Shoreline City Council Meeting Monday 2-3-14

Devon Vose Rickabaugh
Photo by Jerry Picard

Shoreline City Council Meeting 
Monday 2-3-14

By Devon Vose Rickabaugh

Shoreline City Planning and Community Development Director Rachael Markle said the scoping notice had been received from Snohomish County initiating the beginning of the public process for Snohomish County’s development of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed project at Point Wells. “It is important that the City identify the areas of both the built and natural environment we anticipate could be significantly impacted as a result of the proposed project at Point Wells and provide that information to Snohomish County.”

Point Wells is an unincorporated portion of southwest Snohomish County, of which approximately 61 acres is owned by Blue Square Real Estate (BSRE) Point Wells, LP. The BSRE property has been used as an industrial site for over fifty years, and the property currently serves as an asphalt plant. In mid-2007, the owner of the property announced an intention to redevelop the site. The proposal required a change to the Snohomish County Comprehensive Plan Designation for the 61 acres from Urban Industrial to "Urban Center", and a zoning change from Heavy Industrial to Planned Community Business and then to Urban Center.

The city has drafted a comprehensive letter identifying those elements of the environment that are likely to sustain significant adverse impacts as a result of the proposed Point Wells project. Some of the elements of concern include slide prone areas along Richmond Beach Road; Puget Sound water quality and habitat; transportation from the Point Wells site up Richmond Beach Road which will include a Transportation Corridor Study; effect on property values in Richmond Beach; hazardous waste from soil contaminated with petroleum and related products including heavy metals.

Snohomish County will host scoping meetings for the public to comment on the project’s impacts, identify alternatives and how to address the impacts. Snohomish County’s public meeting in Shoreline will be Tuesday February 18 at 6:30pm at the Shoreline Conference Center 18560 1st Avenue NE, Shoreline.