GRANITE FALLS – If Mayor Lyle Romack pulls off his vision for downtown, hikers wouldn’t have to sweat it if they forgot their wool socks.
A fishing trip wouldn’t be delayed to return home for a forgotten piece of tackle.
A hunter might make a special trip to town to buy rain gear or boots.
Folks who like the outdoors already come through Granite Falls on their way to national forestlands to the east.
So the mayor is suggesting downtown landowners should develop a “city center” with specialty shops on vacant lots that would cater to the outdoors and tourists.
The idea was unveiled as part of the city’s 20-year comprehensive land-use plan this week.
The people-gathering city center is meant to offset other parts of the plan – an alternate route and a new commercial area – that could draw visitors away from downtown.
The city center idea has support among the landowners, while mention of the commercial area draws concern.
John Burkholder, the city’s planning consultant, said the days of department stores such as JC Penney’s locating in small downtowns are long gone. Instead, the city’s plan focuses on capturing some of the passing traffic, he said.
“Downtown is going to change to develop specialty retail – camping, photography, ice cream shops – so that people come in to enjoy the downtown,” Burkholder said.
The city center would be built on vacant lots on both sides of N. Granite Avenue across from and near the Red Apple grocery store. Another lot near the post office on E. Stanley Street also could be used.
Given the city’s tight financial situation, it would have to be a private endeavor, Romack said. No cost estimates have been done.
Romack said the city is trying to link interested developers with the landowners. Two other aspects to the city’s comprehensive plan are urging him on.
One is the alternate route, a two-mile new road planned north of town for the hundreds of gravel trucks that now pass through downtown each day.
The new road is scheduled to be completed by 2009 if state and federal funding is lined up. Romack said he wants the city center established well before the alternate route.
“We don’t want hikers to bypass Granite Falls on the alternate route,” Burkholder said.
Also pushing the timeline is a new general commercial zone in the comprehensive plan. It would encourage large, corporate stores on the north side of Highway 532 across from Lake Gardner, at the city’s gateway.
“The danger here is: What’s keeping that (commercial zone) from outcompeting the downtown sector?” Burkholder said.
The answer, he said, is that downtown’s new identity would start attracting people “for its own reasons.”
The city center idea and the new commercial zone in Granite Falls have not been approved. They are part of the city’s 20-year plan, which is subject to review and approval by the Snohomish County Council later this year.
Romack said the three owners of vacant lots downtown have been receptive to the city center idea.
One of them, Tom Gray, 58, said he likes the idea but thinks it’s going to be difficult to develop.
“There’s got to be a tremendous amount of organization to get it off the ground,” he said.
Gray is not so keen on bringing in large retailers west of town. Commercial development should be concentrated downtown, he added.
“Look what happened in Lake Stevens with Frontier Village,” Gray said, referring to that city’s outlying commercial district. Downtown there is “still trying to recover.”
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@ heraldnet.com.
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