If you live in an Urban Growth Area in Snohomish County, or if you have just been driving around, you surely have noticed the immense increase in homes that have been built.  While many of these subdivisions are single family residences, the County’s codes allow for many types of density.  Density in our urban growth areas and in our cities is a good thing for protecting rural and resource lands, but that doesn’t mean that what has been allowed to be built has been good.  Through the years since the adoption of the Growth Management Act, Snohomish County’s regulations for development has not kept pace with its policies outlined in its General Policy Plan, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Plan.  Part of why this occurred is political….who is in office and who they support. 

During that last 4 years, the public, including such entities as Fire Districts, have complained about the aesthetics of these large subdivisions.  In the early 2000 there was a big push by citizens, with a sympathetic County Council, to revise codes for Planned Residential Developments (PRDs) to make them more acceptable to the surrounding neighborhoods.  Many changes were made, but when a new, developer-friendly council was elected, those regulations changed again.

Since that legislation, the county also started allowing for Low Density Multiple Residential homes, which are detached housing a very high densities.  For developers it was a great plus as they could increases the density significantly in single family zones.  However, there were many problems both functionally and aesthetically, and a big outcry from the public, especially in South Snohomish County, where these types of developments were occurring at alarming rates.

Finally in 2009, after many years of public meetings and hearings, the Snohomish County Council changed the regulations for Urban Residential Design Standards that

Among the improvements are:

•        New regulations to improve the exterior appearance of residential dwellings (single-family, duplex, townhouses and multiple-family buildings);

•        New regulations to preserve significant trees in perimeter landscaping, critical areas and buffers;

•        New regulations to replace significant trees when they are cut down;

•        New regulations to require street trees in residential developments;

•        New regulations to address compatibility of new development with existing

residences;

•        Increased building height in single-family and multiple-family residential zones;

•        New regulations to allow cottage housing;

•        Requirement that all new residential developments provide on-site recreation

space;

•        Administrative review of architectural design standards; • Flexibility built into the review process;

•        Improved pedestrian connections within residential developments;

•        New “Design Manual” to illustrate architectural, landscaping and street standards

(user friendly with pictures and illustrations).