The journey to bring a four-year university to Snohomish County drew a step closer in November, when consulting firm NBBJ submitted its site recommendation report to the state, placing Everett Station as its preferred site for a new University of Washington branch campus.
After months of public input — in the form of six town-hall meetings and more than 20 community gatherings — and data analysis, the Seattle firm winnowed down the site finalists to four in late September. They were Everett Station and Riverside Point in Everett, property in Marysville off Smokey Point Boulevard and the Cavalero Hill area in Lake Stevens.
In its Nov. 15 report, NBBJ ranked the Everett Station site first, the Marysville site second, the Riverside Point site next to the Snohomish River third and the Lake Stevens site fourth. Among the four, the Marysville site is the largest, with 369 acres, while the Everett Station site, with more than 31 acres, is the smallest.
“The consultant’s report identifies four potential sites, all with their own individual strengths,” Gov. Chris Gregoire said upon receiving the report. “We have choices between suburban and urban settings, which can accommodate large traditional college campuses or less traditional compact educational settings.”
In its report, NBBJ noted that the Everett Station site “leverages the region’s existing urban infrastructure and current forecasted employment opportunities, promises the most sustainable campus development strategy in the 21st century and is among the least costly solutions for on- and off-campus infrastructure improvements.”
The consultants also pointed out that the site offers existing classroom space for an interim campus next to the permanent campus in the University Center at Everett Station.
Site disadvantages included “the need to purchase additional land in the future for expansion or to accommodate recreational fields and facilities on campus. Additionally, it is the only site that requires all structured parking,” NBBJ said.
Strengths detailed in the Marysville site included its “ability to accommodate long-term growth without having to purchase additional land,” according to the report. “… However, the site is hampered by the considerable investment needed to ready the site for development.”
The Riverside Point site was lauded for its proximity to the “region’s major employment center, together with its long-term potential for linkages to an emerging and redeveloping Everett waterfront” but was hindered by significant infrastructure, site and building foundation improvements required by “the historic floodplain condition.”
The Lake Stevens site was deemed by NBBJ to be the least costly to develop but also “is the most challenged by environmental conditions, multiple easements and some entitlement hurdles that could constrain development.”
NBBJ’s site selection report, while pivotal to the process of creating a new branch campus, is not the final word on where UW-North will be built. That will be left to the Legislature in the upcoming legislative session.
“Our top goal must be to consider what is best for the students,” Gregoire said. “… The Legislature and I now need time to thoroughly review the report and more fully consider the public comments we received from the over 1,000 participants in the town-hall meetings.”
The NBBJ report was part of a $1 million contract awarded by the state to find the top potential sites and then recommend the leading contender as well as where to open the first classes in temporary quarters. Upper-division classes at an interim site could begin in fall 2008.
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