Yes Or No On Downtown Everett Methadone Clinic Set For Tuesday Night

Not only will the citizens of Everett be announcing their choice for Mayor Tuesday night but the Everett Planning Commission will be announcing their choice for where to allow a second opiate substitution facility (commonly referred to as a (methadone clinic) within the Everett city limits.

Currently the city code only allows for one such facility in Everett. That facility is located in a south Everett business park near 100th and Holly. It has been operating at capacity and the company running the site (Therapeutic Health Services) is looking to open a second location in Everett.

Earlier this year THS thought they had located a spot in a former surgery center located at the corner of Rucker and Pacific in downtown Everett. THS applied for an amendment to the Everett Zoning Code to add a second facility. Initial hearings were held and a decision was made to gather more information and revisit the issue in the fall. Since that time the proposed location is off the table as the property at Rucker and Pacific is under a sale contract but the zoning question remains. Should there be a second clinic in Everett and where should it be allowed?

The Downtown Everett Association has launched a campaign against locating another treatment facility in the downtown core and is urging their members to attend Tuesday night’s hearing to speak out against the idea. Lanie McMullin, the City of Everett’s Director of Economic Development has written her opposition to the idea stating “the allowance of a methadone treatment facility in the downtown core would significantly set back the emerging, but fragile development progress of the last decade”

On the pro side, Everett Planning Commission member Kathryn Beck has written a memo outlining her opinion that such facilities should not only be allowed in downtown Everett but in any part of Everett that allows any other type of medical clinic.

The City of Everett planning staff is recommending that a new clinic be allowed in either the current zoning area south of SR 526 in south Everett or north of 24th street in north Everett or inside a hospital.

Here is a link to the Planning Commission Agenda and also all of the documents being considered along with public comment and questions submitted so far. Look down the right side of the page under Agenda 1 items.

Again there is a public hearing and comment period before any vote by the Planning Commission. Their meeting is Tuesday November 7th beginning at 6:30 PM in the Everett City Council Chambers at 3002 Wetmore in downtown Everett.