Point Wells

Overview & History

The Point Wells property is approximately a 100 acre site, with 61 acres currently planned for urban industrial use. It is located in the southwest corner of Snohomish County adjacent to the City of Shoreline's northwest border in the Richmond Beach neighborhood. Though the only current access to Point Wells is through Shoreline, the site itself is in unincorporated Snohomish County.

In mid-2007, the current owner of the property announced an intention to redevelop the site. The proposal requires a change to the site's comprehensive plan designation for the 61 acres of Urban Industrial to Urban Center and zoning designation of Heavy Industrial to Planned Community Business. The decision to change the comprehensive plan and zoning designations will be made by the Snohomish County Council.

Since 1998, the Shoreline Comprehensive Plan has declared the City's intent to annex the Point Wells site in the future, however, it does not contain policy details. With Snohomish County currently processing an amendment to its own Comprehensive Plan for the Point Wells area, the Shoreline City Council directed City Staff to update and clarify the City's policies, reiterate the City's interest in annexing the area, and focus on issues such as service delivery, governance, traffic, and impacts on adjacent neighborhoods in Shoreline.

City of Shoreline's plans for Point Wells

 As directed by City Council Resolution 285, Planning staff prepared an amendment to the Shoreline Comprehensive Plan to clarify the City's concerns and interests with respect to land use, traffic safety, service delivery and governance at Point Wells. 

The Shoreline Planning Commission conducted several public meetings and hearings regarding the city staff's proposed Point Wells Subarea Plan in late 2009.  The City Council received the Planning Commission's recommendation, held its own public hearing on the Subarea Plan, and adopted it at its April 19 meeting.

The Subarea Plan is an amendment to Shoreline's Comprehensive Plan. The amendment will delete the City of Shoreline Comprehensive Plan's prior references to a "Potential Annexation Area" for the entire unincorporated island and add a new designation of "Future Service and Annexation Area" to apply only to the portion of the area that can be accessed from Shoreline via Richmond Beach Drive.

The City has not yet scheduled any further public meetings or hearings regarding proposed Pre-Annexation zoning.

The following table lists past and upcoming City of Shoreline meetings having to do with Point Wells, and includes links to meeting materials:

Visual impacts of development at Point Wells

The City of Shoreline contracted with a consultant to develop a "Sketch-up" model of possible Point Wells development so the consultant could create a series of pictures of what development could look like from specific vantage points. These images are being created for use in the City's Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) and are intended to assist staff and the public in identifying the visual impact of possible development of the Point Wells site. They will also assist the Planning Commission and City Council when reviewing proposals for the Point Wells Subarea Plan and pre-annexation zoning.

The views we are sharing are mock-ups, or photo-montages. They use photos that are taken at actual sites (locations of photos are identified in Figure 1) as a base with the potential development depicted as a semi-opaque image. Figure 2 shows the location of the buildings in the image on a site plan and identifies "rows" of buildings that are reproduced by the Sketch-Up model. This hypothetical scenario illustrates 12 buildings, each with a 10,000 square foot floorplate.

The set of visual images depict the view of each row of buildings. (The image assumes that other rows of buildings aren't there.)

As shown in Figure 2, each building is 180 feet tall. This is because staff wanted to depict a "worst case" scenario that reflects the building height that could be possible under Snohomish County's current zoning proposal for Urban Centers (which includes Point Wells). Figure 2 also shows that the buildings have lines on them showing 65 and 90 feet. The thinking behind the creation of these lines is to depict "other case" scenarios in Snohomish County's proposed code that would allow buildings of 65 and 90 feet tall.

Traffic Calming and Alternative Street Designs

As the City of Shoreline continues planning to mitigate for the long-term development of Point Wells, it will be important to consider a number of street calming and pedestrian/bicycle safety improvements in the Richmond Beach neighborhood and beyond. Such improvements will be needed to accommodate future traffic levels while maintaining a safe environment and neighborhood feel for local residents and visitors.

The City of Shoreline has created the following pages on Alternative Street Design and Traffic Calming and Pedestrian/Bicycle Safety.  On these pages, you can read about various issues and techniques related to alternative street design, traffic calming and pedestrian/bicycle safety, which includes links and local examples to provide residents with an idea of issues that need to be considered both in Richmond Beach and the rest of the city.

Design Charrette for Point Wells

On August 22, the Richmond Beach Community Association, in partnership with the City of Shoreline, sponsored the Point Wells Charrette.

A Charrette is a public participation event that uses a brief and intense creative process to empower non-designers to articulate and illustrate potential outcomes. Members of the community worked with volunteer design professionals to express potential alternatives for Point Wells based on their visions for the site.  A summary of the output from the event is in the Charrette Report.

Appeal of Snohomish County designation of Point Wells as an Urban Center

On November 9, the City of Shoreline filed a Petition for Review (PFR) with the Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board, the state agency in charge of hearing appeals alleging noncompliance with the Growth Management Act and the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA).

The City's PFR alleges that the Snohomish County action designating Point Wells as an Urban Center is inconsistent with both the County's own Comprehensive Plan and the Growth Management Act. In addition, the PFR alleges that the County did not comply with the requirements of SEPA.

The Town of Woodway also filed a PFR with the Growth Management Hearings Board on November 9, and the citizen group Save Richmond Beach filed its PFR on November 12.

The Prehearing Conference date has been set for September 27.  The Hearing on the Merits of Petition is December 8.  

