people to build generational wealth to traverse the socioeconomic spectrum.
Both council members saw direct applications from what they learned from the conference for Lynnwood.
Wright pointed to the city’s already walkable City Center and the potential to extend that to older neighborhoods: “I would love to see our community engaged in these things a lot earlier than what I’ve seen… have our residents talk to these people who are developers and builders and planners as well, not just the council.”
The conference, Wright and Coelho shared, reinforced that Lynnwood can grow without losing its character — by retrofitting existing spaces, adding gentle density and middle housing options, engaging neighbors early and planning thoughtfully for transit-driven growth.
Workshops both council members attended also aligned closely with the city’s adopted 2021 Housing Action Plan, which sets goals to produce housing that meets community needs, preserve affordable units, partner for equitable solutions and prepare for growth while maintaining quality of life. The plan explicitly calls for “missing middle housing types such as accessory dwelling units, duplexes, multiplexes, and townhomes,” updating codes to remove barriers, supporting transit-oriented development around light rail and continuing two-way community conversations about housing.
Author: Mario Lotmore
