County Council Postpones Orton Junction Decision; Public Comment Awaits

After a few intense weeks of negotiations, Cascade Land Conservancy, the city of Sumner and Orton Farms LLC have come up with an agreement designed to keep Orton Junction from looking like a stripmall.

The much-contested land development project was slated for a at today’s hearing before the Pierce County Council. However, Sumner communications spokesperson Carmen Palmer told Patch that county leaders have pushed the final decision back another week to allow for more public input on newly submitted documents approved by the Sumner City Council on Oct. 17.

The agreement includes guiding principals for the project, like green building, regional farming protection and project sustainability. It was finalized and released to county leaders and the public at last night's meeting.

“Because the agreement was just released to most of the public yesterday, there is likely going to be a motion to move this back another week, to review the terms of the agreement and be fully transparent and provide public comment,” confirmed Ryan Mello, Pierce County Director for Cascade Land Conservancy.

Mello's group, a Puget Sound-based organization located in Tacoma, has worked with the City of Sumner and Orton Farms LLC, a subsidiary of locally-based Investco, throughout the month on the particulars of sustainability at Orton Junction. Read more about the first draft of the principals agreement .

“We think it’s an incredibly satisfactory agreement. It calls for accountability and has tremendous benefit for the wealth of the agricultural community,” said Mello.

Sumner City Administrator Diane Supler walked the council through the finalized document during a special study session prior to the meeting. The council unanimously approved the plan with little question; Councilmember Randy Hynek and Mayor Dave Enslow were not present.

Points included ideals for a “complete, compact and connected community,” green building and affordable housing, plus conservation easements that could permanently protect agricultural lands surrounding the project.

Sumner has also agreed to not expand its Urban Growth Area onto resource lands in the 2012 comprehensive plan, which is something Supler said shouldn’t negatively affect the city’s future.

“These documents cannot bind future councils. Based on the size and complexity [of Orton Junction], we will be working on this for the next 20 to 30 years. We really wouldn’t have the resources to take on another project of this size and magnitude.”

That’s the problem, according to some Sumner residents who spoke during public comment. Many argued that the economy just isn’t stable enough for Orting Junction to be sustainable, and the promise of “jobs now” would disappear once completed storefronts sit empty.

“I think we should table this until after November, when the council will have changed. I have no problem with the YMCA coming into town, but the question truly is, where. And, who should be making that decision,” said Joe Gerace, a candidate for the Sumner City Council. “It feels like a rush job to me. Four councilmembers will change [once this is approved]… do we have the right people in place to make that decision?”

Fellow Sumner City Council candidate Nancy Dumas also spoke against Orton Junction and criticized the city’s pledge of $2.5 million in support for the YMCA.

“I’m approaching this from a fiscal responsibility standpoint – $2.5 million is a lot for us to spend when the citizens who contribute to it will not all benefit from it,” said Dumas. “I’m not trying to diminish work that has been done […] but the timing doesn’t seem right. We’d all benefit from sidewalks, from working on East Valley Highway, but not all of us can afford a YMCA.”

Sumner resident Kathy Hammad also spoke on the financial strains Orton Junction will take on the local community.

“Y or no Y, the reason for this project is to provide retail space. Where has reality gone? We are in horrible economic times,” said Hammad. “Things aren’t going to get better real soon, so I don’t know why we are spending our precious money on this project when we don’t have that to spend. This is city staff time that we aren’t going to get refunded for. It seems like a horribly dangerous project.”

Other community members asked the council to look at empty storefronts and plots of land already within the city limits, to examine other road projects and needs in town.

Sumner City Councilmember Steve Allsop defended the project and voiced his support of developer Mike Corliss.

“If we could have everything in little old downtown Sumner, wouldn’t that be great? But a regional YMCA should not be within the confines of our neighborhoods – it would destroy them due to traffic, et cetera,” said Allsop. “The developer is taking a risk. He took a risk when he purchased the property that he’d get it rezoned – it seems like he’ll get that. In the meantime, we’ll preserve a ton of agricultural resource land. It’ll hopefully make him very rich and reward him for his risk.”

Bob Ecklund, president and CEO of the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties, reiterated his organization’s support of the project and their plans to begin immediate work toward the Sumner branch grand opening in 2013.

“Meetings like this do not necessarily reflect the community,” said Ecklund. “Our market research shows that 20,000 people are ready for this.”

Important Components of the Seven Principals of the Orton Junction UGA Amendment

Patch brought you the first draft of the Seven Principals Agreement, drafted in conjunction with CLC, the City of Sumner and Orton Farms, LLC. The categories were more fleshed out during Monday night’s meeting, with an emphasis on conservation easements to preserve farmland for the future.

“This is a unique and memorial agreement. For the first time in the history of Pierce County, we’ve seen such an agreement that provides for protection of agricultural lands and enhances the overall project that can be developed into future,” said Supler.

In all, the group identified more than 500 acres of agricultural land that will be permanently protected if the Orton Junction development is approved. Because the proposed UGA amendment contains a total of 125 agricultural resource lands, the total project requires a ratio of newly protected acreage for every acre developed.

In Pierce County, for every acre of agricultural land developed, one acre must be preserved. In the Orton Junction plan, for every acre developed, four will be preserved.

The developer will provide the 279 acres of land for permanent preservation; property owners plan to purchase an additional 222 acres to supplement the protection easements, preferably near the Alderton-McMillian planning area. Other options for land preservation include the Puyallup-Orting Farm Valley or other ARL lands in Pierce County.

Supler reiterated to the council that, if Orton Junction were not to move forward, the agricultural land could be divided into 10-acre plots by the landowners and developed into homes in the future.

“This really furthers protection of farming and heritage in area, because it would prevent that from happening,” said Supler. “We’ve made significant strides in protecting the land for farming.”

The agreement also laid out plans for affordable housing options – a minimum of 15 percent of dwelling units will be available to those meeting Pierce County’s minimum income. Supler said that Investco plans to offer 25 percent of available housing to that tier of wage-earners, which should be affordable to a family of four with a median income of $56,000.

Mello told Patch that the good faith agreement is satisfactory to Cascade Land Conservancy’s concerns regarding local sustainability and farmland preservation. However, the logistics of the final Principal, focused on identifying agriculture industry programs or infrastructure to provide additional support for the agricultural industry, needs to be fleshed out.

“We need to more clearly spell out what [this principal] looks like, but you can’t answer all of these questions at this point in the process,” said Mello. “It’s a UGA amendment, not about whether or not Sumner should have a YMCA or mixed-use retail center. If you are going to pave over farmland, what are the principals that should be used to protect land in the future?”