EVERETT — The city’s plan to build an apartment house for homeless people in the Pinehurst-Beverly Park neighborhood goes before the Everett City Council on Wednesday.
The city plans to construct a 70-unit building to house the most chronically homeless and vulnerable of the city’s street population.
The building would have social services available on-site and around-the-clock secure access. The city has contracted with Catholic Housing Services to supervise operations.
The decision to put the building on city-owned property on Berkshire Drive near the Evergreen Way area has drawn criticism from neighbors of the future site. They’ve protested at public meetings.
The Wednesday meeting is a briefing on the choice of location, and the council is not scheduled to vote on the resolution until its planned Nov. 9 meeting.
City staff have provided the council with a list of 36 properties that also were considered for the housing project but rejected for one reason or another.
Those properties included private and public land, vacant and developed lots, and parcels zoned for residential, commercial or industrial uses. The list included properties in 10 of the city’s 19 neighborhoods, and 26 of the properties are located north of 41st Street.
In those cases where the city would have to purchase a property, it had to keep its market research out of the public eye.
“We tried to feel out without doing anything formal, knowing that when the city is interested in property it could drive the price of the property up,” said Hil Kaman, the city’s director of Public health and safety.
Kaman and a team of five other people from various city departments drew up and evaluated the list between the time Mayor Ray Stephanson settled on a low-barrier housing project last November and the site announcement in May.
Among the properties under consideration were the Waits Motel, the shuttered former Everett Motel, the condemned Hodges Building and the Everett School District’s Longfellow Building.
Each of those properties had drawbacks, according to city documents. The Waits, Hodges and Longfellow buildings weren’t for sale.
Price also was a consideration for several properties. The school district has estimated its century-old former school is worth up to $1.4 million, but that it would cost $7.8 million to renovate it to modern standards.
The district previously tried to sell the building, but found no takers.
Other properties were located too far from bus routes or other services, including an industrial building at 300 W Marine View Drive and a vacant lot in the middle of the Pinehurst-Beverly Park neighborhood.
There were other factors that came into play. One lot owned by the Snohomish County Public Utility District near Broadway and 13th Street was eliminated from consideration because its proximity to a high-poverty neighborhood would have precluded the city from obtaining Section 8 vouchers for the residents.
“We actually were in negotiations to purchase it at the time,” Kaman said. “We knew it was for sale, we were negotiating a price and a purchase-and-sale agreement when we learned that the housing authority would not issue project-based vouchers for that site.”
If the council approves the resolution Nov. 9, the city would be clear to begin the environmental review for the Berkshire Drive site. That would include a public comment period.
The council later will have to vote on the decision to declare the property surplus, sign a land transfer agreement and an operational agreement with Catholic Housing Services.
The City Council is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Historic City Hall Building, 3002 Wetmore Ave.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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