Big dreams for Mukilteo

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, July 13, 2004

MUKILTEO – The city’s tiny downtown waterfront could get a new combination ferry, train and bus terminal, shops, offices, condos and even a 300-slip marina to replace its old military fuel depot under plans unveiled Tuesday.

At this stage, the ideas for the old tank farm site, which is being taken over from the federal government by the Port of Everett, are just that – ideas, officials said.

“There’s nothing firm,” David Schneider of LMN Architects of Seattle told port commissioners Tuesday. “We’ve taken information that we’ve learned and we’ve merged that into some concepts here.”

The architects have been hired to try to make everybody happy with what happens to the 22-acre property, a prized section of beach that has been off limits for 50 years.

In this case, everybody means the port, the cities of Mukilteo and Everett, Sound Transit, Washington State Ferries, the federal National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the public at large.

Schneider presented what he described as “a number of ideas that might be explored.” They include:

* A transit hub that would include a two-slip ferry terminal, commuter train center and bus depot.

* A retail district with beachfront shops and offices topped by condos.

* Public beach access.

* A boat landing or launch ramp.

* Transient boat moorage.

* A 300-slip marina.

* Extension of Paine Field Boulevard down Japanese Gulch.

* Room for a new barge pier for Boeing Co. parts.

* A 1.1-acre NOAA facility.

Schneider showed several plans for the area, acknowledging that everything everybody wants won’t fit.

“There’s going to be a lot of debate about what should go here,” Schneider said. “Everything we’ve shown cannot fit.”

Perhaps the most outlandish idea, he noted, was the marina. Placed over deep water, it would be hard to protect the moored boats from wave action and weather.

Commissioner Don Hopkins, an avid boater, didn’t think a marina would work. “I think that the expense of the marina is really out of the question,” he said. But he did like the idea of taking the old ferry slip and creating an area for visiting boats to tie up while shopping or eating downtown.

Pat Kessler of Mukilteo, who lives near the proposed development, said she had “some major problems” with the ideas, including the height of the buildings, some of which would be 40 feet tall, and potential air pollution. She also questioned how the plan could call for some access to the Edgewater Park area while providing no designated parking.

Parking seems to be the key in what will eventually be developed in the area.

Under one plan, that transit hub took up 75 to 80 percent of the land area because it called for a 260-car staging area for the ferry, 120 parking stalls for the transit center and 80 parking stalls for employees.

Building multi-level parking areas, office and condo buildings with underground parking and constructing a staging area over the water for the vehicles waiting for the ferry would put the most retail and commercial activity in the area, Schneider said.

Putting the ideas down on paper were the first step. The firm will now do an economic analysis of the ideas, Schneider said.

Both Schneider and port officials said people shouldn’t get too enamored or too angry with any of the ideas.

“This is merely the first take… the first play of the game,” said Ed Paskovskis, the port’s deputy director. “There are a lot more to go and we’ll have a lot of opportunity to huddle up.”

Herald writer Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459 or benbow@heraldnet.com.