Some neighbors fighting to keep growth at arm's length

By RUTH SCHUBERT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

While the city has grand plans to annex the entire lakefront region, residents on the opposite side of the lake want nothing to do with the urban growth coming their way.

In Cavalero Hill, on the southwest side of the lake, there's a pitched battle over plans to develop a retail and industrial center in a residential area.

One developer has land he wants to use for a shopping mall or a large store like Fred Meyer, as well as apartments or multi-family homes. The land is less than a half-mile east of the trestle that carries cars to and from Everett on Highway 2. It also falls within the area designated for future urban development under the Growth Management Act.

Cavalero Hill resident Jody McVittie has been a driving force behind organized resistance to commercial development.

She says building roads to accommodate the level of planned development would take 28 percent of the county's roads budget. And, McVittie says, building a retail center would only draw more traffic over the already taxed trestle.

"The Trestle," as locals call it, has become a symbol of the area's traffic problems. Cars trying to get on the trestle routinely back up into Everett during rush hour. Residents talk about "getting over The Trestle" the same way Bellevue residents refer to the Highway 520 bridge.

McVittie argues that the growth boundary should be shrunk, concentrating growth in a smaller area. That likely would reduce the overall cost of growth to residents around the lake and in the county as a whole.

Bill Binford, the Bellevue developer with an eye on Cavalero Hill, argues that the urban growth boundary was drawn a long time ago, and commercial development is perfectly appropriate for the area.