City of Everett, WA

We’re missing a huge piece of the economic development puzzle in the Pacific Northwest.

A renewed focus on downtowns is driving a renaissance in Puget Sound cities like Everett. But these movements are still struggling to ensure that this dramatic urban growth is shared across the entire community.

The answer lies right under our noses—if we don’t turn them up at the solution. The next phase of dynamic, equitable growth for our region will come if we finally unleash the economic potential of highway corridors.

In my recent report to the Everett City Council on our newly minted South Everett Economic Development Strategy (SEEDS), I shared how South Everett residents represent a younger, more diverse, and lower-income population.

Most importantly, they tend to work service-oriented jobs disconnected from nearby higher-paying sectors such as aerospace, clean energy, and manufacturing. Only eight percent actually work in the area where they live. They also rent rather than own their homes at much higher rates, with 64 percent renting, often because they are priced out of homeownership.

While the Everett region experiences a robust growth curve, most of the South Everett population doesn’t have equity in that growth, disconnecting them from sources of generational wealth and prosperity.

What is true for South Everett is true for many communities across the region. And most of these communities share a common characteristic: they are dominated by highways.

Urban and economic development planning has been dominated by downtowns and urban centers—and rightly so. These are the engines of regional growth. However, this comes with a disregard or neglect for the spokes that plug into those hubs—highways.

Rather than view highways as “in-between” spaces existing only to connect urban centers, we should view them as corridors of opportunity. In communities like South Everett, the vast majority of daily business is done along a highway corridor, whether that’s buying large equipment or getting a haircut. In fact, businesses along a highway represent much of the entrepreneurial activity that drives generational shifts in prosperity. Most entrepreneurs don’t look like tech whizzes announcing nine-figure investment rounds. They look like a first-generation immigrant opening a storefront along Evergreen Way.

Furthermore, these corridors are already mixed use, just not in the vertical alignment we normally associate with urban mixed use. Jobs, daily needs, and housing are all located along these corridors within reasonable travel distance, with ample parking, and often with consistent transit service. The result is a corridor loaded with homes, retail, jobs, and a steady flow of traffic. This confluence of factors adds up to incredible opportunity.

Rather than relegate highway corridors to the JV economic development team or try to shape them into something that they are not, I propose that we designate these as “opportunity corridors” to recognize their superstar potential for providing the wealth and equity boost that communities like South Everett and many others across the Puget Sound desperately need.

“Rather than view highways as in-between spaces, we should view them as corridors of opportunity.”

To boost their potential, we must sell our opportunity corridors for what they are, not what they are not. They are not pedestrian-first shopping centers. They are robust corridors offering enormous capacity for job and housing growth.

To leverage the potential of corridors, we must keep the vehicles flowing. While nodes of pedestrian-friendly and amenity-filled centers should be sprinkled along an opportunity corridor, vehicles will still rule.

Of course, safety must be prioritized. An opportunity corridor must be safe to walk and drive, but it should not be asked to be the destination for an evening stroll. Full sidewalks, clearly marked crosswalks, defined left turns and curb cuts, dedicated business-and-transit (BAT) lanes, and— critically—conscientious policing will provide a solid return on investment for these communities.

While there has been a decades-long drive to maximize our urban cores that is yielding fantastic results, we’ve forgotten the non-urban areas situated around highways. This neglect squanders the complementary nature of these corridors and the incredible potential for economic and community development available to cities and counties with these incredible assets.

So I challenge my fellow city and county leaders to take another look at your well-used highway corridors and see the dynamic opportunity waiting to be unleashed.

Things we will be doing as part of the SEEDS in South Everett along Opportunity Corridor

Bring light industrial jobs to the corridor.

• Building for-sale housing along the corridor.