Hearing affecting future of Point Wells on Wednesday Sept 19

Developer's vision of one of the villages to be built on the site

The state Growth Management Hearing Board ruled last year that Snohomish County’s designation of Point Wells as an Urban Center was out of compliance with the state Growth Management Act (GMA) and the State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA). Snohomish County has had to revise their ordinances.

The new ordinances will be presented to the public and the Snohomish County Council next Wednesday, September 19 at 10:30am.

The new Urban Village ordinances were revised to allow for less intense development, but Snohomish County is also introducing other changes that loosen the definition of an Urban Village to fit the unique characteristics of Point Wells and give greater flexibility to the developer.

The proposed changes allow much larger Urban Villages containing more than twice as many dwelling units while reducing the size of the roads required to serve these dense urban developments. 

According to the group Save Richmond Beach, "The vague transportation language is what was at the root of our original legal challenge and the County and developer have not found a way to resolve that issue. Again, we are seeing the same squishy language to allow for dense development in locations not served by high capacity transportation options."

This is a public hearing, held by the Snohomish County Council on Wednesday, September 19, 2012, at 10:30 a.m. in the Henry M. Jackson Board Room, 8th Floor, Robert J. Drewel Building, 3000 Rockefeller Avenue, Everett.