I often hear calls to expand the industrial zoning of Hayden Island. But even a cursory look at the layout of the current development shows immense room for more productive use. Half of it is covered in parking lots for big-box stores. If several large parking garages were built there, it would open up acres of room for denser commercial development – or, better yet, manufacturing or shipping uses.

Of course there are complicated land uses at play here, but this seems to be an example where slightly more careful planning could have yielded more productive use of our developed land.