Planning for the Future in Mill Creek . .
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As the City of Mill Creek continues to grow and
change, the City's Comprehensive Plan is also intended to change and reflect the
needs and vision of the community. The Comprehensive Plan is an official
public document, created through a public participation process. This
document is intended to be a guide in making decisions concerning future land
use, extensions of community services and facilities, parks and open space,
designation of environmentally sensitive areas, and desirable urban design
elements of the City. Also, Comprehensive Plan documents are used as the
basis for creating and amending the City's development regulations to ensure consistency
between policies and regulations.
The City of Mill Creek is required by the Growth Management Act (GMA) to take
action and review and, if needed, revise the City's Comprehensive Plan and
development regulations. The City completed its most recent update of the
Comprehensive Plan in June 2010.
The Comprehensive Plans are available at City Hall and include:
The maps, goals, and policies of the plan provide the basis for the adoption of regulations, programs, and services, which implement the plan. The plan serves as a guideline for designating land uses and infrastructure development as well as developing community services.
Other Long-Range Planning Issues:
The MUGA process is a collaborative process between Snohomish County Tomorrow (a growth management advisory council), Snohomish County, and the nine cities in the county's Southwest Urban Growth Area, including the City of Mill Creek. The purpose of the MUGA process is to define each city's Municipal Urban Growth Area (MUGA) boundary.
MUGA boundaries contain all land within a city's current incorporated limits plus adjacent unincorporated territory, which a city has identified as being appropriate for annexation at some point in the future. A city's MUGA is based on location within the same drainage basin, shared community identity, logical service delivery areas, continuation of city street patterns, or other factors. A potential annexation area designation does not imply that the adjoining city is capable at the time of designation providing services to the area at the city's adopted levels of service, nor does it obligate the designating city to annex the area within any defined time.
The Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA) requires counties to designate urban growth area (UGAs) where urban development will occur. Following the state set schedule for identifying UGA boundaries in the mid-1990s, Snohomish County defined twelve UGA boundaries. One of the UGAs was the Southwest UGA, A few years ago, Snohomish County Tomorrow decided to look at defining internal growth boundaries for each city within the Southwest UGA. City and county planners designed a process, known as the MUGA process, to identify municipal urban growth area boundaries. the MUGA process was adopted by the Snohomish County Tomorrow Steering Committee in April 2000.
Currently the City has achieved an agreed upon boundary with the City of Bothell, 196th Street SE. The MUGA boundary between the City of Mill Creek and the Cit of Lynnwood is under negotiation and staff is working toward an agreed boundary. A copy of the most recent maps defining the City of Mill Creek's potential MUGA boundaries can be found on Snohomish County's website. these maps show the recommended and agreed boundaries with both the City's of Lynnwood and Bothell.
Questions??
If you have any questions, please call Planning Manager Tom Rogers at (425) 745-1891 or contact him via email at tom@cityofmillcreek.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
