The University of Washington North Sound was a proposed new

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

branch campus that may be placed at one of two sites. The sites had to be north of

Lynnwood Lynnwood is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The city is part of the Seattle metropolitan area and is located north of Seattle and south of Everett, near the junction of Interstate 5 and Interstate 405. It is the four ...

and south of Arlington, and have good transportation access (major

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

, transportation hub, etc.). The two proposed sites are in Smokey Point and in Everett''.''By Eric Stevick and Kaitlin Manry
Battle is on for UW site
''

Everett Herald ''The Everett Herald'' is a daily newspaper based in Everett, Washington, United States. It is owned by Sound Publishing, Inc. The paper serves residents of Snohomish County. History ''The Daily Herald'' was first published on February 11, 190 ...

,'' January 17, 2008.'' In March 2008, Randy Hodgins, University of Washington spokesman, announced that "it’s not happening this year at all" due to disagreements in location and funding. In September 2008, the

Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board The Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) is the Washington State Government agency overseeing higher education in the state of Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capita ...

retained the services of Bill Wilkerson to carry out their consensus-building task for a North Sound campus location, but was unsuccessful. "The short story about the consensus effort is there is not a consensus", summed up the panel chairman, Rep.

Derek Kilmer Derek Christian Kilmer (born January 1, 1974) is an American politician who has been the U.S. representative for Washington's 6th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a member of the Washington House ...

, D-

Gig Harbor Gig Harbor is the name of both a bay on Puget Sound and a city on its shore in Pierce County, Washington,. The population was 12,029 at the 2020 census. Gig Harbor is one of several cities and towns that claim to be "the gateway to the Olympic ...

. There has been no progress since winter of 2009.

Proposed sites

There were four finalist sites that were judged more favorable than up to 80 other sites. Two finalists have since been disqualified.

Possible locations

Everett Station

A new campus may be located at

Everett Station Everett Station is an Amtrak train station serving the city of Everett, Washington. The station has provided service to the '' Cascades'' and ''Empire Builder'' routes since its opening in 2002, replacing an earlier station near the Port of E ...

. The total acres available for the development are contentious. According to the CBRE Richard Ellis report conducted for NBBJ, were submitted by the City of Everett in their original proposal. Of this, are owned by

Sound Transit Sound Transit (ST), officially the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, is a public transit agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It operates the Link light rail system in Seattle and Tacoma, r ...

and have been subsequently removed from the proposal, which leaves as little as of parcels available for consideration. This acreage does not include right-of-ways for public roads that currently exist. It is small compared to the two other sites, but it is near a transportation hub with

Community Transit Community Transit (CT) is the public transit authority of Snohomish County, Washington, United States, excluding the city of Everett, in the Seattle metropolitan area. It operates local bus, paratransit and vanpool service within Snohomish Cou ...

SWIFT Bus Rapid Transit Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIFT, a ...

service coming soon along with Sound Transit's Link light rail service in

Snohomish County Snohomish County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. With a population of 827,957 as of the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous county in Washington, after nearby King and Pierce counties, and the 75th-most populous ...

. Everett also operates the north end of Sound Transit's

Sounder commuter rail Sounder commuter rail is a commuter rail service operated by BNSF on behalf of Sound Transit. Service operates Monday through Friday during peak hours from Seattle, Washington, north to Everett and south to Lakewood. In , the system had a ride ...

service to and from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and then to Tacoma,

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

service to and from

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

(via

Amtrak Cascades The Amtrak ''Cascades'' is a passenger train corridor in the Pacific Northwest, operated by Amtrak in partnership with the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. It is named after the Cascade mountain range that the route parallels. The corr ...

Pacific Central Station Pacific Central Station is a railway station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which acts as the western terminus of Via Rail's cross-country ''The Canadian'' service to Toronto and the northern terminus of Amtrak's '' Cascades'' service to ...

and Seattle, and using Amtrak's

Empire Builder The ''Empire Builder'' is an Amtrak long-distance passenger train that operates daily between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great Northe ...

, Everett has connections to

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. It was rated the best site and the Snohomish County Council supports it. The site along with the other Everett site has portions that are contaminated.

North Marysville

The North Marysville site is the most northerly and largest site. Its land is shared by the cities of Marysville and Arlington. It is large and is located between Smokey Pt. Blvd. (west), 51st Ave. (east), 156th St. (south), and 160th St. (north). The closest school district to the site and the surrounding community of Smokey Pt. is the Lakewood School District.

Disqualified locations

Everett Kimberly-Clark/Snohomish River

The Kimberly-Clark/Snohomish River site was purchased in 2005 by The City of Everett from

Kimberly-Clark Kimberly-Clark Corporation is an American multinational personal care corporation that produces mostly paper-based consumer products. The company manufactures sanitary paper products and surgical & medical instruments. Kimberly-Clark brand n ...

. It was an industrial area about large and is partially contaminated. It is located along the

Snohomish River The Snohomish River is a river in Snohomish County, Washington, formed by the confluence of the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers near Monroe. It flows northwest entering Port Gardner Bay, part of Puget Sound, between Everett and Marysville. The ...

, east of

I-5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...

, and north of

US 2 U.S. Route 2 or U.S. Highway 2 (US 2) is an east–west U.S. Highway spanning across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected by various roadways in southern Canada. Unlike some routes, whi ...

. The only road is Grand Avenue, which becomes Everett Avenue ( SR 529) and interchanges with

and US 2. This site is the lowest-rated site according to a survey by the

Lake Stevens/Cavalero Corner

The

Lake Stevens Lake Stevens is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States, that is named for the lake it surrounds. It is located east of Everett and borders the cities of Marysville to the northwest and Snohomish to the south. The city's popula ...

/Cavalero Corner site is the eastern site. It has a more central location for Snohomish County. It is slightly larger than the Kimberly-Clark site, roughly . It is also located along

Future

Due to the state's significant budget shortfall, plans for a new campus have been delayed indefinitely. There are also concerns by several state legislators that such a campus may not be necessary due to the recent growth of UW's Bothell campus and

Bellevue College Bellevue College (BC) is a public college in Bellevue, Washington, United States. It is the largest of the 34 institutions that make up the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system and the third-largest institution of higher educatio ...

becoming a new four-year college.

References

{{authority control Public universities and colleges in Washington (state) Universities and colleges in Snohomish County, Washington