First Street's Redesign Is Approved. The Piece Moving Now Is on Avenues B and C.

"The whole thing is dependent on grants," city administrator Ken Klein told the City Council in April, as the Snohomish County Tribune reported. He said it the same week the Council approved the First Street Master Plan. That plan pictures a curbless main street lined with trees, historic light poles and lights strung across the roadway.

According to the September council minutes, the part of the plan with real movement behind it isn't on First Street. It's one block off it, where Avenues B and C meet First and Second. On the street itself, the timeline is measured in years and depends on grants the city hasn't won yet.

What the Council Actually Approved on April 21

On Tuesday, April 21, 2026, the Council adopted the plan as Resolution 1498. The vote was 7–0, with Councilmember Merrill moving approval and Councilmember Kuleta seconding. According to the resolution's language in the council packet, the plan works as a guiding framework for later decisions. It doesn't approve construction, set aside money, or commit the city to any particular improvement.

Here's what that framework includes. The design comes from First Forty Feet, a Portland consulting firm. Its "crafted streetscape" option, Option 2, was the one the consultants recommended and the First Street Advisory Committee backed:

• Parking: diagonal parking stays on both sides, about 415 spaces in total
• Walking and biking: new sidewalks and street paving, plus a 12-foot-wide walk and bike trail
• Traffic: a traffic circle at what is now the Public Works shop driveway
• Parks: upgrades to Kla Ha Ya Park and Cady Park, following master plans the city approved earlier

Jason Graf, the firm's principal designer, made a case for spending on quality during a February committee meeting, as the Tribune reported:

"These four blocks are a special place. Good quality is worth it."

That quote sets up the money question. Quality has a price, and the plan spells it out.

Three Areas, One Large Number

The plan's cost estimate, dated March 13, 2026, splits First Street into three areas. Each one gets different roadway materials and its own total. The estimate covers site preparation, street and utility work, project costs and escalation.

There are two things to keep in mind when reading this table. The combined figure is just the three area totals added together. It isn't a budget line. And the materials are specifications in the plan. No construction contract has picked them. Back in February, the advisory committee was still debating concrete versus brick, and its final recommendation for the core area left both options open: concrete brick pavers or stained, scored concrete.

Put roughly $23 million next to Klein's comment about grants and the timeline below follows from it.

The Clock on First Street Itself

The schedule city staff described in April, as reported by the Tribune, runs in this order:

1. April 2026: the plan is adopted as a framework, with no construction money in hand.
2. Grant applications: project manager Siobhan Waltman said the city plans to apply to the state Transportation Improvement Board and to the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All program.
3. Late 2028: more formal design work starts.
4. Groundbreaking: "We hope to break ground in five years, it could be 10 years," Waltman said. That's a hope, not a scheduled date.

Below the street there's another step that comes first. The utilities under First Street also need to be replaced. Back in February, the Tribune reported that the city would have to handle that underground work before changing how First Street looks, and that the utility plan hadn't been settled yet.

So for the foreseeable future, the angled parking, the curbs and the current sidewalks along the four historic blocks stay as they are. The trick-or-treat route, the Thursday market walk and Saturday parking will all look familiar for years.

The Piece Already Moving Is One Block Over

Avenues B and C are where the plan has gone further than paper. The advisory committee recommended turning both avenues into one-way streets between First and Second. In March, the Tribune reported that the one-way question was still open. A March staff report said city staff were still studying how either one-way or two-way traffic would affect circulation.

By late summer it had progressed. At the September 1, 2026 council meeting, Klein reported that staff had met with the engineering firm Transpo about "the B & C one-way project," and that the meeting produced a design concept.

The minutes don't give a construction date or a cost, and nothing in the public record so far announces when the signs would change. Still, the B and C conversion is the only part of the master plan with a named engineering partner and a design concept already reported to the Council. Every other part is waiting on late 2028 design work and grant decisions. For anyone who turns off First onto B or C to park, drop someone off, or cut over to Second, this is the part of the plan to watch.

A separate item could be confused with this one. The Tribune's June 3 budget coverage said a range of improvements on the alphabet avenues, A through H, was among the projects pushed past 2028. That article didn't connect those improvements to the First Street Master Plan or the B and C one-way project, so it's best read as its own budget decision.

What the Plan Holds for the Riverfront

The parks portion is the most detailed part of the plan, and it would change how the river feels from downtown. These are the features as the Tribune described them in February:

• Kla Ha Ya Park: stepped terraces down to a river platform, possibly a floating dock, and a slide or another feature for kids
• Cady Park: a paved entry and parking area, a non-motorized boat launch, outdoor seating, and a longer riverfront trail connecting to the Centennial Trail

The Tribune reported that these park improvements would follow master plans the city had already approved. The research for this post found no separate construction schedule or funding award for the Kla Ha Ya or Cady work. As far as the public record shows, they're on the same open-ended timeline as the rest of the plan.

The Centennial Trail link at Cady Park ties into a much bigger county project. In July, the Everett Herald reported that Snohomish County had started planning a 12-mile Centennial Trail South extension from Snohomish to Woodinville along the former Eastside Rail line. Planning is expected to run through 2027, and construction would be phased over more than 10 years. Both the riverfront trail and the regional trail are long projects that end up in the same place.

Where to Follow It From Here

For readers who want to see the designs, the city has posted the First Street Master Plan presentation with detailed graphics, along with the Community Engagement Report that summarizes public feedback. Updates show up first in City Council agendas and minutes, which is where the Transpo meeting surfaced in September. Klein told the Council at that same meeting that he had recently reviewed staff presentations for the 2027–2028 budget. That budget process will show whether any money goes to the B and C project or to the utility work under First Street.

If you own a home near downtown and you're trying to figure out how the First Street timeline lines up with your own plans, Wendy Bremer would be glad to walk through it with you. You can request a free home valuation and staging consultation, and she'll give you a clear picture of where your home stands today, whenever the street outside gets its new look.