Thirty-two people braved the heat, humidity and barking dogs as they hiked around the southeastern edge of Edmonds near Lake Ballinger Wednesday afternoon. The walking tour – open to the public – was hosted by the Edmonds Economic Development Commission (EDC). It was aimed at helping commissioners learn more about the neighborhood now that Edmonds City Council is considering a proposal to purchase property in the southern end of Edmonds’ Highway 99 corridor– known as the Landmark 99 project – for future development.

Participants met at the corner of Highway 99 and 236th Street Southwest, where EDC Chair Nicole Hughes introduced the councilmembers in attendance and highlighted what would be expected during the tour. It included stops at the McAleer boat launch and the Interurban trail near Mathay-Ballinger Park and the park itself, ending at the Burlington Coat Factory parking lot.

The asking price for the 10-plus-acre site proposed for the Landmark 99 project is $37 million. During its June 27 meeting, the council voted 3-1 with two abstentions and one absence to authorize Mayor Mike Nelson to sign an option agreement for the possible future purchase of the site. 

The city put down a $100,000 deposit that is refundable if the council chooses not to pursue it by the end of the year. Some of the ideas put forth so far for the site include parkland, a community or civic center, a police station and affordable housing.

During Wednesday’s tour, EDC Commissioner Natalie Seitz – a southeast Edmonds resident – presented several informational panels that highlighted:

• the different population densities and ethnicities throughout Edmonds;
• neighborhoods that lack sidewalks and pathways that connect the west and east sides of Highway 99;
• who are the most vulnerable to housing displacement;
• the amount of sales tax the city had collected in 2021.

Among the Edmonds business districts, Highway 99 businesses generated the most sales tax – $1.895 million, with a mean tax of $7,375 – while downtown Edmonds businesses generated nearly $520,000, with a mean tax of $1,661, Seitz said.

Not only does the city receive nearly $1.8 million annually from Highway 99 businesses, Seitz said, but “GRE apartments (which owns the newly opened Hazel development) pay between $400,000 to $500,000 in park impact fees.”

However, those park impact fees are not spent on parks in the Highway 99 community, Seitz added.

“That fee isn’t paying for resources here,” she said. “It’s part of the challenge with this redevelopment and seeing buildings go up that might not be in the community’s vision. It’s hard for the (Highway 99) community to see the benefit – or the benefit that will come. Because it hasn’t in the past.”

South Edmonds hasn’t seen the investments “similar in scope and magnitude” that have occurred downtown—like improvements along the waterfront walkway and Marina Beach —even though south Edmonds is mentioned in the city’s capital improvement plan (CIP). 

Seitz also said that the city tends to focus on “nice-to-have things” rather than concentrating on fundamental requirements, such as parks, sidewalks, bike lanes, accessibility and stormwater treatment.

After stops at the McAleer boat launch and the Interurban trail, the tour ended with an uphill hike toward the Burlington Coat Factory parking lot and next to the empty former Mick Finster’s building. Hughes and Seitz offered water to everyone before they and Todd Tatum — the city’s director of commuity services and economic development — began taking questions on a range of topics, including the status of the project and what happens next.

“I’ve been griping for years that this part of the community needs to start asserting its own political identity and power,” said Edmonds City Councilmember Jenna Nand, a Highway 99-area resident who attended the tour. “When we have people like Natalie who put in the legwork of raising the voices of this part of the community, we can have more activities and interests and more investments so that this part of the community can start speaking for itself.” 

In a recent Reader View column published in My Edmonds News, both EDC Chair Hughes and Vice Chair Kevin Harris explained that they have been meeting individually with current councilmembers and the mayor, as well as council and mayoral candidates, “to listen to each person’s perspective on EDC involvement around Landmark 99 and related issues. We will consider this feedback, along with our commissioners’ interests and capacity to engage in a productive and efficient way.

“We take our role seriously, as non-partisan fact-finders and creative systems thinkers… without predetermined agendas or outcomes; open-minded, and with useful diverse backgrounds,” Hughes and Harris continued. “We understand the urgency of this role, especially with respect to the current six-month early stage of the Landmark 99 timeline, including a determination of whether this project makes sense moving forward for all of us as citizens of Edmonds.”

The Edmonds City Council is scheduled to decide at its Aug. 22 council meeting whether to approve a staff request to use $250,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to cover consultant fees related to the Landmark 99 proposal. The council discussed the proposal at its Aug. 15 meeting.

— Story and photos by Nick Ng