By Brian Mittge, The Chronicle, 10/22/2002
That seemed to be the sentiment as a crowd of 100 strong filled the Lewis County Commission's public meeting room Monday night to voice sometimes tearful disapproval for plans to create a 925-acre industrial park on pasture and woodland between Winlock and Napavine.
The proposal, by the Lacey-based Sovran Development Group, would create an area for industries that need more land than is available at the Chehalis and Centralia industrial areas.
The public was only supposed to give specific suggestions on areas that should be studied in an upcoming environmental impact statement, but the crowd had larger concerns.
"Listen to the people. We really don't want this in our neighborhood," said Becky Sisson.
Former Lewis County Commissioner Glenn Aldrich of Mossyrock, working as a permit consultant for Sovran, fielded concerns ranging from water availability to train crossings. He and the environmental consultant appeared to be the only Sovran representatives at the meeting.
Several of the neighbors who spoke said proposed action seemed to violate the consistency and confidence about land use that was supposed to come with the Growth Management Act.
"We were told this area would support one house per 10 acres" said Dennis Larson. "Then an out-of-town investment group paints a big picture ... that's a hard one to swallow when we've been involved for so long." "I want to be here forever," said Larson's daughter Laura Hylton, struggling not to weep as she stood at the microphone.
"I'm not opposed to growth, nobody here is, but this place is special." The rural area, located near Interstate 5, the railroad and natural gas lines, is no stranger to land use conflicts. A handful of gravel pits are scattered within a few miles of the proposed site. Neighbors have strongly opposed the newest pit, taking their protests to the state level.
The Napavine industrial park would be located between Napavine and Winlock, loosely centered at the intersection of state Route 603 and Avery Road, near the community of Evaline and its still-functional two-room schoolhouse.
It will take 30 years to fill up the industrial park, say Sovran planners. It will come in five stages, and will eventually include two new railroad spur lines crossing state Route 603 to service developments on the west side of the road.
The main truck entrance would be from nearby I-5 and U.S.
Highway 12 via Avery Road.
It could provide as many as 1,000 jobs and 5 million square feet of industrial space.
Ken Copher pointed to a map showing that his property would be surrounded on two sides by the industrial park. He worries stormwater will flow onto his property and that he won't be able to sell his home.
"Would you like to be there with industrial park on two sides?" he asked Aldrich and Sovran's environmental consultant Gerald Smedes.
John Hylton, a neighbor and mortgage banker, later emphasized the point.
"You might as well roll over and die, because you're not going to be able to sell your home," he said. He also worried that Napavine schools wouldn't be able to handle the increased growth.
Rowdy Mars had the opposite worry.
"My property value will increase. What kind of protection do I have for my land if I can't afford to stay there?" he asked.
Several worried that Napavine would eventually expand if the park is approved, forcing them into the city limits.
Lewis County Senior Planner Bob Johnson said he expects the park would stay in the unincorporated county areas, providing county government with high-value taxable area and bringing more money into county coffers.
Richard Roth, a rural Winlock resident who has led opposition to a theme park planned near his property, urged the county to take a scientific survey of all underground water to help guide future development. He and others wondered whether the underground aquifer would be able to recharge New wells could drain the aquifer at the same time that huge swaths of blacktop are keeping it from recharging, said neighbor Dick Battin.
Aldrich said warehouses and many other possible industries actually use relatively little water.
Sovran has purchased a groundwater right from a local landowner and would transfer that right to the city of Napavine in exchange for water service for the tenants, Aldrich said. Each industry that located in the park would have to treat its own industrial wastewater, he said, generally in some above-ground process that might involve reusing the water. Sewer lines would run back to Napavine, but only for the sewage generated by employees and lunchrooms in the buildings, he said.
Joe Mars, who raises goats, cattle and hay, protested the development, saying he can't do much with his property because it has two salmon-bearing streams. He said the 20 ponds and retention basins Sovran has proposed would not be enough to catch the runoff from over 5 million square feet of new blacktop and other impervious surfaces.
The area proposed for development is thick with wildlife, said Ron Knutson.
"I feed ducks and deer," Knutson said. "Where are they gonna go?" Others worried about the effect of industry next door to the 120-year-old Evaline schoolhouse, one of the oldest in the state.
An Environmental Impact Statement generally takes from 6 to 12 months to complete, said Johnson, the planner. It depends on how much money the company is willing to spend, he said. The EIS is an informational document, not something that's searching for a reason to shut down the project, Johnson has said. It is being conducted by Smedes, under the supervision of the county, and is being paid for by Sovran.
The environmental study underway now is only for the project as a whole. No specific projects have been proposed so far, Aldrich said. The industrial park could host anything from warehouses to food processing plants to heavy industrial, he said, as long as it complied with state and county codes.
Counties are permitted under the Growth Management Act to have two major industrial land banks. Another is being proposed north of Centralia on land reclaimed from the Centralia Steam Plant.
Sovran has proposed two other major developments in the area:
"new downtowns" for Napavine and Winlock closer to I-5. The Southwest Washington Public Development Authority is working with Sovran on part of one of the proposals €" to development a theme park with motels and RV space within Sovran's Winlock development. PDA Executive Director Dwight Butt and Board Chairman Charlie Boyd were at Monday night's hearing, but only to see how the public process worked, they said. The PDA is not involved with the Napavine industrial park, they said. An earlier contract between the PDA and Spain-based Civis to build a theme park in the same area was canceled after Civis pulled out with concerns about the economy and the PDA's behavior.
--- Brian Mittge covers politics, the environment and Lewis County government for The Chronicle. He may be reached by e-mail at bmittge@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8237.
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