MARYSVILLE — The city is hoping to restore some glory to a faded crown.
First, that crown needs a little polishing.
The city hopes to make the former Crown Pacific Mill site, on Ebey Slough just east of Highway 529, part of its plans to eventually revamp the downtown and waterfront area.
It’s not yet been determined what exactly would go on the 10-acre site, which the city bought for $2.2 million in 2006. City officials do, however, envision a trail running along Ebey Slough from Sunnyside to the Tulalip Indian Reservation, and they would like the former mill site to be a part of it.
“It’s certainly an opportunity, a huge opportunity,” said John Owen, a partner in the Seattle urban design firm Makers, which the city is paying to develop a revitalization plan for the downtown area.
Marysville is applying for a $200,000 federal grant to clean up old pollution on the site. The grant is expected to cover about two-thirds of the cleanup cost, city planning director Gloria Hirashima said.
The pollution is left over from gas and oil from vehicles and storage tanks that once were part of the mill, and from a boat-manufacturing facility on the site, according to the city’s grant application. By environmental cleanup standards, it’s not a big job, Hirashima said.
The site first opened as a mill in the 1950s. It was later taken over by the Crown Pacific Partners of Portland, Ore., which began operations in 1988. International Forest Products Ltd., or Interfor, of Canada bought the mill in 2004 from bankrupt Crown Pacific Partners for $900,000, according to Snohomish County property records. Interfor closed the Marysville mill in December 2005. The mill employed 40 people at the time.
The city bought the property in March 2006 and had the main buildings torn down, leaving only a couple of former office buildings. The city is using the property as a garbage operations site.
The city hopes to get the cleanup grant by next year and have that work done in 2010, Hirashima said.
The study group, Makers, envisions a 20-foot-wide trail with a 70-foot buffer zone planted with native vegetation between the trail and the water, Owen said.
The city is paying Makers $75,000 for the downtown study and $20,230 to study locations for a new city hall, for a total of $95,230.
The study group hopes to have its downtown plan ready for the city by the end of the year, Owen said.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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