Shoreline council to study transportation plan, development code, and comp plan including tree amendment

The agenda for the March 7, 2022 Shoreline City Council Regular meeting includes three study items:

8(a) Discussion of the Transportation Master Plan (TMP) Update: Draft Auto Level of Service Approach

The City’s Transportation Master Plan (TMP) is the long-range blueprint for multimodal travel and mobility within Shoreline. The last update to the TMP was in 2011. For this discussion, staff will provide the Council with a briefing on auto level of service (LOS) policies options, as part of the TMP update.

Over the winter 2022, the project team will develop a draft layered transportation network of modal plans for pedestrian, bicycle, transit, shared-use mobility, and auto/freight modes.

8(b) Discussing Ordinance No. 955 – 2021 Batch #2 – Miscellaneous and SEPA Related Amendments Amending Development Code Sections 20.20, 20.30, 20.40 and 20.50

In a Feb 4 letter to Council (attachment C to the staff report), the Planning Commission stated, in part:

These amendments were presented into three sections: (1) miscellaneous amendments proposed by Planning Staff to provide clarity and efficient administration, (2) updates to the procedures and administration of the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) proposed by Staff, and (3) modifications to regulations affecting the protection and preservation of trees proposed primarily by a citizen group named the Tree Preservation Code Team.

For the Miscellaneous Amendments and for the SEPA Amendments, the Planning Commission recommended approval of those amendments as presented by Planning Staff with a vote of 5-0.

The amendments to the City’s tree protection and preservation regulations were comprised of 11 privately- initiated amendments and one proposed by Planning Staff. After one private amendment was withdrawn, Planning Staff recommended approval or approval as modified by Planning Staff for eight of the proposed amendments and recommended denial for three proposed amendments.

However, with this recommendation the Planning Commission encourages the City Council to direct Planning Staff to further refine these regulations by engaging in additional study of the issues surrounding protection and preservation of trees, including smaller trees and additional counterbalancing incentives, with a holistic approach that engages all stakeholder interests and balances those interests in the future.

8(c) Discussion of the 2022 Comprehensive Plan Amendment Docket

This year’s Preliminary 2022 Docket was presented to the Planning Commission on February 3, 2022, and contained two privately-initiated amendments and three city-initiated amendments. Ultimately, the Planning Commission voted to recommend one privately-initiated and three city-initiated amendments be placed on the 2022 Final Docket.

Amendment 1 – Amend the Transportation Master Plan (TMP) and Transportation Element which includes updated goals and policies.

This amendment will replace the current TMP with a new TMP. (Note: refer to 8(a) above).

Amendment #2 – 2024 Comprehensive Plan Major Update

The State Growth Management Act (GMA) requires counties and cities to periodically conduct a thorough review of their Comprehensive Plan and regulations to bring them up to date with any relevant changes in the GMA and to respond to changes in land use and population growth. This mandatory “periodic update” takes place at least once every eight years. Shoreline last completed a major update of the Comprehensive Plan in 2012. The deadline for adoption of this periodic update is June 2024.

Amendment #3 – Amend the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Map Designation from Public Facility to Mixed-Use 1 and change the Zoning from Residential, 18 units/acre (R-18) and Mixed-Business (MB) to Mixed-Business (MB) at the King County Metro Park & Ride Facility at 19000 Aurora Avenue N.

This supports Goal 1, Action Step 10 of the Comprehensive Plan Land Use, which states: “Support King County Metro’s evaluation of the 192nd Park and Ride as a potential location for expanded transit operations and transit-oriented-development.”

Amendment #4 – Amend the Land Use Element to add a new policy “Housing development and preservation of significant trees can co-exist with the goal of maintaining and increasing Shoreline’s urban tree canopy”.

The applicant states that the Comprehensive Plan contains many statements about the need to protect and preserve the tree canopy in Shoreline. This proposed amendment adds the recommendation that building and the protection of the tree canopy can coexist.

The above four amendments were recommended for addition to the 2022 Comprehensive Plan Docket.

Amendment #5 – Add Short Term Rental definition, licensing requirements, and location.

The Planning Commission recommends this request not be added to the docket. As the applicant stated in their justification for the amendment, the proposed addition of a short-term rental use is already supported by Comprehensive Plan Housing Goals II, Housing Goal III, and Economic Development Goal I.

The staff report states that the topic of short-term rentals is most appropriately addressed as an independent work plan item for which Council can direct staff to study the impact of short-term rentals on housing availability and housing price to inform a future decision on adding the proposed use of short-term rental, licensing requirements, and location requirements to the Development Code through the Development Code Amendment process. Significant stakeholder and community engagement would also be a component of this topic as an independent work plan item.

Full agenda, links to staff documents, how to comment, how to attend the meeting: HERE

--Pam Cross