MUKILTEO — The Mukilteo City Council moved Monday to deny a contentious rezone that would’ve allowed up to 200 housing units after locals rose up against the proposal.
Six of the seven council members voted against the rezone. Council member Donna Vago was the lone abstention.
The property in question, located at 6500 Harbour Heights Parkway, is currently home to a roughly 340,000-square-foot office space and research facility.
The property is made up of four parcels. Two, making up just under 8 acres of land, are already zoned for multi-family housing. The other two, making up just over 23 acres, would have been rezoned from industrial to multi-family.
Residents argued the proposed development, made up of single-family homes and townhomes, would have been too dense for the city, citing concerns over storm runoff, traffic and a loss of views. Representatives from the developers, Tri Pointe Homes, said they adjusted plans based on community concerns and the homes would have helped the city meet the housing goals laid out in its draft comprehensive plan.
The city will have to build over 2,000 new housing units by 2044, according to the draft comprehensive plan. The plan has been in review since Feburary.
During the public comment period Monday, more than two dozen residents spoke against the rezoning for nearly two hours.
“Usually we get council members saying, ‘How do we get people engaged?’ Do a 30-acre rezone in their neighborhood,” Mayor Joe Marine said after the vote.
The developers, on behalf of the property owner, Tom Prenzlow, requested a rezone of the property with a cap of 222 units, later reduced to 200. The city’s planning commission recommended approving the rezone with a lower cap of 180 units. That would match the density of nearby neighborhoods, said Kristina Cerise, planning manager at the city.
Residents, however, felt both proposals were too much.
“This application has been through an extensive, some might say excruciating, discovery process and comment process,” Mukilteo resident Byron Wright said at the meeting. “Lots of data has been developed and a clear public wish for lower-density development has been established.”
In a 2021 advisory vote, 81% of Mukilteo voters opposed encouraging high-density housing.
If the council voted against the rezone, Tri Pointe Homes had planned on applying to build 80 townhomes on the land already zoned as multi-family housing, said Nancy Rogers, an attorney representing Tri Pointe, at Monday’s meeting.
Tri Pointe would have appealed a decision with a cap of less than 200 units to the state’s Growth Management Hearings Board because, she said, it would be inequitable for the city to downzone property to lower density than is already allowed in surrounding neighborhoods.
“The state law might change, but in no case would anybody think that this is the proper place to put relatively high density in Mukilteo,” resident Donald Mains said at the meeting. “It’s very far from major roads, very far from commercial shopping centers.”
The final comprehensive plan will be voted on at a future City Council meeting.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
