2025-02-18 Council Committee W MinutesMinutes
COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING
February 18, 2025
Elected Officials Present Staff Present
Council President Tibbott (Chair)
Councilmember Dotsch
Shane Hope, Interim Planning & Dev. Dir.
Nicholas Falk, Deputy City Clerk
Councilmember Paine
Councilmember Chen
Councilmember Nand
Councilmember Eck
Councilmember Olson
1. CALL TO ORDER
The Edmonds City Council Committee of the Whole meeting was called to order virtually and in the City
Council Conference Room, 121 – 5th Avenue North, Edmonds, at 6:00 pm by Council President Tibbott.
2. COMMITTEE BUSINESS
1. Progress on Code Updates
Interim Planning & Development Director presented on the recent state legislation has resulted in new
requirements for local comprehensive plans and development regulations. Under state law, many of
these updates must be finalized by the end of June 2025 and others by the end of December 2025.
Many other parts of the City's codes also need updating to make the regulations clearer, more effective,
appropriate for current needs, user-friendly, and/or more consistent. The topics presented are arranged
in the following order, with an asterisk (*) by each code type that has a required deadline per state law:
Critical Timing Reminder
Future Reporting to Council
Community Engagement
City Resources
Middle Housing *
Neighborhood Centers and Hubs *
STEP Housing *
Multifamily *
Design Review *
Vehicle Parking *
Zoning Map Update
Parks
Critical Areas *
Co-living Housing *
Miscellaneous - Minor amendments are likely needed for other parts of the development code,
including for: Title 19 Building Code, Tree Code (as needed for legal clarity), SEPA
process updates, Title 21 Definitions.
Questions and discussions followed regarding affordability of unit housing, subdivision of lots, transition
of leadership and plan for citizen input, clarification on building heights, walking tours as a way to receive
citizen input, housing type counts, parent lot subdivision allotment regulations, options for property lot
division for single owners, lot coverage percentage, subdivision code updates and conflicts, deadlines
and litigation risk, co-living spaces, interim ordinance and deadlines, micro housing models terminology,
2/18/2025 Committee of the Whole Minutes, Page 2
how the code update work affects departmental workloads, how to extend community engagement and
input, how critical area ordinance influences lot size code.
Committee recommendation: For information only
2. Legal Assessment Committee Proposed 2025 Work Plan
Council President Tibbott and Councilmember Paine presented the Legal Assessment Committee
Proposed 2025 Work Plan which focuses on conducting an annual review of the city attorney and the
city prosecutor performance and, periodically, to make recommendations regarding any proposed
changes.
The city attorney’s assessment consists of initiating input from members of the city government and
soliciting email feedback through focused questions from February to July 2025, performing a follow up
meeting wait a city attorney representative in August 2025, and drafting a memo for Council
summarizing the results of the process in September 2025.
The city prosecutors assessment will consist of receiving and review of monthly reports from Human
Resources and participating in quarterly meetings for more detailed reports during May and August
2025, inviting specific city government to interviews with the Legal Assessment Committee and
performing follow up meetings with Human Resources and a City Prosecutor representative to discuss
review comments from March to July 2025, and drafting a memo for Council summarizing the results of
the process in September 2025.
Questions and discussion followed regarding the evaluation criteria and metrics, direction that specific
questions council want asked to be submitted through the committee to avoid inundating legal teams,
avenues in which the city receives legal services, any control we may have in reducing costs.
Committee recommendation: For information only
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 7:37 pm.