At a press conference held on Thursday, June 22nd, Mayor Mike Nelson and Council President Neil Tibbott shared an exciting opportunity to expand city services to a new area of the city.
The City of Edmonds has the opportunity to enter into an option purchase 10+ acres on the southern corridor of Highway 99. This option to purchase gives the City the ability to “hold” the property (preliminarily called Highway 99 Landmark Site) while a community vision is developed for it and determine if we wish to go through with the sale. This property gives the community a number of exciting options to address issues in the area brought up over several years by residents, staff, and elected officials including housing, open space, retail, and city services.
The first small step of the option to purchase is putting $100,000 toward this hold on the property so the city can develop the community’s vision for the property through resident engagement. It also allows time to investigate the possibility of funding options and partnerships. The Option to Purchase has two parts – the first 6 months in which $100,000 of funds used for the hold are refundable, and then the next 12 months will be spent in planning for the site and due diligence. During this 18-month time period the owner cannot sell the property to any other party and the city has time to work on the above mentioned.
Council will discuss and determine if moving forward with this opportunity is something for the city to pursue. To learn more about this opportunity and the process to gather public input, residents are invited to visit https://www.edmondswa.gov/99landmark