Whenever a new development takes place in North City Water District’s service area, we meet with the owner or developer to jointly identify ways to work together to streamline the effort, minimize project cost, and reduce disruption. This year, two projects required collaboration with five different entities instead of just one.

Minimizing project costs is a benefit that trickles down to all of our customers; minimizing project disruption means less negative impacts on people, traffic, and local business livelihoods. Even though coordinating with five different agencies on each of these two projects required extra planning and careful communication, the end results are always worth it for our community.

First Project: The New Fircrest Nursing and Laundry Facilities
15230 15th Ave NE in Shoreline, Washington

This new 3-story, 120-bed, 127,942 square foot nursing facility project required a Water Service Extension Agreement (or WSEA as we like to call them) among the following five agencies in order to provide adequate service, fire flow, and cost sharing:

1. The Department of Social and Health Services – the tenant until bonds are paid in full; then they will become the building owner.
2. Washington State Dep’t. of Natural Resources – land manager for the land owned by the Washington State Trust land that benefits the residents of Fircrest;
3. Public Facilities Group – a not-for-profit partner;
4. Anchor Health Properties / Anchor Fircrest Developer, LLC – the project developer; and
5. Kiewit Building Group – the contractor

In addition to the above-ground photos, we wanted to show you how much effort goes into the utilities below ground, including nearly 3,400 feet of 4, 6, 8 and 12 inch water mains, 6 new hydrants, and other appurtenances to ensure the project met our design standards—the same standards any developer must meet when doing a project in our service area. Most of this work was done early in the project, during the site development phase. The nursing facility is slated to open in November 2027. Learn more in this article >

Second Project: Connecting a New Water Main
6th Avenue NE and NE 145th Street in Shoreline

This project required careful coordination and scheduling among the following five agencies:

1. Washington State’s Department of Transportation
2. City of Shoreline and their adjacent roundabout project
3. Sound Transit’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project
4. Seattle Public Utilities’ water utility
5. Seattle City Light

The scope of work involved connecting the new 12” water main we installed on 6th Avenue NE (from NE 155th Street to just shy of NE 145th Street) to an existing 12” water main on NE 145th Street. All work along NE 145th Street had to be done at night and completed before the City of Shoreline’s roundabout paving. Work began on April 27, 2026, paving on NE 145th Street was completed in May; final paving on 6th Avenue will take place once Sound Transit completes their work at the intersection with the Bus Rapid Transit project.