by Teresa Wippel
May 28, 2025
Link to My Edmonds News article
The Edmonds City Council spent much of its time Tuesday talking about updating the city’s middle housing development code — a process that must be completed by the end of the month. The council also heard from four community volunteers representing Keep Edmonds Vibrant, who presented the results of their month-long civic engagement initiative.
The Keep Edmonds Vibrant group faced some initial pushback before the presentation began, as two councilmembers attempted to pull its report from the agenda. Councilmember Michelle Dotsch made the motion to remove the item, stating that giving one particular group 30 minutes to present their ideas to the council was unfair to other citizens who are relegated to making three-minute public comments. Councilmember Jenna Nand, who seconded the motion, agreed, arguing that the council needed “more uniformity in who we allot time at a public meeting to, and the length of time that we would allot to them.”
Councilmember Vivian Olson said that while she agrees it is important in the future to “develop a policy on who will get council time,” it would be “disrepectful” to prevent those in the group who were planning to present from doing so.
Other councilmembers, including Chris Eck and Susan Paine, spoke to the importance of trying new ideas for gathering community feedback from those who don’t normally participate in government. Council President Neil Tibbott, who said he was “largely responsible” for placing the group on the agenda, said its polling work provided “input from many, many people from across the city.”
In the end, the council rejected Dotsch’s amendment by a 2-5 vote (Nand also voting for), and Edmonds residents Adel Sefrioui, Elise Randall Hill, Mackey Guenther and Erik Hauser made their presentation.
Keep Edmonds Vibrant was built on the groundswell of opposition to a possible sale of city property — including parks and the Frances Anderson Center — to help address the City of Edmonds’ $21 million budget deficit. The group’s goals were to define vibrancy, determine the real cost of operating and sustaining a “vibrant” city, identify revenues and make recommendations to the council and mayor.
After hosting two in-person focus groups in the past month, organizers invited Edmonds residents to engage in online polling. The effort generated 600-plus unique ideas about not only what makes Edmonds vibrant, but how that vibrancy can be protected and enhanced in future years, group leaders said.
Among the themes that emerged as priorities:
– Maintaining the city’s current public amenities, including Frances Anderson Center, parks, Wade James Theatre and Yost Pool (92%)
– Generating additional revenue by allowing more ground-floor business/retail opportunities in strategic locations. (80%)
– Safety. (80%)
– Providing walkable, bikeable, quiet, clean air and housing options at various price points throughout all neighborhoods. (79%)
– Being open to generating additional revenue from an increase in the retail sales tax rate. (61%)
During their presentation, group leaders stated they believe that Edmonds is facing a structural revenue shortfall that can’t be addressed through budget cuts alone. They cited research on comparable cities that showed Edmonds’ budget — now at $46 million — should be in the range of $68 million to adequately support city services and staffing.
They noted that the majority of those they polled were open to new, long-term revenue strategies that don’t rely only on property taxes — such as additional school zone cameras or parking fees. They shared a chart with council outlining $9 million in possible revenue ideas.
Group member Elise Hill concluded the presentation by stating that based on its estimates, the group is recommending a $12 million levy lid lift to close the city’s budget gap. “Keep Edmonds Vibrant is ready to take on the role of the citizens group to advocate for this levy, but we believe the responsibility must be shared,” she said. “We’re asking council to commit to concurrently pursuing at least $9 million in sustainable, non-property tax revenue policies before the end of 2025. That’s what a balanced, forward looking approach looks like.”
The group’s recommendations for $9 million in immediate-term revenue gains are “simply suggestions,” she added. “The important thing is that you get to the $9 million number however you choose, though, we do have the information of what residents are interested in,” she added.
Councilmembers generally expressed appreciation for the work done by the group, although questions were raised about the accuracy of some of its estimates and projections.
Later, during the public comment period, several people offered their appreciation for the efforts of Keep Edmonds Vibrant to engage them in city government — noting they represent a demographic that isn’t often seen at council meetings. Keep Edmonds Vibrant “should serve as as a role model, as a benchmark for how the city should engage with a community going forward,” said one resident, who has a young daughter. “So I encourage you to, you know, please review all the details and take their recommendations into consideration, instead of finding fault with their process or estimates, as some of you did.”
