Ordinance 3454-15 with Exhibits A- C

WHEREAS, the City issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement under State Environmental Policy Act requirements that evaluated the impacts of the proposals on July 20, 2015 and a Final Environmental Impact Statement responding to the comments received on September 4, 2015; and WHEREAS, because the proposal includes adopting Snohomish County's adopted population and employment targets for the unincorporated portion of Everett's planning area, to meet the City's State Environmental Policy Act requirements the City issued a Notice of Adoption of the Environmental Impact Statement for the Snohomish County Comprehensive Plan 2015 Update on July 20, 2015; and WHEREAS, the Planning Commission held 24 workshops and two public hearings on the proposed 10 -Year Comprehensive Plan and regulations update; and WHEREAS, the Planning Commission considered three alternative growth scenarios as possible choices for Everett's future and has reviewed the environmental impacts and policy tradeoffs of the alternatives pursuant to the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), including issuance of a Draft and Final Environmental Impact Statement; and WHEREAS, on June 10, 2015, Snohomish County Council adopted Countywide Growth Targets, including population and employment targets for Everett's existing city limits consistent with Alternative 1: Regional Growth Strategy, including a population of 165,000 and employment of 140,000 within the existing City limits; and WHEREAS, for the area in the existing city limits the preferred alternative includes a Conditional population target of 165,000 and a Default population target of 143,000, which would be the target if the conditions needed to create extraordinary demand for growth in Everett do not occur, including, but not limited to: 1. Sound Transit 3 must be approved and light rail service to downtown Everett completed by about 2030. 2. Sound Transit must build the light rail system and stations in locations that maximize support for jobs and housing in Everett. 3. The regional economy is robust enough to make high rise residential and non-residential construction in Everett financially viable. 4. The land use plans of other jurisdictions and tribal governments must be consistent with adopted regional growth plans and must not create excess capacity that shifts development away from Everett. 5. Regional and WSDOT investment in transportation capacity must support workforce commute travel from areas located north and east of Everett to employment centers in Everett. WHEREAS, the area within the existing City limits has a capacity under the Preferred Alternative for a population of approximately 180,000 by 2035, more than sufficient to meet the Conditional target of 165,000; and WHEREAS, under the conservative Snohomish County 2012 Buildable Lands Report, the area within the existing City limits has capacity for approximately 147,000 employees, more than sufficient to meet the Preferred Alternative target of 140,000 employees; and