Forum: Choosing a path for Marysville’s future community

Published 1:30 am Saturday, August 23, 2025

By Rob Friesen / Herald Forum

My wife and I moved here in 1975 so we could teach in Mukilteo and Stanwood, respectively. We found a rental home just north of 116th Street with easy freeway access.

When we drove to the downtown area at Fourth and State streets, people honked and waved at each other, whether in cars or on the sidewalk. Being from Seattle, then Lynnwood, I was startled by the honks, thinking I had done something wrong. Nope! Just friendly neighbors saying, “Hi.” It was great!

This was a farming community, and strawberries were everywhere. The Strawberry Festival and Parade was already a summertime thing, and the strawberry shortcake at the Dutch Bakery on Third Street kept us all coming back for more. But all was not idyllic.

Marysville was starting to grow, and the residential neighborhoods in our “bedroom community” could not support it. The school district was reeling from the controversy of adding its second high school, Pilchuck High School, and school levies were not passing any more. As teachers, schools were important to us. We vowed that when we had kids, we would leave Marysville! But then, positive things started to happen as a result of vision and leadership.

The school district reverted back to one high school, Marysville-Pilchuck, levies passed, and new schools were built. So we bought our first home in Sherwood Forest in 1976. We had our kids there, they went to Marshall Elementary, and had great school experiences in the 1980s and ’90s. We bought our “forever home” in 1991. In Marysville. Just a few blocks north of our first one. That is where we are today.

There was no master plan for North Marysville neighborhoods. A developer bought a parcel, drew up plans, then took them to the county for instant approval. North Marysville, to this day, is a hodgepodge of interconnected neighborhoods. “You can’t get to us from there” is more than a standing joke; it’s reality.

In the ’90s, Marysville started annexing and growing even more. The tax base enlarged. But residential neighborhoods, unless they are like multi-million dollar Yarrow Point homes, cannot support needed city services. So the city started working on a master plan to add commercial development and improve traffic access. This successful plan has resulted in a four-lane roadway from Ebey Slough to 172nd, Smokey Point. Soon there will be a direct northbound exit to access Marysville on a beautiful, four-lane bridge crossing the slough. The city has done a good job keeping taxes and spending in check.

Commercial development was promoted, and huge pieces of former farmland are now being commercially used, or still in development. So far, so good. But there are some blinking yellow and red lights on this road to progress we need to pay attention to.

Traffic has already outstripped our infrastructure from increased business traffic. Businesses do not pay for this; the state and local community do. The focus on business has left neighborhoods neglected, and the city has refused to collect developer fees to help our schools. Derelict houses and properties brought to the city’s attention in 2016 are still there.

The state has not helped either. We now have developers buying what used to be single-family residential homes with generous lots so they can subdivide them to add more housing density in our “urban growth areas.” This is Seattle legislation on the state level which divides and decimates neighborhoods, and Marysville is powerless to stop it, even if they wanted to.

In the midst of all this, our schools have again been in disarray, though, with great effort, we may be turning the corner. And now we face a critical fork in the road; are we going to become Edmonds or Kent? Both are possibilities now, but we are presently on the Kent pathway, where commercial considerations totally outweigh neighborhood ones. We need a new master plan.

My hope is that we choose the Edmonds path, which balances neighborhoods, commercial development, downtown support and strong schools and arts communities. We can do this, but critical leadership is needed with a vibrant vision for the future of Marysville. The vision exists. Now we need leadership.

Ron Friesen is a Marysville resident, a retired music teacher and community and church musician and is committed to community improvement.