Shoreline's emerging Town Center Subarea Plan

By Joe Tovar, Shoreline Planning and Development Services Director

The City of Shoreline Planning Commission hosted a successful design charrette on Thursday evening, April 1, regarding the City’s emerging Town Center Subarea Plan.

Over 60 citizens, city council members, planning commissioners and staff members worked with Urban Design Consultant Bob Bengford of Makers, Inc. to talk about building and site design principles and how to incorporate them in the new Subarea Plan and design regulations.

Participants reviewed illustrations of different sizes, types and configurations of possible buildings, streetscapes and site improvements and expressed their opinions in a Visual Preference Survey. They then broke into ten small groups of five or six people each to discuss where different building types, sizes or design treatments would be appropriate and then plotted their suggestions onto maps of the Town Center Area.

Residents from neighborhoods along Stone Ave N and Linden Ave N identified the need to buffer and protect these nearby residential areas from more intense development and traffic along Aurora.

Copies of the draft Town Center Vision Statement prepared by a subcommittee of the Planning Commission was also distributed and people were invited to call or email in suggestions before a final draft of the Vision Statement and design standards are presented at public hearings this spring.

For more information about the Town Center Subarea Plan and schedule for further public participation, visit the City’s Town Center webpage or contact Project Planner Paul Cohen at 206-801-2551.

Photos courtesy City of Shoreline