Snohomish County designates Point Wells as Urban Village

BSRE Point Wells designated as Urban Village
Artist's conception courtesy BSRE

Press release from BSRE Point Wells

Snohomish County Council expands its regulations and re-designates Point Wells as a less dense Urban Village

The Snohomish County Council this week adopted legislation which creates a new, less dense "Urban Village" alternative to development under its Urban Center regulations. The Council then changed the designation of Point Wells from Urban Center to Urban Village.

The County's actions were in part designed to bring it into compliance with the requirements of the Growth Management Hearings Board decision in appeals of its earlier designation of Point Wells as an Urban Center.

The Board will review the sufficiency of the County's actions in a December hearing.

"We have followed and, where appropriate, supported the County's efforts to comply with the requirements of the Growth Management Hearings Board," said Gary Huff, land use counsel for BSRE Point Wells. "We trust that the Board will approve of the County's actions so that our collective efforts moving forward can focus on further understanding and appropriately mitigating the impacts of our specific proposal."

The County's efforts to comply with the requirements of the Growth Management Hearings Board order include the publication of an addendum to its 2009 urban center programmatic environmental impact statement. The addendum was written as if the analysis had been included in the County's 2009 programmatic EIS and reviews the impacts of a generic urban village-style

project.

Huff noted that the Board mandated "less dense alternative" addressed in the addendum does not reflect BSRE's proposal. More importantly, Huff emphasized that the specifics of BSRE's proposal will be thoroughly addressed in a future, project-specific environmental impact statement which will update and reflect the evolution of on-going discussions with interested parties regarding the optimal approach to limiting vehicle trips and most effectively mitigating project impacts.

"The upcoming project-specific EIS will include an expanded and updated traffic analysis. We are confident that project-related traffic can and will be effectively managed, limited and mitigated."

BSRE Point Wells is proposing to transform its 61 acre industrial site on Puget Sound into a signature mixed use community. The project will be developed in multiple phases over 20 years, beginning with clean-up of the aging petroleum facility. The new master-planned community would provide new public access opportunities to 2/3 mile of sandy beach, parks, a public pier, restored and enhanced habitat and other amenities.

Paramount Petroleum currently owns and operates a marine fuels distribution center and asphalt facility at the site.

More information on the proposed transformation at Point Wells.