MI City Council and staff focus on comprehensive plan compliance

Published 6:30 pm Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Mercer Island City Councilmembers took the next step in the city’s road to its 2024 comprehensive plan compliance by further discussing the matter with city staff members at their April 21 regular meeting.

After the city was notified of an appeal to the plan, the state Growth Management Hearings Board (GMHB) later informed the city in August of 2025 that it was required to revise its plan by July 31, according to a previous Reporter story.

The board — after finding noncompliance in the Mercer Island housing element with some of the Growth Management Act’s provisions — ordered the city to amend its land capacity analysis, adequate provisions, Sound Transit light rail station area subarea plan and anti-displacement measures sections.

At the conclusion of the work session on April 21, council cast a trio of 7-0 votes to direct staff to move forward on three policies: Setting the inclusionary zoning requirements at 10% of units to be affordable at 50% area median income (AMI) when drafting code amendments to comply with the GMHB’s order; prohibiting adult entertainment and warehousing in the Town Center-8 (eight-story buildings) subarea when drafting code amendments to comply with the GMHB order; and including policy direction in the station subarea plan to review the requirement for average daylight plane, major site features and major facade modulation during phase two of the plan.

“All three of these points of direction will help guide our efforts to prepare development code amendments that we’ll be bringing forward for consideration during the comprehensive plan update to comply with the hearings board decision and the GMA (Growth Management Act),” said city principal planner Adam Zack.

Staff’s recommendation to prohibit adult entertainment and warehousing in the TC-8 area is to avoid land use incompatibility and maintain residential-forward redevelopment, according to documents. Currently, there are no existing permitted adult entertainment uses established in Town Center.

Warehousing, which is defined in city documents as “the storage of goods and materials, including facilities available to the public for a fee,” is currently only allowed by conditional use permit in the Town Center-5 (five-story buildings) and Town Center-5-plus (seven-story buildings) subareas.

During the public appearances segment of the meeting, Conor Hansen of SRM Development advocated for a higher AMI threshold in the inclusionary zoning requirements realm.

“I presented to the Mercer Island School Board to let the teachers know about this opportunity and a lot of them felt that that housing was a little too expensive and were more attracted to the 80% AMI housing range, whereas the 50% doesn’t really capture a lot of the teachers that earn those salaries,” Hansen said.

Key dates for the city as the compliance date nears are April 29-June 10 (planning commission legislative review, a public hearing on June 3 and recommendations for city council); June 16-July 21 (city council review of planning commission recommendations, deliberation and adoption); July 31 (GMHB order deadline); and Sept. 15 (compliance hearing on GMHB order).

At the meeting, council also voted 7-0 in favor of some of the elements that are included in the above schedule.

“If this does pass, I would like to thank the planning commission for their expeditious and thoughtful work — balancing pace and precision,” said Mayor Dave Rosenbaum.

EARTH DAY PROCLAMATION

To accompany the city’s plethora of Earth Month activities during April, city council approved a proclamation at the meeting to designate April 22 as Earth Day on Mercer Island.

“Every year, Earth Day offers an opportunity to recommit to building a flourishing, sustainable, and equitable community for all,” reads the proclamation, adding that the city encourages “all residents and businesses to be responsible stewards of our Island, the climate, and our planet.”

To do its part, the city added sustainability language to its comprehensive plan more than 15 years ago; adopted its first climate action plan (CAP) three years ago during Earth Month; committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 95% by 2050, in alignment with King County targets and more.

On the climate award front, the Environmental Protection Agency named the city the Green Power Community of the Year in 2013, and MI was honored with the Department of Energy’s SolSmart Gold designation in 2018.

This month, city staff planned 16 events “designed to protect and beautify Mercer Island’s unique environment,” including a habitat restoration at Ellis Pond, stormwater stewardship and a mindfulness walk at Pioneer Park, a paint recycling event, a sustainable fashion show and more.