Reporter Coverage and Council Vote Tomorrow
We Have Their Attention
The Mercer Island Reporter covered our petition to revise low-barrier housing rules, currently at 1,191 signatures. The Reporter reached out to our state representatives and senator for comment. Perhaps unsurprisingly, My-Linh Thai did not get back to them, but Representative Janice Zahn and Senator Lisa Wellman did. Here are some choice quotes:
Wellman:
"I hear the concerns raised in this petition, and I am committed to supporting reasonable adjustments to this legislation next session.”
Zahn:
“I am listening and gathering information to understand the concerns for the Mercer Island community. I appreciate their engagement and outreach. Collaboration and partnering locally and regionally will be essential to safely address our housing crisis, together”
If you want to restore local control over where and how low barrier permanent supportive housing is built on Mercer Island, keep emailing and calling our legislators. And if they think they can ignore their constituents' safety concerns, then we need to give them a wakeup call at the ballot box.
Council Votes on Comprehensive Plan Tomorrow
The Mercer Island City Council will hold its final vote on the Comprehensive Plan and related code changes tomorrow, July 21, at 5 p.m. at the Community Center. I hope to see you there.
Since my last update, my wife Linnea raised an important timing issue. The City is bundling two separate sets of changes into one package for a vote:
- Corrections to the 2024 Comprehensive Plan required to comply with the Growth Management Hearings Board (GWHB) decision.
- New HB 2266 provisions that took effect only last month.
The HB 2266 provisions would allow low-barrier permanent supportive housing and homeless shelters in residential neighborhoods and near schools and parks, while removing the conditional-use process, public hearings, and existing separation protections. They were not part of the four areas of non-compliance in the 2025 GWHB Final Decision and Order.
Cities are not required to adopt these HB 2266 requirements until their next growth plan update or June 2028, whichever comes sooner. However, the Comprehensive Plan amendments that City Council is voting on tomorrow include them, before any other city has done so.
Public comment will take place before the vote. Tomorrow may be our last chance to speak and share our concerns about baking the dangerous HB 2266 requirements into the city code, before our state representatives have a chance to revise them.