Second town center idea gathers steam

Plans for a 50-acre mixed retail, residential town center are gaining momentum in Mill Creek.

Community Development Director Bill Trimm mapped out for the City Council on Tuesday potential layouts for the commercially zoned property bordered by 132nd Street Southeast and Seattle Hill Road.

Surrounded by wetlands and a planned network of recreation trails, the proposed vision for the East Gateway development — anchored at the west by a proposed Wal-Mart store — includes several parks and open plazas for farmers markets and similar community events, mixed density residential neighborhoods and retail centers.

An open house is scheduled for 5 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 4 at City Hall, where the city’s planning commissioners hope to gather community input on the proposed design and comprehensive plan amendments to rezone the 50-acre parcel as a town center.

“We have the opportunity here to create a mixed-use neighborhood where residents and visitors can play, shop and worship,” Trimm said. “Some people have posed the question, ‘What happens to Town Center if you do this?’ I believe we can capture more trips and more sales tax revenue through this development without taking any business away from Town Center.”

The area surrounding the East Gateway property already experiences an estimated traffic volume of 32,000 trips daily and growing.

A village center at the city’s eastern border will undoubtedly pull from that volume and encourage more trips through town, thus increasing traffic at other local businesses along the way, Trimm said.

The Community Development Department has worked with property owners and residents of surrounding neighborhoods since June to establish a unified set of objectives and design standards for commercial development at the city’s east entrance.

“I like that the property owners and surrounding community members are so enthusiastic about this,” Councilman Mike Todd said. “I think it’s great how closely the community development department has worked with citizens throughout this process to encourage participation and support.”

A recent community work session gave residents the opportunity to share their views on the design and layout of similar developments around the country and work in groups to design their own town centers.

The meeting generated more than 10 pages of comments from community members and helped Trimm and his staff work architecture consultants to create a model layout for the proposed development.

While comments from residents indicate support for the project, concern that the proposed Wal-Mart will have a negative impact on nearby neighborhoods was almost unanimous.

“Many of those impacts can be mitigated with conditions attached to their building permit which would be issued by the city,” Trimm said. “They have already redesigned their building to conform with our design standards.”

He said several options are available in design and construction of the development to mask the rear of the building and mitigate the negative impacts of increased traffic.

“We’ll have to be flexible how we implement development and keep in mind the parameters of the market as we move forward,” Trimm said. “I think we have a good opportunity here with what we’ve learned from Town Center to create a unique community with a wide range of services and use.”

In other business:

The City Council discussed briefly a possible partnership with the Adopt-A-Stream Foundation to remove the long-ago vacated Larry’s Smokehouse building at the corner of Dumas Road and Bothell-Everett Highway.

Removal of the facility will allow the foundation to restore the area as a stream buffer and habitat for salmon and other wetland wildlife.

The council previously authorized contributing up to $15,000 for hazardous material inspection and removal, but expects demolition of the facility and restoration costs to be paid for by the foundation.

City Manager Tim Burns reported on Tuesday that the foundation is in the process of identifying and applying for various grants to fund the project and does not anticipate the city will need to invest additional resources for hazardous material inspection and removal.