Package 2 supporting standard
Master Planned Communities
Master Planned Community standards are part of Package 2 of my First 100 Days strategy: Mixed-Use and Growth-Area Rules.
The 2040 Comprehensive Plan already points East Bethel toward connected, mixed-use, higher-quality development in planned growth areas. The implementation question is not whether to create a separate planning program. It is how to make sure large projects are governed by one enforceable community plan before individual plats and phases are approved.
I would not ask the Council to launch a long list of separate Master Planned Community motions. Instead, the standards belong inside the two motions that make up Package 2.
Plan the Whole Community First
The core standard is simple: major projects should be planned as complete communities before individual lots and phases are approved.
Land-Use Mix
Integrate residential growth with meaningful commercial, employment, civic, institutional, or other nonresidential uses.
Connected Streets
Use multiple access points, future connections, sidewalks, trails, and pedestrian systems rather than defaulting to isolated dead-end patterns.
Open Space
Preserve connected woods, meadows, habitat, trails, greens, and natural edges instead of leftover fragments.
Amenities
Major projects should include gathering spaces such as village greens, plazas, trailheads, civic lawns, pavilions, or neighborhood parks.
Design Quality
Architecture, durable materials, landscaping, tree canopy, signage, parking, screening, and public-realm standards should be objective and known in advance.
Phasing & Accountability
Important commitments should have milestones, deadlines, compliance checks, and consequences for nonperformance.
Motion 1: Mixed-Use & Master Planning Ordinance Package
This motion establishes what a qualifying large development must deliver.
I move to direct planning staff, the Planning Commission, City Engineer, and City Attorney to prepare one coordinated Mixed-Use and Growth-Area ordinance package implementing the 2040 Comprehensive Plan. The package shall establish a Mixed Use district and master-planning standards for qualifying large developments, including requirements for a meaningful mix of residential and nonresidential uses, appropriate housing types and density, unified master planning, interconnected streets and pedestrian systems, meaningful open space, public amenities, objective architectural and landscaping standards, infrastructure planning, and concept review before preliminary plat approval.
Motion 2: Phasing, Development Agreements & Accountability
A good master plan is not enough if the City has no effective way to make sure it is delivered. The second motion governs how the approved plan is enforced during buildout.
I move to direct the City Attorney and planning staff to prepare enforceable phasing and development-agreement standards for Mixed Use and Master Planned Community developments. The standards shall tie residential development to measurable commercial, infrastructure, open-space, public-amenity, and other required milestones; define material changes requiring Council approval; limit administrative amendments to minor technical matters; establish appropriate remedies and performance requirements; and require compliance review before later development phases proceed.
A Dedicated Ordinance Is an Option, Not the Goal
East Bethel may ultimately benefit from a dedicated Master Planned Community section of the City Code. But I would not predetermine that structure before staff and the City Attorney complete the Package 2 work. The standards could instead be integrated into the Mixed Use, Planned Unit Development, and subdivision ordinances.
The objective matters more than the label: qualifying large developments should be governed by clear master-planning, design, phasing, and accountability standards that are known before a developer submits a project.
Design Around Rural Character
Preserving rural character inside a higher-density growth area does not mean putting every home on a large lot. That can consume more land and create suburban sprawl. A better model is to concentrate homes into well-designed neighborhoods while preserving the natural and visual features that make East Bethel feel rural: mature woods, meadows, natural corridors, long green views, trails, and substantial open-space edges.
The result can be a rural-village pattern: townhomes and compact neighborhoods connected to commercial and civic areas, surrounded and separated by meaningful natural landscapes rather than isolated by oversized lots and dead-end streets.
The Package 2 Standard
In rural East Bethel, preserve land. In planned growth areas, concentrate development and require quality. For major projects, approve the whole community before approving the lots—and make the development agreement enforce what was approved.
Read the Mixed Use Area Vision and the two Package 2 motions →