For years, my family had a prime viewing spot for the Fourth of July. We’d climb out the window of an upstairs bedroom and sit on the flat roof of our kitchen.
| For Port of Everett details on north marina redevelopment, go to www.portofeverett. com/northmarina.shtml.
For information from the Association for a Responsible North Marina Development, go to www.saveourviews. com. |
With the house as a backrest, we’d keep arms firmly around our kids as we watched the fireworks on the Ever ett waterfront. The view was obstructed only by our backyard pear tree.
That view from our roof is now only a memory. I still have a peekaboo view of Port Gardner looking south from my bedroom. But our view of water to the northwest? Gone.
I never thought to complain about that, not in print anyway, not until recently. Ironically, what has me stewing about my lost view is a push by some neighbors to save theirs.
My house is one block east of Grand Avenue, where north of Grand Avenue Park many yards have sprouted green-and-white signs that say “Save Everett’s Waterfront Views,” and the more altruistic “Protect Grand Ave. Park View.”
The signs come from a community group, the Association for a Responsible North Marina Development, which opposes the Port of Everett’s plan to allow 65-foot-tall condominiums as part of a waterfront project expected to include shops and a new marina.
On its Web site, www.saveourviews.com, the group emphasizes that its beef isn’t with the project itself, but with a change approved in August by the port commission boosting the 55-foot height limit for the project to 65 feet.
Photos on the site are superimposed onto what the group maintains will be block views if the project is built as planned, with about 660 condos. The site labels the shaded area “the wall,” and says views lost from the bluff will include much of Jetty Island and the Snohomish River channel.
Here’s an observation unlikely to make me many new friends.
More than half a dozen houses with save-the-view signs were once small, one-story bungalows. Whether homeowners added on for more space, better views or both, the results on Grand Avenue are rooflines significantly higher than they once were – like, say, when we bought our house.
Two of those newly remodeled houses on Grand took most of our Port Gardner views away.
Kate Reardon, spokeswoman for the city of Everett, said as long as zoning and building regulations are followed, views are not taken into consideration when property owners make changes.
“The whole concept of view rights is kind of a modern thing,” Reardon said.
In north Everett, she said, it’s clear by the orientation of some older houses turned sideways that builders wanted to take advantage of views.
Everett residents and workers have long been spoiled by sweeping views. “We’ve got views on all sides,” Reardon said.
David Dilgard, an Everett Public Library historian, noted that when homes were first built along Grand, “that whole stretch was downwind of enormous amounts of smoke and ash, stuff from the mills. It wasn’t like now, when you’d have a big deck.”
Over the years, people bought bungalows for their cozy charm or because they were affordable, Dilgard said. “In my lifetime, it’s shifted from people wanting a cozy cottage to big houses with a bathroom for every bedroom, a big deck upstairs and an expanded new kitchen.”
Another trend he’s seen is homes that were once rentals being owner-occupied and remodeled. “It’s hard to fathom, but now we have quarter-million-dollar fixer-uppers,” he said.
The north marina project isn’t a done deal yet. The Everett Planning Commission is expected to make a recommendation on the project and height limits at a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 18 at Everett Station. Plans call for the Everett City Council to vote on that recommendation Nov. 16.
Lisa Mandt, spokeswoman for the Port of Everett, said the lower-profile plan would have covered four of eight blocks with high-rise condos, while the proposed 65-foot development would cover three of 11 blocks.
Dilgard is sure of one thing in the Everett area: change.
“We have that perception of stability, the idea that you’re going to get some permanence. But it’s changing by the week.”
I don’t begrudge others their views or their causes. If we could have afforded a house on Grand Avenue 20 years ago, that would be my address today. What homeowner along that gold coast wouldn’t want to save the view?
Some of them will have to excuse some of the rest of us for not being more sympathetic. Our views changed years ago.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
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