Lynnwood, Washington, has a reputation as a sleepy bedroom community, but the candidates in this year’s City Council races say the Seattle suburb is at a turning point. New transit connections and a regional housing crunch are bringing new arrivals — and new visions for what the city can become.
Lynnwood City Councilmember Josh Binda has a front-row seat to his city’s rapid growth. He lives in a new seven-story apartment building a few blocks away from the Link light rail station that opened last year. It’s a modern building with more than 360 units. Across the street, a similar complex is under construction.
“I’m actually seeing Lynnwood, in front of my eyes, grow,” Binda said. “It’s really cool to be a part of the beginning phase of all this, and see it play out every single day.”
The new light rail station has been a “huge game changer” for Lynnwood, Binda said. New apartment complexes like his are springing up quickly to accommodate the wave of people moving to Lynnwood in search of an affordable alternative to King County that’s still within commuting distance to Seattle.
Lynnwood, in Snohomish County, is one of the region’s fastest-growing cities, and a second light rail station slated to open by its Alderwood Mall promises further growth. About 40,000 people live there now, but that’s expected to climb to around 65,000 by 2044. The city is “going to have a whole new identity,” Binda said.
Binda was first elected to City Council in 2021 and is now seeking reelection. His opponent is Bryce Owings, 39, a lifelong Lynnwood resident and carpenter.
In addition to Binda’s race, Lynnwood has one open council seat up for grabs and two appointed incumbents trying to maintain their seats.
Housing pressures
Housing is being built quickly in Lynnwood, but the candidates largely agree that more is needed. Prices are rising, and people are getting priced out.
It’s something Binda, 25, is familiar with: He was evicted in 2023 after losing his job, and he had to move back in with family for about a year. His unstable housing situation prompted a complaint challenging his residency and eligibility to run in Lynnwood. The county auditor ultimately dismissed the complaint.
“When I talk about these issues of affordability, or making sure that Lynnwood is staying somewhat conducive to my generation, I’m not just speaking it as a talking point," Binda said. "I’m speaking it because I experienced it, and I've lived it."
When Binda was first elected to City Council in 2021, many of his colleagues were more wary of the city's growth. Patrick Decker, a longtime resident, was among the most vocal. During one 2022 meeting, he argued that “there’s no mandate that Lynnwood has to accommodate every person that wants to move to the Pacific Northwest.”
“There’s a lot of cities in the area, there’s a lot of other areas for growth,” said Decker, who is leaving his position on the council this year to run for a Snohomish County Charter Commission seat. “It’s our job to protect the residents of this city and assure that they’re properly cared for.”
During that meeting, Decker said he’d been warned that if Lynnwood didn’t pass laws allowing for more housing density, the state Legislature would pass laws forcing them to.
“I’m very concerned that, despite our best efforts here, the state and/or the county will simply take this out of our hands,” Decker said.
In 2023, the state Legislature did exactly that. House Bill 1110 — known as the “missing middle” bill — requires cities to adopt zoning codes allowing denser types of housing, such as fourplexes on all residential lots.
Binda thinks the council has moved in a more pro-growth direction over the past couple years.
While some cities have dragged their feet, Councilmember Robert Leutwyler thinks Lynnwood has “done a good job embracing the changes coming down from the state.”
“We’re trying to correct several decades of policy that was preventing us from building housing,” said Leutwyler, 38, who was appointed to fill a vacancy on Lynnwood City Council earlier this year, and is now running to keep his seat. “I think we have made a good faith effort to create the environment for that housing to be built, rather than putting up constant roadblocks.”
Leutwyler said he could be interested in exploring zoning changes that go beyond the state requirements, including looking at further reductions in the number of parking spaces required for new construction.
Leutwyler's opponent is Mpiima Mugambe, a social worker who moved to Lynnwood a decade ago because it was the only place he could afford as a grad student from Uganda commuting to classes at the University of Washington. It’s a common story.
“Our city is a bedroom city,” Mugambe said. “Folks go to other cities to work, and come live in Lynnwood.”
Mugambe said he’s interested in finding ways to incentivize development of more micro-studios in Lynnwood — tiny spaces just a couple hundred square feet big, often with shared laundry or kitchens. He’s also interested in tackling the city's affordability problems through strategies such as rent stabilization, social housing and new regulations to prevent large corporations from hoarding properties.
Leutwyler, meanwhile, takes a more market-based approach: Remove the roadblocks and give developers the flexibility to build the housing Lynnwood needs.
“If you don’t at least get the market working for you, it makes no sense to be talking about social housing and these other forms of housing that require an investment,” Leutwyler said.
Other candidates in this year’s council races have floated a variety of ideas for how Lynnwood can grow while staying affordable.
At a summer debate, Lynnwood City Council Position 1 candidate Dio Boucsieguez proposed an “economic opportunity zone” along Highway 99 where developers would get property tax deferrals on new construction.
His opponent, Derica Escamilla, was appointed to City Council last year. She expressed support for the state’s middle housing laws and also said rent stabilization and raising the minimum wage could help housing affordability.
“We are in a very unique situation in Lynnwood,” Escamilla said. “I think it’s really important that we embrace the change.”
More than a bedroom community?
The candidates largely agree that Lynnwood needs more housing, but they think something more is missing.
“I want this city to be somewhere that I want to stay and hang out in, and right now that’s not happening,” said Isabel Mata, 29, a political newcomer running for Lynnwood City Council Position 2.
“When my husband and I go on date nights, we’re going to Edmonds, we’re going to Shoreline, we’re going to Woodinville,” she said.
A lot of Lynnwood looks the same: strip malls, busy arterials, and drive-throughs. There aren’t many places for people to sit, relax and shop, Mata said.
“We can’t just think about the housing,” Mata said. “We have to also think about the green spaces, the sidewalks, the infrastructure, the local shops, the things that make neighborhoods feel like home.”
Mata is part of Lynnwood’s wave of new arrivals. She moved there from Arizona three years ago because of the city’s affordability and the planned light rail station. She’s running for an open seat against Ki Seung Cho, who has owned a business in Lynnwood for more than three decades.
Other candidates share Mata’s concern about the need for amenities.
“I don’t think the city has been conducive to young people. There’s no cool hangout spots, there’s no comedy clubs or bars, there’s no nightlife here," Binda said. "As a young adult, what is there to do?”
People sometimes think of Lynnwood as a “stepping stone,” Binda said, an affordable alternative to King County where you can rest your head at night but commute elsewhere to work and live your life.
“We want this to be a chosen city, not because of circumstance, but because of wanting,” Binda said.
The candidates have ideas for bringing that vision to Lynnwood. Leutwyler said the city’s many strip malls represent a kind of “blank canvas” where dense housing mixed with retail can be built without putting pressure on residential neighborhoods. Mugambe is interested in incentives to attract more small businesses. The candidates all want more greenspace, bike lanes and community gathering places.
There are already signs of change. The Lynnwood City Council recently greenlit an ambitious plan to transform the city center with a new event center, plazas for farmers markets and green space for outdoor events and festivals. Not far away, construction is underway on a new neighborhood community center that aims to be a “one-stop shop,” with community programming, adult and early learning classrooms, a day care, a tech hub, a playground and more.
Voters have until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4 to vote in person, postmark and mail their ballots or drop their ballots off in an official drop box.
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