Civic leaders in Mukilteo are advancing a vision for a transformed front porch for their city, work that could turn a collection of vacant, underutilized lots into a "vibrant waterfront village" with public amenities. Despite considerable opposition from Mukilteo residents who would prefer that the city stay focused on turning its waterfront into a public park, this week the Mukilteo Council advanced a zoning change that is intended to unlock a broader range of uses for one of the city's most high-profile areas.
Mukilteo's 1.2-acre "Lot 5" sits just south of the state ferry terminal, a site used by the U.S. Air Force to store jet fuel starting in the 1950s. Following significant remediation work in the 1990s, the Washington Department of Ecology removed Lot 5 from its list of hazardous sites in 2008, and it was ultimately conveyed to the City of Mukilteo in 2016.
Today, the parcel is a gravel lot with just a few picnic tables and some garbage cans, but elected officials in Mukilteo led by Mayor Joe Marine have bigger ambitions for the area. Working with the Port of Everett – which owns several nearby properties including a former NOAA property next door – they are striving to forge a collective vision for a new waterfront district.
In 2022, the Port of Everett hired the architecture and design firm NBBJ to develop a broad, cohesive vision for the full 26-acre waterfront, adopting a vision statement and a set of guiding principles that the City of Mukilteo also signed onto that same year. However, the idea of actually transforming the underutilized parcels hasn't really advanced until this year.
In July, the City issued a request for qualifications (RFQ) seeking a development partner for Lot 5, a move that was called a "first formal step" to achieving longstanding shared goals with the Port around the stretch.
"The envisioned development includes restaurants and cafes with waterfront views, boutique retail, a hotel or inn that puts guests at the edge of Puget Sound, public plazas and gathering spaces, and a continuous promenade along the water’s edge connecting the ferry terminal to Mukilteo Lighthouse Park," a city press release touting the RFQ stated.
Mukilteo did not actually see a stampede of developers looking to get involved with Lot 5, as first reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal, with the RFQ only producing one response. Kirkland-based MainStreet Property Group, which has built nearly 4,000 units across Seattle and the Eastside in recent years, expects to explore a multifamily mixed-use development with below-grade parking, the Journal reported late last month when the RFQ closed.
Though any actual redevelopment proposal remains theoretical at this point, this week the Mukilteo City Council did remove a major impediment that was standing in the way of the city's vision: rezoning Lot 5 from open space to waterfront mixed-use on a 6-1 vote. That vote simply opens the door to broader uses of the parcel, with a potential full conversion to park space still allowed under Mukilteo's zoning if the city decided to change course.
"All you're saying is we're going to rezone that property. Any of those future decisions about leasing the property, what the specific development would look like, those will all still be in the council's hands," Andy Galuska, Mukilteo's Planning and Community Development Director, told councilmembers Monday night. "At no point is the council going to lose control of that process through approval of this rezone. The City still owns the property."
But the rezone still faced considerable community opposition, with a sizable faction of Mukilteo residents wanting the city to commit to maintaining the area as a public park.
"Why can't we just look at open space and water and some green grass and a promenade shore? A walking path, a bike path. Why do we have to muck it up in Mukilteo every time and crap up this beautiful waterfront that we have?" Mukilteo resident Kate Forrester said at a public hearing on the rezone last month. "I want my grandchildren to play down on the beach. You can't have too many parks. That is the only thing that makes a city beautiful. Don't concrete it. Believe me, I came from California, and it's all paved over now."
One major point of contention down the road is likely to be any residential component to a redevelopment proposal. Including housing above amenities built at the ground level is one way that a project on the site could become financially viable, but exactly how many units that would be is sure to be hotly debated in Mukilteo.
Mukilteo has seen tepid housing growth over the last decade, despite ample demand, earning the city a callout as a laggard in a 2023 Urban Institute report by Yonah Freemark analyzing the region's housing deficit. Mukilteo's population has been essentially flat since the 2020 census, according to state estimates that last pegged the city at 21,610 residents.
If the city were to pursuing housing on Lot 5, the issue remains of a covenant tied to the property that restricts residential use altogether.
"There was a condition that residential uses not be located on Lot Five because of the contamination," Galuska said. "So, if any developer or the City in the future wants to develop residential uses there, that would have to be removed. The City Attorney's looked at that provision and thinks that it could be removed if we can prove that site has had some cleanup done on it... if we got that to a level of cleanup where residential is appropriate, that that condition could be could be removed."
The Mukilteo waterfront is a very constrained space, with just one bridge over the railroad tracks for all traffic to get in and out of the area – a bridge that the state highway department is set to replace in the coming years.
The area is fairly well-served by Community Transit buses, but the Sound Transit commuter rail station that provides service to Downtown Seattle is set to be retired in 2033 as Snohomish County's leaders focus on delivering light rail to Everett. Unlike in nearby Edmonds, the city has no Amtrak service, so the sunset of commuter rail would end all train service to that station.
All of which is to say that the topic of parking will be a major issue no matter what ultimately moved forward, but part of the vision for the overall waterfront revamp is creating structured garages under buildings that would allow the sea of stalls surrounding Lighthouse Park to be put to better use. That vision could potentially involve a shuttle bus that serves the waterfront from elsewhere in Mukilteo.
After hearing from members of the public, Councilmember Bob Champion was the sole vote against approving the rezone.
"I kind of think we're jumping the gun. So I can't support changing Lot 5 from open space to mixed use. I think there's plenty of opportunity down the road," Champion said. "I think I counted nine out of every 10 emails I received was, just leave it as open space."
But the majority of the council appears ready to at least open the door to some type of transformation at the city's front door.
"If we choose not to do this today, and we need to go for a rezone later, it's going to put us a year backwards, right? We need to be lockstep with the Port of Everett," Councilmember James Sterba said. "I'm going to keep going back to access to the water. I hear that all the time in all the emails and in the residents that approach me: there will be enhanced access to the water. The plan, as it shows, is every 250 feet off the promenade, there's a way to get to the water. Some of the drawings are spectacular. While while I walk that area myself, it it's not conducive to staying there and hanging out, and really enjoying it because because it's a gravel lot."
Mayor Marine, who has pledged that the city will be a "creative, flexible, and responsive partner" with any developer who is ultimately chosen to advance a plan for the site, framed Monday's vote as a major step.
"This has been a long time in coming," Marine said. "So much time has been spent, and all this really does is moves us to the next level to decide ultimately what we're going to do with that property. It may be a park or it may be development."
Ryan Packer
Ryan Packer
