EVERETT — Neighbors in many places can testify to the years of toil they’ve spent to preserve green space or to build a local park.
Few can match the folks in Eastmont, a mostly unincorporated area in south Everett, who have been trying, off and on, to save a patch of woods since 1966.
Fears that the property owner, the Everett School District, might sell, reignited neighbors’ interest in the property a little over a year ago. Now, members of the community want an ally — perhaps Snohomish County — to get first crack at buying the land. They say they are worried about the land hitting the open market and being developed into a residential area.
A spokeswoman for the district said there are no immediate plans to sell the land.
The property the community group wants to preserve is about nine wooded acres next to Jefferson Elementary School, which was built in 1964 and currently undergoing extensive remodeling. Members of the community want to see it kept as an outdoor classroom.
“Eventually our plan would be that Snohomish County would take over this area and keep it as a nature park,” said John Crawford, an Eastmont resident for 48 years and a leader of the group working to preserve the woods. “There are more than 4,000 residents in the area and we don’t have a park.”
Alders, evergreen trees and blackberry bushes cover the sloping property. There are some trails carved through it and a few benches, but not much else in the way of amenities. That’s the way many locals want it to stay.
“We’re not talking about a grandiose baseball field, that kind of thing,” Crawford said.
The land would serve Eastmont, a roughly one-mile-square, mostly unincorporated portion of south Everett on the opposite side of I-5 from the Everett Mall.
The school district bought the land in 1955 and built Jefferson Elementary as the surrounding population began to grow.
These days, 1960s-era houses with large lots occupy much of the area. Newer developments have filled in open space, often packing homes together with little space for yards. The nearest large-scale park is at Silver Lake, more than a mile away.
“Families have to have a place to go to, but it isn’t going to be their yards,” said Jack Richards, pastor of nearby Prince of Peace Lutheran Church.
At an Everett School Board meeting in May, the community group working to preserve the park submitted a petition to the district with 326 supporting signatures. In August, they returned to deliver a PowerPoint presentation.
“We’re very aware of their interest,” Everett School District spokeswoman Mary Waggoner said. “We have no plans for the property at the moment.”
Residents are worried that county zoning rules would allow a builder to put 49 houses on the land.
“Once it’s built on, it’s gone,” said Shirley Vandermeer, a longtime area resident. “Our concern is that they will make a decision to sell the property and then we’re dead in the water.”
The group’s preservation efforts have found a backer in Brian Sullivan, the Snohomish County councilman who represents the area.
“I fully support the acquisition of the property and hope that the Everett School District would look favorably on a first right or refusal for the county,” Sullivan said.
One source of money might be conservation futures, a portion of property taxes designated for preserving open space, farmland and timberland. For a project to move forward, the Conservation Futures Program Advisory Board has to recommend it the county executive, who then sends it to the County Council for a final decision.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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