OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Shoreline Planning Commission Regular Meeting – November 20, 2025

Planning Commission — Thursday, November 20, 2025
BodyShoreline, Washington
SessionPlanning Commission
DateThursday, November 20, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 54:42

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

I would like to call to order the Thursday, November 20th, 2025.

0:04

Shoreland Planning Commission meeting.

0:08

Carla, will you call roll, please?

0:12

Chair Brinson.

0:13

I'm here.

0:14

Commissioner Kate.

0:15

Here.

0:16

Commissioner Fry.

0:17

Here.

0:20

And Commissioner Lynn?

0:22

Here.

0:23

And we are expecting I'm expecting Commissioner Povik, but Commissioner Hadley and Vice Chair Mosier are both absent with notice.

0:33

Great.

0:34

Thank you.

0:35

Moving on, approval of the agenda.

0:39

Excellent.

0:40

Approval of our meeting minutes from November 6th.

0:43

Any changes, comments?

0:44

Thumbs up?

0:46

Public comment.

0:47

Do we have any?

0:49

We have no uh public comment this evening.

0:52

However, I did forward a few written public comments to you.

0:55

Yes.

0:56

Those have been received.

0:57

Yes.

1:02

Okay.

1:03

We will take a momentary pause.

1:06

Would you like us to pause until Nate gets here?

1:08

I think we'll introduce him.

1:09

He is on his way down.

1:11

All right.

1:12

So moving on to our study items tonight.

1:14

We have an economic development update.

1:17

Yeah.

1:18

Great.

1:19

And our presenter is running to the table.

1:22

So yeah, I'll let I'll give Nate a second to settle in and catch his breath, but while he does that.

1:28

So we've got Nate Dom here this evening, the city's economic development manager, here to provide an overview of economic economic development in the city.

1:42

I think last uh was it last spring, the commission had a couple of updates on the economic development strategy that Nate was leading the effort on.

1:52

It's since been adopted by city council.

1:56

Um so I'm sure Nate will speak to that a little bit tonight, as well as provide an overview of other exciting things going on in the city related to economic development.

2:04

So without further ado, go over Nate.

2:07

Thank you, Andrew.

2:08

Uh, and thank you again for your patience with me.

2:11

No worries.

2:11

Uh sorry for making you wait a little bit there.

2:14

So, yeah, as Andrew mentioned, I'm Nathan Dom, economic development program manager for the City of Shoreline.

2:19

And I think the last time we were here, this was in development.

2:22

Um, and now we're in implementation phase.

2:25

So as he said, I've got some updates on some things that are happening and and uh in the world around us and and within Shoreline.

2:34

Um, but they fit neatly into our economic development strategy, as you'll see.

2:40

Um first off is sort of just the where we are with the economic climate, uh economic development, economic and development climate.

2:49

Um we're seeing uh you know large scale development uh which really dominated our development in Shoreline over the last few years, really slowing down quite a bit.

3:00

Um the multifamily projects in our pipeline.

3:03

You're probably familiar with this, uh, are still in the pipeline.

3:07

Uh so whenever the last time I brought a presentation with lots of projects to show you for and one of those examples has actually since been canceled.

3:16

This that one was canceled probably before the last time we all met, but there have been others that have either been kind of frozen due to the uh high interest rates and uh and the reluctance of investors to invest in projects at the returns that uh that folks used to be kind of accustomed to.

3:40

So um those are just really making these larger projects very difficult to pencil, and so those um we've seen up uh at least one project of that scale has the permits expired.

3:53

And that was the project next to the 148th Street um light rail station.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Economic Development█████████████████████████████████████████████55%
Food Truck Regulation█████████████16%
Waste Management███████9%
Arts And Culture█████6%
Procedural████5%
Public Engagement████5%
Affordable Housing██2%
Youth Programs██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Shoreline Planning Commission Regular Meeting – November 20, 2025

The Shoreline Planning Commission held its regular meeting on Thursday, November 20, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber at Shoreline City Hall. The primary agenda item was an update on economic development, presented by Economic Development Manager Nathan Daum. The meeting lasted approximately 54 minutes, adjourning at 7:54 p.m.

