Residents such as Misty Blair (standing at table) and Mariana Medina (far left) survey Monroe’s current zoning map for a game on where people suggest upzones and changes to allow 5,000 more residents in the next 20 years at the April 13 event at Park Place Middle School.
MONROE — The city is having the public help plot out how and where Monroe should grow over the next 20 years.
The city has taglined the exercise "Monroe 2044." At a kickoff event last Thursday, city planners had residents play a rezoning game for how to accommodate future residents by placing markers on a map.
Planning experts are soaking in what people are saying to create diagrams that will ultimately guide real zoning changes. Another workshop to comment on these diagrams will be this fall.
People can try the same game at https://bit.ly/monroe2044 through the end of April.
The city has approximately 20,000 residents today and the population is growing an average of 2% a year, city planning director Lance Bailey said.
Formally, Monroe needs to show the state that its growth plans are able to accommodate 5,010 more residents by 2044, which pencils out to about 2,423 more residential units.
The city can reach these population numbers organically with no changes, Bailey said.
However, no change is not an option: Recent state law also obligates cities to have a big variety of housing for all price points, and a range of affordable housing options. Monroe wouldn’t meet those percentages, Bailey said. So, the city must look at changes to find more places for apartments and townhome buildings in the mix.
The exercises are about asking the public where. Can your kids afford Monroe? Where will they live?
“You’re the best advocates for what goes on in this city,” Bailey told the crowd.
Some common suggestions emerged from the April 13 kickoff at Park Place Middle.
One common idea is having a lot more mixed-use development which have storefronts on the ground floor with apartments above, especially north of U.S. 2. A few tables of groups zone for mixed-use development along W. Main Street; many centered it in downtown to fit the need for growth. An entire swath of West Monroe between Kelsey Street and 522 was rezoned about five years ago to allow high-density residential.
Other themes called for redeveloping First Air Field, the airport by the fairgrounds, and to add more food and service amenities along Fryelands Boulevard to serve Lake Tye Park’s users.
Another suggested upzoning S. Lewis Street from homes and churches into a corridor of mixed-use buildings.
People also said they want to keep Monroe’s feel.
One table brought up architectural design standards as a point. Tall townhome and apartment buildings along W. Main Street may not fit with Monroe, the table’s representative said.
Resident Mariana Medina told the Tribune the event’s crowd lacked whole segments of Monroe’s population: People who rent, and the Hispanic community. She’d like to see direct outreach for these groups.
Consulting planner Alex Dupey, a principal at MIG, Inc,. said there will be more outreach events in English and Spanish.
The next event could be in the fall.
Final decisions on adjusting the plan are due by December of next year, so there is time in the process.
All cities must do a comprehensive plan update periodically by state law; the cities of Snohomish and Everett and the county government all are in the process of doing their own comprehensive plan updates. Contact their planning departments for details.
