Third chance for condo project

EVERETT – A developer who wants to build a 40-unit condominium building on Rockefeller Avenue was given a third chance to provide the Everett City Council with a complete proposal before the council makes a decision.

The council declined to approve or deny the project, but instead tabled it so the developers, Joe Zlab, 36, and his wife Shawna, 34, could provide the council with details including the quality of building materials and specific measurements of bump-out windows that will encroach on the building’s side setbacks.

“This is the right place for redevelopment, but the problem is that I don’t know what I’m approving,” Councilman Paul Roberts said.

Councilmen Roberts, Drew Nielson, Bob Overstreet and Mark Olson voted to table the proposal. Council President Brenda Stonecipher and Councilman Arlan Hatloe voted against tabling the proposal.

The Zlabs first appeared before the council in 2005, when the council gave them permission to build an apartment building on their land in the 2600 block of Rockefeller Avenue, where four old houses currently stand.

Early this year, the couple brought a revised plan – one that would bring a significantly larger building of condos – before the planning commission and the council. Officials and the Zlabs agreed that a condo project would be more profitable and would bring homeownership to the transition area between the city’s downtown and northern residential neighborhoods.

The changed plans brought heated opposition from members of the Port Gardner and Bayside neighborhood associations, who fear the Zlabs’ project would be out of scale with the rest of the neighborhood.

“Because of financial concern, this building has gotten bigger, bulkier and uglier,” Joe Wilson argued.

Joe Zlab said he and his wife are paying for the sins of previous developers, who made changes to building plans after they were approved by the council. He said he’s confident he can provide the council with the details they need within the next few months.

Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.

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