Mukilteo council votes to rezone waterfront property

Published 3:18 pm Tuesday, October 6, 2026

EVERETT — The Mukilteo City Council voted on Monday to rezone a plot of land along the city’s waterfront to allow for the possibility of developing it in the future.

The comprehensive plan update approved at Monday’s meeting changed the zoning of the 1.2 acre piece of property, known in city documents as Lot 5, from open space to Waterfront Mixed Use.

City officials had asked the council to change that zoning as Mukilteo is currently accepting proposals for developers that could lease the land and build businesses at the site, something the city council officially began considering in March. Waterfront Mixed Use zoning would allow developers to build and operate businesses at the site, like retail shops, restaurants or cafes.

Rezoning the land doesn’t mean the city council has decided on how the property will eventually be used. Mukilteo is still in the process of looking for developers that could lease the property, city planning director Andrew Galuska said at Monday’s meeting, but the council could also decide to develop the land as a park at a future date. The rezoning simply allows the city to consider potential commercial developments on the property.

“Any of those future decisions about leasing the property, what the specific development would look like, those will all still be in the council’s hands,” Galuska said.

The city and the Port of Everett have been working for over a decade to build up and revitalize the city’s waterfront as a unified, walkable hub of businesses to encourage tourism.

Much of the land along the waterfront was formerly home to a fuel storage tank farm. It was decommissioned and then given to the Port of Everett in 2013, which then transferred some of the land to the city in 2016.

The lot is located just west of the Mukilteo Ferry Terminal and east of Lighthouse Park. Plans for the redeveloped waterfront include a 20-foot-wide promenade allowing access to the beach; that would be built on land closer to the water that is unaffected by the council’s rezone.

Community members were divided on the idea of a rezone, with some hoping the city would keep the land’s use as a park. The plot of land is currently open as a park, though it is sparse, with a few benches spread across a gravel-covered property that has no access to the beach. It was also identified as a park in a city plan created in 2016 outlining what the future waterfront may look like.

Others said that opening up the land to new businesses would make the property more productive, inviting and would attract more visitors.

The council voted 6-1 to rezone the plot of land, with council member Bob Champion voting against.

Champion said that there would be further opportunities to change the zoning of the land in the future, and that he had received emails from residents asking the council to keep the zoning as-is.

“The snail’s pace of government is slow, and I kind of think we’re jumping the gun,” Champion said.

Council member Don Doran, who voted in favor of the measure, said that the rezone would open up the potential opportunities that the site could be used for.

“We can absolutely have this property look exactly the way this community wants it to look, whether that’s with a commercial establishment or a park,” Doran said.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.