SEATTLE – The proposed Arlington-Marysville Manufacturing-Industrial Center (MIC) cleared a crucial step for recognition on Thursday.

Puget Sound Regional Council’s Growth Management Policy Board after thorough review approved extensive policy framework updates and guidelines that relate to MICs, countywide centers in Snohomish, King, Pierce and Kitsap counties, regionally-designated mixed use centers and military installations.

Arlington city council member Jan Schuette, who serves on the policy board, was ecstatic that the “yes” vote sailed through with no discussion due to all the pre-planning that has made it ready to move forward in earnest.

“This has been a long road, and a lot of people have invested time in this MIC,” said Schuette of the manufacturing job-generating proposal that traces back to 2013. “Now we can ask for designation.”

The board’s recommendations now move on to the PSRC Executive Board for action later this month, opening the opportunity for Arlington and Marysville to actually apply for MIC designation, a process that should last into summer, PSRC Senior Planner Liz Underwood-Bultmann said.

Arlington Mayor Barb Tolbert said, “The efforts to bring job opportunities to our citizens cleared an important step in the process. These efforts provide the path to potential investment in infrastructure.”

Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring said the MIC and pursuit of official designation is the “culmination of hard work by both cities, county officials, Economic Alliance of Snohomish County, and PSRC officials and board members.

“We remain committed to bringing good, family wage jobs to our community to provide people with more local career options and good paying jobs,” Nehring said.

City leaders in Arlington and Marysville who have worked together with Snohomish County to create a diversified manufacturing, industrial and advanced technologies center clustered around Arlington Airport and the Smokey Point area

The Arlington-Marysville MIC covers about 4,000 acres, fairly evenly split between the cities, with a little more on the Arlington side. More than 1,700 of those acres are considered ready to develop because they are vacant, could be redeveloped or are only partly occupied, city officials said.

Currently, there are about 5,300 jobs in the center, but it could become home to between 10,000 and 25,000 jobs by 2040. The manufacturing-industrial center would become only the county’s second designated center focused on manufacturing and industry.