Toyer Strategic Advisors, Inc.
Land Use & Economic Development Consulting
Got a piece of property in Snohomish County that you want to re-designate for a higher value land use designation?
You’d better hurry up because you only have until October 30th to submit an application if you would like your amendment to be heard during the 2024 Comprehensive Plan Amendment cycle.
Don’t worry we have you covered. With over two decades of experience preparing, submitting, and lobbying for comprehensive plan amendments and rezones, we can get your application in for review by the deadline as long as you contact us by noon on Friday October 23rd.
Toyer Strategic is working on behalf of HBBP, LLC to propose amendments to the Lacey LI-C zone to allow for an increase in building size if additional requirements are met (including wellhead protection, retention of existing industrial buildings, etc.). Learn more.
As part of the public engagement for this proposal, we joined the City of Lacey in an online community forum on August 31st. Missed it? Watch the video below.
If your community is struggling to attract economic development opportunities, it may be time to look at the factors influencing the cost of development and it’s relationship to the local market.
Although released in the Fall of 2016, this SIOR article by Debroah Mickler is an excellent outline of the variables that make or break “feasibility” for new industrial (or any other) development.
By highlighting how an industrial developer determines what it can pay for land, the article also shows how project costs (e.g. impact and permit fees; or off-site infrastructure improvements) impact a project’s budget relative to land cost.
Taking the time to identify these variables in your community can help your city or economic development organization better understand why it may not be attracting the opportunities envisioned. It is also a great starting point for a conversation on the types of incentives it may take to attract projects (e.g. expedited permitting; offsets to land cost; tax increment financing of infrastructure, etc.).
Got questions? Contact us
We recently helped a small business, The Grayson, resolve a zoning compliance matter that threatened to shut them down because their c0-housing solution to long term rentals for corporate relocation clients was defined as a “hotel” despite the fact it’s a far cry from a hotel.
Since it would be incredibly difficult to walk through the intricate challenges of their situation in a single blog post, we will try to simplify it.
The Grayson was an AirBNB style co-housing rental that the owners live in. Unfortunately, such uses (businesses) aren’t defined in the County’s code. When a use is not defined, it’s not allowed except that the County can interpret what use it most closely resembles.
In this case, their undefined use was found to be most closely like that of a “hotels” and hotels are not allowed in the zone where our client is located.
To solve the problem, we tenaciously pursued a code interpretation that argued our client was operating a boarding house. And upon securing that code interpretation we helped bring the client into compliance with those regulations, saving the business.
Our client was willing to let us share her thoughts on our work. . .
“Toyer’s firm has a great background and working knowledge of regulations, zoning, and code. Toyer was able to navigate the complexity of county planning department and code, succeeding in getting a resolution that kept our business from having to close. More incredible was the fact that Toyer was successful where attorneys had failed to help us with the problem. Without Toyer Strategic’s involvement, we would have spent thousands of dollars fighting a losing battle!” Mariam Zinn, Owner, The Grayson
We’re proud of the work our company does and what it means to small business and entrepreneurs.
Got a zoning or zoning compliance issue? We can help. Contact us
