(The following story by Kelly Kearsley appeared on the News Tribune website on January 29.)
TACOMA, Wash. — The Port of Tacoma released Monday four potential sites for a several-hundred-acre, multimillion-dollar rail logistics center – including one it already owns.
And none of them are in Pierce County.
The top candidates are in Thurston County – including the port’s Maytown property – and one site in Lewis County, near Chehalis. The logistics center would serve the ports of Tacoma and Olympia as a place to stage and sort rail cargo.
Port staff and commissioners got a first look at the study Monday.
“First thing I’d conclude is that it looks like there’s more than one place that this can be accomplished,” said Port of Tacoma Executive Director Tim Farrell.
In 2006 the port jumped at the chance to buy a $22-million, 745-acre property in Maytown – 12 miles south of Olympia – to potentially use for a rail logistics center. It then teamed up with the Port of Olympia to explore and plan for such a facility.
But the proposed South Sound Logistics Center has generated much controversy among Thurston County residents, many of them concerned that the increased rail and truck traffic would have a negative effect on the surrounding prairie and nearby Millersylvania State Park.
The Port of Tacoma commission last year authorized an “alternative sites analysis,” which identified other sites that could serve as a rail logistics center. Real estate company Colliers International coordinated the study, which cost $70,000.
“Ideally this would have been done before purchasing the property as part of the due diligence,” said Port of Tacoma spokeswoman Tara Hazarian. “In this case it was unusual to find 700-plus acres that’s (partially zoned) industrial. We thought ‘let’s grab it.’”
The port provided a list of criteria for alternative sites including that the properties be in Pierce, Thurston or Lewis county. The port also wanted the sites to be no more than 10 miles from Interstate 5 and on an active rail line, larger than 600 acres and able to accommodate at least 8,000 feet of continuous railroad track.
Farrell described the study as “a pure analysis of what’s physically out there.”
The port has not contacted any of the individual property owners or affected communities.
“There’s nobody out there saying we are going to come buy your property,” he said. “Here’s a set of criteria and the properties that fit. It doesn’t say anything more than that at this point.”
The study includes a short list of potential sites for a logistics center. The sites “meet all of the selection criteria and should be considered viable sites for the SSLC,” the study reports.
The sites on that list are:
MAYTOWN
The Port of Tacoma already owns this property. A BNSF Railway track runs along the east side of the site, and Tacoma Rail tracks cross the property. The site used to be a munitions plant and is permitted for gravel mining. It’s adjacent to property owned by the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
OFFUTT SITE
This site consists of 847 acres in Thurston County on the west side of Offutt Lake, which is surrounded by residential development, according to the study. Part of the site is also permitted for gravel mining. The site is about six miles from I-5 and near BNSF and Tacoma Rail tracks.
TENINO SITE
About 1,057 acres in Thurston county. Some of this site is also permitted for gravel mining. The study notes that a ranch, a few homes and gravel pit structures border the site. It’s about a mile from BNSF tracks and 5.5 miles from Interstate 5.
CHEHALIS SITE
This site has 1,207 acres in Lewis County. It is primarily farmland and a few structures, with some surrounding rural residential development. A Port of Chehalis historic steam engine rail line accesses the site, and I-5 is four miles away.
The study’s initial screening process for sites produced 17 places, including the port’s Maytown site, that could work for a logistics center. The study also included three properties requested by citizens – such as the former TransAlta coal mine near Centralia – though the sites didn’t meet the port’s criteria, the report says.
The Tacoma and Olympia port commissions are scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Thursday at Saint Martin’s University to discuss the results of the study and to take public comment.
The ports plan to have the study – and meeting details – posted on the SSLC Web site, www.sslcports.com, today. The commissions also will discuss an analysis of potential customers and market demand, and a study that examined other logistics centers around the country.
Sharron Coontz, a member of Friends of Rocky Prairie, a group opposed to the development of the Maytown site, hadn’t received the study Wednesday.
“We’ll have to investigate to see if they’ve done a serious site search or if this is just cosmetic to quiet criticism,” Coontz said.
Hazarian, with the Port of Tacoma, anticipated that the port staff would make recommendations and that the commission might make some decision about the sites in March.
Farrell said the process for how the commissions will choose to move forward has yet to be defined.
“The first thing we need to do is make sure the commissioners have an understanding of the result of the studies and hear what they tell us. We’ll also hear back from the public, and then (the commissions) will decide whether to pursue a logistics center conceptually.”