MONROE – Mayor Donetta Walser is coming up empty in her bid to steer the city alongside Marysville and other communities competing to be the future home of a 75,000-seat NASCAR speedway.
Walser recently approached Snohomish County leaders with a conceptual proposal for redeveloping several hundred acres where the Evergreen State Fairgrounds, Evergreen Speedway and Monroe Airport now sit.
She asked the county to review the land’s potential to satisfy International Speedway Corp., the firm that is looking at sites in Washington and Oregon. She hoped they would also help craft a proposal.
But Paul Roberts, county executive director, toured the property and concluded it does not meet key requirements set forth by International Speedway.
In a June 4 letter, he wrote that the site is too small, containing less than the 500-acre minimum that International Speedway officials said they need. It also is not flat and contains wetlands, he wrote. He also told Walser the site is not currently under active consideration by the company.
Walser was disappointed. “We want the county to try anyway and let the ISC decide,” she said Thursday.
Monroe seemed to have dropped out of competition when Marysville released its proposal April 13. But Walser said she has kept the dream alive because International Speedway officials indicated to her that they have not crossed Monroe off their list.
She said she hoped the county would find the site feasible and take the lead in preparing a proposal that the city and county could submit together. She needed the county to pay for the proposal because Monroe can’t afford it.
Roberts wrote that the county would assist Monroe, as it did Marysville, but that aid did not include paying for the proposal.
“I’ve done what I can,” Walser said. “I’ve hit the wall.”
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