By Mai Ling Slaughter, The Chronicle, 1/12/2000
Just months after the state expressed concern about a fast-food development covering 10 acres south of Chehalis, a Centralia developer plans to fill for another development downstream from the site.
But according to Chehalis Community Development Manager Bob Nacht, the development is legal.
The proposal to fill approximately 7,800 cubic yards east of Newaukum Avenue in Chehalis would not raise streams more than a foot in a 100-year flood, the state maximum for a development on a flood plain.
"I'm not saying it doesn't have any effect," Nacht said. "But it's legal." By filling a site prior to building, developers hope to prevent property from flood damage. But neighbors of such a site often object to its filling out of fear for their own properties.
At the fast-food site, located off Interstate 5 at Exit 72, the approximately 11,000 cubic yards of fill developers plan to use would raise the river at the site about 7 inches in a 100-year flood, according to a county analysis.
But 100 feet downstream from the site, the river level would return to its normal height, Nacht said.
Although no such study was done at the second Chehalis site - located within city limits where the Newaukum River meets the Chehalis River Nacht predicts the effect would raise the river level the same or less.
"There is no reason to believe that the filling activity would come even close to the 12-inch criteria," he said. "(But) it may very well cause the water to flow down the roadways." Regardless of the effect, the Chehalis Department of Community Services does not have the capability to prevent legal projects.
"The law does not allow us to prohibit property development just because a property adjacent has an existing problem," Nacht said. "These people have the same opportunity to protect themselves."
Donald Stannek, who lives in Adna but often drives by the proposed site, is concerned Chehalis is allowing the filling to take place after the Federal Emergency Management Agency moved neighboring houses inundated by the 1996 flood.
"Even if somebody had received FEMA disaster relief money," Nacht said, "it has nothing to do with the regulations." Anyone wishing to comment on the project must do so by 5 p.m. today. Nacht may be reached at 748-0271, and is located at the Community Services Building on Henderson Park.
Mai Ling Slaughter municipal government for The Chronicle. She can be reached by e-mail at news@chronline.com or by telephoning 807-8237.
This page created and maintained by Chehalis River Council
Send comments or questions to the: Chehalis River Council