EDMONDS – Officials from the Downtown Edmonds Merchants Association are fine-tuning their recommendations for the city’s downtown and waterfront update process.
The effort follows those made by the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce in August, and precedes the city Planning Board’s recommendations to the City Council scheduled to be made in early November.
According to DEMA vice president Robert Boehlke, the primary motivation for the group’s recommendations is to “encourage the economic vitality” of retail spaces in downtown Edmonds. Boehlke added that to do so, the city’s shopping corridor must have continuity in its retail spaces rather than too many office spaces incorporated between shops.
“We know from experience as retailers … that if you have a bunch of dead spots, it detracts customers from flowing from one store to another,” said Boehlke, who owns the HOUSEwares store in the downtown core area.
A primary issue embedded in the group’s recommendations is first-floor ceiling height in the shopping area of downtown Edmonds.
Currently, there is no city code specifying first-floor ceiling height in this area, city planner Rob Chave said. However, in new development, the upper two residential stories of such buildings often drive the economics of the project. Chave said developers look for ways to get those floors in, including compressing two stories of residential and one story of retail space into 30 feet of building.
“For retail space you really need a certain ceiling height,” Chave said. “If its too low, it can appear like a tunnel.”
In an outline of recommendations presented at their Sept. 3 meeting, DEMA members recommended that first-floor ceiling heights in that area should be at least 12 feet high, and that first-floor office space that is not compatible with retail should be excluded from the downtown retail core. Other DEMA recommendations aim at maintaining the feel of the downtown area. Establishing specific design guidelines for new buildings, allowing sufficient space for sidewalks, benches and flowerpots, the statement said, would encourage the “historic small scale feel” of Edmonds.
Earlier this month, the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce also made recommendations to the planning board regarding first-floor ceiling heights and the city’s comprehensive plan. The recommendations, Chamber director Chris Guittton said, are slightly different from those of DEMA.
They include:
• Studying the effects and/or issues of first-floor and overall building height options in the downtown shopping area;
• Studying the definition of geographic boundaries of what could be identified as an ideal retail core in the area;
• Studying whether excluding first-floor office uses that are not compatible with retail would strengthen the economic vitality of the retail core.
“The retailers are not looking at overall building heights, they’re looking at the area being walkable and appealing for shoppers,” Guitton said. “But if we want new buildings to be built downtown, they need to be financially viable for developers.”
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