Vision-Downtown Lake Stevens
Posted by Gary O'Rielly on Sep 08, 2016
September 7, 2016 - The Lake Stevens Planning Commission held their Citizen's Participation Meeting #1 to a jam-packed room at the Community Center. The goal was to develop a list of our top issues and concerns for the downtown area. Mayor John Spencer opened the meeting with an upbeat overview of the Downtown Lake Stevens Subarea Plan with the focus on redeveloping city-owned property in the area through the establishment of a Citizens Advisory Committee for the plan working in conjunction with a consulting firm. Input from the overall community is vital. The city added 1,000 new residents last year and new housing permits so far this year are over 600+ permits. Several City Council members, city staff and Planning Commission members were present for the community meeting.
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The Mayor introduced Tom Matlack, chair of the Lake Stevens Planning Commission who turned the meeting over to representatives of Crandall Arambula PC who specialize in revitalizing cities and have been retained to assist the city and the citizens advisory committee on initiating a doable plan.The program was divided into two parts.
1) Presentation: a) Subarea study issues and existing conditions, b) constraints and opportunities.
2) Following the presentation: a) 5 minutes for questions, b) table discussions. (20 minutes), c) table reports (20 minutes).
Some of the comments included a revitalized core downtown area with lots of amenities; access to the lake; sidewalks and paths around the lake for walking and biking; a restaurant located on the lake; urban parks and main street retail and more urban parks. These were just a few of the ideas discussed at the meeting. Citizen's Participation Meeting #2 is scheduled for October 19th. Several Rotarians participated in the meeting.