City of Shoreline: A Renaissance on Aurora Avenue

The view down Aurora Avenue
 in Shoreline towards Seattle

Republished with permission from the Economic Development Council of Seattle and King County

The City of Shoreline is well known as a boutique city routinely recognized for its desirable quality of life with distinct neighborhoods, strong schools, and enticing parks. Developers, though, are discovering something new to appreciate about the city that borders Seattle to the north: profitable opportunities along Shoreline’s re-imagined, tree-lined version of Aurora with its publicly-funded and completed infrastructure improvements.

Shoreline’s Aurora Corridor Project is the redesign and redevelopment of the three miles of Aurora Avenue North (State Route 99) that run through Shoreline. Shoreline’s section of SR-99 carries 40,000 – 45,000 vehicles per day and is a major transit route. Improving Aurora has been a community goal since the City of Shoreline incorporated in 1995.

Because Shoreline has relied heavily on outside sources of funding for the project, it was built in phases as funding allowed. Impressively, when the last section is completed in 2015, over 90% of the nearly $150 million investment will have been provided by outside partners. The goal of the project is to improve pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicle safety, pedestrian and disabled access, vehicular capacity, traffic flow, transit speed and reliability, nighttime visibility and safety, stormwater quality and management, and streetscape amenities.

In addition, the City set a goal of unlocking the economic potential represented in the six miles of now improved SR-99 frontage. The project has already helped stimulate the construction of over 750 homes, the ISHS medical clinic, Chuck Olsen’s Kia dealership, US Biotek’s lab, and the Rat’s Nest, the new home and practice rink of the Rat City Rollergirls. In order to further capitalize on Aurora’s investment, the City’s economic development strategy will focus on placemaking to make Aurora function as an attractive neighborhood in its own right.

To that end, Shoreline’s City Council designated Aurora Square, currently home to Central Market, Sears, Marshalls, and WSDOT’s regional headquarters, as a Community Renewal Area (CRA). 

“Aurora Square has enormous potential,” stated Will Hall, Shoreline Councilmember and long-time EDC Board Member. “Aurora Square’s renewal will create more places for the community to enjoy and will make the area more environmentally friendly.”

Concept model of Aurora Square as described in the CRA Renewal Plan

The Aurora Square CRA Renewal Plan spells out substantive ways that the City is willing to engage in public-private partnerships to encourage transformation into a destination shopping, entertainment, and employment center. The City believes that a renewed Aurora Square will trigger development up and down Aurora, especially with the recent addition of Metro’s RapidRide E-line providing convenient connections on Aurora to downtown Seattle.

“I smile when I meet skepticism about Aurora’s potential,” remarks Dan Eernissee, Shoreline’s Economic Development Manager. “Look what’s happening along Aurora between Shoreline and downtown Seattle: wherever a sense of place is established, Aurora experiences dramatic redevelopment. We trust that when investors consider developing along Aurora in Shoreline, they will find that we’ve been working for two decades to prepare a place for them.”