Resolution 4427 - Laserfiche WebLink

RESOLUTION NO. 44 2 7 A joint resolution of the Everett City Council and the Everett Port Commission urging that more Everett-area freight mobility projects be included at the federal and state level as efforts go forward to seek funding in Washington, D.C., and Olympia. WHEREAS, the City of Everett is a major employment center for the Puget Sound Region and for neighboring Skagit County, evidenced by the fact that Everett has more jobs (estimate: 82,000) than it does people (1996 population of 81,810) within its incorporated limits and that a reported 61 percent of Skagit County's workforce is employed within the corporate limits of Everett, including The Boeing Co., Skagit Co.'s largest employer; and WHEREAS, the Port of Everett, by virtue of the fact that it lies geographically closer to the Far East than neighboring ports, is a major economic force in the Puget Sound Region, as a point of departure for significant volumes of logs, apples, alumina, and other commodities; as owner of the second largest marina on the West Coast; and as developer of current and planned industrial sites to provide hundreds of family-wage jobs; and WHEREAS, the future economic vitality of both the City and the Port is jeopardized by frequent traffic congestion and gridlock on major freeways such as Interstate 5 and U.S. 2 as well as major industrial corridors such as East/West Marine View Drive; and WHEREAS, in order to maintain the economic health and well-being of the City and Port, it is absolutely critical that key transportation corridors are improved to facilitate better and more efficient movement of freight and goods, both by rail and by truck; and WHEREAS, in recognition of this problem, the Port of Everett has been part of a freight roundtable organization, participated in the Freight Mobility Advisory Committee (FMAC) process at the state level, and submitted a project for federal funding as part of the "Freight Action Strategy for the Seattle-Tacoma Corridor" (FAST); and WHEREAS, the City of Everett also has expressed a desire to submit projects for funding within the FAST Corridor proposal as well as a desire to become active in the FMAC process, and has received word that the FAST Corridor coalition wishes to accommodate City-proposed projects; and WHEREAS, the City of Everett engineering and transportation staff has developed two excellent freight mobility projects: one involving completing the widening improvement of the East Marine View Drive corridor and using it as a special truck-traffic route to serve major employers along the route and ease congestion that currently exists on downtown arterials such as Everett and Pacific avenues; and one involving a 38th Street railroad overcrossing and access for City-owned properties along the Snohomish River that will remove and or diminish two at-grade crossings and thus speed freight travel for 30-35 daily trains used by the Burlington Northern/Santa Fe Railroad, as well as opening up access to more than 200 acres of land that is one of the Puget Sound Region's prime sites for industrial development; and