Brier, Washington

Brier is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is bordered by Mountlake Terrace to the west, Lynnwood to the north, Bothell to the east, and Lake Forest Park to the south. The population was 6,560 at the 2020 census.

Brier is located in the traditional territory of several Coast Salish peoples, including the Sammamish, Snohomish, and Suquamish. The area around modern-day Swamp Creek was known as dxʷɬ(ə)q̓ ab, meaning "other side of something" and "a wide place", in the Lushootseed language.

The first European-descendant settlers in the Brier area, the Salty family, arrived from Finland in 1883 and constructed a cabin to establish a Homestead Act claim. They were followed by loggers who cleared land that had already been sold to the founders of the Puget Mill Company. The first area school was built on land donated by the Salty family in September 1896 and later replaced with the Cedar Valley School in 1911. By 1915, much of the forestland around modern-day Brier was cleared.

The Brier area was known for its mink farms and later gave way to suburban ranch houses in the 1950s and 1960s. The Shasta Park subdivision was created in 1924 and further developed into smaller lots by the early 1950s. Brier was named for an existing road that bisected the subdivision where the community was developed in the 1950s.

Brier was officially incorporated as a city on February 11, 1965, after an emergency vote following a proposal from a developer to annex the area into neighboring Mountlake Terrace. Boeing engineer Richard Balser was elected as the city's first mayor and the first city hall was in the home of a local resident who rented a room to the city government for $50 per month. Brier gained approximately 1,000 residents within ten years and opened its permanent city hall and public library in 1974; a city park opened in 1976 as part of the national bicentennial celebrations. The area was gradually developed into a more suburban community, growing to over 6,000 people by 1999. Since its incorporation, several elected officials in Brier have been recalled or forced to resign over various misconduct allegations and convictions. A new city hall opened in April 2005, replacing a leased office.

Brier is located 15 miles (24 km) north of Seattle in southern Snohomish County, bordered to the south by Lake Forest Park in King County. The cities of Mountlake Terrace and Bothell lie to the west and east, respectively. The unincorporated area to the north is connected by Brier Road, which continues towards Lynnwood.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.13 square miles (5.52 km²), all of it land. The city has large lot sizes for residential homes, at a minimum of 12,500 square feet (1,160 m²) and is exclusively zoned for single-family homes.

Brier is described as a "one-store and one-restaurant town", with few businesses on its lone commercial strip.