City OKs riverfront deal

EVERETT – It sounds unlikely at first blush.

But Everett’s long-held dream to transform a former city dump and a few shuttered mill sites into a trendy place to live, work and play edged closer to reality Wednesday.

The City Council voted 6-0 to sell a two-mile stretch of industrial land along the Snohomish River to San Diego developer OliverMcMillan for $8 million. Councilman Ron Gipson was absent for the vote.

“This is a landfill site, and it’s going to be turned into a people place,” said Paul Buss, president of OliverMcMillan. He called the deal a “tremendous opportunity” for his company to develop a “unique and high-quality” development.

By 2010, the California developer says, the 221-acre site will be a mix of upscale condos, shops and restaurants.

Buss said several interested tenants are already lining up, including one that wants to open a movie theater.

At the same time, the developer promises to set aside about 100 acres for preservation as salmon habitat, wetlands, trails, a park and a possible kayak launch.

It also plans to build the site to stringent environmental standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council, or face a $1 million penalty.

Wetlands enhancements are guided in part by agreements the city reached in 2003 and 2004 with the Tulalip Tribes, the Pilchuck Audubon Society and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

Lawsuits filed by the groups early this decade challenged the project’s 41st Street overpass and the city’s shoreline program.

Opponents said the riverfront development didn’t go far enough to protect fish and wildlife habitat.

David Mascarenas with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said he’s happy with the outcome.

The first public workshop that OliverMcMillan held, “everything they used was right out of our agreement,” he said. “Never in my life had I thought a developer would come to town and live up to that agreement.”

Wednesday’s vote was the culmination of more than a decade of planning, months of intense negotiations and tens of millions of dollars in public spending.

But the sales agreement represents only the beginning of another lengthy and complex process.

Environmental reports, shoreline permits and final clearance from federal agencies that regulate development near wetlands still have to be obtained.

Additionally, the challenges of building on a former landfill have to be met. Those include designing a system to collect methane gas. Since parts of the old dump are expected to sink 2 to 4 feet in the coming years, buildings will have to be constructed on pilings.

The additional work isn’t just for the developer.

The city expects to spend another $30 million to $45 million for public improvements.

That’s on top of $48.2 million in public funds spent buying the land and preparing it for development.

In the long run, city officials say, the project will pay for itself and help make Everett more competitive regionally.

A financial study conducted by Berk &Associates of Seattle predicts sales and business taxes will recover up to $45 million in five to 30 years.

City officials believe the riverfront development will one day rival the Alderwood mall and Tulalip’s Seattle Premium Outlets in popularity.

More than a simple land transaction, the deal, hammered out in negotiations for nearly two years, includes a series of obligations and benchmarks for both the city and the developer.

June Robinson, executive director of the Housing Consortium of Everett and Snohomish County, told the council she is concerned that high-end projects are pushing out the city’s poor.

“The development that is happening in Everett is exciting and generally positive,” she said after the meeting. “But we are leaving people behind and are going to leave more and more people behind.”

Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.