WOODWAY — Things have been quiet of late at Point Wells, the waterfront industrial site where a developer wants to build more than 3,000 high-rise condos.
That could change as early as this fall, when Snohomish County expects to release a draft environmental study about the project’s potential impacts. If built, Point Wells would be the largest and highest-density new housing development in the county.
“It’s going to include a lot of information and we’re a long ways away from making a decision,” principal planner Ryan Countryman said of the draft plan.
Blue Square Real Estate, operating locally as BSRE Point Wells, has been heading up the redevelopment efforts since 2010. Its vision for the 61-acre site includes condo towers rising up to 180 feet, shops and a public pier.
Traffic remains the most vexing issue for a site that’s currently reachable by a single two-lane road with a 25 mph speed limit.
Blocked views, landslide hazards, drainage and noise are some of the other impacts being studied for the draft environmental study.
Planners also are studying what would happen if Shoreline, Woodway or some combination of the two cities were to annex Point Wells. Both are interested.
County planners have asked BSRE Point Wells to study building a second road through Woodway to reach the site. They also told the developer to drop references to a future Sounder commuter train stop serving the community, unless they can provide evidence that Sound Transit is taking the idea seriously.
BSRE has proposed building a new road to Point Wells off of 116th Street West in Woodway south of Quail Lane. The narrow parcel would only be suitable for emergency access, not a fully functional public road, Countryman said.
The county asked the developer to study a second potential access road from 238th Street SW in Woodway. That would essentially re-create the former Heberlein Road, which used to serve Point Wells during the first half of the 20th century. Steep, unstable slopes complicate that route.
To improve traffic access, BSRE also is looking into an agreement for Metro bus service from Point Wells to a future light-rail station at 185th Street in Shoreline. That light-rail stop is supposed to open in 2023 as part of a new line to Lynnwood from Northgate.
Blue Square is part of Alon Group, a petroleum and real estate company with holdings in Israel, Europe and the United States. A local attorney who represents the company was reluctant to talk about specific transportation solutions, as the plans remain in flux.
“There’s been a lot of work done on traffic and that’s been very time-consuming,” Gary Huff said. “I don’t want to talk about what’s likely until the study is finished because it could be misleading.”
Once a draft environmental impact statement is released, people will have 45 days to submit comments to the county.
After that, a design review board would make recommendations on the project. Planners would prepare a final environmental impact statement and a staff recommendation about whether to approve the project. The county hearing examiner would then decide to approve the project as proposed, allow it to move ahead with special conditions, or to send it back for further study.
Separate from the county permitting process, BSRE needs to work with the state Department of Ecology to clean up industrial contamination on the site, which now hosts a petroleum-storage facility and an asphalt plant.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
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