EVERETT June 25: The Everett Planning Department is in the third phase of its Comprehensive Plan Update for 2044, requesting input from the Everett community about integral policy changes to housing, economic development, and more.
What is the comprehensive plan?: The Comprehensive Plan is a policy document that will guide the growth of the city of Everett up until the year 2044. The last update on the plan was in 2015, looking forward to 2035. The Growth Management Act (GMA) requires a review and update to be completed this year. For the Everett 2044 plan, there will be significant policy changes to housing and zoning.
Alice Ann Wetzel, long-range planning manager said that the comprehensive plan “sets the stage” for changes in Everett. The policy changes act as a framework on which Everett’s growth can take place. The policies adopted as part of the plan will enable growth that may occur several years from now. Changes should be viewed as opportunities – not mandates. The city is just preparing for inevitable growth changes she said.
Why is the city updating the plan?: Everett is expecting significant population growth city Project Manager/Public Information Officer Simone Tarver said. This includes planning for future community needs related to land use, housing, capital facilitates, economic development, utilities, transportation, climate change, sustainability, urban design and historical preservation, and parks and recreation.
The City of Everett by law needs to incorporate House Bill 1110 adopted in 2023, which requires many cities in Washington State to allow a broader range of housing types in areas that have predominantly detached, or single housing. Out of the land in Everett that allows housing, 75% is zoned for single-family residential, Planning Director Yorik Stevens-Wajda said.
HB 1110 requires cities with populations of 75,000 or more to allow middle housing like duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, fiveplexes, sixplexes, courtyard apartments, cottage housing, and townhomes, on residential lots citywide.
Part of the comprehensive plan lays out zoning and land use which includes regulations on where said housing can be built. Last year the city council approved three growth alternatives. These alternatives essentially lay out three different options on where potential growth could be located in accordance with HB 1110 and the Growth Management Act.
“The current 2015 comprehensive plan identifies room for about 21,000 new housing units. The 2044 housing unit target to accommodate a population of 179,000 will require capacity for an additional 17,000 new units, for a total of 38,000 housing units,” according to the Comprehensive Plan website.
The policy changes could provide the opportunity for high-rises up to 15 stories along Highway 99, Broadway, and Everett Mall Way. Casino Road could allow mid-ride to seven stories.
The comprehensive plan update also includes policies to accommodate job growth. The city will need to plan for 76,000 new jobs between 2024 and 2044, according to the website.
The City plans to accommodate the growth by enhancing development capacity in existing employment areas, such as Paine Field/Boeing Manufacturing and Industrial Center (MIC).
Why care?:
The comprehensive plan has the potential to change the way the city looks, by adding diverse housing and urban development. City of Everett residents have the opportunity to voice questions and concerns about how the city grows, where increased housing density will be allowed, how the city prepares to accommodate growth and other updates regarding the 2024 comprehensive plan update.
“Everett is growing, it’s inevitable, but we want to grow in a smart, strategic way and preserve, and expand upon, our quality of life here,” Tarver said.
The Planning Department is wrapping up community outreach in the coming months and the City of Everett Planning Commission is currently reviewing different elements of the comprehensive plan at their monthly meetings.
The city expects to be done with the comprehensive plan draft in December of this year. They hope to bring it in front of the Everett City Council as early as January 2025.
How to get involved:
There will be two informative sessions to learn more about the plan. Comprehensive Plan EXPOs will be June 28 from 5-7:30 p.m. at the Everett Station Weyerhaeuser room and June 29 from 11:30 a.m.- 1:30 p.m. at the Evergreen Branch Library. The City of Everett Planning Department will give a presentation about the Comprehensive Plan along with Public Works, Parks, Community Development, Community Transit, and Sound Transit who will be presenting their plans for the future.
An in-depth look at the plan can be found here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/29476e36fee54db0b6b6f7f4acb27097
To read the comprehensive plan for 2015-2035 is here: https://www.everettwa.gov/1395/2035-Comprehensive-Plan
