Posted: November 8, 2024

Dozens of people gathered Thursday at the Edmonds Waterfront Center to talk about the current state and future of housing in the city.

The Edmonds Civic Roundtable hosted a moderated discussion between Karen Haase Herrick from the Alliance of Citizens for Edmonds (ACE) and Mackey Guenther from the Coalition for an Accessible and Resilient Edmonds (CARE).

ACE is a nonprofit organization established in 2004. It focuses on land use and housing regulations, as well as building developments that protect the beauty and charm of the city, Herrick said. 

CARE is a nonprofit group that invites  residents to discuss ideas they have about how Edmonds  looks now, and what it could be like in the future.

During Guenther’s presentation, he referred to the history of Edmonds and how it came to be. The city, which was previously a mill town, was perceived as an “industrial powerhouse,” he said. 

As time went on, people built the city around downtown. Guenther said the first zoning code came to fruition in 1949, and racial covenants appeared around the same time. In 1971, The Seattle Times published an article titled, “Edmonds shuns the growth-happy syndrome.”

Guenther said that when the article was written, the mayor felt that having more people move into the area meant more houses and fewer trees, and that more automobiles meant more air pollution, traffic congestion and parking problems.

“As we think about the future, we should maybe think about updating those strongly held beliefs,” Guenther said.

During Herrick’s presentation, she spoke about the difficulty of talking about housing due to peoples’ differing values and perspectives. Housing supply is also a complex issue, she said, and there is no simple answer for it.

With recent changes in state legislation, conversations about housing in Edmonds have included the concept of middle housing, increasing density and adding accessory dwelling units. Herrick said the state Legislature should give residents a two-year break to “make plans based on the laws that they passed and see how that’s going to work out.”

Some of Herrick’s presentation slides showed photos of housing complexes in the area — some of which she thought had cool features and not-so-cool features. One photo was of a three-story townhome development.

“They’re not my favorite,” Herrick said. “They’re hard to live in … when you have a child who has issues like cerebral palsy or other muscular development issues.”

Herrick said she would like to see the city move away from relying on government agencies to regulate housing and instead involve people or groups that can use money “more efficiently.” There are creative ways to address housing issues, she said, including land trusts. 

An attendee at the roundtable event said the two biggest hurdles for Edmonds related to housing in today’s economy are land availability and cost.

Guenther agreed that there is not enough land. However, if Edmonds wants to give people the opportunity to start or end their life there, he said it should do what other cities have been doing: allow more housing to be built.

Another attendee asked what kind of challenges different age groups may be facing regarding housing.

Herrick said people in her age group often have concerns with mobility. She knows people who have survived bad accidents or are veterans with disabilities; they often worry if a home is safe to navigate and if there are any elevators.

Guenther said those in his generation tend to spend more money on housing than anything else.

“There just aren’t enough homes in this country for the number of people that live here,” Guenther said.

The Edmonds Civic Roundtable is a nonprofit organization established in 2021. Its mission is to empower neighbors through unbiased information, according to its website. It does not advocate for specific outcomes or candidates.

— Story and photos by Angelica Relente

Angelica Relente is a Murrow News Fellow covering housing and related issues in South Snohomish County for the My Neighborhood News Network.