OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Shoreline Planning Commission Reviews Comprehensive Plan Docket Amendments on August 21, 2025

Planning Commission — Thursday, August 21, 2025
BodyShoreline, Washington
SessionPlanning Commission
DateThursday, August 21, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 25:38

Transcript — Verbatim
0:12

There we go.

0:13

Hello.

0:14

I would like to call to order the Planning Commission regular meeting of Thursday, August 21st, 2025.

0:21

Carla, will you call roll, please?

0:24

Yes.

0:24

Chair Brenson.

0:26

I am here.

0:27

Commissioner Cabe.

0:28

Here.

0:29

Commissioner Fry.

0:30

Here.

0:31

Commissioner Hadley.

0:33

Here.

0:34

Commissioner Povick.

0:36

Here.

0:37

Did I call Commissioner Lynn?

0:38

I think I skipped you.

0:42

Okay.

0:42

Thank you.

0:44

Thank you.

0:44

And Vice Chair Mosier is absent with notice.

0:48

Excellent.

0:49

Thank you.

0:50

Approval of the agenda.

0:52

Any changes?

0:53

Nope.

0:54

How about approval of last meeting's minutes?

0:56

Thumbs up.

0:57

Thumbs up.

0:58

Excellent.

0:59

Carla, do we have any public comment for tonight?

1:03

No, no public comment tonight.

1:05

Thank you.

1:06

Moving right along to our study item, the comprehensive plan docket, amendment one, remove bike LTS table, and amendment two, revise countywide centers boundary.

1:18

Take it away.

1:20

Thank you.

1:20

We're gonna tag team this presentation.

1:24

So we're here tonight to talk about the 2025 comprehensive plan amendments.

1:30

Um so if you remember back in February, uh there was one amendment on the docket was to remove a uh level of traffic stress by table from the comprehensive plants.

1:43

It's just located in uh the uh engineering development manual.

1:49

Um so since then when it went to council, uh Council ended up adding four more amendments to the docket.

1:59

And um time in time-wise, we got to two of those amendments this year.

2:07

Um, and you'll hear later that we'll um recommending that the last three be uh carried over to 2026 since that's kind of in the midst of being worked on right now.

2:20

So um so that final docket was adopted by council in late 2025.

2:27

And then let's go to the next slide.

2:31

Um so again, to um tonight we'll uh talk about removing the bike LTS table and the corresponding language, and then um to give you to revise the countywide center's boundaries and uh Sierra will speak to that one.

2:49

And let's go.

2:51

I guess we can go back one.

2:54

So um just so you know that the other three amendments that we're not getting to this year was is the update of the town center plan and then updating both the um 145th and 185th station sub-area plans.

3:09

Um that's gonna um it's it's being worked on, but it's gonna take much more time than we can bring back to you this year.

3:18

So going to the next slide.

3:20

Um you've probably already know about this, but we'd like to remove the bike LTS table and that language from the transportation element.

3:30

Um it's the the level um of detail in that uh not really appropriate for the transportation element, and it is does exist in our administrative documents for the um within the uh city's engineering development manual.

3:49

Um if it ever needs to change or the LTS numbers change, we could do that more quickly than having to come back every uh do the docketing process to update the transportation element.

4:01

So we recommend that that stay in the in the EDM uh for ease of uh administration.

4:11

All right, so amendment number two um is to revise the countywide center boundaries.

4:17

In 2021, the city received a candidate status from King County for each of these four countywide centers that are proposed on this map, which are the two station areas, uh shoreline place and town center.

4:34

Centers are an important part of the countywide or regional growth strategy, which envisions sort of a hierarchy of regional, county, and local centers that kind of create a network of growth, uh growth areas that are all connected by the high capacity transit improvements that are around the region.

5:00

They are envisioned to be compact growth areas close to high capacity transit, like Art Light Rail Stations or BRT.

5:07

And as you can see here on this map, this is kind of all the little dots of all the different proposed countywide centers kind of across King County.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Land Use Planning█████████████████████████████████████████████63%
Procedural█████████12%
Public Engagement█████████12%
Transportation Safety██████8%
Grant Management████5%
Summary of Proceedings

Shoreline Planning Commission Reviews Comprehensive Plan Docket Amendments on August 21, 2025

The Shoreline Planning Commission met on Thursday, August 21, 2025, from 7:00 p.m. to 7:25 p.m. in the Council Chamber at Shoreline City Hall. Chair Leslie Brinson presided; Commissioners Bradley Cabe, Colt Fry, Lauren Hadley, Mei-shiou Lin (online), and Julie Povick were present, and Vice Chair Christopher Mosier was excused. Staff present included Andrew Bauer, Steve Szafran, Sierra Carson, and Carla Hoekzema. The Commission accepted the agenda and the August 7, 2025 minutes, received no public comment, and studied two Comprehensive Plan docket amendments.

Consent Calendar

  • Agenda accepted as presented.
  • Regular meeting minutes of August 7, 2025 accepted as presented.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • None.

