Everett Planning Commission Votes for Evergreen Way to be Revitalized, Redeveloped Around Swift Bus Rapid Transit

February 25, 2012

Everett, Everett Government

Meet Everett's new economic engine

Stretching from Everett’s “gateway” at 41st street and flowing south past the city limits toward Lynnwood, Evergreen Way is gearing for a major transformation as an economic engine and growth corridor for Everett’s future. At their recent meeting, the city’s planning commission voted unanimously to send the Evergreen Way Revitalization Plan including new zoning standards and development incentives, to the Everett City Council for approval. The plan’s focus is on growth, both residential and commercial, surrounding the Swift Bus Rapid Transit stations that dot Evergreen Way between 37th street to the north and Gibson road to the south.

The plan calls for at least seven “nodes” around the Swift stops that will have higher intensity commercial and residential development than other areas of Evergreen Way.

With light rail and other Sound Transit projects in Everett decades away or on the back burner, Everett planning director Allan Giffen tells My Everett News they’re putting the development focus on the Swift Bus Rapid Transit stops. “We’re making Evergreen Way into a growth corridor”, said Giffen. The plan’s vision is for a “linear community” where residents could travel north or south using transit and easily connect to major employment and commercial centers while also enjoying easy pedestrian and bicycle access.

The plan involves a full-scale zoning change creating new zoning classifications of E-1 and MUO (mixed use overlay), replacing the current zoning of B-2 or C-1. The city would also extend the Multiple Family Property Tax Exemption Program into the mixed use overlays to encourage development of affordable housing in those areas. Mini-casinos, nightclubs and methadone treatment clinics would not be allowed in the mixed use overlays near the Swift stations but would be allowed in the E-1 areas. Existing businesses would be grandfathered in.

It will take about two months for the city’s planning department to write-up the ordinances and submit them to the Everett City Council for approval of the plan.

You can click here to see the final 49 page report that will be sent to the city council. It provides a lor more detail then I could ever try to bring into context here.

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My Everett News is a hyperlocal news website featuring news and events in Everett, Washington. We also cover City of Everett information and items of interest to those who live and work in Everett.

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