Explanatory statement:
Please sign the petition by noon, Wednesday, April 24, to be sent to the Thurston County Commissioners. Say no to RRI zoning request (industrial) for a 745-acre parcel of land between Millersylvania State Park and West Rocky Prairie Preserve.
The Port of Tacoma is working with a Missouri company, NorthPoint, to develop an extensive logistics center in South Thurston County with a projected six million square feet of warehousing most probably served by extensive Burlington Northern rail and truck traffic. The proposed site is located immediately north and west of the 800-acre West Rocky Prairie preserve owned by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. This preserve includes federally threatened species, State Priority Species, Mima Mounds, and oak and prairie ecosystems. The site is slightly southeast of the nearby historic and popular Millersylvania State Park. It is no place for an industrial hub.
In 2007 and 2008, the Port of Tacoma attempted to establish a similar logistic center that, after much citizen protest, was withdrawn by the Port of Tacoma. Now the Port wants to rezone the entire parcel to industrial. On April 24, the Board of County Commissioners will discuss whether to put this rezoning amendment on their docket to decide this year.
This area has an extremely high water table. Impervious development and polluting truck/train traffic would threaten not only the endangered Oregon-spotted Frog and its sensitive wetlands but also compromise the local aquifer as well as the integrity of the WDFW preserve.