Another resident, who described himself as a 30-year-old renter, added: “I think there’s better ways to reach out to a lot of us. I work full time. I work at 5 in the morning tomorrow. I work in the trades. I’m tired. I want to be in bed right now. Coming to these council meetings is difficult.”
Related to middle housing, the council heard the Edmonds Planning Board’s recommendation for a development code update to ensure the city complied with House Bill 1110. The bill, which took effect in 2023, requires cities to increase middle housing in areas traditionally dedicated to single-family detached housing.
Staff explained that the board’s recommendation took a “minimum compliance” strategy, which adopts the necessary code changes required under HB 1110 while maintaining Edmonds’ established height, setback and lot coverage standards wherever possible.
Here are the key elements of the Planning Board recommendation:
New zoning framework: Consolidation of RS zones into a single low-density residential (LDR) zone with three context-sensitive overlays or subdistricts based on lot size (small, medium, large).
Allowed middle housing types: The board selected the followng six middle housing types for inclusion — duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, stacked flats, courtyard apartments and cottage housing.
Unit density standards: The recommendation allows two units per lot (duplexes) citywide; up to four units (fourplex) within one-quarter mile of a major transit stop and up to four units (fourplex) on any lot if at least one unit is affordable.
Affordability incentives: A bonus incentive is provided for cottage housing — up to six units on a lot in the LDR-large subdistrict, if at least three of the units meet affordability criteria.
Accessory dwelling units (ADUs): ADUs are counted toward unit density and are only permitted in conjunction with detached single-family homes. ADUs may not be part of middle housing developments.
Lot coverage: Up to 45% structural lot coverage is allowed for three- to four-unit projects. Answering a question from Council President Tibbott about why the board chose to exceed the current state lot coverage requirement of 35%, Planning Board Chair Lee Hankins said the board determined that allowing additional lot coverage would ensure the units are “livable.”
The middle housing ordinance will be discussed further at the following council meetings:
June 3: Additional code review and Q&A
June 10: Public hearing
June 17: Additional discussion and final revisions
June 24: Ordinance adoption with code and zoning map
In other business, the council:
– Held a public hearing on updates to the city’s design review code. The code revisions, set to be adopted in June, are required under HB 1293 — passed by the state Legislature in 2023. They are aimed at streamlining local design review processes and reducing permitting delays. The bill requires cities to ensure design review standards are clear, objective and focused only on the exterior design of buildings. They also require that projects be reviewed through a consolidated project review process with no more than one public meeting. The only person commenting during the hearing was Kim Bayer-Augustavo, who chairs the city’s Architectural Design Board (ADB). She expressed concerns that the board — currently on hiatus along with most other city boards and commissions due to the city’s budget crunch — was not involved in reviewing the code revisions. Later in the meeting, Councilmember Olson said she believes it was a mistake that the ADB was on hiatus and that she would be introducing an ordinance to have them involved in issues like this.
– Approved renewal of an interlocal agreement with the WRIA 8 Salmon Recovery Council. The council is composed of elected representatives from 26 cities and King and Snohomish counties, and representatives from community organizations, business, environmental interests and state and federal agencies. The Salmon Recovery Council oversees implementation of the science-based Chinook Salmon Conservation Plan for the Lake Washington/Cedar/Sammamish Watershed. The watershed, also known as Water Resource Inventory Area (WRIA) 8, runs from the Puget Sound nearshore and inlands from the north end of Elliott Bay to south Everett, and east to the Bear Creek basin, the Issaquah Creek basin, and upper Cedar River basin.
– Approved an additional management reserve of $70,000 to cover unexpected work on the city’s Main Street paving project between 6th and 8th Avenue. City Engineer Rob English told the council that the existing concrete panel joints and remnant sections in the underlying concrete layer have separation that could lead to cracking — and that would reflect into the new overlay layer. To prevent reflective cracks from occurring, which would shorten the life of the overlay, staff and the city’s consultant recommended putting down a pre-leveling layer of asphalt mix, along with a geosynthetic interlayer at the separated cracks.
Due to lack of time Tuesday night, a council discussion on a proposal from Mayor Mike Rosen to reorganize the city’s administrative functions to include a city administrator was postponed.