Business owners gathered at Mountlake Terrace City Hall last week to share their feedback on the city’s economic development plans.
The Mountlake Terrace and Brier Chamber of Commerce, the City of Mountlake Terrace and Leland Consulting Group held an economic development workshop April 30. Leland Consulting Group associate David Fiske and analyst Ellen Bini gathered feedback from small business owners on the city’s five-year economic development strategic plan.
Fiske and Bini shared a data set of projected consumer demand in Mountlake Terrace by 2035. It showed an increase of seven fast-casual restaurants, five health and personal care stores, three clothing stores, one superstore, one grocery store, one furniture store and one full-service restaurant.
The presenters said that the city’s population has increased by 10.3% since 2019, the most significant increase of any city in the Puget Sound region. However, Mountlake Terrace household size decreased from 2.41 people in 2010 to 2.37 in 2022, while the median household income increased from $53,910 to $96,104 during those same 12 years
In addition,the percentage of non-white residents in Terrace rose from 29% in 2010 to 34% in 2022, and the percentage of college-educated residents increased from 20% in 2010 to 41% in 2022.
The presenters then posed several questions to attendees, and their answers were recorded and displayed online. The first question was, what key challenges did your business face when opening in Mountlake Terrace?
The top three responses were parking for clients, limited or no signage, and crime.
When asked what the city can do to support existing and attract new businesses, two answers were related to the first question: allow better signage and easy parking.
However, attendees also offered suggestions, such as not displacing businesses from 57th or 56th Avenues West to expand the Town Center and resources like checklists and tax information.
When asked what services the chamber of commerce could provide to support local business growth, the group suggested affordable rental spaces, business incentives, business resources and collaboration strategies.
Those attending were then asked what types of businesses they want to see more of in Mountlake Terrace. The responses included coffee shops, cafes, restaurants and retail stores.
The attendees then broke into groups and used a large piece of paper and a set of markers at each table to answer the following four questions:
1: How can the city better encourage and support entrepreneurship and small business growth in Mountlake Terrace?
2: How can the city establish a future retail core while maintaining and strengthening the presence of existing businesses?
3: What types of services are needed to support a strong retail core?
4: What commercial space needs are most important for Mountlake Terrace businesses?
Each of the groups had common answers for small business growth, primarily information resources such as business opening checklists and small business training and how to find grants.
To establish a retail core, the groups shared suggestions for incentive programs such as relocation assistance and setting up parking locations based on the density – so customers can visit multiple places while parking in one location.
Further, they suggested anchor businesses and ground-floor retail that meets market demand.
Services that participants said are needed to support a strong retail core included a grocery store, a gas station, a car wash, a food truck and a bookstore. They also suggested parking and crime prevention measures such as call boxes in urban areas.
As for what should fill commercial space, participants mentioned mixed zoning with residential-office-commercial, incentives for a 10-minute neighborhood and affordable small office space.
The data collected from the workshop will be used to formulate a City of Mountlake Terrace economic strategy for the next five years.
To find out more about the Mountlake Terrace and Brier Chamber of Commerce, click here.
— Story and photos by Rick Sinnett
Thank you. Very informative and helpful. MLT will progress nicely.
Free usable and available off-street parking for regular sized vehicles CLOSE to businesses such as new coffee/sandwich shops, pizza/sub shops and seafood shops with seating is needed. Uncramped parking is critical otherwise MLT residents will continue to go to Edmonds and Lynnwood as I routinely do.
Does anyone else think that prioritizing parking is the wrong way to go?
As the light rail opens and further expands in the region and the MLT population increases, the development should be focused on more foot traffic and walkability. This will increase traffic for your business from people living between the town center and around the transit station, people coming and going from the train will stop at your business.
Prioritizing foot traffic only works for those living close by. (Four or five blocks) MLT is is much larger than the core next to the train station. The rest of us will have to drive or waste too much time riding an intermittent bus just to get a sandwich and cup of coffee.
That’s very true. The area within 4-5 blocks should be very high density living (with greenspaces) and should be were the majority of density growth should be located. If you go much further than that you have other smaller retail areas you would go to. We need one highly concentrated high foot traffic easy to access by train area. That will keep restaurants in business as long as their concepts work. I would love to get off the train, grab groceries, hit the drugstore and get home within 10-15 minutes by foot. I wouldn’t waste too much land on park and rides unless those structures have the retail we need.
Then get the frequent buses connecting other lines to the light rail.
If everything is there at the light rail it will work. Try and spread it out and the critical concentration fails. Plus it keeps the major development next to the noise of the light rail and can serve as a buffer keeping the noise from other neighbourhoods.