Staff Technical Meeting

On June 24th staff continued the review of the Puget Sound Partnership recommendations for incorporating Low Impact Development (LID) into our Municipal Code.

This is a significant body of work, and is expected to take many more months. The benefit to the Subdivision Update Project, is that the City is receiving expert assistance for the LID project that will directly benefit the goals of this project as well.

As the LID recommendations are refined, they will be discussed with the Planning Commission at future monthly meetings.

Staff Technical Meeting

On June 16th staff met to review the preliminary recommendations associated with a project from the Puget Sound Partnership, for which the City is receiving State assistance. The State is providing expert assistance to review our Municipal Code and create amendments that support Low Impact Development (LID).

The range of these draft recommendations includes: subdivision regulations; street design standards; stromwater facility management; zoning districts; and, land clearing regulations. As we move through this process of reviewing the recommendations, those that relate to the subdivision project will be rolled into this project/process.

Staff Technical Meeting

Much of the work on this project has been the analysis of current conditions and community outreach. This Monday, staff begin the first major discussion specifically about the subdivision regulations. The topic will be short plats; small subdivisions of land into nine or less lots.

These plats in the city, can provide opportunities for infill that has little effect on the character of neighborhoods; and reduces sprawl and associated environmental impacts by using land more efficiently.

There are parts of the rules for short plats that have made them rather difficult to complete; which is limiting the ability to use short plats as a way of creating residential lots. In this Monday’s meeting staff will explore options to make the rules more effective.