Char Ayres, who lives south of Mill Creek near Thrasher’s Corner, wants Snohomish County to rezone her property to allow for more housing.
“I want to be able to sell it and make as many lots as I can, because that property is my retirement,” said Ayres, 51.
However, Trudy Eichelsdoerfer, 84, who has lived on Maltby Road for nearly 50 years, doesn’t want the zoning in her semirural area changed to allow for more density. If that happens, she believes her taxes will rise and force her to move.
“We worked for 49 years to fix up that place,” she said.
Ayres and Eichelsdoerfer represented the conflicting viewpoints the County Council heard at a hearing on Tuesday regarding where the county will funnel growth over the next 20 years.
Snohomish County is planning for about 275,000 more people by 2025, which would boost the population to an estimated 930,000. About 130,000 more jobs are expected to come with the growth.
Nearly half of that growth is expected to occur in the southwest corner of the county.
Snohomish County Council Chair Gary Nelson said the council will discuss changes to the county’s growth plan during open sessions on Monday and Tuesday.
A series of public hearings began Monday, Oct. 3 and ran through Thursday, Oct. 6.
Public hearings on Tuesday and Thursday focused on Bothell, Brier, Edmonds, Everett, Lynnwood, Mill Creek, Mountlake Terrace, Mukilteo, Woodway and unincorporated areas nearby. Fifteen people spoke at the Tuesday afternoon session and about 100 people attended.
The county has proposed extending higher-density zones farther out from cities.
The urban growth areas are meant to eventually be annexed into nearby cities.
If plans are adopted as proposed, farmland and rural 5-acre lots would be allowed to develop suburban-style cul-de-sacs, apartments and condos, and shops or industrial business parks.
Reardon says jobs must come along with the people. “We can no longer afford to be a county of commuters,” he said.
Ideally, the people and jobs will be concentrated in cities and their urban growth areas. Properties outside cities and urban growth areas will be preserved for rural uses, including farming.
The properties that remain rural will still see housing for about 45,000 more people – an estimated 15 percent of the growth – over the next 20 years.
Several residents of the semirural but fast-growing area north of Bothell and south and east of Mill Creek, including Clearview and Maltby, told the council they supported the county’s proposed plans to rezone their areas to allow for more housing.
“We might as well rezone, we’re not rural anymore,” said Margie Becker, who lives near Maltby Road north of Bothell.
Judy Hedreen of Clearview said her family still raises horses on six parcels, but development on three sides has increased her property taxes 125 percent in nine years.
Scot Dunkel, who lives east of Mill Creek, said his 2 1/2 acres have become surrounded by hundreds of new homes.
“To think I’m in a rural area when I have to go down 164th and 35th is crazy,” Dunkel said.
Other issues were brought up, too.
Dyann Arthur, a Mill Creek mortgage loan administrator, said the county should take steps to provide more affordable housing.
“What I see is that single people cannot afford to own a home in Snohomish County at this time,” she said.
The state Growth Management Act requires cities and counties to plan for population and job growth, as well as for roads, utilities and schools to support the growth. Changes may be made to the county plans annually, and the plans are required to be updated every 10 years.
Bill Sheets is a reporter with The Herald in Everett. Jeff Switzer, a Herald reporter, contributed to this story.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
