In 30 years, more Americans than ever will be living in urban areas.
With the coming wave of Millennials, about 20 percent more people will be living in cities and suburbs than there are today, according to most estimates.
And that presents planners and the private sector with challenges of how best to organize communities as more people squeeze into limited space.
Urban villages landed on the scene a decade ago as one answer.
On the west side of I-5 at the 164th Street exit in Lynnwood are more than 400 new apartments and retail clustered together around a park-n-ride lot where 10 years ago there was nothing.
We will see others like that in answer to this urbanization trend.
Transit-oriented developments are another way to bring an urban experience to people who live outside of the city core.
Like many urban villages or clusters of apartments, homes and retail, they are located adjacent to a transit station.
Kent Station (www.kentstation.com ) is a newer example of a transit-oriented development that followed light rail into that city. As light rail and other forms of mass transit expand, we will see more like this in other areas of the Puget Sound.
Over the next decade, expect Lake Stevens to join Mill Creek and Redmond and offer an urban-like experience clustered around Frontier Village.
Bothell will be first out of the gate, with Bothell Landing (www.futureofbothell.com/) fed by more than 15,000 full time college students at the University of Washington Bothell campus, high-tech jobs and a geographic advantage that links to both sides of Lake Washington.
Downtown Everett will begin to take shape as a draw much like the Pearl District in Portland with its gritty but chic blend of urban living, restaurants, and waterfront access.
Two new hotels and more than 300 new apartment units are being constructed now to fit this narrative.
Downtown Edmonds will look like Downtown Kirkland today and most of old Stanwood will have moved up out of the flood plain into urban village arrangements where a cluster is already having success at the Stanwood-Camano Village. Monroe may transform into an Issaquah with its commuter links to Everett and the Eastside via U.S. 2 and Highway 522.
In each case, an urban-like blend of apartments, condominiums, townhomes, office, retail and some organized open space often linked to transportation hubs will serve residents and visitors alike whether it comes organically in bits and pieces or in one fell swoop like Bothell Landing, Kent Station or Mill Creek Towncenter.
The Achilles’ heel for the north Puget Sound continues to be its heavy reliance on a single employer in Boeing and, in Everett’s case, a still very low average household income.
Low household incomes make it difficult to draw in retail, in particular.
Opening Paine Field to commercial passenger service will leverage that public asset to draw in the sort of diversity needed as the long drive to SeaTac remains a major obstacle to attracting new businesses to Everett who simply need closer access to air travel.
That single act alone, if it is followed with quality regional carriers, would begin to draw higher earning households to Everett and address its income problem. Another major step forward would be to secure Link Light Rail Failing downtown Everett as the next phase is being considered. A lot is at stake for Everett and the north Puget Sound in the current discussion around the next phase.
Make no mistake, though.
The urbanization of America is real and going to stay.
Those communities who plan for and capture it are going to be the winners. Millennials wants and needs will soon carry the day the way their Baby Boomer parents did during their earning and spending years at their peak.
Millennials, though, are an even bigger demographic with the peak having just celebrated their 24th birthdays.
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