Will you chip in to support our nonprofit newsroom with a donation today? Yes, I want to support My Edmonds News!
Esperance residents who oppose Snohomish County’s proposed areawide rezones can take a breather – for now.
The Snohomish County Council voted unanimously during a public hearing Oct. 1 to refer back an ordinance that would rezone Esperance and other parts of the County’s southwest urban growth area to the county Planning and Community Development Committee.
County staff say the proposed areawide rezones are on the table to align with the 2024 Snohomish County Growth Management Act Comprehensive Plan. For Esperance, the proposal is to rezone it from R-8,400 (single-family lots) to Low Density Multiple Residential (multi-family housing).
Esperance is a 448-acre unincorporated piece of land surrounded by Edmonds. About 4,000 people live there, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
At the Oct. 1 hearing, representatives from the Olympic View Water and Sewer District as well as the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) expressed concerns about the proposed areawide rezones, specifically locations that are deemed critical areas.
Edmonds City Councilmember Vivian Olson also shared that there has been a growing interest in Esperance annexing into Edmonds, which would require a different and separate process from rezoning.
County Councilmember Jared Mead said it was the first time he heard concerns from Olympic View.
Olympic View General Manager Bob Danson said his company provides drinking water to those who reside in Esperance, and that increased density can put an aquifer at risk.
“Studies from ecology and national research confirm that … urban density is strongly tied to increased groundwater contamination,” Danson said. “If contamination occurs, cleanup is extraordinarily costly, and at best may result in the permanent loss of the community’s drinking water source.”
County Senior Planner Frank Slusser said Olympic View didn’t share their concerns during the County’s Comprehensive Plan process in 2024.
WDFW representative Morgan Krueger said some of the parcels in the proposed areawide rezones are either entirely or almost entirely covered by critical areas and their buffers.
Slusser said WDFW did not provide testimony during the Comprehensive Plan process when one of the areas WDFW shared concerns about were being discussed.
“[WDFW] did provide testimony at Planning Commission and also met with staff to express their concerns at that time for the area wide rezone,” Slusser said.
The County’s existing critical areas regulation and contemporary drainage regulations already provide a “high degree of protection,” Slussler said.
County Councilmember Strom Peterson said there is and continues to be a housing crisis, and that there is a significant shortage of workforce housing and low-income housing, among other types of housing.
“We need to take action,” Peterson said. “I hope this does not drag on.”
County Councilmember Megan Dunn said she hopes to finalize some type of decision within the next months.
About 10 residents spoke during the public testimony, and most of them said they didn’t support the proposed areawide rezones. Reasons include increased traffic, less greenery and lack of infrastructure.
Esperance resident Tim Payne, who is also a retired economics professor, said he has seen a lot of growth in the area but no improvement to infrastructure to support that.
“84th Avenue … it’s become more of a major arterial … There have been no additions to sidewalks or any kind of infrastructure,” Payne said. “It’s hazardous to walk along that street … There is a speeding problem. There are 25-miles-per-hour signs that are not enforced.”
The County Planning Commission voted 6-1 in May to recommend approval of the proposed areawide rezones, and to include a letter for the County Council to consider, the My Neighborhood News Network reported.
— By Angelica Relente
Angelica Relente is a Murrow News Fellow covering housing and related issues in South Snohomish County for the My Neighborhood News Network. Contact her at angelica@myedmondsnews.com.
As an Esperance resident this is great news. We don’t need rezoning in our area. There are very few sidewalks, limited parking and I have only once seen a snohomish police car patrolling our neighborhood in the 30 years that I have been here. Also 84th is like a speedway. No one obeys our 25 miles an hour and never a police presence to enforce it. It’s life or death trying to cross that street with my dog. Rezoning is not the answer for Esperance.