Granite Falls land exchange proposal dying
Published 9:00 pm Sunday, May 2, 2004
GRANITE FALLS — Despite repeated lobbying, the Granite Falls City Council does not want to rush into a land deal being pushed by developers representing horse rancher Dean Essex.
Now it appears to be all but over for a proposal to give the city about 38 acres of riverfront open space in exchange for annexing 27 acres and allowing up to 130 homes to be built on the land.
City officials earlier balked at the proposal because they feared the development would use much of the capacity of its new sewage treatment plant earlier than anticipated.
The developers have backed away from buying the land, and the Snohomish County Council is now considering rescinding a Sept. 2003 rezone that would have allowed the deal to happen.
"I don’t want to shove something down the city’s throat," Snohomish County Councilman John Koster said.
A public hearing about the rezone is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Jackson Board Room at 3000 Rockefeller Ave., in Everett.
Lake Stevens developers Patrick McCourt and David Toyer of Barclays North tried hard in recent weeks to sweeten the deal.
The company had earlier entered into an agreement with Essex, but it had to get the city to annex the land before they would buy the land and build the homes.
In a March 30 letter, Toyer offered the city several things:
Mayor Lyle Romack said the city does not want to use up its sewer capacity so quickly on one property.
"The maximum capacity to date remaining on the system is 150 hookups," Romack said. "That’s supposed to last until we get the second phase of the wastewater sewage plant in operation. That’s a minimum of four years — if we had the money or the financing, which we don’t."
The project will cost $4 million. New sewer hookups for the Essex development would bring in less than $600,000, Romack said.
In his letter, Toyer said he figures other permit fees could generate $600,000 more.
Pushing forward quickly with 130 new homes on one project would keep the city from letting other developers build, Romack said.
"I think we need to be fair to everybody," Romack said
The deal to sell the land to Toyer is over, said Essex, who plans to wait until "the dust settles" before deciding what to do next.
Essex hoped to sell the land and move to a different state where the economics of raising racehorses might be more favorable. But now it appears he won’t be moving anytime soon.
"That’s just the real world," Essex said.
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
