Everett City Council Declares Emergency After Financial Collapse of Silver Lake Center Project

Silver Lake Center

Everett wants to make sure this remains a high quality development

The Everett City Council Wednesday night declared an emergency and enacted an ordinance that gave the city “interim official control” over the “Silver Lake Center” project at 112th and 19th Avenue SE on the north side of Silver Lake. The property is best known as the place where the “Geo-Dome” house with the silver DeLorean had been. For the past several years Alan Clark, the property owner, had worked with the city and neighborhood groups to plan a high-quality commercial and residential development on the site. In addition, there were to be improvements to Green Lantern Park and the Silver Lake Shoreline as part of the project. While a shoreline permit had been issued for the development, economic conditions kept it from moving forward. On November 26, 2011 a portion of the Geo-Dome house caught fire. A second house on the project property was also damaged by fire on August 16th of 2012. Both structures were demolished. Eventually the project property went into foreclosure. Recently the property was purchased and while the original shoreline permit has expired, the city planning department was concerned that the new owner may put up a development that was not to the same standards as previously proposed.

Tonight the Everett City Council passed an emergency ordinance that allows Everett to take interim official control for one year. This city says this will allow it to complete its planning process and authorize, but limit, any development during this interim period to development that is consistent with the current expectations of the city. The city will hold a public hearing within 60 days on the emergency ordinance and will also receive comments from the public on the future use of the site.

As it stands now, the new owners face several restrictions on the property including prohibitions against subdividing the property, no gas stations allowed, the development must be high-quality mixed use, no businesses with drive up service windows, all parking on the north of any building facing 19th avenue and improvements must be made to Green Lantern Park.

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