August-September 2024

Hello from Lynnwood City Hall!   It's hard to believe that the Lynnwood City Center Light Rail Station's grand opening was over a month ago! The opening and the Evening Celebration were extraordinary. I want to thank everyone involved in making that day a success. Hopefully, you've had a chance to hop on the Light Rail for a game, to go to the airport, or to explore our region! Members of my staff and I were honored to visit with Captain Stacy Wuthier, Commanding Officer of Naval Station Everett. We had a great conversation about what is happening at the Everett Naval Base. We learned about Captain Wuthier's remarkable career with the Navy. We are so fortunate to have a thriving base in our community!

August and September were also busy months for celebrating the grand openings of many businesses in Lynnwood! I am always so honored to be invited to welcome new businesses to our City; there is such an amazing level of excitement when we bring out those giant scissors and celebrate a new start! Please help me welcome The Goddard School, Bellas Voice, Providence Swedish Rehabilitation Hospital, Anytime Fitness, Ember Apartments, Jubilee Beauty School, and, of course, Lynnwood Link Light Rail!

Take care and be well, 

Mayor Christine Frizzell

Development and Business Services

Community Outreach: DBS staff was in the community discussing housing and city projects at 14 different events over 14 weeks! These conversations included identifying housing typologies for middle housing implementation. It was great to hear from the community what they want to see in Lynnwood now and in the future.

Code Enforcement Action at 6005 178th ST SW: The Lynnwood Code Enforcement team was successful in having the fire-damaged residential structure at 6005 178th St SW demolished after a lengthy five-year process. The house was damaged by two separate fires in 2019 and was a blight to the community. After years of working closely with the homeowner, the Lynnwood City Attorney obtained a warrant of abatement in Superior Court, allowing the City to enter the property and take necessary steps to correct all existing code violations. The property has now been successfully cleaned up, and a judgment was placed against the property in an attempt to recover the associated costs.

Ember Grand Opening: Lynnwood celebrated the grand opening of the Ember Apartments on September 7th. This project included 361 units and approximately 9,000 square feet of commercial space at 19888 40th Avenue West. The Puget Sound Regional Council also presented a Vision 2050 award to the Trent Development and City of Lynnwood for the ‘On the Ground’ category for the Ember project by implementing transit-oriented development. Enso Development Taking Shape: The Enso multifamily housing project is underway at 198th St SW and 40th Avenue West. The tower crane was recently installed, marking the beginning of this new project. The Enso project will consist of a seven-story building with 318 units.

Executive Reaching out to the community about the upcoming biennial budget: Every two years, the City of Lynnwood adopts a biennial budget. The upcoming budget for 2025-2026 will assign funds to programs, services, and infrastructure. Over the summer months, we've been out in the community asking people, "What do you love about Lynnwood?" and "Where would you like to see more resources'?" We also conducted a budget survey and budget open house. Thank you to those in our community who took the time to provide their feedback! There is still time to participate – Mayor Frizzell will deliver her Proposed Budget to the City Council on Monday, October 14th. After that, each Director will present their Department budget to the Council. There will be a Public Hearing on Monday, November 12th, on the proposed budget and the proposed property tax levy. This is an exciting time in our community. As stewards of your funds, we need to ensure that our services, programs, and initiatives are adequately funded to a level that Lynnwood community members want and need.

Human Resources

Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts  

Another Fair on 44th in the Books: Our annual Fair on 44th was a huge success, bringing together over 85 partners who provided resources, education, and plenty of fun for the Lynnwood community. This event offers a valuable opportunity for City departments to showcase the vital work we do to keep the City running smoothly and to deliver essential services to our residents.

A Huge Thank You to Our Partners and Sponsors!

We are incredibly grateful to all our partners and sponsors who contributed to making not only the Fair on 44th a resounding success but also helped bring our entire lineup of summer events to life. From CELEBRATE! to Meet Me at the Park, the Fair on 44th, and all the fun in between — none of it would have been possible without your support!

A special thank you to our 2024 Summer Event Sponsors:

• Community Transit
• Dave & Buster's
• Edmonds College
• Gesa Credit Union
• Molina Healthcare
• Sound Transit

We truly appreciate your partnership and look forward to many more successful events together!

