City Council Agenda 2026-04-21
CITY GOVERNMENTOPINIONFEATURED
The Mercer Island City Council will meet on Tuesday, April 21, 2026 at 5:00 PM at the Mercer Island Community and Event Center.
The full agenda can be found here. My summary follows..
AB 6908: Revised 2026 Fee Schedule Adoption
AB 6909: GMA Compliance – Policy Direction on Development Code Amendments
AB 6911: GMA Compliance – Legislative Review Process
As always, comments are welcome. You can:
Send an email to council@mercerisland.gov
Send an email to cityclerk@mercerisland.gov to ask for an opportunity to speak during “appearances” time near the beginning of the City Council meeting. You will be given three minutes.
Notable Consent Agenda Items
AB 6907: Proclaiming April 22 as Earth Day
AB 6904: Water Supply Pipeline Project Update
AB 6910: Approval of Letter of Appreciation to 41st Legislative District Delegation for Support of State Funding for Mercer Island Community and Event Center HVAC Replacement Project
This is kind of a big deal. Our delegation got us $1 million in state funding!
AB 6912: Budget Appropriation for Utility Rate Modeling.
AB 6908: Revised 2026 Fee Schedule Adoption
Once a year the Council votes to approve a master fee schedule for fees the city charges for services, licenses, permits, events, etc. There are dozens of pages of fee schedules---a lot to absorb. I have asked staff if they can provide a track-changes version.
Of note, the rules are being amended to allow the city manager to set “special event” fees (ONLY FOR NON ISLANDERS) at the Town Center Parking Area (former Tully’s lot) and / or the Community and Event Center of up to $100 a day. The vision is to make things free for Islanders. Think FIFA, Summer Celebration, and Seafair. Before you ask: No, we cannot do this for the Park and Ride, as we do not own it.
Included in the package is data from recent utilization counts for space at the Mercer Island Park and Ride. It appears things are getting busier earlier, though, at least on these days, some spaces were still available.
AB 6909: GMA Compliance – Policy Direction on Development Code Amendments
This is an interim step on our GMA compliance journey. We will be providing direction on a few key decisions:
Should town center developers be required to provide 10% or 15% affordable units? If we require too much, nothing gets built, and we get in trouble with the state. If we require too little, we don’t get enough affordable units built even if the buildings are built. Staff recommend 10%. I lean that way but I will defer final decision.
Should we allow adult entertainment or warehousing in town center? This is an easy no for me. I am also asking if we have other types of businesses we can prohibit. (I would like to ban firearm sales if we can.)
Currently the city has certain design restrictions (daylight plane, facade modulation, and public features) that will limit capacity and make it harder to build to meet Floor-Area-Ratio requirements.Staff is recommending that we keep current requirements in place for now and defer those decisions until phase 2 in 2028 / 2029.I agree.
AB 6911: GMA Compliance – Legislative Review Process
This is a house-keeping item defining a schedule for the planning commission and deadlines for public comment on town center development code amendments, as shown below. The planning commission will have their work cut out for them.