Big-box ban in Tacoma could be extended, scaled back

A ban on new Tacoma big-box stores could be extended by six months.

Worried that Walmart was coming to town, City Council members in August put a six-month moratorium on new retail stores larger than 65,000 square feet. They said the ban would give city staff and the Planning Commission time to study potential land-use changes.

The commission is poised to ask for more time at its meeting today. In its recommendations to the council, the board also could seek to reduce the scope of the city-wide moratorium to a few areas.

The scaled-back ban would not cover a site in South Tacoma being considered for a Lowe’s home improvement store.

City planning staff said Tuesday that the city has received an inquiry from a developer interested in building a Lowe’s at 9201 Pacific Ave. – about two miles from the Hosmer Street Lowe’s store that closed Sunday. A church sits on the Pacific Avenue site now.

A longer moratorium would allow for the public outreach that is necessary and required for changes in city rules, said Planning Commission vice-chairman Donald Erickson.

“I think the council would support 12 months. They understand how tight the schedule becomes when you have to have multiple public hearings,” Erickson said.

The planning board’s schedule has been packed lately. That’s partly because the big-box halt is the council’s third moratorium of the year.

Council members also targeted billboards and medical-marijuana sellers. They later adopted new rules for billboards, but marijuana shops are still in limbo, and the council has extended that ban to a year.

A draft plan being considered by the commission would shrink the big-box ban to eight “mixed-use” centers, areas around the Tacoma Mall, Westgate, Tacoma Community College, Lower Portland Avenue, East 72nd Street and Portland, South 34th Street and Pacific, South 72nd and Pacific, and Allenmore Hospital.

Those zones are the focus of concern because of their proximity to neighborhoods and because they weren’t included in a 2009 update of zoning rules. They also are where most of the city’s 17 big-box stores are located, according to city planners.

Arkansas-based Walmart wants to build another one, bigger than all but four of the city’s existing big-box stores: Costco and three anchor stores at the Tacoma Mall.

It’s still up in the air whether the moratorium can legally be applied to that proposed development, a 150,000-square-foot supercenter at Union Avenue and South 23rd Street, the site of the Tacoma Elks Lodge. It’s in the mixed-use center around Allenmore.

As it stands, city planners are supposed to come up with draft changes by Nov. 2. That’s not enough time to craft the kind of regulation that’s needed, planners say – they need a full year, until Aug. 30. The rules might include:

 • A new, more comprehensive process for reviewing large projects and gathering public input.

 • More review of implications for traffic and the environment.

 • New standards for large-scale stores, which might cover size limitations, design details, setbacks, site layout, parking and pedestrian-friendly amenities.

Rules might call for more urban, multistory stores or for them to be closer to the street “so you’re not looking at a sea of parking in the foreground,” Erickson said. The city should take the time and do it right, he said.

But Councilman David Boe said the prospects of a yearlong delay might push a developer to look elsewhere.

“I’d be hesitant to do any more than six months,” Boe said, adding that he wants to review the planning board’s recommendations before deciding.

Tom Pierson, CEO of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, told the planning board that current state and city rules are sufficient. And Pierson said the city should expedite any changes rather than leave them up in the air another six months.

“On an issue like this, I think it needs to move to the top of the priority list so we’re not inhibiting additional businesses while they’re reviewing the plan,” Pierson said.