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Planning for the Future of Mill Creek
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 developing 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 December 2004.
The Comprehensive Plans are available at City Hall and include:
- City of Mill Creek Comprehensive Plan,
December 2004
- City of Mill Creek SR 527 Corridor Subarea Plan
and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, August 1998
- City of Mill Creek East Urban Growth Area
Subarea Plan, June 2003
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.
Code Updates and Amendment Process
Along with updating the City’s Comprehensive
Plan the City also updated the City’s development
regulations as part of the five-year growth management update process.
Other Long-Range Planning Issues
Municipal Urban Growth Area (MUGA) Process
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 growth area (MUGA) boundary.
What is a MUGA?
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 that 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 areas (UGAs) where urban development
will occur. Following the state set schedule for identifying UGA boundaries in
the mid-1990’s, Snohomish County defined twelve UGA boundaries. One of the
UGAs, 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.
City of Mill Creek MUGA Boundaries
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 City 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
tom@cityofmillcreek.com.
We look forward to hearing from you.
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