Everett’s Wetland and Stream Rules Are About to Change: What the Critical Areas Update Means for Anyone Building, Buying, or Living Near Water

What is this? Everett is in the middle of updating its Critical Areas Regulations — the section of the Everett Municipal Code that governs how close anything new can be built to a wetland, a stream, a steep landslide-prone slope, or a designated wildlife habitat. The City Council held a public hearing on the proposed update on April 15, 2026 and is moving toward a vote in the coming weeks. The new rules adjust buffer widths, mitigation requirements, and the technical standards developers must meet on parcels that touch any of those features. If you own land, are looking to buy, or live near Forest Park, the Snohomish River corridor, Howarth, Pigeon Creek, or the city’s bluff edges, the update affects what can — and cannot — be built around you.

If you have ever wondered why a vacant Everett lot has stayed vacant for years even when home prices were climbing, the answer is often hidden in a single section of city code: Chapter 19.37, the Critical Areas Regulations.

That chapter — which protects wetlands, streams, frequently flooded areas, landslide-prone slopes, and important wildlife habitat — sets the buffer widths, building setbacks, mitigation requirements, and technical-study requirements every Everett property owner has to follow before disturbing those features. It is also one of the most frequently misunderstood parts of the municipal code, because it cuts across so many properties. Lots near Howarth Park, Pigeon Creek, Forest Park, the Snohomish River edge, and the city’s many ravine-cut blocks all carry critical-area overlays.

This week, Everett’s update of those regulations is closer to adoption than it has been at any point in the multi-year process. Here’s what’s actually in front of the council, what would change for residents and developers, and where the city is in the timeline.

What the City Is Required to Do

Critical Areas Regulations updates are not optional. Under Washington’s Growth Management Act, every city in the state has to periodically review and update its critical-area rules to incorporate Best Available Science — the current scientific consensus on what actually protects sensitive habitat.

Everett’s last comprehensive update was in 2007. The state’s deadline for the current periodic update was December 31, 2025, which the city has been working toward for several cycles. The city published a first review draft on October 31, 2025 and a second review draft on February 13, 2026, the latter of which is the version under active council consideration.

In other words: the council does not have the option of leaving the rules alone. The only choice is what version to adopt and on what schedule.

What Critical Areas Are Covered

The Everett Municipal Code defines five categories of critical areas:

• Wetlands — areas saturated long enough to support hydrophytic vegetation
• Streams and other Fish and Wildlife Habitat Conservation Areas — including riparian corridors and habitat for state-listed species
• Frequently flooded areas — typically the regulatory floodplain
• Geologically hazardous areas — landslide-prone slopes, erosion zones, and seismic hazard areas
• Critical aquifer recharge areas — zones where surface activity affects groundwater used for drinking water

Each category has its own buffer requirement and its own mitigation standard, and a single parcel can be touched by more than one. A property near a wetland on a steep slope is subject to both wetland and geologic-hazard rules, with the more restrictive prevailing.

What’s Changing in the February 13 Draft

The February 13 draft preserves the basic five-category framework but updates several technical components that determine how the rules apply on a given lot. Among the most consequential:

• Wetland buffer widths. The draft updates Tables 37.2 and 37.3 — the wetland buffer width tables — to reflect current Best Available Science. In practice, that adjusts how many feet of undisturbed land must remain between a wetland edge and a building, fence, or hard surface. For some wetland categories, the draft buffers are wider than the rules currently in place.
• Stream buffer standards. The draft revises stream classifications and the corresponding buffer widths. Stream buffers were one of the most-discussed elements at the planning commission’s February 17 hearing.
• Mitigation sequencing. The draft tightens the standard sequence applicants have to follow when an impact to a critical area is unavoidable: first avoid, then minimize, then compensate, in that order.
• No-net-loss standard. The draft preserves the existing short-term goal of no net loss of critical-area functions and values, and adds a long-term goal of a net gain.

The city’s posted public document — Everett Critical Area Regulations Periodic Update REVIEW DRAFT February 13 2026 — runs to several hundred pages. Comments and responses through April 1, 2026 are also published on the city’s website.

What Stakeholders Have Said

The hearings and comment record show a familiar split on critical-area rules.

• The Port of Everett submitted comments dated January 8, 2026 raising concerns about how the proposed buffers and mitigation requirements would interact with redevelopment of port-owned waterfront parcels.
• The Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBAKS) submitted comments at the January 28 planning commission meeting raising concerns about the cost and feasibility implications of wider buffers on infill parcels.
• The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife submitted comments dated March 2, 2026 supporting science-based buffers and asking for additional protections for habitat-conservation areas.

