New development, old master plan

  • Bryan Corliss / Herald Writer
  • Saturday, October 27, 2001 9:00pm
  • Business

By Bryan Corliss

Herald Writer

SNOHOMISH – It’s one of Snohomish County’s newest and largest subdivisions, but it’s following one of the county’s oldest master plans.

The new Highlands East subdivision is the latest stage of development in Polygon Northwest’s multistage Snohomish-Cascade development project east of Mill Creek.

The planned community first was approved by Snohomish County officials in 1979, about the same time developers were platting the nearby planned communities of Mill Creek and Silver Firs.

Taken together, those master planned communities essentially set the tone for development in south Snohomish County, said John Roney, a spokesman for the county’s planning and development services office.

“Now, it’s all urbanizing,” he said. But back then, “it was so rural.”

Long-term, the project also will contribute to changes in traffic flow in the area west of Snohomish, That’s because the developers are partially funding the cost of extending 132nd Street SE – which doubles as Highway 96 – east to connect with north-south Highway 9.

At 103 lots, the Highlands East subdivision was one of the largest approved in Snohomish County over the past 1 1/2 years. Plans filed with the county show a mix of single-family homes and townhouse-style condominiums on the site.

A spokesman for Polygon Northwest did not return a phone call. But according to marketing materials posted online by the company, prices for one-bedroom, 800-square-foot condos start around $128,000, in The Ridge at Highlands East, a section of the subdivision dominated by condos.

The three-bedroom houses now available in the subdivision start at around $225,000, according to the online information. The largest houses – 3,400 five-bedroom, three-bath homes with views of the Cascades – go for $376,000 and up.

The houses all boast hardwood entries and multicar garages. High-end houses and condos have gas fireplaces.

You also get the amenities of a master-planned community.

Master-planned communities – including Mill Creek, Silver Firs and Snohomish-Cascade – have “significantly greater open space than your standard subdivision,” said Barb Mock, who has overseen the project for the county planning department. That allows for trails, playgrounds, play fields and outdoor sport courts, she said.

In return, county rules allow developers to pack houses more densely into the land designated for housing. Mock noted, however, that with Highlands East, Polygon opted for a smaller number of “relatively large” lots.

It’s a selling point for Polygon, which touts Highlands East as a place with “nature paths, seven neighborhood parks and play areas set amid classically designed homes.”

Snohomish Cascade has developed more slowly than its sibling master-planned communities, Silver Firs and Mill Creek. Mill Creek in particular, Mock said, was developed quickly by United Development Corp., the Japanese company that planned it.

United put the last single-family subdivision within the original Mill Creek town site on the market earlier this year. The last condo subdivision will go on sale in 2002.

Snohomish Cascade has changed significantly since the master plan first was approved in 1979. That’s largely because, during the 1980s, Snohomish County condemned about 380 acres of the as-yet-undeveloped land as a landfill site. As a result, the number of available home sites was slashed by about 25 percent, Mock said.

Polygon has developed Snohomish Cascade in phases over the years. There will be one more subdivision after Highlands East, Mock said. The company has started the process to get approvals for the final phase.

South Snohomish County has changed a lot since 1979 as well, Roley noted.

The residential growth in the three master-planned communities spurred commercial development along 132nd Street. Other subdivisions have filled in much of the remaining land.

People look around and marvel at the growth, which seems to be a recent phenomenon, he said. But it’s all following master plans laid down two decades ago.

“It created a groundswell of activity,” Roley said.

You can call Herald Writer Bryan Corliss at 425-339-3454

or send e-mail to corliss@heraldnet.com.

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