Ordinance 541-78 - Laserfiche WebLink

July 31, 1978 CITYOF Sanford Wright everett 2927 Wetmore Everett, WA 98201 CITY HALL • 259-8755 EVERETT. WASHINGTON 98201 Dear Mr. Wright: We have completed a study of our present fire zones. This study has resulted in the preparation of an ordinance which correlates fire zones with land use and the zoning code. The City was originally declared a fire district in 1955 at which time three fire zones were established, fire zones Nos. 1, 2, and 3. These zones were established by employing the "Downtown" method which was in wide use at that time. The Downtown core was established as fire zone No. 1, with a two to three block surrounding area as fire zone No. 2, to act as a buffer zone. Fire zone No. 2 was also extended from this area north and south along Broadway and easterly to the river along Hewitt Avenue. This was done to bring in the then developing commercial and business areas into a moderately restrictive fire zone, which appears to have been an attempt to correlate building and land use with fire zoning. As the City started to expand to the south along Evergreen Way the fire zone map was amended in 1964 by including an area extending along Evergreen Way from 47th Street to Madison Avenue in fire zone No. 2. Again this appears as an attempt to correlate fire zones with land and building use. Although there has been a considerable amount of business and commercial development to the south, the fire zone map has not been amended to reflect this development. The failure to do so lies with the method of fire zoning in use. The "Downtown" method establishes fire zones by meets and bounds descriptions. This method requires an ordinance with meets and bounds descriptions each time the fire zone map is amended. Therefore, we looked for a different method of fire zoning which would automatically fire zone areas as they develop. The method that was settled on is one in use in many other cities. This method is to correlate fire zones with land use zoning. It has been found to be the most efficient and equitable method. This method eliminates human error of procrastination or forgetfulness and automatically fire zones property when land use zones are changed. It is also the most equitable method as it imposes the same development and construction restrictions on like buildings and land use zones.