WOODWAY — More than 1,000 luxury waterfront condominiums might replace acres of huge petroleum tanks that have stood like sentinels on Puget Sound for nearly a century.
The Snohomish County Council is considering a bid to completely transform Point Wells from a polluted industrial site into an urban housing complex. It is a move that the neighbor to the south, Shoreline, is closely watching.
Conceptually, as many as 1,400 condominiums would cover 50 acres, according to California-based Paramount Petroleum, the property owner.
Buildings would stretch up to 75 feet tall, and up to 3,200 parking spaces would be built, most of them underground. The deepwater pier used for tankers and barges could berth yachts and tall sailing ships.
Six acres of boardwalks, parks and a public plaza would be built along the water, opening up access to a shoreline that has been blocked for decades by barbed-wire fences.
“We would have access to beautiful walkways right on the beach,” Woodway Mayor Carla Nichols said. “Our residents would love that.”
Her town, dubbed “The Quiet Place,” has about 1,000 people and surrounds the Point Wells property. She said building housing there would create a self-contained village.
Town officials have long hoped that condominiums would come along, Nichols said, but they don’t control what happens to the land, which is in unincorporated Snohomish County.
Eventually, though, the land could join the city.
“It’s going to more than double our population,” she said.
The Snohomish County Council controls the fate of the Point Wells housing proposal. The council approved a policy last year that gives preliminary support to changing the property from heavy industrial to housing.
The council could decide in May whether the proposal will go forward for more review. A final vote could come by spring 2008.
“I frankly can’t figure out the downside to what they’re intending to do,” said Snohomish County Councilman Gary Nelson, who represents the district that includes Woodway and Point Wells.
The petroleum storage tank farm has been on the land since 1912, and there are more than 85 tanks still there. Chevron bought the land in the 1950s and over time developed an asphalt refinery and lube oil distribution center.
The lube oil facilities were shut down in the 1990s. An asphalt refinery closed in 2000.
Chevron sold the land to Paramount Petroleum in 2005, and the company continues to store and transfer asphalt and boat fuel.
City officials in Shoreline are also staying informed of Point Wells’ possibilities.
“The city of Shoreline still wants to annex the property,” Shoreline Mayor Bob Ransom said. “As I recall, the court decision was that we (Shoreline and Woodway) could both put it in our annexation.”
Shoreline planning director Joe Tovar said the city is sending a letter to Snohomish County to find out where access to a Point Wells development might be.
“The only access we know of is through Shoreline on Richmond Beach Road,” Tovar said. “If they are going to be relying on Richmond Beach Road, an environmental impact statement to determine the state of road will have to be done … there are a lot of unresolved impacts to that road.” Shoreline also provides fire and police services to the area.
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