2007/03/07 Council Agenda Packet

EVERETT COMPREHENSIVE PLAN 1 0 County Tomorrow target. The three alternatives resulted in an employment range from 127,130 I. e Y. _ - Snohomish County Countywide Planning Policy UG-2 requires that a target reconciliation process be completed to address inconsistencies between the targets adopted by the cities and the County to ensure that overall, sufficient capacity exists to accommodate expected population and employment growth. In December 2006, Snohomish County completed Step 4 of the target reconciliation process,by adopting targets that were incorporated into Appendix B of the Countywide Planning Policies. The targets adopted for Everett's UGA were based on the County's 2005 Comprehensive Plan for the UGA and are shown in Tables 5 and 7 above. In March 2007, Everett amended this Comprehensive Plan to incorporate the County's targets for the unincorporated planning area as shown below: Table 8: 2007 Adopted Population and Employment Targets for 2025 City Limits Unincorporated Everett Planning UGA Area Population 123,060 50,210 173,270 Employment 130,340 6,520 136,860 III. Everett's Land Use Concept Through the public participation process used to review the alternatives,the Planning Commission recommended and City Council selected a "Preferred Alternative" which most closely resembles Alternative 2 Adopted Targets. A. Why Everett is Making Few Land Use Changes Everett's existing land use patterns have been developed over the past century through the interactions of the economy, desires of property owners, construction of transportation facilities and utilities, changing lifestyles and,more recently,by land use planning and regulation. The physical landscape, that has resulted through this combination of forces,with some exception, has been generally acceptable to the residents of Everett and its planning area. It has long been apparent that residents of the community have desired to avoid significant changes. Periodically, residents have strongly objected to land use changes or developments that have been perceived to change the character of the neighborhood or community. Most of the land within the planning area is developed. Available vacant or redevelopable land has been planned for certain types of land use, and has been provided infrastructure according to the planned land uses. After adoption of the 1994 GMA Comprehensive Plan, the City made significant changes to regulations to implement the plan: • Lot sizes in single family zones were reduced. • Development standards were added for small lot single family and duplexes. • Minimum lot sizes were reduced for lot area averaging in short plats and subdivisions. 94 LAND USE ELEMENT 15