Courthouse options all costly; decision needed quickly

EVERETT — While the Snohomish County Council held off Monday on any big decisions about courthouse construction, one thing was clear: time is of the essence.

And there’s not much time left.

Council members said they hope within the next week or two to decide what to do about the impasse with Everett over parking. The conflict is threatening to implode the $162 million project.

County and city staff met last week to establish how to fulfill the city’s requirement for hundreds of parking spaces not in current courthouse designs. They’re scheduled to meet again Thursday.

“They get that we need a decision and we need a decision quick,” said Jason Cummings, the county’s chief civil deputy prosecuting attorney.

The county had hoped to break ground on the project later this year, but that’s now in doubt.

It’s up to council members to decide what to do: Add parking to the current courthouse designs or build the courthouse somewhere else.

There’s even talk of scrapping the project altogether.

“It’s something I’m taking a serious look at,” Councilman Terry Ryan said after Monday’s meeting.

“Definitely something to be considered,” Councilwoman Stephanie Wright said.

Bringing the project to a dead stop won’t be cheap, either. The county has spent $7 million so far, more than half of that to buy out a half-dozen properties in the proposed footprint.

On top of those costs, county analysts also are trying to get a better read on how much it would cost to pay interest obligations on bonds the county has sold to fund the project.

Figures in the millions of dollars were being batted about Monday, but also couched as educated guesses.

“If we’re not working with the same set of numbers, we can’t make a good decision,” Ryan said.

The longer county leaders wait, the more they can expect costs to grow — without anything to show for it.

Every month of delay will add an estimated $193,000 to the project’s costs, mostly because of the market forces driving up prices, county staff said.

For now, the county is trying to establish with Everett planners the exact number of parking spaces they’ll have to provide and in what form.

To help meet the goal, the county could clear extra space in its existing underground garage by parking 115 fleet vehicles somewhere else, facilities director Mark Thunberg wrote to city planning director Allan Giffen last week.

Because there’s no money to build a new parking garage, the county’s only realistic option for new parking spaces would be a surface lot on the site of the old courthouse once it’s demolished, Thunberg said.

The county also is asking for leeway on previous parking agreements with the city, because staffing at the main campus has fallen about 100 people short of projected levels.

Giffen wrote back that the county’s suggestions are worth discussing.

The County Council plans to keep the courthouse on its agenda every Monday until a course of action is clear.

Throughout 2014, representatives from the administrations of Mayor Ray Stephanson and County Executive John Lovick met to discuss how a larger redevelopment initiative could tie in with the courthouse project. Stephanson’s office suggested a makeover along part of Hewitt Avenue, an area that would be on the back side of the future courthouse. The concept called for street-level shops at the base of a large parking structure.

The mayor said he was clear about requiring the new court building to provide parking, even though city zoning when the project was proposed required none.

Instead, the county went ahead with designs to build the eight-story building with 30 to 40 restricted parking spaces for judges and other court staff.

Lovick’s administration has contended that the new courthouse will merely replace the 1967 one that will eventually be torn down.

The proposed courthouse also would take out an existing lot with 130 surface parking spaces. Everett officials contend the county failed to fulfill a 2002 agreement about downtown parking as a condition of building a new jail and administration building.

On Christmas Eve, the Everett City Council passed an emergency ordinance to require more than 300 parking spaces in the new building. Without any contingency in the courthouse budget, county leaders say they’d be hard-pressed to find the $20 million to $45 million it would cost to build a parking garage with that much capacity.

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.