Consent Calendar

  • The agenda was approved as presented.
  • The meeting minutes of November 6, 2025, were approved as presented.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • No oral public comments were made during the meeting. Written public comments submitted by Sara Lorimer, Allison Luzader, Emily Kelton, and Kevin Atkinson were acknowledged as received by the Commission.

Discussion Items

  • Economic Development Update (Study Item) – Nathan Daum provided a comprehensive overview of economic development in Shoreline. He noted that large-scale multifamily development has slowed significantly due to high interest rates and reduced investor returns, citing the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank as a turning point. Smaller-scale projects (townhomes, ADUs, missing middle housing) remain active. The city’s economic development strategy, recently adopted by Council, focuses on small businesses and startups, placemaking, pop-ups, tourism, and jobs/housing balance.
  • Daum highlighted several initiatives: support for small businesses via the Shoreline Chamber of Commerce and SBDC; the upcoming Richmond Beach grocery/coffee bar/deli (targeting January 2026 opening); the city’s acquisition of an adjacent office building to create space for small business development; the Shorelights winter light display (1,100 attendees at the lighting ceremony); a food truck hub concept at the Seattle City Light-owned property near the 185th Street light rail station (informally called “North City Commons”); and partnerships with community organizations for events like the greenhouse winter market and Shorelake Arts events.
  • Commissioners praised the presentation and asked questions about the food truck hub timeline, waste management/reusable dish options, and potential partnerships with organizations that curate pop-up hubs. Daum explained that the timeline for the food truck hub depends on securing an interlocal agreement with Seattle City Light (hopefully early 2026) and potential state capital budget funding. He also noted that the city is exploring waste-reduction strategies similar to reusable-dish programs at Seattle Center. Commissioner Lin shared examples from Taiwan’s night markets and asked about coordination with organizations that attract pop-up hubs; Daum responded that the city may issue an RFP to identify partners.

Key Outcomes

  • No formal votes or decisions were taken. The discussion was informational.
  • Planning Director Andrew Bauer announced that the City Council will discuss the Planning Commission’s recent Critical Areas Code recommendation on Monday, November 24, with potential action tentatively scheduled for mid-December.
  • Recruitment for upcoming Planning Commission vacancies has opened; applications are due January 9, 2026. Commissioner May Shell is terming out after eight years.
  • The next meeting on December 4, 2025, will focus on light rail sub-area plan updates.

Meeting Transcript

I would like to call to order the Thursday, November 20th, 2025. Shoreland Planning Commission meeting. Carla, will you call roll, please? Chair Brinson. I'm here. Commissioner Kate. Here. Commissioner Fry. Here. And Commissioner Lynn? Here. And we are expecting I'm expecting Commissioner Povik, but Commissioner Hadley and Vice Chair Mosier are both absent with notice. Great. Thank you. Moving on, approval of the agenda. Excellent. Approval of our meeting minutes from November 6th. Any changes, comments? Thumbs up? Public comment. Do we have any? We have no uh public comment this evening. However, I did forward a few written public comments to you. Yes. Those have been received. Yes. Okay. We will take a momentary pause. Would you like us to pause until Nate gets here? I think we'll introduce him. He is on his way down. All right. So moving on to our study items tonight. We have an economic development update. Yeah. Great. And our presenter is running to the table. So yeah, I'll let I'll give Nate a second to settle in and catch his breath, but while he does that. So we've got Nate Dom here this evening, the city's economic development manager, here to provide an overview of economic economic development in the city. I think last uh was it last spring, the commission had a couple of updates on the economic development strategy that Nate was leading the effort on. It's since been adopted by city council. Um so I'm sure Nate will speak to that a little bit tonight, as well as provide an overview of other exciting things going on in the city related to economic development. So without further ado, go over Nate. Thank you, Andrew. Uh, and thank you again for your patience with me. No worries. Uh sorry for making you wait a little bit there. So, yeah, as Andrew mentioned, I'm Nathan Dom, economic development program manager for the City of Shoreline. And I think the last time we were here, this was in development. Um, and now we're in implementation phase.

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