The Burien Planning Commission met on Wednesday, July 3, 2024 to finalize their recommendations on the city’s new zoning code. This code will determine how Burien grows in the coming years, with a focus on balancing the city’s long-term development goals with the needs of current residents and businesses.
A key point of contention was how to handle zoning for areas bordering the downtown core, with residents concerned about encroaching buildings.
The meeting also addressed parking requirements, a major point of concern for developers who find it a hindrance to new projects.
After this meeting, the Planning Commission’s recommendations will be brought to the city council for discussion and implementation. The new zoning code needs to take into account the city’s Comprehensive Plan and regional growth requirements for domestic units as well as businesses. This means higher density, taller buildings, and potentially fewer parking requirements on new developments.
Downtown Core
Two conversations dominated the discussion, including how to address a petition brought by residents just north of the downtown core, who shared concerns about their block being included in new downtown zoning. The downtown area will now allow for taller buildings, and residents worried about their homes being dwarfed by new developments.
The block in question lies between 146th & 148th, and between 6th & 8th Ave West. The options considered by the Commission were to ignore the petition and continue to include it in “downtown core” zoning; to keep it residential; or to find a middle ground. In the end, the Commission went with a decision they knew wouldn’t make everyone happy, but hopefully wouldn’t make anyone too sad. Since the side of the block along 148th has steep slopes down from the road, they decided to leave it and most of the block residential. For the lots along the 8th Ave side of the block, mixed use developments will be allowed.
Parking Requirements
Developers say parking requirements are one of the greatest impediments to making a new project pencil out. Parking requirements limit the amount of housing that can be built, and parking lots can take up much more space than a building itself. In addition, it was pointed out that business parking lots break up the flow of storefronts and reduce walkability.
Current requirements for domestic structures are two parking spaces per house, or 1.8 spaces per apartment. The Commission agreed to reduce the requirement to one space per residential unit across the board, though there were some who wanted to reduce it even further. They looked at examples from Seattle, Spokane, and Auburn. In Seattle, no parking is required at all in urban villages or developments near transit, and Spokane is removing required parking altogether.
For business parking, currently two spaces are required per 1000 feet of office or retail business, one space per hotel room, and 13 spaces required per 1000 feet of restaurant or bar. Seattle has exempted the parking requirement for businesses smaller than 3000 square feet, and only requires one parking spot per four rooms in hotels.
The Commission again went with a middle ground on their decisions regarding parking requirements. They decided that reducing requirements by half in most situations was already a big enough change, without doing away with them altogether or going as low as Seattle has. However, developers can always build more parking than the minimum required. The zoning can also be updated at any point if reducing the parking requirements as much as they are currently recommending is not enough to encourage growth.
