Neighbors Object To Waste Firm's Expansion -- Rubatino Foes Cite Area's Historic Image

EVERETT - History is in the eye of the beholder for Ed Rubatino and his Riverside neighbors.

When Rubatino looks back at the Everett Avenue corridor in which his grandfather founded Rubatino Refuse Removal Inc., he sees a busy commercial district where residents didn't mind living next door to grocery stores and gas stations.

To homeowners, there are two kinds of history: the city's history, in which their 101-year-old neighborhood plays a key role, and Rubatino's recent history as an increasingly unwelcome neighbor.

When Rubatino and his neighbors faced off last night in front of Everett Hearing Examiner James Driscoll, Rubatino's only allies were his consultant and two city planners who delivered a staff report on the company's plans to expand its Riverside operations and requirements the city has imposed.

Rubatino, who has been illegally storing garbage containers and recycling bins on a recently acquired Everett Avenue property, seeks a special-use permit to continue that practice. He also wants to use the site for temporary storage of yard waste and, someday, to build a 35-foot-tall recycling transfer center. His grandfather, Angelo Rubatino, founded the business on an adjacent block in 1908.

The City Council already has ruled the project may not be blocked on environmental-protection grounds; now neighbors have hired an attorney to argue that Rubatino's operation does not belong on commercial-zone property.

Driscoll says he'll file his decision by March 8.

Last night's three-hour hearing was not a typical not-in-my-neighborhood forum. Although many of those who testified live in the historic neighborhood around the Rubatino site, they were joined by civic leaders from other parts of the city.

Marian Krell, president of the View Ridge-Madison Neighborhood Association, said she heard Rubatino would have to increase garbage fees if forced to relocate his Riverside operations to an industrial site.

"To save me a few bucks on my garbage bill, it isn't fair to force this on a neighborhood that doesn't want it," she said.

Susan Ratliff Reichmann, chairwoman of the Port Gardner Neighborhood Association, said she used to live next door to Ed Rubatino and considers him a friend. She also serves with him on a Snohomish County advisory committee to site the county's central recycling station.

But she opposes Rubatino's plan for Riverside.

"Why must we sink to the lowest common denominator just because the zoning allows it?" Reichmann asked.

The neighborhood, known by historians as the Mitchell Addition, began as the fashionable home for some of Everett's early leaders, including state Sen. John McManus. It evolved into a working-class neighborhood, populated primarily by mill workers, then declined into a fairly rough area in the 1960s and '70s.

In recent years, young families and people interested in restoring the old houses have begun to bring the neighborhood back.

Jack O'Donnell, chairman of the Everett Historical Commission, gave a brief history of the area, noting that quite a few homes near the Rubatino site qualify for the Everett Historic Register.

"The Mitchell Addition is an important part of Everett's history and should be treated with care and respect," he said.