Human Services in the Community: Lynnwood Human Services was back at the Lynnwood Food Bank in August and September, partnering with American Heart Association to continue its blood pressure screening project which has served 215 people so far. In partnership with Kone Consulting, the Human Services Coordinator completed the 2024 Human Needs Assessment for Lynnwood and shared those findings with City Council. We continue to partner with DSHA on their Mobile Outreach, providing the Lynnwood community with benefits and services at the Lynnwood Library.

New Art Throughout Lynnwood: The City’s Arts, Heritage and Cultural Program has been busy with several new art installations throughout the city.  The Community Justice Center, Public Art Project, was completed with a ribbon cutting celebrating six artists (Melissa Singh Cole, Tsovinar Muradyan, Humaira Abid, Gregg Schlanger, Milo White + Lin McJunkin, Erin Shigaki) who created seven individual murals each of which shares a unique story of beauty, strength, and community. Our newest signal box art wrap at the corner of 196th and 40th pays tribute to Lynnwood veterans and active military members—many who are our neighbors and continue to contribute to our community. We are excited to unveil our newest mural at North Lynnwood Park (below). Artist Tori Shao created a stunning mural of a dragon at North Lynnwood Park, which many refer to as Dragon Park.

Celebrating National Senior Center Month: Lynnwood Senior Center celebrated National Senior Center Month in September with a presentation by the Washington State Association of Senior Centers that was developed for the Washington State Legislature.

Police

Shop With a Cop: On September 3rd, we had a great morning doing our first ever back to school Shop with a Cop event! In partnership with the Mukilteo Police Department, Edmonds Police Department, Washington State Patrol, Foundation for Edmonds School District, and the Alderwood Mall, we spent the morning getting to know a great group of students and doing some back-to-school shopping. The mall was closed first thing this morning, giving officers and students plenty of time to shop. Each student also picked out a new backpack at the end of the event! Costumes with a Cop: On September 21, Lynnwood PD held their first Costumes with a Cop event. 60 costumes were hand made for the Costumes with a Cop even that is on October 5. Thank you to all those who helped!

Have you used our new graffiti clean-up program? We've partnered with Lynnwood Lowe's to provide paint-out kits. Get reimbursed through Lowe's or a paint store of your choice! Make sure you have your case number with you and save your receipt. This option is great for people who want to take immediate action to paint over graffiti. Click here to learn more about the program and how you can get started.  Take our Neighborhood Public Safety Survey: We want to know how we’re doing. We’re asking people to take our Neighborhood Safety Survey. You can take the survey here: https://us.openforms.com/Form/d2eea855-e0d3-4703-8fde-2fe0e37c10f0.

Public Works

Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvements: The treatment plant has been working on maximizing our ability to process solids by removing the sludge incinerator and installing our new sludge handling system. Within a month and a half, we have gone from a robust 70,000 lbs of sludge solids in our system down to 26,000 lbs of sludge solids in our system. This decrease in solids has taken away the risk of damage to our clarifiers and being out of compliance with environmental standards, which comes from the hard work of each operator. It will also allow us to catch up on much-needed maintenance to help the plant run much more efficiently.

Public Works Receives Innovation Award: Public Works Deputy Director Marcie MacQuarrie accepted the 'Most Innovative Solution' award as part of the Commercial Strategic Energy Management Program. The City of Lynnwood is participating with Snohomish County PUD in a program that includes education and consulting to identify and implement possible energy savings (free of charge to the City). Marcie and staff launched an online (and cost-effective) mapping solution to help the City keep better track of facilities and equipment and comply with the new Clean Buildings Act. In addition to partnering with SnoPUD, we partnered with Edmonds School District to support student interns to assist in this project. We are very excited about the benefit this brings to Lynnwood.

Making Lynnwood More Accessible: The City of Lynnwood received this Award of Excellence for our Exceptional Plans to Improve Walking, Biking, and Accessibility Infrastructure for all People. Our Public Works Department is always striving to make our city more accessible, and our team will continue to make sure we deserve this award!

For questions regarding Mayor's Memo, please email communications@lynnwoodwa.gov.