Snoqualmie Council seees retail shops as city’s savior

Published 2:51 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

SNOQUALMIE _ The Snoqualmie City Council aims to

capture the tourist trade and boost the town’s economy by requiring 75

percent of businesses on Railroad Avenue to be retail-based.

This plan for the city’s future was revealed when the city council

and planning commission held a joint workshop last week to discuss the

ordinance that proposes the 75 percent rule. The proposed document

would also affect the town’s future business and physical characteristics by

establishing procedures and design standards for businesses and

historical buildings in the city’s historical districts.

Residents who attended the workshop on April 25 had strong

reactions to the part of the ordinance that proposes “special use” regulations for

the businesses on Railroad Avenue, between Newton and Northern

streets. These regulations would only allow 25 percent of non-retail businesses on

the first floor of businesses on each block. The goal is to have 75 percent

retail in that area.

Permitted first-floor uses include retail stores, restaurants, cafes,

taverns, galleries or museums, interpretive centers, railroad-related

facilities and any other similar businesses, according to the ordinance.

Non-retail businesses include personal, professional, service, municipal and

meeting halls.

In a nutshell, the council said they believe the city would prosper if

Railroad Avenue were lined mainly with retail shops. The idea is to attract

the more than half million tourists that visit the Snoqualmie Falls

and Snoqualmie Valley Railroad annually, and boost the city’s economy

with their tourist dollars.

Currently, retail shops in the commercial district make up less than

50 percent of the total businesses on each block, and that’s what council

members said they are concerned about.

“We feel that we would have a more vital downtown area if the

tourists have more to do than the railroad and the Falls,” said City

Administrator Gary Armstrong during an interview. “That would allow the

tourists to spend a day here instead of just an hour or two and we could capture

the tourist trade. Right now there is not much that would keep the

tourists here.”

Building and business owners, however, had mixed reactions to

the regulations.

Michael Kirkland of MK Property Services, which is one of the

non-retail businesses in the affected area, opposed limiting the number of

non-retail businesses that can exist on Railroad Avenue. He said he is not

convinced that a string of retail shops would be successful.

“The probability for success for an art gallery, for example, is low,”

he said. “The population here cannot support the retail that’s desired by

the city.”

Dale Sherman, who owns Sherman Tile & Interiors on

Railroad Avenue, said that he and his wife Susan bought and restored their

building to help enhance the area and hopefully attract other stores.

“Retail begets retail and office and professional kills retail. If we

allow professional businesses to take over, we will have an office park and that

is already starting,” he said, explaining that many successful small towns

rely on shopping tourists. “You don’t go to LaConner to get your hair done.”

Besides the 75 percent retail rule, the proposed ordinance would

also establish official committees to regulate the historic districts.

One committee is a design review board that will function as a

unified and locally based review body for the city’s historic areas. These areas

include the Meadowbrook and downtown historic districts, as well as

the landmark commercial district, which is contained within the larger

downtown district.

“The new board is called Historical Design Review Board and is

no longer the planning commission; it’s now a board comprised of one

planning commission member, one property owner from either of the two

historic districts and two citizens with demonstrated interest and

knowledge in historic preservation,” City

Attorney Pat Anderson said.

The ordinance also creates a Snoqualmie Landmark and

Heritage Commission — which consists of the King County Landmarks

Commission and one city-appointed member — as the body that will designate

historical landmark buildings for the city.

The board would focus on regulations and design standards in order

to protect and enhance the historic district because it is “necessary in

the interest of the prosperity, civic pride and general welfare of the people

of Snoqualmie.”

Although the city already has design standards and regulations

in place, they needed to revamp the procedures because of a glitch they found.

In 1997 the city adopted Chapter 15.26 of the municipal code

titled Landmarks. Anderson explained that within days of adopting the

measure, officials discovered that business and building owners would be subject

to dual sets of requirements.

“By adopting that [1997] ordinance, we had set up a

requirement that there be two separate and different reviews for the same

improvements,” Anderson said. “For

example, if the Shermans wanted to remodel the Sherman Tile building, they

would have had to go through the city design review process and they

would have to go through the King County Landmark process and get two

separate approvals for one project.”

The proposed ordinance would establish only one set of regulations.

Council members will review the comments from last week’s

workshop and make changes if necessary. But Armstrong said the council’s goal

is to approve some form of this proposed ordinance by summer’s end.

Mayor Randy “Fuzzy” Fletcher said that

the city already has an emergency ordinance enforcing the 75 percent

retail rule, but the new ordinance will replace that, when passed.