Council hears proposed rewrite of planning commission code and repeal of design review board
January 27, 2026 | Arlington City, Snohomish County, Washington
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City staff presented two related code changes aimed at streamlining land-use review: a repeal-and-replace of Arlington Municipal Code chapter 2.52 (planning commission) and a repeal of chapter 2.104 (design review board).
Amy Oresco told council staff prepared redlined materials and an updated ordinance to replace the planning commission chapter. She said the new chapter will modernize procedures and requires the planning commission to follow Robert's Rules of Order; planning commission bylaws will be developed and approved at the commission level. ‘‘We just wanted to clean it up and make it more modern,’’ Oresco said.
On the design review board, Oresco said Arlington moved from design guidelines to formal standards in 2018 and that most design review can be handled administratively. She noted recent state regulations limit duplicative public meetings — for example, allowing a single public meeting for certain conditional-use permits — and said routing a project to both a public hearing and the planning commission could violate state meeting limits. For those reasons, staff proposed repealing the design review board language and conducting design review as an administrative process.
No formal ordinance votes were recorded at the meeting; staff said revised ordinances and supporting documents will be brought forward for council consideration at upcoming sessions.
Amy Oresco told council staff prepared redlined materials and an updated ordinance to replace the planning commission chapter. She said the new chapter will modernize procedures and requires the planning commission to follow Robert's Rules of Order; planning commission bylaws will be developed and approved at the commission level. ‘‘We just wanted to clean it up and make it more modern,’’ Oresco said.
On the design review board, Oresco said Arlington moved from design guidelines to formal standards in 2018 and that most design review can be handled administratively. She noted recent state regulations limit duplicative public meetings — for example, allowing a single public meeting for certain conditional-use permits — and said routing a project to both a public hearing and the planning commission could violate state meeting limits. For those reasons, staff proposed repealing the design review board language and conducting design review as an administrative process.
No formal ordinance votes were recorded at the meeting; staff said revised ordinances and supporting documents will be brought forward for council consideration at upcoming sessions.
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