Design guidelines are still in the works

The Sumner Design Commission meets to make alterations to proposed design and development guideline

Before the Sumner City Council approves a proposed update to the city’s design and development guidelines, Sumner’s design commission is making additions and modifications.

Sumner is contracting with MAKERS Architecture and Urban Design to update the guidelines, which are more than 10 years old. The document aims to keep development consistent with the city’s comprehensive plan.

The design commission met last week to go through half of the guidelines and suggest changes. The group will meet again in February to finish the job.

“There wasn’t really a whole lot of changes made,” said Associate Planner Eric Mendenhall, who led the meeting. “There were some ‘shalls’ in the codes that were made into ‘shoulds.’ They wanted some of the graphics…modified.

“That’s all that was really changed.”

In code, the term “shall” dictates a legal requirement, while “should” is a recommendation.

Proposed changes to the design guidelines were originally presented to the public in December in a joint meeting of the city council, design commission and planning commission.

The public was invited to suggest changes during comment periods during the meeting or in writing to the city.

The changes would apply to new construction, redevelopment and renovations within the central business district, commercial zone, multifamily housing and single-family housing. The industrial zone would not be affected.

Many of the changes also promoted pedestrian-friendly environments and encourage developers to be creative in designing buildings and landscape. For example, some of the new downtown guidelines encourage using a variety of storefront styles and details to break up the monotony in buildings.

Overall, the goal is to update the document to today’s development standards and include more photos to use as examples. The guidelines still need to be approved by the city council before they go into effect.