Blaine council outlines work priorities for CDS Department

Blaine City Council unanimously approved a list of large projects for the city’s Community Development Services (CDS) Department to prioritize working on this year. Up on this year’s list are proposed changes to downtown zoning and the city permitting process, as well as updates to the 2025 comprehensive plan.

Council passed Resolution 1940-24, which created a list of proposed changes to city code and updates to Blaine’s comprehensive plan, during its February 12 meeting. The docket allows the CDS Department to either start or continue, if carried over from a previous year, the public review process for the listed items. City council will ultimately decide on the proposals.

Below are the proposed updates or changes that the CDS Department will work on.

Downtown zoning text amendments

The zoning changes follow recommendations from the downtown ad hoc advisory committee, a group of stakeholders who spent six months last year determining whether the city should change its zoning for building height and parking in the central business district.

The committee recommended reducing the required residential parking by half, proposed a municipal parking garage, and recommended developers be allowed to increase building heights if they paid for extra public amenities.

City staff began looking into changing downtown zoning in 2022, after developers said current zoning limited return on investment.

Permit process text amendments

The text amendment would streamline permit review, which hasn’t been updated since the city began using a hearing examiner.

Housing action plan

The housing plan would provide data on the city’s housing stock and help the city develop strategies to meet housing needs.

Comprehensive plan update

The city must complete its updated comprehensive plan by June 2025, as required by the state. The city will begin updating the population, housing, transportation, land use and climate resiliency chapters in the comprehensive plan, before updating the remaining chapters in 2025.

Zoning text and map amendments

Several zoning text and map amendments are expected to start going through the public process in midsummer to early fall. One text amendment proposes allowing hotels and multifamily housing in the residential office zoning district, which runs along Peace Portal Drive, just south of the central business district. The other text amendment proposes allowing urban villages in the planned commercial district, a small section in the southwest corner of the city, directly north of Dakota Creek and west of Peace Portal Drive.

Utility comprehensive plans

Blaine Public Works Department will start updating utility plans for stormwater, power and sewer at the end of the year.

Sign code

The city will update its sign code to comply with case law near the end of the year.

CDS director Alex Wenger told councilmembers it would be ambitious for the CDS Department to complete all of the projects by the end of 2024 without being fully staffed. The department is in the hiring process and the city has contracted outside companies to help with planning services. 

“Those things will keep us busy all the way to 2025,” Wenger said.