The controversial Orton Junction project south of Sumner has been hit with a second appeal, this time from the City of Bonney Lake.
Officials in the plateau city believe the Pierce County Council set a double standard last year by approving Sumner’s request to extend its urban growth area 182 acres to the south, said City Administrator Don Morrison.
Sumner already has enough commercial land, and the county has turned down similar requests from Bonney Lake and other cities “on the basis that there was already ample commercial lands available for development,” Morrison wrote in an email to The News Tribune.
He said the County Council made an “indefensible exception” for Sumner.
Bonney Lake filed the appeal with the state Growth Management Hearings Board last week. Monday was the deadline for appeals.
A coalition of farmland protection groups filed an appeal in December.
The County Council’s decision opens the door to a planned mixed-use development with a YMCA, as well as annexation of the Orton Junction area into Sumner.
The county Planning Commission turned down Sumner’s urban growth area request last summer. But it won County Council approval in the fall after a conservation group helped broker a deal that includes increasing the amount of farmland that would be preserved to offset what would be lost to development.
Sumner City Administrator Diane Supler said in a statement that Orton Junction will be good for her city and for Bonney Lake, “So we hope to quickly transition to a place where the two cities are working together and supporting each other.”
But Morrison said the county “ought to have a reasonable standard that everybody can follow” when it comes to urban-growth expansion requests. He said Bonney Lake hopes such a standard can be established, in which case the city might withdraw its appeal.
The deputy prosecutor representing the county on the matter wasn’t immediately available for comment.
Sara Schilling: 253-552-7058
sara.schilling@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street
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