By John Wolcott
Herald Business Journal
Affordable housing, always in short supply, is getting new attention and respect from government and private sectors in Snohomish County.
Ironically, the county’s transportation snarls are helping to spur the interest in low-income housing, interest that centers around transit-oriented development.
For instance, new transit areas such as the Everett Station, Lynnwood’s developing business district and the city’s large park-and-ride lots, plus the new Opus Northwest development that broke ground north of Lynnwood this week, are all creating new opportunities to build affordable living quarters at hubs where living, shopping and working converge.
An exchange of ideas for increasing the supply of housing for lower-income residents in the county captured the attention of more than 60 representatives of housing agencies, nonprofits, city and county governments, and the private sector at Tuesday’s breakfast meeting at the Monte Cristo Hotel ballroom in downtown Everett.
The Housing Stakeholders’ Affordable Housing Forum, sponsored by U.S. Bank, focused on ways to continue building and financing additional low-income housing in the county, with an emphasis on emerging opportunities around transit centers. Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel and a key assistant, Steve Holt, moderated the meeting.
Guest speaker Steve Norman, executive director of the King County Housing Authority, told the group that the Village at Overlake Station in King County is an example of how the public and private sectors can — and must — work together.
The 308-unit, $38 million project involves several floors of living space over a 500-vehicle parking garage built on a former park-and-ride lot owned by the county.
"We took a site that was only a parking lot, and we’re turning it into affordable housing designed to provide people an opportunity to get to nearby work, schools and shopping by foot, bicycle, cars or local transit," he said. "Transit buses pick people up right where they live, including access for handicapped riders."
The housing authority made the faltering project successful by bringing tax-free bonds and other government financing options into the mix.
Everett city planner Dave Koenig said the new Everett Station, a multimodal facility, is expected to attract development for the surrounding area in a variety of ways.
"Housing Hope is already planning 20 units of affordable housing just up the hill from the station. This will be a major site for transit services and neighborhood redevelopment, not only for housing but also for the industrial businesses displaced by the station," he said.
The 64,000-square-foot, four-story station, expected to open in December, will primarily offer transportation services. But there will also be education programs and employment services in the facility, a concept that fits well with the idea of developing urban centers with complementary components.
Steve Clagett, centers project director for the Snohomish County Economic Development Council, said: "We’re at a key crossroad in our decision making. That’s why the EDC is bringing city and county leaders to a discussion about creating urban centers at an Oct. 3 EDC luncheon at the Embassy Suites in Lynnwood. Rather than waiting for urban centers to happen, we need to make them happen over the next five to eight years."
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