Shoreline Planning Commission Meeting: 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update Discussion – June 15, 2023
Shoreline Planning Commission Meeting: 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update Discussion – June 15, 2023
Commissioners reviewed the results of the online open house and survey for the 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update, identifying key themes and gaps in community engagement. The discussion focused on the survey's demographic limitations, public feedback on housing, safety, and the vision for Shoreline, and strategies to reach underrepresented groups in future outreach.
Discussion Items
- Presentation of Engagement Results: Mr. Bauer presented a summary of the online open house and survey, which ran for five weeks and received 286 responses. The survey included 20 questions on the comprehensive plan’s vision, housing challenges, and future priorities. Key findings: 85% of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that the current vision statement still applies; the top housing challenge identified was cost of housing; the top characteristics for future housing were affordability, sustainability, and aging in place. Safety concerns appeared across multiple questions, both personal safety and community safety related to mobility.
- Demographic Disparity: Commissioners noted that survey respondents were disproportionately white (around 80%) and homeowners (around 60% lived in Shoreline 10+ years). The results did not reflect the city’s demographic diversity, and staff acknowledged that this was one tool among many, with plans to reach historically marginalized groups.
- Outreach Strategies: Commissioners suggested various tactics to broaden participation, including partnering with schools (e.g., integrating surveys into homework), attending neighborhood events, setting up tables at high-traffic retail locations like Costco and Fred Meyer, using QR codes at summer music events, and engaging faith-based organizations. Several commissioners offered to volunteer at upcoming events.
- Light Rail and Neighborhood Centers: Commissioners discussed the upcoming light rail stations and the need to integrate them into the comprehensive plan, emphasizing that the stations will reshape the city and create new neighborhood centers. The importance of preserving the “city of neighborhoods” identity while developing corridors like Aurora was also highlighted.
- Immediate vs. Long-Term Concerns: Commissioner Vice Chair Wamishonje raised the issue of safety and crime, noting that some survey responses reflected real current problems (e.g., theft at Fred Meyer) that need immediate action, not just 20-year planning. Staff confirmed that results would be shared with the interdepartmental team and city council.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes or decisions were taken. The discussion was a study item to gather commission input on engagement results and next steps.
- Next Phase of Engagement: Staff will focus on reaching the Shoreline School District, Shoreline Community College, Chamber of Commerce, faith-based and community organizations, and continue attending events (e.g., Juneteenth event on June 19, Celebrate Shoreline in August).
- Upcoming Meeting: The next Planning Commission meeting on July 6, 2023, will include an update on the PROSA (Parks, Recreation, Open Space, and Arts) plan.
- Other Updates: The cottage housing ordinance and ground floor commercial interim regulations were adopted by the City Council; permanent regulations for the latter will come to the commission for review.
Meeting Transcript
I'm not going anywhere. On the right date. Recording in progress. Good evening. I'd like to call to order the Shoreline Planning Commission regular meeting for Thursday, June 15th, 2023. First item will be the roll call. Ms. Hookes. Commissioner Brunson. Here. Commissioner Callahan. Here. Commissioner Galuska. Present. Commissioner Lynn. Here. Commissioner Mosier. Yeah. Vice Chair Wamishonje? Present. Chair Sager. Here. Thank you. Thank you. Next item, approval of the agenda. Does everybody approve of tonight's agenda? Wonderful. Approval of the minutes from June 1st, 2023. Does anybody have any changes they need to make? Great. Those are approved. That brings us to general public comment. Ms. Hoxman, is there anybody signed up for general public comment tonight? There is not. Thank you. All right, moving right into our study item, which is the 2024 comprehensive plan update, discussion of online open house and survey. Mr. Bauer. All right, yeah, thank you. So tonight I'm here to present a summary of the online open house and the survey along with the other engagement activities that we've been undertaking since we were last here updating the or providing, I think, an overview of the public participation plan for the uh the comprehensive plan update. And then also we're looking for the commission's input and feedback tonight in terms of looking ahead to the next phase of engagement. So with that. So the online open house was the main public-facing kickoff event for the comprehensive plan update. And from here we'll be taking the input we've received and using that to inform future engagement activities that we hope to carry out over the summer and into the fall. Running in tandem with the engagement is work on data gathering, the policy analysis, and other work that's feeding directly into updating the comprehensive plan. And so this slide provides that overview. You've seen this before, we're sort of in between here, so I highlighted both boxes. Um, but that engagement kickoff was like I said, the open house here in spring, and then as we transition into the summer months here, we'll be looking at the next phase. So as reminder, at the February 16th meeting, I presented to you the participation plan, which establishes the framework for the engagement, and then it identifies three broad goals that hit on ensuring that the community understands the purpose of the plan, ensuring the community has meaningful opportunities to participate, and that the city gets information and the context to inform the plan update through an equity lens.
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