Lynnwood celebrates 50 years as a city

LYNNWOOD — This city has come a long way since Desa Gese transcribed its first laws 50 years ago on a typewriter at her kitchen table.

Gese and her husband Leo, Lynnwood’s first city attorney, have watched as the area has replaced tall trees with chickens, and chickens with cars — as well as new families and new babies.

In 1969, then Mayor Jack Bennett said, “We can’t help but grow, no matter what we do.” He predicted Lynnwood’s population would double by 1980.

It did. And it has kept growing.

Now 50 years after incorporation and 118 annexations later, the city is the hub of south Snohomish County — home to its worst traffic and most of its tall buildings.

The city is kicking off a yearlong anniversary celebration from 1 to 3 p.m. today at the Terraces Food Court at Alderwood mall, 3000 184th St. SW, Lynnwood.

Cityhood has brought challenges.

As people change the way they travel, the heart of Lynnwood has been tossed west to east and back again.

The area’s first settlers clustered around the Interurban Railway in what is now eastern Lynn­wood. Then, Highway 99 opened, and new businesses focused attention on the city’s western edge.

Now, advancing light-rail and I-5 are changing that focus again.

“Lynnwood doesn’t have a bona fide downtown. It has a couple of them,” said David Kleitsch, the city’s economic development director.

In the next 50 years, Lynn­wood officials must cluster the city’s most intense development, and protect the ­single-family neighborhoods that make up so much of the city, Kleitsch said.

The 300-acre City Center development proposed by city officials could change the face of Lynnwood. The center would be built just north of the future light-rail station near 44th Avenue W. and 196th Street SW.

The project would put dense urban housing and tall mixed-use buildings together, and include parks and pedestrian-friendly walking trails. Around 5,400 people could live in the area.

Development of City Center hasn’t started, in part because the national economy is scaring off potential investors, officials said.

As it goes forward, the city must also realize that Lynnwood is much larger than its political boundary, former Mayor Tina Roberts-Martinez said.

With 35,680 people, Lynn­wood is already Snoho­mish County’s fourth-largest city. But nearly 30,000 more people have Lynnwood addresses.

The city is attempting a two-step annexation of 27,500 people living north and east of current city limits. If it succeeds, Lynnwood would become the county’s second-largest city.

That would, of course, bring even more challenges. But Lynnwood has never been afraid of those, ­Roberts-Martinez said.

“This city has grown very fast,” she said. “The city of Lynnwood has happily opened its arms and received everyone.”

Chris Fyall: 425-339-3447, cfyall@heraldnet.com.