Neighborhood feel coming to Highway 99

A new-fangled Highway 99 through Lynnwood is coming, though exactly when it shows up and what it looks like is still an open question.

The basic idea behind the push to come up with a new land-use plan for the nearly 4-mile stretch of the state highway from 212th Street Southwest to 148th Street Southwest is to “create more of a neighborhood feel,” said Gloria Rivera, a senior planner for the city.

To get there, the city is working on rewriting design guidelines and zoning rules to make it easier to build apartments and condominiums along the highway and to change the mix of businesses, Rivera said. Beyond making the highway more visually appealing, the idea has practical applications for pedestrian safety and access.

City officials also want to change land-use rules to encourage retail with residential above it and to move away from big parking lots close to the curb, a traditional Highway 99 staple.

Such a change is particularly attractive to planners, who see the advent late this year of Community Transit’s bus rapid transit service as another step toward better integration between mass transit and pedestrian access in what has been a car-centric strip of highway. CT’s bus rapid transit service will run from Everett to Aurora Village in Shoreline

“From the beginning, we saw the integration between land use and transportation as important,” said Mary Monroe, project manager with the city’s Economic Development Department.

Highway 99 was once the only major north-south route from the Canadian border to Mexico.

It’s been a major commercial hub for more than 50 years and these days, a variety of small retail and service businesses share the route with automobile dealerships and large-scale, national operations such as Costco, Walgreens and Bartell Drugs.

Three years ago, the city of Lynnwood began inviting Highway 99 business owners to share their ideas for the corridor. Last year, the City Council agreed to hire a Seattle planning company, Makers, to oversee development of what’s being called the Lynnwood Highway 99 Corridor Project.

Late last month, the project entered its latest phase. By next August, the city will have specific design and zoning guidelines, plus an expanded vision for the future.

In 2004, the council adopted the Economic Development Action Plan for Highway 99.

It’s one of the areas of the city “we identified as a great spot for redevelopment,” Monroe said.

March 3, the city held the first of three meetings where it invited the public to weigh in on the latest concepts for the corridor.

One Highway 99 property owner, who asked not to be identified, said she’d like to see improvements to the highway. But she said she’s not convinced putting condos over retail along the street is a good thing.

“I love the idea but for all practical purposes, close to the highway and all the noise certainly wouldn’t be prime location.”

She said planners have looked closely at changes to Highway 99 for more than 20 years.

The last big upgrade happened in the 1990s, when the Washington Department of Transportation worked closely with several cities to add turn lanes and improve safety along the highway.

Any changes should keep “the small business person at the top of the pillar,” said Marty Rood, a commercial real estate broker with Mr. Highway 99 Associates in Shoreline. Rood, who participated in development meetings in 2007 and 2008, said planners have to remember the life blood of Highway 99 is its businesses.

“These planners get in and plan these things and they’re all sexy and stuff, but then it doesn’t work for the owners,” he said. “Then they say ‘oh well, what’s done is done.’”

He serves on the city of Shoreline’s Economic Advisory Council, which has watched that city redevelop the first of three miles along Aurora Avenue North.

The highway may look more attractive, he said, but business owners haven’t benefited.

“I don’t think it’s helped at all,” he said. “It’s certainly made it a little more attractive and a little prettier, but I don’t think it’s resulted in higher land values.”