2010/05/26 Council Agenda Packet

City Council Staff Report on Industrial Land policy for Southwest Everett Background a While the recent request from CEMEX is the best known effort to. convert industrial lands to other uses such as residential and mixed use, there have been several. similar attempts over the past few years. To date'staff as.relied on adopted policies found in the Comprehensive Plan to inform prospective parties interested in converting industrial zoned land to other uses that the City policy is to preserve these lands for future job growth, and protect compatibility among existing uses in the affected area. The history of those the industrial land policies came in to being follows: Historical'Precedent The 1994 update to the City Comprehensive Plan was the first update guided by the State Growth Management Act (GMA). Given the scope of changes called for in the GMA, it was decided to have a declaration of significance and accomplish an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS -examined future growth scenarios which emphasized employment growth, population growth and a mix of the two. At the time under Alternative 2 of the Draft EIS, the southwest Everett industrial area was designated as a "special study area," and considered for partial conversion to "other uses." Uses which were to be considered in future studies were, "residential, parks, schools, employment activities, retail, office, service and industrial." A result of the EIS process was a request by a major local land owner and the broader business community to retain industrial areas, and not to convert them to other uses. Specifically the Final 1994 EIS included comments on the draft analysis just described from several organizations in response to the idea that some industrial land might be converted to "other use(s)." Three of the 1994 FEIS responses are offered below to give an idea of the proposed City strategy at that time. From Associated Sand and Gravel (now CEMEX's), "Several cities and industrial developers have expressed concern that the usable inventory of land for job - producing industry is in shorter supply than existing land use maps presume to provide. A key goal of the Growth Management Act and of the Snohomish County Economic Investment Strategy has been to accurately inventory usable land areas and set these aside for protection so that family wage jobs can be provided in step with the growth in our area's region." 124