Oops: Everett fire station built in the wrong location

The city of Everett is in the midst of trying to fix a big oops.

Officials built a fire station and parking lot on the northeast corner of Sullivan Park at Silver Lake at 112th Street in 1996. They’d forgotten that the city accepted a federal grant to enhance water-oriented recreation activities. The gigantic string attached to that money was that all of the land was supposed to be dedicated for outdoor activity – forever.

In 2008, city officials approached the state with what happened. The state Recreation and Conservation Funding Board is considering letting the city offer another property nearby for a park instead. That land is supposed to be “of at least equal value and reasonably equivalent location and recreational utility.”

The property the city is offering is at 1020 109th Street SE — that’s across I-5 from Silver Lake. The property is larger than the parcel the fire station sits on and the city says it’s of greater value. However, my understanding is that the city already owns this land and had already planned to make it into a park.

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