Welcome to the Bothell Urbanism Guide#

If you’ve ever been to a community meeting about a new transit line, housing development, or bike lane and felt like everyone else in the room had context you didn’t – this guide is for you.

The gap we’re trying to fill#

Bothell is at a remarkable inflection point. Three BRT lines converging by the early 2030s. A comprehensive plan that fundamentally changes zoning across the city. State housing reforms reshaping what can be built in every neighborhood. An $834 million highway project. A $63 million multimodal corridor redesign.

But following all this requires understanding how the city is governed, what the acronyms mean, and what decisions led to the current moment. If you’re new to Bothell or new to caring about urban issues, there’s a steep learning curve before you can even follow the conversation.

This guide is that missing baseline. It’s a reference, not a news source. The goal is to give you enough context that when you attend a City Council meeting or a Sound Transit open house, you can engage meaningfully.

What you’ll find here#

  • Quick Start – A plain-language overview of Bothell’s urban landscape
  • Glossary – Definitions of terms you’ll encounter in urbanist discussions
  • Timeline – Key events that shaped Bothell’s built environment
  • Blog – You’re reading it. Longer-form pieces on specific topics.

How you can help#

This is an open-source project. The content lives in markdown files on GitHub. If you see something wrong, incomplete, or confusing:

  1. Open an issue to suggest changes
  2. Submit a pull request with corrections or new content
  3. Share it with someone who might find it useful

The best contributions come from people who recently learned something – you know exactly what was confusing and what explanation finally made it click.

Thanks for reading. Let’s make Bothell’s urbanist community more accessible.

Backward Blog