With the city always encouraging community involvement, Mercer Island residents have until Oct. 1 to submit docket proposals for potential amendments to the Comprehensive Plan and Unified Land Development Code. As it does annually, the city has been accepting applications for a one-month period beginning Sept. 1.

Some examples of proposals posted during last year’s submission window were, as listed on the city’s Let’s Talk page: the Mercer Island Beach Club seeking to update and rebuild its current marina to meet modern, more environmentally friendly standards; one Islander delving into residential development standards and addressing ceiling height, covered porches and more; and another resident suggesting to repeal regulations related to piped watercourses.

“Typically, a small handful of these suggestions are docketed each year,” said the city’s Community Planning and Development (CPD) Director Alison Van Gorp. Last year, the Beach Club’s proposal was placed on the docket, as noted on the Let’s Talk page.

Van Gorp added that the Growth Management Act requires a docketing process for comprehensive plan amendments from outside the city government.

“Mercer Island has held an annual docket request period for Comprehensive Plan amendments for many years. Development code amendments were added to this process a few years ago,” Van Gorp said.

According to the Let’s Talk page, each proposal goes under the staff’s lens and recommendations are passed on to the planning commission and ultimately the city council. After the planning commission’s public meeting to review the proposals and make recommendations, they enter city council’s hands and the members submit their final decision on which proposals are affixed to the final docket by Dec. 31 and then the city’s CPD work plan for further legislative review.

“Docket requests are evaluated based on alignment with the current city work plan, current policies, programmatic priorities, staff capacity, and budget to complete the legislative process for the request in the following year,” according to city documents, which add that the process is a component of the Mercer Island City Code.

To submit a docket request, which must be timely and complete, visit https://letstalk.mercergov.org/annual-docket-2023