Edmonds Planning Board Regular Meeting - January 15, 2026
Edmonds Planning Board Regular Meeting - January 15, 2026
This hybrid meeting of the Edmonds Planning Board took place at 7:00 PM in the Brackett Room, City Hall. All members were present. The meeting covered introductions to three upcoming code amendment packages, a discussion of the tree code update process, and a decision to send prior meeting minutes back for revision. No public comments were received. Note: The agenda and transcript list the meeting date as January 14, 2026, but the provided timestamp states the meeting occurred on January 15, 2026 at 17:15 UTC. This summary uses the specified date.
Approval of Minutes
- The board discussed the quality of the meeting minutes from the previous meeting (December 10, 2025). Board member Judy Gladstone noted that recent minutes had reverted to a verbatim format, contrary to the board’s previous direction to use condensed summaries. After discussion, the board voted unanimously to send the minutes back for revision based on the feedback provided.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No audience members or online participants offered comments.
Discussion Items
- Existing Buildings and Housing Conversion Code Amendments (HB 1757): Building Official Ted Corey (online) and Planning Director Brad introduced the state-mandated changes required by House Bill 1757. The bill allows commercial buildings with a certificate of occupancy for at least three years to be converted to residential use. Key provisions include: up to 50% of underlying zone density allowed, no additional parking required, limited design standards for enclosed conversions, and energy code carve-outs for existing systems. The board noted the state requirements leave little discretion; staff will draft code amendments for review by March 2026, with adoption required by June 30, 2026.
- Landmark Tree Code Permanent Ordinance Introduction: Urban Forester Deb Powers presented a comprehensive overview of the upcoming tree code update. She reviewed her extensive background and the previous work done in 2022–2023, including public engagement and draft code language. The current interim ordinance (defining landmark trees as 30 inches or greater in diameter) expires April 29, 2026; a public hearing with the city council is required to extend it through the end of the year. The broader update will address property owner tree removals (currently unlimited), establish a citywide canopy cover goal, simplify code language, and align with industry standards. Board members stressed the need for clear meeting agendas with specific decision points, input from stakeholders (e.g., developers, environmental groups), and staff recommendations to avoid unfocused discussions.
- Introduction to Minor Development Code Amendments Related to Middle Housing: Planning staff outlined the phased approach to refining middle housing regulations enacted in 2025. Phase one (first half of 2026) will address minor clarifications, particularly engineering standards for driveways and access. Phase two will revisit design standards, frontage types, and other topics not fully explored during the compressed 2025 timeline. A longer-term unified development code project (2+ years) will eventually consolidate all zoning regulations.
Key Outcomes
- The December 2025 meeting minutes were not approved; the board voted unanimously (9-0) to return them for revision.
- No votes were taken on the three new business items; all were presented as introductions for future action.
- The next regular meeting will be a joint retreat and OPMA training on January 28, 2026, starting at 6:00 PM.
- Staff will bring back a refined work plan and timeline for the tree code update at the next meeting.
- Preliminary discussions regarding a potential annexation of the Esperance neighborhood were noted; no formal action required from the board.
- The Parks, Recreation and Human Services report (deferred from this meeting) will be rescheduled.
Meeting Transcript
We made it. All right, Lauren, we're good. Okay. Good evening. I would like to call the January 14th planning board, Edmunds Planning Board. Meeting to order. Um we will start with roll call. John Milky. Here. Isabel Jones. Here, Steven Lee. Judy Gladstone, there, Lee Hankins, Nick Maxwell, John Jensen. Danielle Dakota. Dick Photo. Here. Okay. Everybody is here. For our first meeting. 2026. We will start with the approval of meeting minutes. Judy, would you like to like to address the meeting minutes? I get kicked off the board. Um so in the past few months, we've had the benefit of some pretty good notes. This last meeting kind of was slipping back to old times of verbative notes versus summary. And so I made a couple suggestions to change those notes. And um, but didn't necessarily make all of them, figuring they'd have to go back because the note takers weren't taking our direction. Right. Um so I don't know exactly. I didn't send my names for everybody. Um, because I wanted to give Brad the opportunity to just send them back and redo them before the meeting, because essentially, I mean, my sense of it was is that we always run this risk of when it's verbatim that it's like yeah. So I was gonna just add to kind of bring people who haven't been here as long up to speed. I saw at some point last year we voted to go from a verbatim uh minute report to um more just a condensed summary of topics of discussion rather than so and so said this and so and so said that, because sometimes things would get picked up and other things wouldn't, and then there was this kind of unfair emphasis on certain comments over other comments, and we didn't want there to be that um subjective review. Um seems that yes, with this most recent notes, we've gone back into kind of more of a verbatim recount of the discussion. Um, because you mentioned that you know it costs us money when we send these back. Um are we allowed to make our own edits. Uh it's to what I could do is well, first I'm gonna have a conversation with Ali, who's our representative of that um e-typist, and I'll have a conversation with her. The challenge is that I know that's not always assigned to the exact same person, so there might be some slight differences in how the instructions are interpreted for what what we're receiving. So what I could do in the future is you know, understanding the approach that you guys would like to take. I could give it an edit before it comes back to you guys, and then you have to make sure that we're achieved getting the right level of detail on that. So I don't think that sending it around and having everybody at it and oh, I don't mean everybody actually Judy. Oh, we didn't want to just go and edit it, but I I particularly um, so there are two things. One, I'll sit down my back. I need um, but there were two main things. One was the edits from the November meeting. The note taker tried to explain everything that I had said, and it's like I gave you a list, just include the list. It's that simple. They didn't have to do that, and in the process, I found them quite confusing to read. But then when it came to the board comments, they were far more extensive what they should be. And and um, and so to me, it should be like a one sentence that says they commented on this topic. And if someone really wants to see exactly what you said, they can go back and listen to it.
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