CLEARVIEW — Snohomish County officials are dusting off plans to unload some publicly owned land in the Cathcart area, as the region’s appetite for real estate grows.
An open house on Thursday night is intended to keep neighbors in the loop and, with luck, entice a few developers.
“The plans we’re putting together are basically just to stimulate interest,” said Randy Blair, a project manager for the county.
Consultants are working through ideas to turn the 31-acre property known as Cathcart South into a mix of apartments and businesses with easy access to transit, perhaps along the lines of Mill Creek Town Center.
The county could sell or lease the property. No final decision is expected for at least a few months.
The zoning, planned community business, would allow for multi-family housing, stores or hotels, health care services and banking or restaurants, among other uses. Some of the land can’t be developed because of wetlands, Blair said.
The parcel covers the southwest corner of Cathcart Way and Highway 9. It’s adjacent to a church property the county bought two years ago for a future park-and-ride lot.
Community Transit is part of the planning process.
“We’re going to be there at the open house to help answer questions about what types of transit service people would like to see there in the future,” CT spokesman Martin Munguia said.
The land is part of about 600 acres Snohomish County bought in 1986 for a regional landfill. In 1992, county officials decided to close the dump and ship garbage instead to Klickitat County.
Pieces of the landfill property have been carved out for Willis Tucker Community Park, Glacier Peak High School and Little Cedars Elementary School. The county uses other parts for a public works operations hub and a sheriff’s office shooting range. A wide strip was taken up for Cathcart Way, which connects 132nd Street to Highway 9.
County officials had been planning to sell off other pieces of Cathcart to developers a decade ago when the recession hit.
“It’s only within the past couple of years that the interest has become renewed,” Blair said.
In addition to Cathcart South, the county still owns two other undeveloped Cathcart parcels with about 175 acres combined.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@herald net.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
Cathcart South property open house
Meet with planners and consultants to learn about development prospects for land that Snohomish County owns on the southwest corner of Highway 9 and Cathcart Way. The meeting is scheduled from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Thursday at Willis Tucker Community Park, Gary Weikel Room, 6705 Puget Park Drive, in Snohomish.
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