If you could get your neighbor the job that he desperately needs, would you do it? What if you could buy hundreds of acres of farmland and make sure that no houses could ever be built there?
What if you could reverse the recent rise in youth gang activity? What if you could hire more teachers and police officers without raising taxes?
We have the chance to do all of this and more: Sumner’s Orton Junction proposal creates jobs, preserves farmland, provides missing services and keeps sales tax revenue here.
You can’t feed a family on the promise of a job sometime in the next 20 years. We need jobs now, especially in the face of 10 percent unemployment. The first phase of Orton Junction alone means more than 1,250 construction jobs, plus 655 permanent jobs – plus an additional 250 employed by the YMCA.
That means real jobs now. Over full build-out, Orton Junction would create a total of 3,750 construction jobs and 2,350 permanent jobs.
The numbers are exciting, but even better is the quality and diversity of employment they’d bring. These jobs would range from health care to retail, offering everything from family-wage opportunities to a teenager’s first experience in responsibility.
The current agricultural zoning allows the entire valley to be broken into housing developments and suburban sprawl.
It’s happening already. The best way to truly preserve farmland for farming is to buy and remove the development rights, literally taking away the ability to develop that land.
Orton Junction requires developers, not the taxpayers, to buy the development rights to more than 300 acres in the valley, preserving that land for farming and open space forever.
Sumner’s proposal is not a net expansion; it removes 100 acres out of the current urban growth area and returns those acres to rural status. Plus, it puts services – including a YMCA, health care facilities, housing options, farmer’s market, retail and possibly a movie theater and a fire-training facility – right off an existing freeway interchange, easily serving not just Sumner but the entire region.
These are services that don’t fit in Sumner’s existing city limits, yet they are vital. For example, the YMCA’s teen late-night program alone gives hundreds of teens a free, positive choice every weekend instead of the boredom that leads to bad decisions that endanger their safety.
Currently, Eastern Pierce County residents are shopping in King County, funding teachers and police officers there.
A market study showed that Orton Junction reverses the trend, keeping Pierce County shopping here and even attracting visiting shoppers.
That brings welcome sales tax revenue for our services and an influx of customers to support our existing businesses in downtown Sumner, Bonney Lake, Orting and Puyallup.
Orton Junction gives us the chance to do many positive things at once. It is that win for jobs, a win for farmland preservation, and a win for Pierce County.
Dave Enslow, a 35-year resident of Sumner, is serving his second term as mayor, following eight years on the City Council. Bob Ecklund is the president & CEO of the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties, a nonprofit organization providing services to 100,000 people.
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