The Bonney Lake City Council this past week took their first action of the year to officially instruct the city attorney to appeal Pierce County’s approval of Sumner’s Orton Junction urban growth amendment.
The unanimous decision came after an extended executive session during the Jan. 3 council workshop.
According to an email from City Administrator Don Morrison, the basis of Bonney Lake’s appeal is that “Sumner presently exceeds its allocation of commercial land under the WA (sic) Growth Management Act, and any expansion would be unnecessary and in violation of state and local land use regulations.”
Morrison also said similar expansion requests from Orting, Puyallup and Bonney Lake were all denied on the basis of ample commercial lands and called the exception made for Sumner “indefensible.”
The county council on Oct. 25 approved the UGA amendment for Orton Junction, a 182-acre project made up of commercial and low-density residential projects to be located on land that is mostly farms near the 166th Avenue East exit at the base of Ehli Hill. The project is also set to include a new YMCA for the city of Sumner.
The majority of the land for the project – more than 125 acres – was also designated agricultural resource land, meaning the land could not be developed for commercial purposes without changing the designation.The land could still be developed into residential homes at a density of one home per 10 acres.
An agreement with preservation and environmental groups called the “Seven Principles Agreement” included a provision that each acre of lost farmland would be replaced by four acres of conservation-eased properties, which allowed the changes to go forward.
For Bonney Lake, however, primary opposition to the project came because the project would present a direct competition to plans in Bonney Lake to create commercial areas in its Downtown and Eastown sections.
In 2011, Bonney Lake was denied a UGA expansion request because the county said they did not do enough planning for the area to come into the city.
Mayor Neil Johnson said at the heart of the appeal is an attempt to get facts on how cities deal with the GMA in further expansion attempts.
“We need some clarification from the courts on how we deal with GMA,” Johnson said. “We want to make sure we do it right in the future.”
Johnson also reiterated that Bonney Lake does not take issue with the city of Sumner, but Pierce County.
“It has nothing to do with Sumner,” Johnson said. “It has everything to do with the process of the law.
“Sumner did all the right things … to me, this comes back on the county,” he said, adding that the county’s own buildable lands report, as well as the county council’s planning staff recommended against the approval because of an excess of commercial land in the region.
“Have you seen how many empty store fronts there are around the county?” he asked.
In his email, Morrison also said Bonney Lake’s issue is not with Sumner or their application, but with the county’s process, which he called a “double standard.”
“Over the past two application cycles, several cities have had their UGA commercial land expansion requests denied on the basis that there was already an overabundance of commercial lands available for development,” Morrison wrote. “If that is true, then there should not have been an exception made for Sumner.
“What is good for the gander should be good for the goose – so to speak,” he wrote.
Morrison also said Bonney Lake values its relationship with Sumner and is hopeful that the issues with the project will be resolved so Bonney Lake could withdraw its intended appeal.
NOTE: This article has been corrected. The orignal story stated that agricultural resource land can not be developed without changing the designation, but some residential development is permitted on lands with an ARL designation. We apologize for the error.
