Chehalis skips offer; OKs own plan, By Mai Ling Slaughter, The Chronicle, 7/13/99
The Chehalis City Council Monday passed the city's comprehensive plan, rather than approving an agreement that would have provided the city a wastewater line the land developer estimated at having a value of $3 million.
In return for the new sewer line, the city would have given the developer, Steve Bergstrom, more than 800 connections to its sewer system.
But the agreement would have gone against recommendations from volunteers who spent the past five years creating the plan - and would have put off approval of the plan for another two weeks.
Bergstrom, with AKR Properties Inc., was not at the meeting.
''I would have been there if I would have thought there was going to be a problem,'' Bergstrom said this morning.
He met last week with the city's Growth Management Committee, he said, and was confident the council would approve the agreement.
''It would have been nice to have known what was going to happen,'' he added.
David Hooff, also with AKR Properties, represented Bergstrom at the meeting.
In the agreement, Bergstrom proposed developing 200 acres in southern Chehalis - 115 of them near Peace Lutheran Church and Newaukum Valley Golf Course - that are designated for industrial growth.
''The people on the planning commission care very much about this, and every piece of the plan was done deliberately,'' said Judy DeVaul, one of the volunteer commissioners who helped create the draft comprehensive plan.
She said if the council voted in favor of the agreement, it would be doing a ''great disservice'' to those who made the land designations and other decisions in the plan.
The commission chose to leave the area as industrial because the population growth figures it was mandated to use did not estimate that much residential growth in the next 20 years.
''We rolled over every stone on this,'' DeVaul added.
Michael Davolio, the plan's consultant, also recommended the council not approve the agreement. But if it did so choose, he suggested it take the entire area out of the city's urban growth area so the city would not be expected to annex the area.
One reason the commission did not designate land in southern Chehalis for residential use is because of the long distance police and fire services would have to travel in an emergency.
The city would be responsible to provide those services only after the urban growth areas were annexed into the city. Until that time, Lewis County would be responsible for those services.
Also, Davolio said, because of the long-term effects of the land designation, empty lots could be sold for industrial purposes, and homeowners might not have been able to add on to their homes.
Another problem the council discussed was whether the county would be able to approve residential development in the area.
Bergstrom asked that the city council postpone approval of the plan to give him time to list the land with the county as residential. But the Lewis County commissioners adopted their plan June 1, which included Chehalis' urban growth areas.
City Attorney Bill Hillier said the city could legally stall on the plan's approval until its next meeting to give Bergstrom the time to ''grandfather'' the land.
But Davolio said it is unlikely the county would make that decision, although Hooff said the county gave him and Bergstrom one possible solution when they discussed the situation.
''Last I heard, Lewis County was going to amend the effective date of their comprehensive plan to be after Chehalis' (adopts its) plan,'' Bergstrom said.
Regardless, Bergstrom said, he's still ''prepared and willing'' to construct the sewer line.
''We have all the ground under purchase and we're going to go ahead,'' Bergstrom said.
''We need the sewer line to develop the properties whether we're developing them for industrial or residential,'' he added. ''Of course, the neighbors would have preferred residential.''
If the city were to build the sewer line, Bergstrom said it would cost much more than what he could build it for because of the process.
Hillier said if Bergstrom does want to pursue developing residential land, one of the options is to amend the comprehensive plan to accommodate his developments - which could happen no sooner than one year after the plan's effective date.
At that time, Bergstrom may request the land designation where he would like to develop be changed to residential.
The council did approve one part of the agreement for Bergstrom's Holloway Springs subdivision, which is located in south Chehalis off Rush Road.
Bergstrom already paid for 40 connections for the subdivision, with plans to purchase 160 more this year. But he said he did not know the price per connection would rise, and he asked that the council provide him the remaining connections at last year's price.
The council decided to grant him 75 connections at last year's price, and 85 at the current market price.
Mai Ling Slaughter covers municipal government for The Chronicle. She can be reached by e-mail at news@chronline.com or by telephoning 807-8237.
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