The Maple Valley Planning Commission is in the middle of discussing and revising the city’s comprehensive plan. Required by the state’s Growth Management Act, the plan is a set of policies that outline the future land use and the overall look and feel of the community.
The Planning Commission updates the comprehensive plan about every seven years with their recommendations, but the City Council has the final say whether those changes get adopted or not. Changes can also be made to the comprehensive plan on an annual basis.
There are several major changes proposed by the commission in this plan update so far.
In future issues of the Reporter, more of the suggested changes in the comprehensive plan will be addressed.
271st Place & 235th Court SE
At the Feb. 18 Maple Valley Planning Commission meeting, Commissioner Robert Palmer made a suggestion to expand the new community business designation near Four Corners to include a triangular-shaped section of residential parcels on Southeast 271st Place and 235th Court Southeast.
The suggestion came about after Palmer, a mortgage and real estate professional, spoke with a homeowner in that area at the city’s ice cream social last year. Palmer said the homeowner expressed interest in rezoning their property from residential to commercial.
But, there’s a problem with this plan and Palmer said he didn’t catch it until Jeff McCann, a real estate broker in Maple Valley, made public comment at the March 4 commission meeting.
McCann said rezoning residential parcels to commercial resulted in one of his clients not being able to sell his home to a buyer who was trying to get approved for an FHA loan. He stated the bank wouldn’t approve the mortgage because the home was on commercial property.
“It was one of those ‘duh’ moments,” Palmer said in a phone interview. “He’s absolutely right and we can’t proceed with that.”
Mortgage lenders, Palmer said, want the zoning to be consistent with the use of the land. Buying a home on commercial property opens up the lender to more risks, he said.
In addition, under these conditions Palmer said lenders won’t let homeowners refinance their homes either.
Palmer said if the city can designate the land as community business, but not change the zoning, it may not affect the homeowners’ ability to sell or refinance their homes.
Matt Torpey, senior planner for the city, said that scenario is not possible.
He said the comprehensive plan is the set of policies that dictate what the zoning will be all across the city. The only way to make Palmer’s suggestion a reality is to open up all community business designations to allow for residential, which is not likely to happen.
Legacy Site
Under the current draft of the comprehensive plan update, the Legacy Site makes up approximately half of an area being referred to as Town Center North. The rest of this area includes approximately 14 parcels of land directly to the south of the Legacy Site, which are owned by various businesses.
In the current plan update draft, Town Center North has an overall policy that states “Town Center North… should develop over time focused on a roadway network, sidewalk network, a mid-rise building form (up to five stories) and a combination of commercial, residential and civic uses.”
When the Planning Commission met with the City Council March 9, many concerns were raised regarding this policy.
At the meeting, Councilman Noel Gerken said the potential for a five story building on the Legacy Site “scares” him. He thought back to the Citizen’s Advisory Committee for the Legacy Site, of which he was a part of, and said, “We didn’t envision five stories.”
He added, “I think that’s a context that may have been overlooked.”
Councilman Layne Barnes echoed his colleague’s concerns and said he didn’t think the building height should be taller than the tree line.
In addition to potential building height, the current draft of the comprehensive plan has the entirety of Town Center North designated as central commerce, which is what the area is currently zoned. The latest proposal from the commission is to allow “vertical mixed use” in that designation, which can include residential densities from 24 to 36 units/acre, according to Torpey.
However, due to the bond refinance decision made by City Council several meetings ago, about half of the Legacy Site has to be set aside for public use. The other half, which was not purchased with the general obligation bonds, can be used for both private and public purposes or a combination thereof.
At the March 9 meeting, Councilwoman Linda Johnson said she was concerned that the Legacy Site was included in the Town Center North area to begin with.
“I still don’t think the Legacy Site should be included in Town Center North,” Johnson said at the meeting. “That, as far as I’m concerned, is in city ownership (and) it should be public until we decide what we’re going to do with it. And to put it in that designation, treats it like any other piece of property, with no acknowledgment of the legacy aspects of that property.”
Planning Commission Chair Bob Rohrbach responded to Johnson’s concerns and said the current zoning on the property is mixed use and in order to accommodate future potential civic uses of the property, a slight alteration in the zoning is necessary.
Councilwoman Erin Weaver said she disagreed with Johnson’s assessment that the Legacy Site shouldn’t be included in Town Center North, but Weaver wanted to see more flexible language incorporated into the plan update to reflect what the “most appropriate” use of that land would be.
Torpey said the decision to include the Legacy Site in the Town Center North area is to have a walkable downtown. He also stated that this revision of the central commerce designation does not require landowners to build residential dwellings, rather, it expands their options to do so.
Reporter Rebecca Gourley can be reached via email at rgourley@maplevalleyreporter.com, by phone at 425-432-1209 ext. 5052, or via Twitter @rebeccalgourley.
