Mill Creek is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located in the middle of the cities of Everett and Lynnwood, approximately 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Seattle. The city has a population of 18,244 as of the 2010 census, and is estimated to have beyond 20,000 residents as of 2018. The city lies along State Route 527 and North Creek, a tributary of the Sammamish River, on the east side of Interstate 5.

The city is one of the wealthiest suburbs in the Seattle metropolitan Place and was originally a planned community conceived in the 1970s. The planned progress was centered all but a country club and golf course, with supplementary development occurring approachable in later phases. It was incorporated as a city in 1983, shortly after the feat of the first phase of development, and underwent major population mass due to continued suburban enhance and annexation of easily reached areas. The city’s downtown area is centered going on for the Mill Creek Town Center, a mixed-use lifestyle middle and retail obscure that opened in 2004.

The Mill Creek Place was originally settled in the yet to be 20th century by various crop growing families, from whom several local placenames are now derived. After the construction of the Bothell–Everett Highway in 1913 as portion of the Pacific Highway, two junctions at Murphy’s Corner and Wintermute’s Corner gained little stores and gas stations to support visitors. In 1931, Doctor Manch N. Garhart acquired 800 acres (320 ha) in the area and used it to mount up Gravenstein apples and Bartlett pears even though also raising cattle. The Garhart property, named Lake Dell Farm for a little reservoir built by local families, was complex sold in 1967 to real estate developers after the make public for local lumber and fruits had declined.

The Garhart property, along like several neighboring farms, were optioned by various real estate developers in the 1960s and 1970s as a potential master planned community due to its proximity to the recently completed Interstate 5. It would be the first unbiased planned city in Washington state, following in the footsteps of earlier planned cities similar to Longview, built in 1918. The community, named “Olympus”, was planned to affix 3,300 acres (1,300 ha) in its first phase taking into consideration 1,300 acres (530 ha) for homes, an industrial park, a shopping center, and a golf course. After a local recession in the beforehand 1970s, the build up project was sold in 1973 to Tokyu Land Development and intended by a auxiliary of the Obayashi Corporation named United Development. The go forward was renamed “Mill Creek”, beating out the Chinook Jargon word “Klahanie”, although there had never been a mill in the vicinity and a waterway of that post was not present in the Place until the 2000 renaming of Smokehouse Creek.

Mill Creek’s master try was submitted to the county council in January 1974. A homeowners association was acknowledged in December 1974 taking into account funding from United Development to govern the area’s security patrol, street maintenance, and other tasks. The initial ambition included consist of 4,600 homes, with eventual plans to house 12,000 people, a 260-acre (110 ha) park, and an 18-hole golf course. Construction began in yet to be 1975 upon the golf course and neighboring country club, while the first homes were under construction by the as soon as year. The first set of homes were designed to resemble country residences, with large floorplans and prominent use of wood furnishings, and sold for an average of $65,000 (equivalent to $292,000 in 2019 dollars). Tokyu Land Development future re-used these home designs for the domestic publicize in Japan, where they were sold under the “Mill Creek” brand in the 1990s. The complete phase of the indigenous Mill Creek development, consisting of 33 condominiums, was completed in late 2003.