3 Rezone Requests Removed From Docket

April 1, 2024

Three RRI Rezone Requests to Allow Warehouses by I-5 REMOVED from the 2024-2025 Thurston County Work Docket

Betsy Norton

Thank you!

Thank you to all of you who wrote and called in to the County Commissioners on behalf of wildlife and conservation, helping prevent (slow down?) the loss of rural lands and wildlife habitat. Your active support is critical to ensuring land use decisions are fact-based and value biodiversity and the habitat which supports it.

Key results of Thurston County’s selection and prioritization process for land use requests for 2024/25 by the Board of County Commissioners are:

Three Rezone requests were *removed* from the docket for 2024/25:
- Beaver Creek
- UP Castle
- Port of Tacoma (West Rocky Prairie)
Two Rezones were added to the docket.
- Black Lake Quarry: Site Specific Land Use Amendment and Associated Rezone was added to the docket and was 8^th in priority out of 10. The proposal is to rezone 270 acres near Black Lake Quarry (previously known as Quality Rock) from Rural Residential to Rural Resource Industrial (RRI), and to revise the zoning definition of RRI to allow “more intensive industrial uses”. Parcels are adjacent to the Black River/Black River Wildlife Refuge, which is important habitat for birds, endangered species and Coho.
- BAR Holdings UGA Swap, Land Use Amendment and Rezone, Priority #4:

The proposal is to ‘swap’ out of the Urban Growth Area (UGA) 18 parcels NW of Black Lake (largely critical area/green belt) in exchange for a ‘swap’ into the UGA of 3 parcels at 93rd SE and old Highway 99. This will allow rezoning of the 3 Rural Residential 1/5 zoned parcels into a mix of commercial, mixed use, and industrial zoned areas. The 3 parcels to be developed are south of the Olympia airport, and adjacent to a forest conservation easement property.

From the BHAS Conservation committee, on behalf of the diversity of wildlife and native flora who call Thurston County home, Thank You again for your support!

Notes and links:

Docket Priority: The staff expects to make their way through reviews of all docketed items by the end of 2025. Exact timing when they will come up for review/public comment may vary. The county has been creating web pages for active projects, so check back at the Thurston county planning page as more info is available. You can sign up for email alerts as well. https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/departments/community-planning-and-economic-development/community-planning/plans-programs-code-projects
Actual Use of a zoned area: a rezone only enables development in the broad categories allowed (retail, industrial) in the zone definition. It is at the subsequent permitting level that the actual use (grocery store, distribution warehouse) is committed.

Thurston County Zoning codes and definitions: https://library.municode.com/wa/thurston_county/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TIT20ZO