On Monday, Sept. 18, the City Council will hold a public hearing on the new downtown plan. It’s been a work in progress for quite some time and the subject of many public hearings and discussions at the Planning Board. You are all invited to attend and offer your thoughts. This is so much more than just another discussion about building heights.

I want to address only one topic from the plan. There has been much debate about requiring retail uses in the area around the fountain at Fifth Avenue and Main Street as opposed to allowing service businesses, such as real estate, attorney or insurance offices. Clustering retail uses makes for a better shopping environment for shoppers and retailers alike.

I really don’t have an idea at this point how the Council as a whole feels about this. I did hear a couple council members speak to it at the Aug. 22 meeting. For what it’s worth, I believe the idea of “encouraging” retail uses and “discouraging” service uses near Fifth and Main is the right thing to do. I can’t go so far as to endorse “requiring” those actions because I don’t think we have the right to dictate what a property owner can do with his or her buildings.

I am fearful that the trend by some property owners to lease space to more and more service-type businesses in the “shopping” core of downtown will slowly eliminate prime retail spaces. When that happens, downtown begins a slow death as a shopping center and a spiral begins that is not pretty. Fewer stores to shop in reduces tourism, reduces the desirability of going downtown for residents and eventually lessens the demand to live in downtown.

So I support language in the proposed code that “urges” retail uses in the shopping core of downtown without requiring it. I hope for the future of downtown that the property owners are listening.

Gary Haakenson is the mayor of Edmonds.