Coffee Chats

Exploring Port Boundaries

Topic

Economic Alliance Snohomish County welcomes the Port of Everett to join us for an informative virtual conversation on the topic of port boundaries.

As an economic development enterprise, the Port of Everett is always looking at ways to leverage the tools and resources unique to port districts to bring economic opportunity and added value to the communities it serves.

During the Port’s Strategic Plan outreach in 2018/2019, the Port sought public feedback to help set a roadmap for the next decade of Port initiatives. During public engagement, the Port heard interest in expanding Port boundaries linked to a desire to see the Port’s strategic investments and infrastructure improvements stretch into other parts of Snohomish County.

While many large port districts in Washington state are county-wide, the Port of Everett is not. Currently, the Port’s boundaries encompass most of Everett, portions of Mukilteo, and small parts of unincorporated Snohomish County in the Marysville area with about 110,000 residents. To put this into perspective, with nearly 830,000 residents and counting, only about 15% of the County has port resources available to them.

Ports are limited in their ability to invest in areas outside of their boundaries. This restricts how the Port of Everett can partner with neighboring communities to invest in their specific economic and community priorities — whether that be transportation improvements and close-to-home job opportunities or quality-of-life enhancements by way of community revitalization, mixed-use and recreational amenities, environmental initiatives and more.

Given these limitations and the initial community interest, the Port Commission tasked staff with taking a more formal look at the topic of boundary expansion, including an economic value study and legal assessment of what it would take to expand — and most importantly — a community assessment to see if, and where, Port partnership is desired.

The Port of Everett is currently gathering feedback to inform next steps, offering a survey opportunity to gauge community interest in having the Port bring its unique tools and resources to more areas of Snohomish County. With this assessment now underway, EASC invites our partners at the Port to offer information and answer questions on this exploratory effort.

Coffee Chats are virtual and free to attend. RSVP to receive a link to join the livestream via Zoom. Join us on November 7 to learn more!