2025/01/29 Council Agenda Packet

Back in 2018, I stood at the council podium to address this very same topic. The institution in question was different - at the time it was Ideal Option, which wanted to open a suboxone clinic in a first-floor retail space on Hoyt. At the time we asked the council an important question: when you imagine your downtown, what do you want it to be? Do you want it to be Everett's central business district, or do you want it to be our central "social services" district? Let me be clear that it can't be both. Ideal Option wound up finding another location outside of downtown, where they operate successfully today. At the time there was a huge number of clinics and social services concentrated in downtown, the very place in the City which we most need to rejuvenate. The City wisely wanted to reverse that trend, and there's no reason why we should go in a different direction today. I greatly respect Ms. Donahue, and I honor her good intentions. Nevertheless, her operation is just the latest in a long series of well-meaning social services which have created highly visible street-level problems in downtown, which scare away visitors and potential new businesses. Like her, I also am a volunteer. I personally, and many others alongside me, have labored for years to carefully restore downtown Everett to its former vibrancy, one business at a time. We are finally gaining traction. Yet, it seems like there's always somebody coming around behind us with a Sawzall to cut down everything we've just worked so hard to build. The existing rules about where clinics can be located need to be upheld. They are a compromise; they allow such agencies to continue serving the homeless downtown while minimizing any negative impacts. An enormous amount of mindshare went into the Metro Everett subarea plan, and it brought Everett into the 21st century of urban planning. There is a reason why the exclusion of clinics and social services in first floor commercial spaces on pedestrian streets is considered best practice nationwide. The goal is to reserve the most valuable commercial space for businesses which contribute to downtown's vitality. I urge the City and the council to stick to the plan. Hope & Wellness would not have to move far, just a few blocks away, or one floor up. In any case, the City should not allow downtown to be sold cheap. Thank you, Patrick Hall