EVERETT – It’s the size of a dictionary, and it’s not exactly a beach-blanket page-turner.
But Everett’s proposed comprehensive plan charts the city’s growth goals for the next two decades – to 2025.
| Review the plan
To get a copy of the plan, visit the planning department for a free compact disc. Paper copies are available for $20. The plan is also on Everetts Web site at www.everettwa.org/comp or can be read at the Everett Public Library, 9512 Evergreen Way. Comment on plan The Planning Commission will have a public hearing on proposed changes to the citys comprehensive plan at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 18 at the Everett Events Centers conference center, 2000 Hewitt Ave. Send written comments until Jan. 31 to Dave Koenig at the Snohomish County Planning and Community Development Department, 2930 Wetmore Ave., Suite 8A, Everett, WA 98201-4044. |
Everett’s comprehensive plan – first created in 1994 and due to be updated this year – steers the city’s planning priorities, including overall ideas for growth, employment, transportation, housing and more.
The Planning Commission and City Council will discuss several key changes as part of the combined annual and 10-year planning updates, said Dave Koenig, the city’s manager for long-range planning and community development.
So far, the most controversial issue in the proposed document may be Providence Everett Medical Center’s plans for growth, Koenig said.
The hospital is planning an expansion of its Colby Campus that its officials say is necessary to accommodate the medical needs of a rapidly growing Snohomish County.
The expansion will come at the expense of a block of homes in one of the city’s historic areas, the Donovan District.
Though the hospital owns 21 of the 22 homes on the block in question, dozens of neighbors who live east of the hospital oppose the growth, saying it would diminish the neighborhood’s historic distinction.
According to the plan, the land would temporarily be used for parking, but by 2015 the hospital intends to build a 600-car parking garage and hospital building there.
Another major change would come from Everett Community College, which is planning a 14.2-acre expansion that would move the campus east to meet north Broadway.
The land would be used for a new college building, additional parking and a North Everett Transit Center.
The proposed comprehensive plan also outlines growth slated for the former Asarco site in north Everett and the Port of Everett’s North Marina project, and the possibility of growth on Everett’s riverfront and in the Everett Station area.
The city of Everett knows it needs to accommodate population and job growth, Koenig said. The plan outlines how the city should go about doing that.
As they did in 1994, city planners and leaders will discuss how to encourage more housing in downtown Everett, possibly by offering tax credits or changing building height limitations.
“There will be more focus on that this time,” Koenig said.
They must also decide whether to zone sections of the city to allow for more multi-family dwellings, how to improve the city’s gateways and what impact growth will have on the city’s more rural areas.
It’s hard to visualize how such decisions in 2005 will directly affect what the city map looks like in 2025. But such choices do make a difference, Koenig said.
For example, 10 years ago city planners and leaders had discussed changing land near Boeing Field to residential from industrial.
“We looked at it, but the end result was to preserve the land for industrial development,” Koenig said.
In the last 10 years, JanSport and Food Services of America settled there, he said, and more industrial growth is expected as Everett begins design and production of the new 7E7 Dreamliner.
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@ heraldnet.com.
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