• Nov. 18, 2009 - Order of Consolidation, Notice of Hearing and Preliminary Schedule
• Dec. 2, 2009 - Order Granting Settlement Extension, Granting Intervention, and Amending Preliminary Schedule
• Dec. 10, 2009 - Amended Notice of Hearing and Preliminary Schedule
• Feb. 18, 2010 - Order Granting Second Settlement Extension and Amending Preliminary Schedule
• Mar. 23, 2010 - Order Amending Preliminary Schedule
• Apr. 27, 2010 - Order Granting Leave to Amend Petition for Review
• June 1, 2010 - Order Granting Third Settlement Extension and Amending Preliminary Schedule
• August 5, 2010 - Order of Consolidation, Notice of Hearing and Preliminary Schedule
• August 23, 2010 - Order Coordinating Cases, Granting Intervention, Granting Settlement, Extensions and Amending Preliminary Schedules

Snohomish County's plans for Point Wells

Despite the City of Shoreline's objections, on August 12, the Snohomish County Council adopted Ordinance 09-038 amending the County's Comprehensive Plan to designate Point Wells as an "Urban Center". The City Council will have until November 10 to decide whether to appeal that County Plan designation to the State Growth Management Hearings Board.

Meanwhile, the County Council has moved ahead with consideration of "Urban Center" zoning designations to implement their August 12 plan amendment. On September 30, the County Council held a public hearing on proposed Ordinance 09-079 which would establish a new zone for urban centers, including bulk and use regulations and standards. Point Wells is one of a half dozen "Urban Center's" designated in portions of unincorporated Snohomish County.

Snohomish County Environmental Impact Statements for Point Wells

FSEIS
Part I Chapters 1 to 3 (1.1 MB)
Part II Chapter 4 (First Half) (3.0 MB)
Part III Chapters 4 (Second Half), 5, and 5 (1.6 MB)
DSEIS
Entire Document

The City of Shoreline, Save Richmond Beach, the Town of Woodway, and the property owner, Paramount NW, Inc., all gave testimony at that hearing and submitted letters to the County Council. The City pointed out that its recent traffic and safety analysis quantified the impact of future development at Point Wells on the City’s road network, and recommended that the County establish a cap on development intensity in order to prevent failure of a number of intersections in the city. Rather than allow up to 3,500 units, as discussed in the County’s Plan Amendment, the City said that no more than 1,500 units, and possibly fewer, should be permitted. The City also suggested that the County delay further consideration of the zoning for Point Wells until further land use and visual impact analysis can be done and meaningful dialogue engaged with the Town of Woodway and the City of Shoreline. At the conclusion of testimony, the County Council continued the public hearing to December 9.  The hearing was continued to February 3, then to April 21, 2010. 

Correspondence on the Proposal

• April 21, 2010: letter from Save Richmond Beach to the Snohomish County Council.
• April 20, 2010: letter from Shoreline City Council to the Snohomish County Council.
• April 12, 2010: letter from Town of Woodway, City of Shoreline, and Save Richmond Beach to the Snohomish County Council.
• March 1, 2010: letter from Town of Woodway, City of Shoreline, and Save Richmond Beach to Gary Huff at Karr Tuttle Campbell.
• December 8, 2009 : letter from City Manager to Snohomish County commenting on development regulations for "Urban Development Centers" proposed in Ord. 09-79.
• September 30, 2009 : letter from Shoreline City Manager to Snohomish County Council commenting on development regulations for Urban Development Centers proposed in Sno. Co. Ordinance 09-79.
• September 30, 2009 : letter from Save Richmond Beach to Snohomish County Council regarding Ord 09-79.
• September 24, 2009 : letter from Gary Huff, Land Use Counsel for Paramount of Washington, to Snohomish County Council regarding Ord 09-79.
• July 22, 2009 : supplement to July 7 letter to Snohomish County Council Chair Mike Cooper.
• July 7, 2009 : letter from Shoreline Mayor Cindy Ryu to Snohomish County Council Chair Mike Cooper on 2009 Final Docket XIII - Paramount of Washington proposal.
• July 1, 2009 : letter from Snohomish Planning Director Craig Ladiser.
• May 20, 2009 : letter from Shoreline Fire Chief Marcus Krangness to Paramount Petroleum Vice President and General Counsel Steven D. Farkas.
• April 20, 2009 : Shoreline Planning Director Joseph W. Tovar's response to Snohomish Planning Director Craig Ladiser's Jan. 29 letter. 
• March 23, 2009 : letter from Shoreline Planning Director Joe W. Tovar.
• March 23, 2009 : letter from City of Woodway Mayor Carla A. Nichols.
• March 11, 2009 : letter from Shoreline City Manager Robert Olander, King County Sheriff Sue Rahr and Shoreline Police Chief Dan Pingrey.
• March 2, 2009 : letter from Shoreline Fire Chief Marcus Krangness.
• February 24, 2009 : letter from Shoreline Senior Planner Steven M. Cohn.
• January 29, 2009 : letter from Snohomish Planning Director Ladiser regarding Shoreline's designation of the Point Wells area as a "Potential Annexation Area".
• December 4, 2007 : letter from Shoreline Planning Director Tovar commenting on the scope of the DSEIS. 
• May 7, 2007 : letter from Shoreline Planning Director Tovar commenting on the docketing proposal.