EVERETT — A long-delayed development project on the Snohomish River is inching forward.
Developer William Lyon Homes has submitted a proposal to city planners to build 190 townhouses on the former site of the Eclipse Mill.
It is the second of three parts of the proposed Riverfront development to reach the permitting stage.
The large development is on the west side of the Snohomish River, east of I-5, and stretches south from Pacific Avenue to the Lowell neighborhood.
The developer has already started infrastructure work and applied for some permits for the southernmost parcel of the formerly industrial waterfront, the so-called “Simpson Pad” site, named for the former Simpson Paper Company mill. Planned there are 226 detached single-family houses on 40 acres of land.
The application filed with the city of Everett for the 17-acre Eclipse Mill site, the northernmost parcel, triggers a public review before a city hearing examiner. That hearing has been scheduled for 9 a.m. Jan. 29.
A housing and commercial development has been planned for the banks of the Snohomish River for more than a decade, but it was when Polygon Northwest of Bellevue bought the property in 2013 that the project picked up momentum.
In June 2014, Newport Beach, California-based William Lyon Homes bought Polygon’s residential home-building business and continued Polygon’s projects, including Riverfront.
Typically, the hearing examiner issues a ruling on a permit application within 15 days, said Allan Giffen, Everett’s director of planning and community development. But because the Riverfront property requires shoreline permits as well, the state Department of Ecology will also have to weigh in.
Laying down utilities and roads will come before the first house can be built.
“They’ll need to do a fair amount of infrastructure-type work on the site before they are ready for building permits,” Giffen said.
The third, central parcel in the Riverfront development sits on the site of the former city dump, where the infamous Everett tire fire occurred. That central area will be the commercial center for the new development and might include some multifamily housing, although the developer hasn’t submitted an application for that portion of the project, Giffen said.
“I expect in the next year we’ll start to see some plans,” he said.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
Public hearing
A public hearing on plans for a residential development on the site of the former Eclipse Mill will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 29, in the hearing room of the Wall Street Building, 2930 Wetmore Ave., Everett.
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