This talk will discuss the Geodesign process that was used to assist the City of Lynnwood, Washington. Lynnwood is the fourth largest city in Snohomish County, 16 miles (26 km) north of Seattle. Lynnwood is a suburban bedroom community for Seattle and is home to a large concentration of retail businesses. Like similar suburban communities, Lynnwood is automobile oriented, with large concentrations of big box and strip commercial retail centers. In 2007, the City of Lynnwood adopted the City Center Sub-Area Plan to provide a guiding vision for a key area of the city. The Plan’s goal was to create a compact, intense, lively city center and transform the area into a vibrant commercial center and an appealing place to live, work, and play. Recently, there are a wide range of projects completed or underway, including the Lynnwood Link Extension, which will provide fast, frequent, and reliable light rail transit service between south Snohomish County and the University of Washington, downtown Seattle, the Eastside, Sea-Tac Airport, and more. In anticipation of rapid transit between both Seattle and Everett, parcels within Lynnwood’s City Center are experiencing significant growth pressure and plans for improved transit have catalyzed unexpected demand for dense development in the City Center area. So much so, that the Lynnwood was forced to reevaluate the build out density allotted by the Planned Action Ordinance. To assess the impact of new development on the site, a Geodesign workflow was leveraged to explore potential massing and visual impact scenarios and to calculate potential housing units, jobs, and square footage of office and retail space.
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