Neighborhood Centers and Hubs (NCH)

Edmonds adopted its  2024 Comprehensive Plan  on December 17, 2024, in which neighborhood centers and hubs are designated to accommodate neighborhood scale multifamily and commercial uses. These developments are expected to occur gradually, rather than all at once.

Neighborhood centers and hubs are different in scale and character from the Highway 99 activity center where large scale multi family and commercial will occur.

The broader goal for these areas is to encourage services, amenities, open spaces, and walkable streetscapes that enhance the overall sense of community and reduce the need to drive to obtain services.

The Comprehensive Plan provides for

Four neighborhood Centers, namely

1. Five Corners
2. Westgate
3. Firdale
4. Medical District Expansion

Five Neighborhood Hubs, namely

1. North Bowl
2. Maplewood
3. East Sea View
4. West Edmonds Way, and
5. South Ballinger

These areas are the opportunities within the City to create vibrant, sustainable, walkable places that

• Allow neighborhood scale multifamily residential, commercial and mixed uses, along with existing single-family housing
• Requires height limits consistent with Comprehensive Plan maps for each center and hub. Allows mostly upto three stories or 30' but with exceptions in few locations for greater heights.
• Allow a bonus floor height of additional 10’  as an incentive in certain centers or hubs, if approved, when a development proposal includes community amenities, such as a plaza, pocket park, or open space and more.
• Requires off-street parking spaces and
• Sets new design standards applicable only to these areas specifically

Under the state law, more multi family options needed to be allowed in cities like Edmonds.

The development code was due to be updated for this purpose by the end of 2024. To accomplish the update as close to the deadline as possible (after adopting the updated Comprehensive plan in December, 2024), an interim i.e temporary ordinance was approved by the City Council on Jan 14. This automatically expires in six months unless council takes another action sooner.

The interim ordinance will be replaced by a new version that could have some changes from the original and recognize more differences between the neighborhoods.

 Click here to view the adopted Interim Ordinance 

• Allows small-scale multifamily residential along with retail, office , commercial uses
• Allows renovation of existing single-family housing within the existing foot print
• Limits building heights consistent with Comp Plan maps (max 3, 4, or 5-stories, as applicable) & specifies height in feet.

Transition Zone: For any property in a center or hub that abuts or is immediately across the street from a single-family zoning district, the maximum height of a building within 20 feet of that property line is 30 feet (and any options for greater height are not permitted there).

• Street Side: Minimum 15 feet
• Corner Lot Exception: Can be reduced to 10 feet
• Side : Must be at least 10 feet
• Rear : Must be at least 15 feet

For existing single-family houses and their accessory or secondary uses, the minimum setbacks are as stated in  Chapter 16.20 ECDC .

Lot coverage:

• Maximum 45% for multi-family and commercial
• Maximum 35% for existing single-family house is 35%.

Per the 2024 Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use, the designations for the centers and hubs has been changed to mixed use. Zoning map will be updated in compliance with the comprehensive plan future land use map.

• Use the arrow on the right to view the area details of other neighborhood centers and hubs.
• Use the +/- on the bottom right corner of the map to zoom in and out
• Use the address search option on the top left corner to type in the address

Move the slide bar from one end to the other to view the zoning changes

At least one street-facing building generally must be no further back than 20’ from primary street at property line.

For multifamily with more than 20 units, ground floor commercial space must equal at least 10% of ground floor footprint.

• Window glazing totaling at least 50 sf for each 30 linear ft of wall
• Garage to not comprise more than 50% of building front
• Shall have at least two of the following:
  • Articulated walls that have 18 or more inches of plane change every 30 feet
  • Covered pedestrian entry, provided that the cover is: (a) at least one foot above the pedestrian entry door: (b) a minimum of seven feet in width and two feet in depth; and (c) attached to the building.
  • Masonry base that extends at least three feet high from ground level
  • Windows that result in 50% more transparent glazing area than otherwise required
  • Landscaped courtyard that is at least one/third of the building width and at least ten feet deep.
  • One balcony per unit above the ground floor that shares a common wall with the street-facing façade. Such balconies must be a minimum of two feet in depth and four feet in width and accessible from an interior room.

Please share your thoughts using the form below.

You may share your thoughts regarding opportunities for development within the centers and hubs.

You may also have the opportunity to send pictures to illustrate unique characteristics of the area and other information.

Click on each of the calendar pages below to view the upcoming City Council, Planning Board and Community engagement opportunities

More resources on 'Neighborhood Centers and Hubs', please visit our

For community outreach activities and engagement opportunities, visit