Bothell City Council to hold public hearing Oct. 6 on development review code updates

What the records say

The Bothell City Council has scheduled a public hearing at its October 6, 2026 meeting (6:00 PM at City Hall, 18415 101st Ave NE) on a package of draft amendments to the Bothell Municipal Code's land-use procedural provisions in Titles 11, 12, and 14, which set out how the city accepts, reviews, and decides development permits ¹. The hearing item is agenda bill AB #26-171, with attachments including a summary of proposed changes, a draft redline of the BMC, and a Planning Commission findings, conclusions, and recommendations report ¹. The Planning Commission held its own public hearing on September 16, 2026 and approved the findings and recommendations supporting the draft amendments ¹. Staff say the amendments are intended to improve clarity, simplify procedures, remove outdated provisions, and create a more consistent and predictable permit review process aligned with current practices and state law ¹.

• The City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the draft code amendments for the Procedural Code Updates proposal at its October 6, 2026 meeting; the recommended agenda action is to hold the hearing, and no final Council decision is recorded yet ¹.
• The draft amendments would reduce the time applicants have to respond to city requests for corrective action from 180 days to 90 days, with a director-granted extension process for applicants demonstrating progress ¹.
• The proposal would move site-specific (quasi-judicial) rezones from Type V to Type IVA, so the Hearing Examiner would conduct the open-record hearing and make a recommendation while the City Council retains the final closed-record decision; area-wide rezones would keep the existing Type V path ¹.
• A proposed phasing rule for multifamily developments would bar more than 50 percent of dwelling units in a lower-density phase from receiving final certificates of occupancy until all units in a higher-density phase receive theirs, aimed at ensuring phased projects ultimately meet minimum density requirements ¹.
• Other proposed changes include reclassifying public agency and utility exceptions as Type II administrative decisions instead of requiring a hearing-body approval, removing the unused Type IVB permit process, allowing joint public hearings to be held virtually, and streamlining reconsideration by removing the option of an additional open-record hearing ¹.
• Staff initially proposed reducing required public hearings for legislative amendments from two to one, but dropped that idea after Planning Commission and Council feedback, recommending the city retain public hearings before both the Planning Commission and the City Council ¹.

Why it matters

These procedural rules shape how quickly and predictably the city processes development applications — including how many public hearings occur, who conducts them, and how long applicants have to respond to city requests — so the changes affect how neighbors, builders, and the city interact during future development reviews. Residents who want a can speak at the hearing (limited to three minutes) or submit written comment; request-to-speak or comment forms must be submitted no later than 3:00 PM the day of the meeting ¹.

What changed / what's next

• Per the agenda bill, the City Council is scheduled to consider the procedural code updates ordinances at its October 20, 2026 meeting; the outcome of the October 6 hearing and any Council action is not yet known ¹.
• As of the agenda bill date, one public comment had been received on the proposal, requesting clarification and additional explanation, which staff answered; the SEPA comment period ran August 5 through August 26, 2026 ¹.