HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrdinance No. 2022-016 An Ordinance of the City of Arlington, Washington Amending Chapter 20.36 of the Arlington Municipal Code Regarding Zoning Districts ORDINANCE NO. 2022-016
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF ARLINGTON, WASHINGTON
AMENDING CHAPTER 20.36 OF THE ARLINGTON
MUNICIPAL CODE REGARDING ZONING DISTRICTS
WHEREAS, the City staff has engaged in a comprehensive review and has proposed an
update containing numerous revisions to the Arlington Municipal Code (AMC); and
WHEREAS, the Arlington Planning Commission held numerous meetings concerning the
revisions, including discussions occurring at the following meetings of the commission:
• January 4, 2022
• March 1, 2022
• March 15, 2022
• April 5, 2022
• April 19, 2022
• May 3, 2022
• May 17, 2022
• June 7, 2022
• June 23, 2022
• July 25, 2022
• August 2, 2022
• September 6, 2022
• September 20, 2022; and
WHEREAS, the Arlington Planning Commission provided notice of and took public
testimony concerning the changes at public hearings which occurred on September 20, 2022;
and
WHEREAS, the Planning Commission made findings and provided its recommendations
to the City Council concerning the proposed changes; and
WHEREAS, the City Council considered the revisions initially with docketing meetings on
March 28, 2022 and April 4, 2022, and also at a joint meeting with the Planning Commission on
July 25, 2022, and then on October 10, 2022 and at a public hearing conducted on October 17,
2022; and
WHEREAS, the amendments were presented to the Department of Commerce for
comment and said Department had no comments on the ordinance; and
ORDINANCE NO. 2022-016 1
WHEREAS, review under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) occurred with
limited comments from state agencies, all of which were addressed by the City; and
WHEREAS, having considered the public testimony, the input from the Planning
Commission and state agencies, the Council deems the adoption of these amendments to be in
the best interests of the City and citizens;
NOW, THEREFORE, the City Council of the City of Arlington does hereby ordain as
follows:
Section 1. Arlington Municipal Code section 20.36.010 shall be and hereby is
amended to read as follows:
20.36.010 Residential Districts Established.
(a) The following residential districts are hereby established: Residential Ultra Low
Capacity (RULC) allows for 1-4 dwelling units per acre — 4 Du/Ac. Residential Low
Capacity (RLC) allows for 5-6 dwelling units per acre—6 Du/Ac. Residential Moderate
Capacity (RMod) allows for 7-11 dwelling units per acre — 11 Du/Ac. Residential
Medium Capacity (RMC) allows for 12-16 dwelling unit per acre — 16 Du/Ac.
Residential High Capacity(RHC) allows for 17 and greater dwelling units per acre—17
> Du/Ac. Old Town Residential (OTR) allows for lot sizes established with the original
plats to be utilized, but not less than 3,800 S.F.. Each of these districts is designed to
provide for residential lands with varying housing capacities and housing types to
provide residents with a variety of housing options; and intended to secure for the
persons who reside there a comfortable, healthy, safe, and pleasant environment in
which to live, sheltered from incompatible and disruptive activities that properly
belong in nonresidential districts. Other objectives of these districts are explained in
the remainder of this section.All residential districts must be served with public sewer
and water facilities in order to utilize the capacities described for each district.
Without public utilities servicing the residential district, no increase in the current
housing capacity is allowed.
(b) The Residential Ultra Low Capacity (RULC) district is established primarily to
accommodate detached single-family residential development in areas not currently
served by public sewer and water facilities. Larger lots are required to accommodate
a septic system and reserve area as required by the Snohomish Health District.
(c) The Residential Low Capacity (RLC) district is established primarily to accommodate
detached single-family residential uses at lower capacity levels typically on 7200 —
9600 square foot parcels, but also allows for recreational, quasi-public, and public
uses that customarily serve residential development. Some types of two-family
residences are allowed in this district on larger lots.
(d) The Residential Moderate Capacity (RMod) district is designed primarily to
accommodate medium capacity housing types, especially smaller multifamily and
single family attached, such as duplex, triplex, fourplex, row houses, and garden
apartments,typically situated on 4000—6200 square foot parcels, but also allows for
ORDINANCE NO. 2022-016 2
recreational, quasi-public, and public uses that customarily serve residential
development.
(e) The Residential Medium Capacity (RMC) district is established primarily to
accommodate higher capacity housing, such as larger multi-family developments,
townhomes, condominiums, and the use of the Unit Lot Subdivision process to create
fee-simple housing. Live/work units may also be allowed in this zone with additional
requirements. Typical parcel size range from 2800—3600 square feet, but also allows
for recreational, quasi-public, and public uses that customarily serve residential
development.
(f) Residential High Capacity (RHC) district is designed primarily to accommodate the
highest capacity residential developments, that are designed to be compatible with
their sites and surroundings, building types are typically large scale multifamily
buildings, mixed use buildings, and live/work units.
(g) The Old Town Residential (OTR) district is designed primarily to single-family
residential development while preserving the historic quality of the traditional town
center. Further, this zone is intended to promote residential development that is in
character with the older,existing homes in the area.The Old Town Residential District
may also allow for duplex, triplex, fourplex, and garden style housing units (missing
middle housing)that are designed to match the context of the existing neighborhood
they are placed within. This is accomplished through strict design elements,
orientation, and scale of the building.