Each set of comments is published on the city’s website at everettwa.gov. The council saw all of them before the April 15 public hearing.

What Happens Next

The procedural path runs roughly like this:

1. Planning commission recommendation — issued February 17, 2026
2. Council briefings and discussions — held in March and April 2026
3. Council public hearing — held April 15, 2026
4. Council action on an ordinance — anticipated in the weeks following the public hearing

The exact council vote date has not been finalized as of this article, but the city’s project documents indicate the council expects to act in the spring of 2026.

Once adopted, the new ordinance applies to any new permit application after the effective date. Pending applications already in the pipeline are typically processed under the rules in place when they were filed (a “vested rights” question that applicants and city staff handle on a case-by-case basis).

Why This Matters for Regular Residents

The Critical Areas Regulations update is not the kind of city-hall story that lights up social media. It does not have a dollar figure attached, and the most consequential changes are technical adjustments in tables of buffer widths.

But for an Everett resident, the practical reach is broad:

• If you own a vacant or underbuilt lot anywhere near a wetland, stream, slope edge, or known habitat area, the buffer and mitigation rules in the new ordinance will determine what you can do with it.
• If you live in a neighborhood with sensitive features — Pigeon Creek, the Snohomish River edge, the bluff that drops off Bayside, the wooded ravines that run between Forest Park and the south end — the rules determine what your neighbors can build.
• If you are watching environmental quality on the Snohomish River and Port Gardner Bay, buffer standards on contributing streams are one of the few city-level levers that materially affect what runs into the bay over time.

This is also one of the few regulatory updates Everett does where the technical content matters far more than the political framing. The buffers either reflect current science or they don’t. The mitigation sequence is either tight or it isn’t. Two parcels with identical zoning can have very different development potential depending on what the critical-areas overlay says.

What to Do Next

If you want to engage:

• Read the documents. The City of Everett’s 2025 Critical Area Ordinance Update page hosts the February 13 review draft, the comment-and-response document, and all stakeholder letters at everettwa.gov/3354/2025-Critical-Area-Ordinance-Update.
• Email comments to staff. The city has accepted written comments at cao@everettwa.gov.
• Attend a council meeting. The City Council meets at 3002 Wetmore Avenue. Regular meetings are at 6:30 p.m. on most Wednesdays; fourth Wednesdays start at 12:30 p.m. Agendas are posted at everettwa.gov/AgendaCenter. The council’s next action on the critical-areas ordinance will be on a regular meeting agenda.
• Check your parcel. If you own land in Everett and want to know whether a critical-area overlay touches your parcel, the city’s GIS map and the Permit Center can both tell you. The Permit Center is at City Hall, 2930 Wetmore Avenue.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will my house become non-conforming if the rules change?
For an existing legally permitted structure, no. Critical-areas rules apply to new development and to expansions of existing development. An existing house in a buffer is generally treated as a legal nonconforming use, with limited rules around expansion and replacement.

If buffers get wider, can the city take part of my yard?
No. The buffer is a regulatory setback that limits what new construction or land disturbance can happen there. It is not a property taking. The land remains yours.

Does this affect routine yard work?
Generally no for ordinary maintenance. Significant tree removal, grading, structures, or land disturbance within a critical area or its buffer typically requires a permit and may require an environmental review.

How does this connect to the Comprehensive Plan?
The Critical Areas Regulations are one of the implementing tools of the city’s Comprehensive Plan. The plan sets the policy direction; the critical-areas chapter is where the specific land-use rules live.

When does the new ordinance take effect?
After the council adopts an ordinance and the city publishes the adoption notice. Effective dates are typically set 30 days after publication unless the ordinance specifies otherwise.

Are there exemptions?
Yes — the code includes a list of activities that are exempt from full review (certain routine maintenance, emergency repairs, some agricultural activity). The exemption list is part of the chapter and is being reviewed in the update.

Will this change be appealed?
Critical-areas updates are sometimes appealed to the Growth Management Hearings Board. Whether anyone files an appeal will depend on the final adopted text and which stakeholders feel their issues weren’t resolved.

Sources: City of Everett 2025 Critical Area Ordinance Update project page (everettwa.gov); Everett Critical Area Regulations Periodic Update REVIEW DRAFT, February 13, 2026; Planning Commission record, February 17, 2026; comments-and-responses document dated April 1, 2026; Port of Everett comment letter, January 8, 2026; MBAKS comment letter, January 28, 2026; WDFW comment letter, March 2, 2026; City Council public hearing, April 15, 2026; Washington State Growth Management Act; Everett Municipal Code Chapter 19.37.