Everett Business Improvement Area Renewal & Expansion

BDS Planning & Urban Design was the facilitator and technical consultant for renewal and expansion of the Downtown Everett Business Improvement Area (BIA).                                                    

Downtown Everett has had a BIA in place since the 1990s, renewing it every three years since then. With changes to downtown Everett, as well as the evolution of BIA best practices nationally, Everett wanted to update its assessment structure and also expand its service area. Additionally, the Everett Downtown Association was interested in updating its organizational structure to be more inclusive of downtown interests who were not property owners.    

BDS gathered property information from Snohomish County records, and led a core group of stakeholders through developing a work plan, budget, and equitable BIA assessment mechanism, as well as an orientation to organizational structure options for the Association. Next, an extensive outreach campaign was launched to existing and prospective ratepayers in the existing and expanded BIA boundaries. After two months of outreach and organizational restructuring, the existing BIA was renewed by the City Council without objection. With several more months of petition gathering to demonstrate support for the expansion, this was also approved by the Everett City Council in December 2017 and again in December 2020.