Proponents are contending that changing the Comprehensive Plan to include the Harbor Square Master Plan is about giving more choice. They suggest we can include residential and increased heights at Harbor Square in our Comp Plan then negotiate heights with the applicant through a development agreement. However, everything incorporated into the Comp Plan is no longer under the control of the Council (legislative body) because the applicant can challenge restrictions through appeal(s) to the court (judicial body).

Here is an article on the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington website — The Unassailable Right to Make Any Decision You Want: Avoiding Judicial Intervention in Local Land Use Decision Making

Wonky, but excellent reading to further understand why this is not a decision that Council should make without carefully considering the ramifications.

I love Edmonds. I love the way the sun dips below the clouds as it sets after a long overcast day. I love the rainbows that appear when the sun pops from behind a cloud while it’s raining. I love that my children were raised here. I love that I know so many people who live and work here. I love that I am in a position to be one of the stewards of our city’s future.

I also love the views of the water and mountains as I walk down Main or Dayton. I love thinking about how our views and gorgeous setting could be the key to the future of Edmonds, the key to figuring out how we can draw more people here to enjoy its beauty, while taking advantage of our shops, restaurants, and services.

At the Council meeting Tuesday night, fellow citizens were not talking about the excitement of the views, our environment, and our setting, they were talking about a proposal that would capture views for the profit and benefit of a few — the Port’s Harbor Square Master Plan that includes mixed use, residential and retail, in buildings as high as 55 feet.

Think about that for a minute. We were discussing how a few could profit — with a debatable economic benefit to Edmonds — from a project that is projected to be in place decades from now, and only after thousands of city staff, legal, and council hours (paid for by the citizens of Edmonds) have been expended reviewing the thousands of pages of studies, reports, legal documents, proposals, applications, and what not.

This Master Plan would determine how the Harbor Square properties would look, not just twenty or so years from now, but decades into the future. Our gorgeous setting is a gift of nature. Why does one generation have the right to deface this gift for countless future generations, just to deal with a current downturn in the economy? What kind of stewardship is that? And it isn’t even practical, because the considerable construction period would hurt our local businesses, while the possible (but in no way guaranteed) benefits are a long way off. Responding to our current financial crisis with this plan is akin to responding to a 911 call by introducing the possibility of a new fire or police station.

And why are we even considering a plan that raises height limits near the waterfront — a consideration that has been turned down by Edmonds voters countless times?

The downtown is our heart. The waterfront is our future. The only reasonable way to guide the future is to take responsibility for what we can accomplish in the near term. That begins with discussions of what we want and will support now. Together, we can develop plans for the short term, and done right, the short term begets the long term.

Port Director Bob McChesney was gracious enough to give me a tour of the Harbor Square properties. The entire second floors of two of the buildings are vacant. Mr. McChesney explained that an investment of perhaps a few hundred thousand dollars would be required for the Port to upgrade those buildings to attract additional tenants.

With our fiber optics access, we could attract tech, engineering, environmental research, and/or consulting businesses. Or perhaps an artists’ cooperative, with studios for rent, on one of the floors. There are many possibilities.

I’m confused why Mr. McChesney and other Port officials have shown an unwillingness to consider anything other than a mega-project fraught with obstacles and uncertainties. The approval process will be lengthy, while reaching the end point of the Port’s proposal includes the assumption that there will be no obstructing appeals or lawsuits — a naive assumption considering our City’s recent history.

It will take effort to face our differences of opinion and come to agreement to implement immediate solutions. I believe that we are up to the challenge. Because, after all, we all love Edmonds.

There will be another public hearing on the Port’s Harbor Square Master Plan on Tuesday, Dec. 18th in Council Chambers. The meeting starts at 7 PM. Please come, or write to council at Council@ci.edmonds.wa.us, and express your opinion.

Some years ago, IBM determined that there’s no money to be made in commodity hardware: the company abandoned selling PCs in order to focus on providing expensive enterprise services. Former IBM customers yawned and bought Dells and HPs.

Some years ago, the City of Edmonds determined that people travel primarily in cars: the City abandoned sidewalks, pedestrian signals, and wheelchair on-ramps. Citizens showed up at the next City Council meeting bearing torches and pitchforks.

Which incident above did not and will never happen? In contrast to businesses, governments must serve all, which translates to being inefficient in which services to provide. Where they can and should be efficient is in providing those services.

Unlike business persons, Council Members and the Mayor need to understand both necessary inefficiencies as well as necessary efficiencies.

If you were a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation you could recall the Captain displaying his easy authority with the order: “Make it so.” No one in Edmonds has the authority to make much of anything so; that takes the combined authority of several elected officials, City staff and, on most large projects, significant community support. It’s far easier to get community agreement on making something not so, such as a regional sewage facility, than it is to make something positive happen.

My recent article on clustering brought out the unintended (but not unwelcome) consequence of support for a year-round public market. I have been thinking about and looking for a location for a public market since I scouted Edmonds with my toddler son (now 25), and posting about it for as long as my husband and I have hosted EdmondsForum.com.

I’m not the first and certainly not the only Edmonds resident who’s thought that a public market is perfect for Edmonds. When Mike Cooper was on the Snohomish County Council, he attended an Edmonds Council meeting that included a discussion of the future of the waterfront properties. He disclosed that Snohomish County was looking for a location for a year-round public market, having determined that this could easily be supported in the county. (See report, page A-57.) But even if lots of people agree that a year-round public market is a great idea, making it so will take the combined efforts of elected officials, City staff and, probably most important, a groundswell of interest from citizens.

It will also take getting ideas from examples where it’s already working, such as in Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver (and yes, those are far larger cities, but ours will be a regional market). It will take acknowledgment that even good projects have unintended consequences (several were expressed in the comments) and care should be taken to minimize them. We don’t want new businesses to harm current ones. And, as I said, most important, it will take community support. Below are ways to participate.

Edmonds is currently working on a Strategic Plan, a vision of the future of Edmonds. On May 3rd, from 5:30 – 8:30 PM, in the Library Plaza meeting room, an open house will be held on the Strategic planning process. Information on the open house and all data gathered is on the city’s website. If you’re not interested in participating in the Strategic Planning process, but do want to support a particular direction or idea for Edmonds, Here are other ways to get your point across.

(1) Edmonds City Council, the Edmonds Planning Board, and the Economic Development Commission all have audience comment time available at their meetings, when citizens have three minutes to present ideas and issues of concern. Time and agenda for these meetings is on the city’s website. (2) You can email all council members at council@ci.edmonds.wa.us. (3) You could form your own group. Before I ran for a Council seat, I started a group, with three like-minded citizens, which later became Imagine Edmonds.

If citizens want to form a group to support a public market in Edmonds, e-mail me at joan.bloom@edmondswa.gov. Put “market” in the subject space. So you can find each other, I will e-mail the collected addresses to all who e-mailed me.