WUI Code Solutions
Your Help Needed to Repair the Wildland-Urban Interface Code Charlotte Persons Readers of The Echo will be overjoyed to hear that NOT ONE, BUT TWO SOLUTIONS have been proposed to correct problems caused by including defensible space requirements in the 2021 Wildland-Urban Interface Code. Unfortunately, both remain in doubt. You can help by registering your support for ESB 6120. In 2018 the state legislature passed Senator Van De Wege’s bill to enforce parts of the Wildland-Urban Interface sections of the International Building Code. This law requires using ignition-resistant building materials and methods for residences within Wildland-Urban Interface areas. However, the Washington State Building Code Council (SBCC) went beyond this law and included defensible space requirements within the 2021 WUI Code Amendments. These would have resulted in the removal of thousands of trees across 70% of the state! For more about this code’s requirements, see the “Background” section at the
Urgent – Your Voice Needed
YOUR VOICE NEEDED TO REMOVE 4 INDUSTRIAL (WAREHOUSE) PROJECTS FROM THE COUNTY DOCKET. SUPPORT NISQUALLY AND AG POLICIES By Sue Danver, Betsy Norton, and The Conservation Committee A wave of land use proposals that could change the nature of rural Thurston County has begun. BUT with either a simple pro/con or longer comment on Thurston County’s online comment site, citizens can help avert this outcome and protect from warehousing and other industrial development the Black River National Wildlife Refuge, West Rocky Prairie Wildlife Area, the natural wildlife corridor along Beaver Creek, and thousands of rural acres throughout the county. Four landowners are requesting to change from Rural/Resource/Residential to Rural Resource Industrial (RRI) zoning. Three projects would enable large warehouses to be built within 50 to 300 feet of valuable habitats and waterways, and in one case “do more intensive” industrial work. UP Castle would enable warehousing along much of I-5,
Beaver Creek Rezone Poses Threat
A request to rezone farmland to industrial land at the Maytown exit threatens Beaver Creek and rural County What is the “Beaver Creek Rezone”? In its latest iteration, Proponent view: BHAS view: Why is the Conservation Committee concerned about putting a distribution center/huge warehouse there? What has BHAS done so far about this? Photo credit: Oregon Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa), by Kathleen Dobson, https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/154292080, distributed via Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Industrial Lands Study
Warehouses or Farms in Our County? A County Study Points to Warehouses Charlotte Persons An important question for the Comprehensive Plan update, Thurston 2045, will depend on citizens’ values. We must decide what kind of development we want in the rural part of Thurston County during the next twenty years. Do we want to keep the codes based on the current Comp Plan and limit most industrial development in our rural areas to within one-half mile of I-5 interchanges? Or do we want industrial development, including mega-warehouse complexes, on land that is currently zoned for agriculture and rural residences? On December 6 the Board of County Commissioners heard a presentation by a contracted consultant on the Industrial Lands Study (ILS). The ILS makes many recommendations to make more industrial development possible in our rural county. See https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/departments/community-planning-and-economic-development-cped/community-planning/industrial Stakeholder groups have not had the opportunity to vet the ILS, and the