The Planning Commission is considering updating regulations for neighborhood retail in residential areas in Kenmore. Neighborhood retail are small-scale retail uses that provide consumers with limited goods and/or services to meet their daily needs. Neighborhood retail can include corner stores, accessory commercial units, and mixed-use or commercial buildings. A corner store is a small-scale shop selling groceries or a limited range of household goods in a residential area. An accessory commercial unit (ACU) is a commercial use contained within, attached to, or detached from a residential structure on a residential-zoned lot. Corner stores and ACUs are in between larger-scale neighborhood retail and Home Occupation and Home Industry permits (home-based businesses), serving as the “missing middle” of commercial forms.

Neighborhood retail has multiple benefits, including:

• Walkability and complete neighborhoods: supporting walkable access to daily needs, reducing reliance on driving and helping advance complete or “10-minute” neighborhood goals.
• Small business support: lowering barriers to entry for entrepreneurs by reducing space needs, startup costs, and reliance on large commercial leases.
• Neighborhood vitality and social connection: Historically, corner stores served as informal gathering places. Reintroducing small-scale commercial uses can strengthen neighborhood identity, provide social interaction, and increase eyes on the street.
• Incremental and context-sensitive growth: ACUs and corner stores offer gentle infill strategies that allow communities to incrementally introduce mixed-use activity without large-scale redevelopment or major changes to neighborhood form.

Interest in reintroducing small-scale commercial uses into residential neighborhoods has reemerged in Kenmore and peer cities as communities seek more walkable, complete neighborhoods and lower barriers for small businesses. Corner stores and Accessory Commercial Units (ACUs) are two related but distinct approaches to allowing neighborhood-serving commercial activity within residential areas. Historically common before modern zoning, these concepts are being reconsidered through comprehensive plan updates, zoning reforms, and state legislation.

Discussions for neighborhood retail in Kenmore reemerged last year during STEP Committee meetings. As City Council is considering implementing Permanent Supportive Housing and Transitional Housing throughout the City this year, STEP Committee members recommended City Council to adopt corner stores in areas that allow for Permanent Supportive Housing and Transitional Housing to support these developments through food services, clinics, and similar land uses.

In the Middle Housing report presented to City Council on 9/25/23 (see agenda here), the following recommendations support corner stores to improve public health:

1. Center health as a factor of equitable sustainability.
   
   
2. Apply neighborhood level public health practices, including spreading out community resources across neighborhoods. This includes incorporating neighborhood level services in addition to community level services, such as adding corner stores in addition to grocery stores. This spreads the number of people accessing or gathering at primary resource locations and supports health considerations during events such as COVID-19.

Additionally, in the Love Where You Live Project in 2023, community members provided feedback on prioritizing the needs of Kenmore. The top two themes identified were 1) community spaces and 2) economic development. In 2024, a second round of community engagement identified the top priorities for economic development downtown as 1) shopping, 2) restaurant/grocery, and 3) mixed-use retail. Kenmore residents want increased walkability and access to grocery stores, local restaurants, and shops.

Both corner stores and ACUs offer potential tools for advancing Kenmore’s goals related to walkability, public health, and neighborhood-serving amenities, while raising important considerations around scale, location, and compatibility with residential areas.

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The Planning Commission is considering which land uses should be allowed in residential areas, such as grocery or convenience stores, cafes, restaurants, specialty or retail shops (e.g., bookstores, bike shops, gift shops, flower shops), and where should neighborhood retail be allowed in residential areas. The Planning Commission is also considering regulations on maximum size, operating hours, parking requirements, maximum height, setbacks, sign regulations, noise levels, open space, and impervious surface.