Amy Moreno-Sills has built a life and a living from Pierce County’s rich soil. She resides with her family on an organic farm south of Orting, and she’s the vegetable production manager at Terry’s Berries on River Road in the Puyallup Valley.
Like some other farmers and farmland activists in the county, she doesn’t want to see 182 acres of rural and agriculture land south of Sumner opened to urban uses – the aim of a proposal scheduled to go before the County Council on Tuesday.
The controversial Orton Junction plan would pave the way for development such as homes, shops, medical and higher-education facilities and a YMCA.
Moreno-Sills said a new agreement reached by some stakeholders last week to address farmland concerns has some positive elements. But her core feelings haven’t changed.
“I don’t feel there is a good enough reason to put all of that farmland out of production. There are better alternatives,” said Moreno-Sills, 36. “Once you take (the farmland) away, it can never come back.”
Such opposition is not unanimous in the Puyallup Valley farming community. Those who are looking to get out of the business or keep their options open feel differently than Moreno-Sills.
Phil DeGoede owns 18 acres with family members on the proposed Orton Junction site; they have a greenhouse business there. He said the challenges that farmers in the county face today aren’t related to a lack of available land.
“There are all sorts of outside influences,” such as labor and fuel costs, he said.
He said he doesn’t feel that development in Orton Junction would put “undue pressure” on farming. And while the DeGoede family intends to run its greenhouse for years to come, it should be able to sell the land one day “for its best use” if that’s what family members want, he said.
Proponents say the agreement reached last week by Sumner city officials, the Cascade Land Conservancy and majority property owner Michael Corliss is a big win for agriculture preservation in the county.
Among other things, it would increase the amount of agriculture land that’s permanently preserved.
“It’s a truly unique model, a significant new way of doing business,” said Ryan Mello, Cascade’s Pierce County conservation director. “I hope it’s the new model of how cities and the county grow in the future.”
The Orton Junction proposal has drawn significant debate as it has worked its way through county government. The Planning Commission rejected it in a split vote this summer, but it was later revived by a council committee.
The full council was expected to consider it last week but delayed action to give the public time to digest the agreement.
The agreement includes:
• Preserving at least 500 acres of agriculture land through conservation easements and transfer of development rights transactions. That’s more than twice the amount in an earlier version of the proposal.
All the protected land would be in the county, and the parties would look first to land near Orton Junction, Mello said.
At least 125 acres would have to be protected with conservation easements by next April, assuming there are no pending appeals. The rest of the protection would happen as developers take formal steps to build.
Development in Orton Junction generally is expected to unfold over many years.
• Incorporating design elements to create a “complete, compact and connected community,” such as civic spaces and affordable housing, and also using sustainable building standards.
• Convening a “stakeholder process” to identify programs or infrastructure to support agriculture, such as a year-round farmers market.
One of the proposal’s more vocal opponents said he’s reviewed the agreement and still has concerns.
The city has room for development in its urban growth area, said Tim Trohimovich, director of planning and law for the Seattle-based Futurewise. He added that Orton Junction isn’t the right place for a population center because it lies in an area at risk for natural hazards, such as lahars from Mount Rainier.
“It’s great farmland, and it’s a really bad place to build a city,” Trohimovich said.
Orton Junction supporters counter that the area is right for urban growth, and that development would bring a needed infusion of jobs and retail dollars.
Sara Schilling: 253-552-7058
sara.schilling@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street
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