Balancing public access with protecting the environment is the challenge and the goal as Mukilteo updates its shoreline management plan.

The city is reviewing the portion of its code related to maintaining the shoreline, and will hold several open houses in the fall to ask residents what they would like to see. 

The plan is essentially a blueprint for developing the waterfront from Lighthouse Park to the tank farm property.

“Providing pedestrian access is really important,” Planning and Community Development director Heather McCartney said. “We've really stepped up, letting residents come back to the shoreline; that is important to add.”

Also key to the updated plan is the state’s reversal of its opposition to offsite mitigation, McCartney said.

Up until now the state required mitigation – replacing wetlands and other critical areas disrupted by development – to be onsite.

Too often, that led to tiny, ineffective, “postage stamp sized” wetlands, Planning assistant director Patricia Love said.

“It took years of failed projects to convince them it’s better to do offsite mitigation in larger areas, where we have connectivity, and where the hydrology and soils are better suited,” she said.

Now, the city, as well as individual property owners can do mitigation work offsite, or pay the city to do so, Love said.

The city will create a program after consulting with neighboring cities that are further ahead in the process.

Thursday, city planners will visit Mount Vernon to learn what has gone right or wrong.

“We’re looking at a program of preservation credits, where (developers and property owners) can pay us for mitigation efforts,” Love said. “We’re going to learn from those with experience.”

Unlike the laws that govern zoning in other parts of the city, state regulations play a bigger part in what Mukilteo can do in developing and managing shoreline property, she said.

“(Washington State’s code) is really pretty stringent in what you can and what you can’t do,” she said.

Monday’s work session was one of several this year jointly held by the council and representatives from the Parks and Arts Commission and the Planning Commission.

While residents often show up at council meetings to voice their opinions – and all too often, even those visits are after major decisions have been made – the bulk of the heavy lifting is done at the commission level, and what the council usually sees is a finished or nearly finished product.

City planners hope to involve residents at the early stages this time around, particularly with mapping out public access to the waterfront.

Much of the tank farm property, which the Air Force will eventually turn over to the Port of Everett for development, is along the shoreline, Love said.

While the Port is charged with developing the land, Mukilteo will ensure that projects comply with city development practices, leaning heavily on the SMP.

The SMP is also the work of several grants staff has totaling thousands of dollars.

“There was a lot of prep work already done, so when we put it all together, we aren’t starting from scratch,” planning commissioner James Brice said of city staff’s efforts. “When we get it right the first time, we don’t have to re-do it all.”

According to Love, there is nowhere to go but up in developing the tank farm property.

“When you look at it, it’s all pavement right now,” she said. “Anything we do there is going to be an improvement, for water quality and for fish.”