"Everybody's jockeying" to get college

A four-year state college in Snohomish County is still largely a fervent wish — a row of gleaming Corinthian columns on the horizon — but that hasn't stopped county politicians and business leaders from speculating about where a new college might be located.

At a recent meeting of the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce, state Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip Reservation, said the Tulalips would be willing to lease reservation land near Interstate 5 for a college.

Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson mentions a 90-acre site just north of Highway 2 as a possible location.

And the mayor of Stanwood, Dianne White, says her city has plenty of rural acreage with water views that would make an idyllic campus.

"Everybody's jockeying and lobbying," said County Councilman John Koster, R-Arlington, who favors a location north of Everett, closer to Arlington, because, he says, North Snohomish County is projected to have the greatest growth in the coming years.

A $500,000 state study is under way to recommend ways of expanding access to higher education in Snohomish, Skagit and Island counties.

The percentage of Snohomish County residents with four-year degrees is among the state's smallest, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Local leaders say that's because residents can't attend a public university close to home.

Preliminary ideas include opening a four-year college on a shared campus with Everett Community College, adding a branch campus of the University of Washington somewhere in the three-county region and building a stand-alone college devoted to science and technology.

The state Higher Education Coordinating (HEC) Board, which has convened an advisory committee of 13 regional business leaders and elected officials, is to assess potential sites and their costs, which legislators say could be as high as $500 million.

Based on the sizes of other colleges and universities around the region, a branch campus or a college on a shared campus would require about 60 acres. A separate university with dorms, a football stadium and other athletic facilities could have hundreds of acres.

The University of Washington's Bothell campus consists of 128 acres, 73 of which are wetlands. The UW's Seattle campus, including its dorms, medical center, football stadium and other athletic facilities, totals 643 acres. The Evergreen State College near Olympia was built on 1,000 acres, much of it still wooded.

Marziah Kiehn-Sanford, an associate director for the HEC Board, said the group's final report to the Legislature, due Dec. 1, won't recommend specific sites. At the earliest, site selection would begin after the 2007 legislative session and then only if state lawmakers provided additional funding.

But with large parcels of land increasingly scarce in the county and a new college expected to add a certain cachet of ivy and tweed to its host city, politicians have been quick to suggest properties close to home.

State Sen. Dave Schmidt, R-Mill Creek, said the new college "really needs to be in Everett." He noted that Everett is centrally located and has public transportation and freeway access.

Everett Mayor Stephanson said he isn't wedded to a site within his city, but he agreed that a new college should be centrally located and have about 100 acres or more. Last year, the city purchased 65 acres just north of Highway 2 from paper processing company Kimberly-Clark. The city has an option on an adjacent 25 acres, he said.

That location is accessible from both the north and south and, just as importantly, from the east, where cities such as Monroe are among the county's fastest-growing, he said.

"I'd be surprised if, when the study is completed, a circle wasn't drawn around the greater Everett area," Stephanson said. "Logic would tell you to put the college where the greatest concentration of people are."

The Tulalip Tribes' McCoy said a number of his fellow legislators support the idea of a north-of-Everett college. The tribes also are lobbying the state to extend Sound Transit rail service to Marysville and the Tulalip retail center, Quil Ceda Village.

"If we can strike the right deal with the state, we'd be willing to lease land for the college," said McCoy, the general manager of Quil Ceda Village.

"And if they wanted to give all tribal members free tuition, we'd take a look at that, too," he said, noting the importance of higher education to tribal members' economic well-being.

Farther north, Stanwood officials argue they have wide-open spaces, including a parcel along Pioneer Highway with 480 acres and sweeping views of Port Susan.

"It could be a classic campus, close to freeways but also enclosed and with its own identity," Mayor White said.

Some business leaders say they don't care where the college is located, as long as the county gets a college.

"Training a work force has become our No. 1 issue," said Debbie Emge, the vice president of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council. "It [a college] will be a huge asset for the county, wherever it's located."

Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com