Section 2. Arlington Municipal Code section 20.36.020(g) shall be and hereby is
amended to read as follows:
The Commercial Corridor (CC) zone is established to create pedestrian oriented,
urbanized, mixed use neighborhoods, along designated transit routes. Design elements
to include widened sidewalks, drop lanes with on street parking, mid-block pedestrian
crossings, planted medians, and bike lanes. These zones are established to utilize the
stringent use of the Mixed We Mixed-Use Development Regulations/Form Based Code,
therefore negating the underlying zoning to accommodate mixed use as the primary land
use.
Section 3. Arlington Municipal Code section 20.36.030 shall be and hereby is
amended to read as follows:
The General Industrial (GI) and Light Industrial (LI) districts are hereby established
primarily to accommodate enterprises engaged in the manufacturing, processing,
creating, repairing, renovating, painting, cleaning, or assembling of goods, merchandise,
or equipment. The performance standards set forth in Pao !Chapter 20.44 place
limitations on the characteristics of uses located in these districts. The Light Industrial
district is distinguished from the General Industrial district in that the Light Industrial
district is intended to be a cleaner, more business park-like area, whereas the General
Industrial district allows more resource-based manufacturing has a greater tolerance of
ORDINANCE NO. 2022-016 3
the nuisances that typically accompany such manufacturing. Furthermore,the limitations
in the Light Industrial district are more restrictive than those in the General Industrial
district.
Section 4. Arlington Municipal Code section 20.36.070 shall be and hereby is
amended to read as follows:
The shoreline management district is hereby established as an "overlay" district,
meaning that this district is overlaid upon other districts and the land so encumbered
may be used in a manner permitted in the underlying district only if and to the extent
such use is also permitted in the applicable overlay district and a Shoreline Development
Permit has been granted, if necessary, pursuant to Ch-,. teF 20.92 (SheFel;Re
MaRageme the Shoreline Master Program.
Section 5. Arlington Municipal Code section 20.36.080 shall be and hereby is
amended to read as follows:
The wed-use mixed-use overlay district is hereby established as an "overlay" district,
meaning that the underlying zoning applicable within each commercial zone remains as
the primary or principal zoning designation. The overlay allows for a mix of diversified
residential development to co-exist within a proportionate share of the commercially
zones areas of highway commercial (HC), general commercial (GC), and neighborhood
commercial (NC) zones where typical retail and other support services would be located,
thus creating a walkable neighborhood concept. The ^ fixed-tee mixed-use overlay will
also be applied to the residential moderate deesity capacity (RIABRMod), residential
medium capacity (RMC), and residential high deesity capacity (R#BRHC) zones along
Smokey Point Boulevard corridor. The overlay will provide for the efficient use of
property by requiring the mixed use of properties in a manner that allows for residential
development to co-exist with commercial, retail and specific light manufacturing uses.
This promotes the creation of attractive, sustainable neighborhoods which enable
walkability and less automobile dependency. The performance standards/design
guidelines set forth in Chapter 20.110 place limitations on the characteristics of uses
located in these districts.
Section 6. A new Arlington Municipal Code section 20.36.105 shall be and hereby is
adopted to read as follows:
20.36.105 Lots Divided by District Lines.
(a) Whenever a single lot one acre or less in size is located within two or more different
zoning districts, the district regulations applicable to the district within which the
larger portion of the lot lies shall apply to the entire lot.
(b) Whenever a single lot greater than one acre in size is located within two or more
different zoning districts, each portion of that lot shall be subject to all the regulations
applicable to the district in which it is located.
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Section 7. Severability. Should any section, paragraph, sentence, clause or phrase of
this ordinance, or its application to any person or circumstance, be declared unconstitutional or
otherwise invalid for any reason, or should any portion of this ordinance be pre-empted by
state or federal law or regulation, such decision or pre-emption shall not affect the validity of
the remaining portions of this ordinance or its application to other persons or circumstances.
Section 8. Effective Date. The title of this ordinance which summarizes the contents
shall be published in the official newspaper of the City. This ordinance shall take effect and be
in full force five (5) days after the date of publication as provided by law.
PASSED by the City Council of the City of Arlington and APPROVED by the Mayor this 17th
day of October, 2022.
CITY OF ARLINGTON
Barbara Tolbert, Mayor
ATTEST:
Jul ry
Wendy Van er Meersche, City Clerk
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
Steven J. Jseiffl City Attorney
ORDINANCE NO. 2022-016 5
CERTIFICATION OF ORDINANCE
I, Wendy Van Der Meersche, being the duly appointed City Clerk of the City of Arlington,
Washington, a municipal corporation, do hereby certify that the following Ordinance
No. 2022-016 was approved at the October 17, 2022 City Council meeting.
ORDINANCE NO. 2022-016
"AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF ARLINGTON,WASHINGTON
AMENDING CHAPTER 20.36 OF THE ARLINGTON
MUNICIPAL CODE REGARDING ZONING DISTRICTS"
A true and correct copy of the original ordinance is attached.
Dated this 18th day of October, 2022
Wendy Van Der Meersche
City Clerk for the City of Arlington