Everett council presses Hope and Wellness to relocate drop‑in center under Metro Everett rules

The Everett City Council heard an update Jan. 8 from Julie Willey, the city’s Community Development Director, about Hope and Wellness, a drop‑in center operating on the ground floor of a downtown property that city staff say violates Metro Everett land‑use regulations.

Willey told the council the Metro Everett subarea plan, adopted in 2018, restricts social‑service uses on designated retail and pedestrian ground floors in order to preserve a retail character in portions of downtown. "Designated retail streets in the downtown core have additional requirements that prohibit certain uses on the ground floor, which includes social services," Willey said. She said city staff offered relocation support but did not receive a satisfactory 30‑60‑90 day relocation plan and that code compliance staff later engaged after deadlines lapsed.

The issue matters because Metro Everett covers just over 1 square mile of downtown and the regulation affects pedestrian and transit‑oriented streets. Willey said the metropolitan plan and development regulations grew out of community planning dating to a 2006 downtown plan and were intended to shape future public and private development.

Council members asked about options short of eviction and sought clarity about how the restrictions were adopted. Council member Ryan, who participated in the earlier planning process, described Metro Everett as the result of an extensive public process and said the pedestrian and TOD street designations drove the restriction. Council member Fosse pressed staff on interim measures and asked to convene a stakeholder table. "I think convening a table would be good for everyone involved to make sure that we fully look at everything," Fosse said, urging a near‑term forum with Hope and Wellness, city planners and council representatives.

Council members also discussed whether the city could offer temporary financial or placement support, whether Hope and Wellness could move to an upper floor or an alley frontage that would avoid the ground‑floor prohibition, and whether a development regulation modification path in Title 15 might be available. Willey said staff had reviewed a range of options with Hope and Wellness, including the possibility of moving off the ground floor and pursuing a Title 15 modification, but that staff advised the organization the modification criteria were unlikely to be met.

Council members asked staff to attempt renewed outreach and, if feasible, to negotiate a short extension to the current relocation deadline (council members discussed a 60‑day extension from the February 28 deadline). President Schwab asked staff to report back next week on what an extension and a convening process would look like. No formal policy change or council vote on the deadline occurred at the Jan. 8 meeting; the council gave direction to staff to pursue further engagement and report back.

Background: Willey said the Metro Everett plan covers roughly a half‑square mile of core pedestrian and TOD streets and that the ground‑floor restriction applies to about 9% of the city’s commercial and light‑industrial land where social services otherwise would be allowed.