Woodway, Washington

Woodway is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,318 at the 2020 census.

Based on per capita income, one of the more reliable measures of affluence, Woodway ranks sixth of 522 areas in the state of Washington to be ranked, and ranks first in Snohomish County.

History

The community was founded in 1914 by attorney turned real estate developer David Whitcomb, who acquired and began developing "Woodway Park". The city includes areas north and south of the original Woodway Park which offer one third acre lots and lots in addition to the lots in the park where the original secluded, wooded environment remains.

Woodway was officially incorporated on February 26, 1958, in an effort to protect the heavily forested area from development and avoid annexation by Edmonds. Lot sizes were deed restricted to a minimum of (though existing smaller lot sizes were grandfathered) and also mandated nunneries for lots larger than . as a way of grandfathering in the existing convent, Rosary Heights, mother house of the Edmonds Dominican Sisters (originally built as the estate of Boeing vice-president Philip G. Johnson). The city was named for its natural setting by a real estate developer. At that time, Woodway high school students attended the old Edmonds High school until the new Woodway High School was opened in 1970. In 1990, this school merged with Edmonds High School to create Edmonds Woodway High School.

Woodway was reclassified as a city in 1986, but continues to refer to itself as the Town of Woodway. Its first homes were completed in 2003. As of 2021, no part of Woodway is zoned for commercial use.

Woodway is the only city in Snohomish County to have telephone numbers in the 206 area code, but some areas were switched to area code 425 in 1997. Landline phone numbers in Woodway originally shared LIncoln prefixes (542 and 546) with Richmond Beach, but PRospect prefixes (771, 774, 775, 776) shared with Edmonds were later added.

Geography

Woodway is located at the southwestern edge of Snohomish County, bordered to the north and east by Edmonds and the south by Shoreline in King County. Puget Sound lies to the west of the town, including an unincorporated area known as Point Wells. The town sits on a bluff that overlooks Puget Sound; the BNSF Railway has railroad tracks along the shoreline, which was also home to a clothing-optional beach.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and is water.

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Woodway is the second least populated municipality in Snohomish County, ahead of Index, and had a population of 1,318 residents at the time of the 2020 census.

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, there were 1,318 people and 457 households living in Woodway, which had a population density of .

Of the 457 households in Woodway, 74.4% were married couples living together and 1.5% were cohabitating but unmarried. Households with a male householder with no spouse or partner were 9.4% of the population, while households with a female householder with no spouse or partner were 14.7% of the population. Out of all households, 39.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 41.4% had residents who were 65 years of age or older.

There were 448 households, of which 41.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 75.7% were married couples living together, 4.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 2.9% had a male householder with no wife present, and 16.7% were non-families. 12.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.90 and the average family size was 3.18. Woodway's town hall was moved in 2013 to a new building designed by GGLO. Woodway is the only community in Snohomish County without public library service; residents have repeatedly voted against paying into the Sno-Isle Libraries system, with individuals citing high property taxes as their primary reason for opting out. Woodway residents could purchase Sno-Isle nonresident cards annually to access its resources prior to 2000, when it stopped issuing such cards.

At the federal level, Woodway is part of the 2nd congressional district, which encompasses western Snohomish County and the entirety of Island, Skagit, and Whatcom counties. From 2012 to 2022, it was part of the 7th congressional district along with Edmonds and most of Seattle. At the state level, the city is part of the 32nd legislative district, which also includes Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Shoreline, and parts of Edmonds and Seattle. Woodway lies within the Snohomish County Council's 3rd district, which also includes Edmonds and Lynnwood.

Culture

Parts of the 1986 NBC television series A Year in the Life was filmed at a home in Woodway.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Woodway is served by State Route 104, which clips the city's northeast corner and connects it to the Edmonds ferry terminal and Interstate 5 (I-5) in Mountlake Terrace. The BNSF Railway's Scenic Subdivision runs along the city's western coastline and carries Sounder commuter rail service, which stops at Edmonds station. The city is part of the public transportation benefit area for Community Transit, but is not served by its buses; it is, however, part of the dial-a-ride service area for paratransit routes.