LISC and city staff push anti-displacement measures for South Everett as light rail nears Casino Road

Everett ' Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) presenter Tina Blassity and Everett planning staff summarized three years of community work on March 12, urging the city to adopt anti-displacement policies, explore inclusionary zoning and preserve small commercial spaces along Casino Road as Sound Transit prepares new light rail station nodes.

The recommendations aim to reduce the risk that current residents and local businesses are priced out when light rail and related development arrive. "We have a really good relationship with Sound Transit and have been really regularly briefing them on all of the work that we've been doing," Blassity said, noting tours with Sound Transit and ongoing conversations about parcel acquisition and potential surplus property that could be used for community benefit.

Why it matters: Casino Road lies inside a high-displacement-risk area on a Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) map the presenters displayed. Planning staff said those indicators ' including proximity to jobs and transit, a high share of renters and linguistic isolation ' put South Everett in the region's top 10 percent of displacement risk. Jorek, city planning staff, described PSRC's method: "PSRC put some numbers to that and there are 12 indicators across neighborhood characteristics," and said the city is deciding how and whether to show that mapping in the…