Ordinance 2978-07 - Laserfiche WebLink

EVERETT COMPREHENSIVE PLAN Because land use patterns are well established in most of the Everett Planning Area, it has been difficult in previous planning efforts to elicit support for significant expansion of commercial areas or the establishment of new commercial areas. Because subdivision and property ownership patterns are primarily in small lot configurations, it would appear that rather than designating more land for commercial use, the challenge for future commercial development in Everett is in assembling parcels of sufficient size for large scale retail or mixed commercial and residential developments. Given the abundance of retail space in the Everett Planning Area cited above, and the need to accommodate more population than pre-GMA land use designations provide for, it may be desirable to determine how existing commercial areas may be redeveloped efficiently and how they may be made to integrate housing along with commercial services. e. Industry: The Everett Planning Area has a large inventory of undeveloped industrially zoned land. Of the approximate 5,398 acres of industrially zoned land (26.5% of the total net land area), only 54 percent, or approximately 2900 acres, is presently developed. However, much of the inventory of vacant industrial land is affected by environmental constraints, reducing the amount of vacant and developable industrial land to approximately 1,437 acres. Most of the vacant and developable industrial land is located in the southwest Everett/Paine Field area, where few constraints to development exist. Still other large industrially designated areas are located along the Snohomish River, in the delta flood plain, or on the Everett harbor front, where there are more shoreline, environmental, and access or infrastructure constraints. Some of the waterfront industrial areas have seen a decline from wood products and related manufacturing activities and are now vacant or used for low intensity log storage. Another large industrially zoned aggregates mining area has a short remaining life expectancy and is expected to be reclaimed for industrial use. f. Recreation: Within the Everett Planning Area, there are 1,210 acres of public park/recreation/public open space lands, or 4.7 percent of the gross land area. This includes public school facilities used for recreational purposes, active and passive park lands. This translates to an average of 9.5 acres per 1,000 residents (2001 population). However, as the table below illustrates, the location of the existing inventory of park land within the subareas of the Everett Planning Area is out of balance. In other words, the bulk of the park land inventory is located in subareas 1, 2 and 3. When the "passive" or undeveloped park lands, much of which are critical areas, are subtracted from the inventory, the overall ratio of active park land to population is extremely low in three of the six planning subareas, and with projected population growth, will be inadequate to serve the future population. This suggests that park land acquisition needs are the greatest in subareas 4, 5 and 6. Table 3: Park Land Inventory Area 1 Area 2 Area 3 Area 4 Area 5 Area 6 Total Acres Park& Recreation/Public Open Space 300 487 50 0 385 246 1,210 Acres Park& Public Open Space. per 1,000 9.5 Pop. 2001 11.6 17.7 8.3 0 9.7 9.9 average LAND USE ELEMENT 8