Everett site will prove most costly

Published 3:32 pm Wednesday, January 23, 2008

So we paid the NBBJ consultants $1 million to select a UW North Campus site. Their best choice was the Everett Station site.

This is a site that doesn’t meet the requirement for 25 acres of developable contiguous land, not including streets, criteria set forth by the university and state Office of Financial Management.

The area around the station is designated a high crime area by the Everett City Council (drugs and prostitution).

Now I learn that the site is on the state Department of Ecology’s toxic cleanup program list of confirmed and suspected contaminated sites.

The Everett mayor talks of building a parking garage, which confirms that the site is already too small. What will the taxpayers cost per acre be to buy up private property in one of the most expensive land areas of north Snohomish, Skagit and Island counties? Are our tax dollars being used wisely?

ROBERT W. SWANSON