Lynnwood Place Phase 2 approval to bring Home Depot to Lynnwood

The Lynnwood City Council earlier this week approved the development of Lynnwood Place Phase 2, which will bring a Home Depot and more housing across from Alderwood Mall.

At its May 13 business meeting, the council voted to adopt a proposed ordinance approving the development agreement for Lynnwood Place Phase 2 on the former site of Lynnwood High School. The ordinance was adopted following a public hearing on the project.

The ordinance was passed by a 6-1 margin, with Councilmember Shannon Sessions voting against. Though she praised the design of the apartments, Sessions said the plans for the property lacked creativity. She said she had hoped the area would attract foot traffic from Alderwood Mall that would be connected via walkways.

“This is disappointing,” she said. “This property could be so robust and vibrant.”

Lynnwood Place Phase 2 will include construction of four, five-story multi-family residential buildings with 500 market-value residential units over a single podium of parking and ground-floor retail and surface parking. Also, rooftop parking on top of the future Home Depot will be the first of its kind for the home-improvement store.

The Edmonds School District owns the property and will be leasing it to Wakefield Properties, LLC to develop. Per the agreement with the Edmonds School District, Wakefield will pay $1.3 million annually for the space, which will go into the district’s capital projects fund.

Steve Malsam, a developer with Wakefield, said while they hope to develop an inviting gathering space, the space requires a lot of parking for future business and residents. Home Depot requires 441 parking spaces — including rooftop parking — and 876 parking spaces for the mixed-use space.

“We want to have a place for people to go,” he said.

The area will include ground-level stores and restaurants, and a space is being left across from the Home Depot parking lot for possible future development of one or two more restaurants.

Council President Ben Goodwin said the project will accommodate projected growth due to Sound Transit’s light rail project.

“We’re going to need more livable area and I think this is going to contribute to that very well,” he said.

It’s also projected that Home Depot will bring 150-200 jobs that offer employees career advancement opportunities.

In other business, the council unanimously voted to adopt an ordinance amending the design guidelines and development code for the planned Lynnwood City Center district. The area has been zoned for apartment complexes and office towers. The district will be anchored by an expanded Lynnwood Transit Center and the new light rail station. The amendments to the design guidelines and development code would accommodate future development, said city Senior Planner Ashley Winchell.

After developing two buildings in the City Center district — Destinations Lynnwood 61+ Apartment Homes (formerly SHAG Lynnwood City Center Senior Living) and City Center Apartments — Winchell said the city wanted to improve on its past work.

“We reviewed these buildings and tried to find where we hit the mark and missed the mark,” she said. “And if we could change some of our regulations so we didn’t miss the mark moving forward.”

Part of the City Center vision is to make the area more pedestrian-friendly. In addition to surface parking, proposed one-way drive aisles would be developed to accommodate drop-off and pick-up sites. Temporary, 30-minute parking would be available.

The council also issued the following proclamations for the month of May:

  • Proclaiming May Bike Everything Month
  • Proclaiming May Historic Preservation Month
  • Proclaiming May Arts Education Month

–Story and photos by Cody Sexton

  1. I agree with Ms. Sessions, the outside part of the mall was a great start but seems never “took-off.”
    Why didn’t people consider the population and encourage walking overpasses?

  2. Seems the majority of Lynnwood City Council and Mayor Smith lack vision and creativity per usual. With the Alderwood Mall, Target, Kohl’s, Costco, and dozens of shops and restaurants, one would think top priority would be connecting the apts to shopping and dining, without adding to184th & nearby congestion. Where’s the closest grocery store? Hard to believe this is the best of a variety of designs considered.

  3. OMG, dont you think 164th is bad now? At times it takes almost 1hr to get to Mill Creek or the New Lynnwood high school from hwy 99. To clear things up that is less than 5 miles of driving on 1 hr. Lynnwood traffic and just getting around town is a complete joke. Why would anyone ever choose to live in Lynnwood.

  4. Best place to put Home Depot would of been where Sear’s used to be. All we need is like a Mini Home Depot and other surrounding stores would be for Wood – Sheet rock – Appliances.
    Maybe put it over at the old school bus barn .

  5. Apparently Lynnwood city council members haven’t learned anything from the mistakes of seattle. It’s sad to see the future vision of the town I grew up and spent my life in. End up so terribly over crowed with such bad traffic and a place I will no longer call home.

    Bryan Shane

  6. There’s a Lynnwood City Council??? Could have fooled me. Do they live in Lynnwood? The city is a disaster. Traffic is a disaster. Traffic on 524 is a disaster. Housing development and regulations are a disaster… = City Council is a disaster!

  7. There is no winning when it comes to development and infrastructure never catches up. The HD store and location for apartments is excellent for the future of mass transit, as well as the current I-5/405 interchange feed. People do need places to live, so I’m not against the apartment complex. Traffic , however, will overwhelm the Lynnwood Place development even while traditional mall traffic will continue its downward direction.

  8. I remember everyone said the traffic sky was falling before they opened Costco. Costco gets really busy but it hasn’t really hurt traffic. This is a well-thought-out development that people have spent many months on and will invest tens of millions of dollars into our local economy. For those who complain about the city changing — guess what — it changed when your house was built too. Kudos to Lynnwood City Council for leadership and foresight.

    Local Business Owner

    1. You must be talking about a different Lynnwood. Traffic is at it’s worst ever and will continue to break new levels of “crappy”! Stop kidding yourself… oh let’s add more street lights..stupid!

  9. I think there will need to be significant traffic mitigation – and that may be in the plan to handle what I’ll guess is a baseline of 500 additional vehicles at the apartment complex plus additional traffic at HD, some of which will have overlap with Costco and mall traffic.

    As one individual, I never said the sky would fall when Costco was built. There also has been an overlapping trend that has accelerated – fewer trips to malls by consumers. It can get crowded at the lights where the feed off 525 intersects with the Costco, 33rd intersection but, I agree, it’s not the end of the world.

  10. My guess is that some of the more positive commenters do not live in Lynnwood and do not frequent the area of discussion. Living in Brier, Mountlake Terrace, or even Edmonds, puts you out of this nightmare zone. The amount of gas wasted at red lights in Lynnwood is disgraceful. Flashing yellow arrows are not utilized enough in Lynnwood. Time management while driving in Lynnwood, as well as exhaust pollution, are seemingly not of concern to those who have the ability to make much needed improvements, but they darn well should be.

  11. Bought in 2012. House will sell easily in 2020 at a premium to unwary people. No reason to stay. Don’t want to endure the traffic to shop here. Moving far north to have the freedom of movement and go anywhere anytime. Not going to time the rest of my daily life around when traffic is good nor not. Mass transit and high population density is sheep living and caged chicken living. Seems like liberal thinking is free range Chickens and caged humans.

  12. I just drove by the Lynnwood Costco across from Alderwood Mall and surprise to see more apartments going in. I looked up the design for this property, and I guess it will limited for
    older people who have trouble walking. 30 min parking? one way streets? Too much traffic in that area! Not all people will be of the younger, healthier age. Think of something for the elderly to shop and live close. This town is growing too fast, and the streets are too small to handle all of the traffic, that will be coming! Sad to see a nice area being filled in with apartments. Then more coming where the old Sears used to be? Maybe all the Seattle people moving into that area???

  13. We realliy need more walker friendly shopping. Would love to see a grocery store in this area. Sound transit. From 188th to city center would be nice. Especially durring snow.

  14. Friday: 08/27/2021

    Hi Jeanette

    The Target Grocery story is across the street.

    The Asian Grocery is 1 block up the street.

    Happy shopping

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