Discussion Items

Comprehensive Plan Docket – Amendment #1 (Remove Bike LTS Table) and Amendment #2 (Revise Countywide Centers Boundary)

Senior Planner Steve Szafran presented the 2025 Comprehensive Plan docket. The original docket had one amendment, and Council added four more, making five total. Staff addressed two amendments this year and recommended carrying the remaining three—Town Center Plan update, 145th Street Station Subarea Plan update, and 185th Street Station Subarea Plan update—to 2026 because they need more work.

Amendment #1: Remove Bike Level of Traffic Stress (LTS) Table

  • Staff recommended removing the Bike LTS table and corresponding language from the Transportation Element. Staff explained that the detailed table is not appropriate for the Transportation Element and already exists in the city’s Engineering Development Manual, allowing faster administrative updates without a comp plan docket process.

Amendment #2: Revise Countywide Centers Boundary

  • Senior Planner Sierra Carson reviewed proposed boundary revisions to the Countywide Centers, based on King County’s 2021 candidate designation and feedback to make boundaries more compact, walkable, and generally round or square.
  • New formal boundaries are proposed for the 185th Street Station Countywide Center and the 148th Street Station Countywide Center.
  • The 148th boundary changes are minor: squaring off the boundary along 155th and aligning the boundary with parcel changes on the Fircrest campus.
  • The 185th boundary was reduced from about 430 acres to focus on areas zoned MUR70 near the light rail station and the North City activity center, while also connecting the Shoreline Place recreational campus. Staff acknowledged the resulting shape is irregular but justified it by local geography and previous subarea planning.
  • For Town Center and Shoreline Place, staff proposed placeholder study areas instead of formal boundaries, citing long, linear corridors inconsistent with county criteria and future work related to HP 1491, known as the TOD bill, with required compliance by 2029 and a minimum average density within roughly one-quarter mile of BRT along Aurora.
  • Staff stated King County does not have an artificial limit on the number of Countywide Growth Centers; designation helps the city compete for grants and transportation funding.

Commission Discussion

  • Commissioners asked clarifying questions about the impact of boundary changes. Staff responded that the changes are for county grant-competitiveness purposes only and do not alter existing station-area boundaries, zoning, land use, or subarea planning.
  • Staff explained that grant funding could support projects on the city’s Capital Improvement Program list, including sidewalk, trail, bicycle, and multimodal improvements within or connecting to the growth centers.
  • Asked about community input, staff stated no separate engagement was conducted because the amendment only refines boundaries already in the adopted comp plan and does not change land use or zoning; the public hearing would provide an opportunity to comment.
  • The Planning Commission was supportive of the proposed amendments.

Reports and Announcements / Next Meetings

  • The next meeting is the annual Planning Commission retreat on September 4, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. in Conference Room 303, with dinner available; staff estimated it would last under two hours.
  • The September 18, 2025 meeting is expected to include a draft Critical Areas Code, or at least a portion, and the 2025 Development Code amendments.

Key Outcomes

  • Agenda and August 7, 2025 minutes approved as presented.
  • No public comment was received.
  • The Commission expressed support for the proposed docket amendments.
  • Staff will return for a public hearing on October 2, 2025, to make a recommendation to Council.
  • Staff will submit Countywide Growth Center applications for the 148th and 185th station centers by the October 1, 2025 deadline.
  • Three remaining docket amendments were recommended to be carried over to 2026.
  • The meeting was adjourned at 7:25 p.m.

Meeting Transcript

There we go. Hello. I would like to call to order the Planning Commission regular meeting of Thursday, August 21st, 2025. Carla, will you call roll, please? Yes. Chair Brenson. I am here. Commissioner Cabe. Here. Commissioner Fry. Here. Commissioner Hadley. Here. Commissioner Povick. Here. Did I call Commissioner Lynn? I think I skipped you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And Vice Chair Mosier is absent with notice. Excellent. Thank you. Approval of the agenda. Any changes? Nope. How about approval of last meeting's minutes? Thumbs up. Thumbs up. Excellent. Carla, do we have any public comment for tonight? No, no public comment tonight. Thank you. Moving right along to our study item, the comprehensive plan docket, amendment one, remove bike LTS table, and amendment two, revise countywide centers boundary. Take it away. Thank you. We're gonna tag team this presentation. So we're here tonight to talk about the 2025 comprehensive plan amendments. Um so if you remember back in February, uh there was one amendment on the docket was to remove a uh level of traffic stress by table from the comprehensive plants. It's just located in uh the uh engineering development manual. Um so since then when it went to council, uh Council ended up adding four more amendments to the docket. And um time in time-wise, we got to two of those amendments this year. Um, and you'll hear later that we'll um recommending that the last three be uh carried over to 2026 since that's kind of in the midst of being worked on right now. So um so that final docket was adopted by council in late 2025. And then let's go to the next slide. Um so again, to um tonight we'll uh talk about removing the bike LTS table and the corresponding language, and then um to give you to revise the countywide center's boundaries and uh Sierra will speak to that one. And let's go. I guess we can go back one. So um just so you know that the other three amendments that we're not getting to this year was is the update of the town center plan and then updating both the um 145th and 185th station sub-area plans. Um that's gonna um it's it's being worked on, but it's gonna take much more time than we can bring back to you this year.

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