Everett’s determined efforts to transform its shorelines from a patchwork of former mill sites to a 21st-century All-American city waterfront got much, much more from the city’s shorelines appeal settlement than an altered plan for ballfields (front page, Dec. 7 Herald).
Although it’s true that one provision of the settlement agreement will eliminate ballfields, golf courses or other intensive recreation facilities as allowed uses in the Marshland floodway (south of Rotary Park and west of Lowell-Snohomish River Road), the settlement is really all about a highly successful resolution to a long legal dispute and about some important additional tools for managing our shorelines.
The agreement reached with the City of Everett by our local Everett Shorelines Coalition and Washington Environmental Council is a rare triumph of constructive negotiation over legal obstacles. A mutual decision to negotiate, instead of litigate before the Washington State Court of Appeals, yielded a broadly successful outcome: as a result of this agreement the next update to Everett’s Shorelines Master Program will set an even better example for other urban shoreline jurisdictions in our region of ways that shorelines management can be tailored to local conditions, consistent with the state Shoreline Management Act, and maintain a lot of flexibility.
Everett’s 23 miles of saltwater, freshwater and estuary waterfront, which historically supported our industrial economy, remain vital to the city’s future, and deserve continuing public investment in protecting the shoreline’s capacity to serve us in new ways – for keeping our waters clean, our economy healthy, and our residents and visitors provided access to natural beauty and recreation. Everywhere that humans live, waterfront is too valuable and too vulnerable to be taken for granted. Communities that invest in their natural assets typically prosper, and Everett is well-positioned to do that.
Stronger encouragement for enhancement of shoreline function is one result of the agreement. Shoreline restoration doesn’t have to be a mere side-benefit of a site development project. Like other assets valued by the community – green belts, museums, concert halls, parks – where citizens prioritize healthy economy and healthy environment, improvement to shoreline function can be funded on its own merits.
The city built upon the information already compiled for Everett’s 2002 Shoreline Master Program to develop new provisions that identify and prioritize specific opportunities for future ecological restoration. These help minimize risk that proposed new uses or adjacent development might foreclose some unrecognized opportunities by filling, compacting, paving, etc. Until now, some opportunities for habitat improvement haven’t been readily distinguishable from adjacent portions of the same or neighboring parcels, as found on Smith Island or in the Marshland. In the river’s flood plain, some locations can be partially returned to their historical natural function while still preserving farming activities and flood protection features.
Everett Shorelines Coalition salutes the City of Everett Planning Department staff, the Washington Environmental Council and all the other participants in the settlement for their constructive approach to resolution of issues. And while we continue our advocacy for strong Everett shorelines protection, during the coming year our coalition also looks forward to increasing involvement in stewardship and environmental education projects in collaboration with other groups.
Peggy Toepel is chair of the Everett Shoreline Coalition.
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