Staffer’s visions guided MC’s landscape

Published 8:07 pm Tuesday, May 11, 2010

MILL CREEK — When Bill Trimm, community development director, joined the Mill Creek staff more than 20 years ago, there were approximately 3,800 residents and the landscape was dotted with private pocket parks and a golf course.

Now, things are a little busier. Mill Creek’s population has grown to nearly 19,000 residents and has public parks, trails and successful businesses.

Trimm said when staff drafted early versions of the city’s comprehensive plan, one goal was to transform the community into a full-service city.

Mission accomplished.

After 22 years with the city, Trimm is retiring at the end of June.

Trimm said it was a defining period of time when staff pieced together the city’s first comprehensive plan. Staff defined residential areas around parks, scarce at the time, and planned for what could be within the city’s boundaries.

“People started to realize the boundary to where we could grow to,” he said. “It gave people a sense of identity of our neighbors and community.”

Mayor Mike Todd said Trimm is probably best known as the “father of Town Center,” a nod to his efforts to work with partners to create a focal point for the city and surrounding area.

“Bill’s unwavering vision for Mill Creek has blessed this community with first-class residential and commercial development and an enviable array of parks and trails,” Todd said in a statement.

City manager Tim Burns is quick to sing the praises of his friend and colleague.

Burns called Trimm the “father of Mill Creek development” and credited him with spearheading the city’s comprehensive plan.

When people look around Mill Creek’s surroundings, they are seeing Trimm’s vision for the city, Burns said.

“He’s quite a visionary,” Burns said.

Taking a humble approach, Trimm would prefer to focus on the group effort to turn drawings into a bustling location for community events and new businesses.

“The relationship we’ve generated with different stakeholders has been really fulfilling,” he said.

Staff worked with commissioners, boards, merchants and property owners to create Town Center, which had a budget of $10,000 in the early 1990s.

Trimm still remembers a community meeting where he and John Owen, a designer and architect for Seattle-based Makers Architecture and Urban Design, instructed people to close their eyes and envision what they saw for the Town Center. Owen would then attempt to draw their vision.

“When we asked for feedback it was dead silent,” Trimm said.

After one man volunteered his vision of walking to rent a rowboat for he and his granddaughter, people had something to say.

“All these ideas started coming,” he said. “There were 75 to 80 different images of how they visualized the Town Center. We couldn’t draw fast enough. The beauty of this is it was community driven.”

Another goal was to make Mill Creek a walkable community. He gives credit to the city’s first female city manager, Joni Earl, who helped draft the city’s first comprehensive plan.

“She was an incredibly efficient manager and an incredible visionary,” he said.

Earl championed buying a right of way that led to a $1.1 million investment on roads to connect Town Center to the existing downtown. The pair also bolstered North Creek Trail, which connects five neighborhoods, the Town Center and Main Street.

“There needs to be a sense of identity,” Trimm said. “There needs to be a terminus of where to grow to.”

Planning manager Tom Rogers, hired by Trimm 18 years ago, said Trimm has been a mentor for him.

Rogers said Trimm listens and facilitates, rather than regulates.

He added that Trimm stressed treating people the way you want to be treated.

“It’s not going to be the same without him,” he said.

Trimm is also a contributing author to the American Planning Association publication Planning and Urban Design Standards and is a fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners. His achievements have been recognized by state, regional and local planning and economic development organizations.

“(He leaves) huge, huge boots to fill,” Burns said.