More than 1,800 homes are under construction, recently completed, or planned near Mountlake Terrace Station, where light rail service will launch Friday.
When Sound Transit begins service on the Lynnwood Link extension on August 30, the stations will directly serve three more cities in the Puget Sound. Two of those stations will make Sound Transit’s light rail system a multi-county system, marking Snohomish County’s first direct connection to the regional light rail system. As the county’s southernmost city on the line, Mountlake Terrace will be the gateway to Snohomish County for light rail riders from King County.
The City of Mountlake Terrace, in anticipation for its first light rail station, prepared land use reforms needed to transform its station area into a dense urban neighborhood. This growth has been planned for the aptly named Town Center and Gateway neighborhoods to the northeast and southeast of the light rail station. No housing growth is planned on western walkshed of the station across I-5 due to the presence of the Nile Shrine Golf Course and Lake Ballinger — plus a decision to keep the single family zoning to the north.
A city of just four square miles mostly dominated by single family zoning, Mountlake Terrace had seen flat population levels since 1990, hovering around 20,000 residents. However, in the last few years, housing growth has picked up and the population has jumped, reaching 24,260 in the state’s last count in April. Planners expect Mountlake Terrace’s population to double, reaching 44,000 by 2044.
Like the two new Shoreline light rail stations, the surrounding areas have historically been and mostly remain as suburban neighborhoods that are now seeing multifamily and mixed-use developments retrofit them for light rail oriented land uses. Perhaps the most noticeable evidence of Mountlake Terrace’s suburban retrofit is the Terrace Station development.
Terrace Station paves the way for apartment boom
Breaking ground in 2018, Terrace Station is a three-phased mixed-use development adjacent to I-5. In the past half decade, commuters will have seen construction cranes come up and down on the old Evergreen Elementary School site, with the final phase wrapping up this year. In total, 636 residential units and nearly 90,000 square feet of commercial space have been added to the city in this one hotspot.
Terrace Station sits in the Gateway neighborhood, and expands the commercial stretch that spans across the old strip mall environment on Shoreline’s Ballinger Way and into Mountlake Terrace. The project also extended Van Ry Boulevard to 236th Street SW, connecting the Gateway neighborhood to the light rail station and Town Center neighborhood. That connection gives Terrace Station residents a five-minute walk to the light rail station. Light rail riders will have access to Terrace Station’s retail amenities, including a trampoline park.
A Town Center slowly forms
Outside of Terrace Station, the bulk of the future station area’s development sits within Mountlake Terrace’s Town Center Subarea Plan area. In 2019, The Urbanist reported on the plan’s approval, creating the capacity for 12-story high-rises and approximately 6,600 more residents to the northeast of the station. Implementation of this plan has been slow going, with the most recent completions in the neighborhood predating the application of the new zoning. No builders have jumped at building 12-story towers given the unproven market and added costs those heights bring, especially with upper-level setback requirements in the city’s code.
All but one of the recent completions in Town Center have been low double-digit unit townhouse projects. 86 townhomes have been completed in Town Center and Gateway since 2019, another 92 are being planned. The only major mid-rise development in this time frame is the 151-unit Atlas 236 Apartments, which also has around 10,000 square feet of retail space, completed in 2019.
The next completion to join these projects will likely be the Candela Apartments at 5901 236th St SW. The complex is a pair of eight-story buildings that will together have 425 residential units and 5,126 square feet of commercial space. This is the only major project under construction, leaving much of Mountlake Terrace’s near future to the imagination.
Builders have officially proposed only two more projects in the Town Center. One is a 323-unit project at Mountlake Village (23120 56th Ave W) with 5,800 square feet of retail space. The other is a six-story apartment building with 91 units at 23713 56th Ave W. It will join the small urban cluster at the intersection of 236th Street SW and 56th Avenue.
One last transit-oriented addition is linked to a potential street vacation. Street vacations are actions that “vacate” publicly own right-of-way and returns it to private property. One such action is being considered across from the Candela development at 5906 236th St SW. The neighboring parcels are held by developers that intend to merge their properties with the street vacation for a large mixed-use development.
Slowly coming together and tomorrow
Altogether, Mountlake Terrace has seen 873 units completed since 2019, 425 units under construction, and planning and permitting for another 506 units around its light rail station. That’s more than 1,800 units completed or in the pipeline.
What makes the station area stand out from its peer stations on the Lynnwood Link Extension is the mix of uses that this development is introducing to the city. Nearly 100,000 square feet of commercial space, much of it ground floor retail, has been added to the station area and around 11,000 more are under construction or in planning.
Like the Shoreline North Station area, the project pipeline is weak, with housing units recently completed or under construction far exceeding those still in planning and permitting. Mountlake Terrace‘s comprehensive plan update may give development activity a jolt. Alternatives presented in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement of MLT’s comprehensive plan update could add multifamily zoning on the west side of I-5 and around the current Town Center Subarea.
Adding Snohomish County to the TOD Map
Now that we’ve tallied up development in Mountlake Terrace, let’s add it to our Lynnwood Link TOD map. We’ve now recorded more than 6,600 units built or in the pipeline around the Shoreline and Mountlake Terrace light rail stations. Also, mostly in Mountlake Terrace, around 120,000 square feet of new commercial spaces has been built or are in the pipeline around the stations.
Check out our station area development roundups for Shoreline South and Shoreline North.
The Urbanist staff occasionally teams up to cover breaking news or tackle large projects. See more about our team on the staff page.