Ordinance 3454-15 with Exhibits A- C

EVERETT COMPREHENSIVE PLAN BACKGROUND This section describes how people use Everett's transportation network today, as well as how that may change over the next 20 years as the region grows. The way people travel is influenced by the built environment. The built environment includes land use and travel corridors (roadways, transit routes, bike and pedestrian routes, etc.) and the key destinations people travel to, such as where they live, work, play, shop, and recreate. The study of anticipated travel growth and travel mode data is important for understanding of how people travel and will travel in the future. In the past twenty years, the City of Everett has grown substantially, with 1o5,800 residents currently living in the city as compared to 79,18o in 1995. The City has also added approximately 25,000 jobs over that time period with approximately 9o,000 people working in Everett as shown in the chart below. This makes Everett the largest city in Snohomish County with one of the highest employment totals for any city in the four county region. Planners often evaluate the "daytime" population of a city, which considers both residents and jobs within a city, but factoring out residents who commute to other locations to work. 120,000 100,000 80,000 6o,000 40,000 Historical Job and Population Growth in Everett 1995 2000 2005 2010 2014 According to the US Census Bureau, the daytime population of Everett is nearly 15o,000 people; making it the state's sixth largest city as measured by that statistic. EXISTING CONDITIONS LAND USES AND KEY DESTINATIONS Understanding how people currently travel to work is important to help accommodate the different modes of transportation in the future. The way people commute to work largely depends on where they live, where they work, and the transportation options available. Figure i and Figure 3 on the following pages highlight the 2012 population and employment density in the City. Everett's residents live throughout the community with higher density neighborhoods generally clustered near Downtown Everett and along the Evergreen Way corridor, with the greatest employment density in the Southwest Everett/Paine Field Industrial Area and around downtown. It is important to consider the differences in the Southwest Everett/Paine Field employment area as compared with Downtown Everett. Boeing is Everett's largest employer, but is rather isolated with few businesses or housing opportunities available in the immediate area. While there are buses that serve Boeing, there is ample parking on site making driving (alone or in carpools) the commute mode of choice. By contrast, Downtown Everett is a walkable neighborhood served by bus routes and Everett Station. There is on street parking and the area is dense with businesses and households. These key differences lead to very different travel outcomes for employees in each center. TRANSPORTATION ELEMENT 4