A public hearing offers a chance to analyze the zoning changes proposed by the "Metro Everett" downtown plan.
"Everett has an ambitious city center planning proposal that has been circulating city hall for more than two years," reports Stephen Fesler. "Known as 'Metro Everett,' the proposal would rezone large swaths of the city center and nearby areas while pairing extensive development regulations to realize modern, integrated urban districts."
Planetizen picked up news about Metro Everett back in 2016, but the plan reached a major milestone this week when the city's Planning Commission held a public hearing on some of the code changes included in the plan. According to Fesler, "the plans have to get the commission’s buy-off before an ordinance would be transmitted to the city council for consideration."
The Planning Commission hearing means a new draft of the plan is available for perusal, resembling a draft version released in January. Fesler gives analysis of the zones proposed for the plan, Urban Mixed (UM), Urban Residential (UR), and Urban Light Industrial (ULI). According to Fesler, some of the principles applied in those zones could be extended beyong the Metro Everett boundaries into a Core residential Area overlay.
A few key characteristics of the zoning scheme put forward by metro Everett is the role of street type determining use regulations (i.e., "on TOD streets, residential uses would generally be restricted on ground floor street frontages to no more than 25% of a block (defined as 400 feet of frontage) in order to encourage active streets"). The zones also set regulations on matters of building form, like density, building heights, building locations, and ground floor spaces.
Read the full story: Metro Everett Has A Fully-Baked Rezone Proposal, Public Hearing Tonight
Everett's New Downtown Plan
Digging into the city of Everett's recent overhaul of its zoning and development regulations in Downtown and adjacent neighborhoods.
A New Downtown Master Plan for Everett, Washington
The city of 108,000 is preparing for major growth in the next 20 years.
Citywide Zoning Reform Approved in Everett
Few cities are accomplishing such a swift and sweeping overhaul of its land use regulations as Everett, Washington, which just wrapped up its second major planning initiative in as many years on its way to launching a third.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
US buildings threatened, destroyed by fires set to triple by 2060
Researchers found a high fire risk for socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods in the American West.
LA residents may be allowed to paint their own crosswalks
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky put out a motion instructing the Los Angeles Department of Public Transportation to study the feasibility of allowing volunteers to paint crosswalks.
Dallas moves to overhaul its zoning code
The city's zoning reform will allow more multi-family and mixed-use developments.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority