Neighbors rally to save native oak trees threatened by Lakewood warehouse proposal

It’s no secret to those living in Lakewood that the city is seeking to beef up its business sector.

The city’s south side — near I-5 and Joint Base Lewis-McChord — has seen the announcement of a new Amazon warehouse, a possible occupation by Tesla and planned relocation of Aero Precision. There’s more to come.

“Certainly, we are, you know, business-focused, and we invite development, and you can see the number of … warehouses going up,” said Jim Kopriva, communications manager for the city of Lakewood.

The latest development comes at what some see as an unacceptable price.

An 8-plus-acre property at 4901 123rd St. SW could be home to Lakewood’s next warehouse. It’s also home to over 100 oak trees native to Washington state. Some residents are fighting to save them.

Lakewood resident Christina Manetti has seen warehouses pop up and the Garry oaks come down. Her fear of even more Garry oaks being destroyed across Lakewood has led her to rally additional residents and experts in an effort to save the trees on 4901 123rd St. SW.

A possible industry expansion

The property, located in the Springbrook neighborhood, is the speculative site of a 135,496-square-foot warehouse building, according to a May 17 city of Lakewood post on The Suburban Times. It sits between I-5 and JBLM, northeast of the Amazon warehouse site.

The proposal foresees distribution, warehousing and manufacturing taking place, along with the construction of a parking lot.

The applicant is AHBL & Synthesis Architects, and the developer is Panattoni Development Co., according to a supplemental information document sent to Lakewood’s mayor and City Council. AHBL has headquarters in Tacoma, and Panattoni’s headquarters are in Irvine, California. Attempts to reach the developer for comment were unsuccessful.

According to that same document, the design review, SEPA checklist and floodplain development permit for the property have been deemed complete.

Upon those submissions, the city issues a threshold determination. Threshold determinations are an evaluation of the environmental consequences of a proposal. Determinations evaluate whether the proposal would have a significantly adverse environmental impact, Kopriva said.

Items such as the SEPA checklist are taken into account when issuing a threshold determination. While the city has not yet released a threshold determination for the proposal, Manetti, a Lakewood resident and avid supporter of the native Garry oak trees found throughout the city, said she intends to appeal the determination over the SEPA checklist and more widely to protect the Garry oaks on the property.

The development also hasn’t been welcomed by some people who live or work near Springbrook. Kim Pratt, owner and trainer of Klear Mont Farms, remembers her initial thoughts on more warehouses coming into the area. Her property — located at 6408 150th St. SW — features a main barn, outdoor training space, an indoor ring and more for horseback riders.

Pratt was optimistic the city was cleaning up the neighborhood a bit, but then realized how much the atmosphere would change. She began wondering how tiny roads would be suitable for trucks and more traffic. She wondered what it meant for her business.

“They’re gonna just keep coming — that’s my fear,” Pratt said. “You know, do they buy you out, or do they eminent domain you?”

Manetti holds a similar fear, worried the city’s guidelines for developers will ultimately contribute to more Garry oak loss.

Looking at the Garry oaks

Manetti has been a resident of Lakewood since 1971. Although her educational background is in history, she said she couldn’t be more focused on the present and environmental issues. Most specifically, she wants to save the Garry oak population in Lakewood.

The Garry oaks, or Oregon white oak, are the state’s only native oak tree. Manetti said the trees take up to hundreds of years to grow, are drought resistant and strong.

They also play a unique role in the Puget prairie ecosystem, said Derek Faust, environmental sciences and technology instructor at Clover Park Technical College. The Garry oaks provide habitat for wildflowers and endangered pollinators. Their acorns are used by squirrels, deer and other wildlife.

“Everything kind of focuses around them,” said Michele LaFontaine, adjunct professor and lab technician for Earth science courses at Pierce College.

Only 3 percent of the original Garry oak population remains today, LaFontaine said. When development takes away Garry oaks that help clean the air and replaces them with asphalt and warehouses, it becomes an issue of environmental justice, she said.

“You are degrading the lifestyle of the people that live there, and a lot of these areas that they want to develop are in lower income areas, and the people can’t just move somewhere else,” LaFontaine said. “They’re stuck. And I think it degrades our society as a whole by always looking at the bottom dollar rather than the whole ecosystem.”

At 4901 123rd St. SW, Manetti said 114 Garry oak trees would be cut down. She also said the SEPA checklist did not account for any of the oak trees. The tree retention plan for the property says “no significant trees are proposed to be retained within the project limits.”

Since the oaks did not qualify for protection as a habitat, they were not included on that checklist, Kopriva said. Garry oaks are not listed as an endangered species on the U.S. Endangered Species Act or listed as an endangered species in the state of Washington.

Despite not having those qualifications, Manetti said, the trees are essential.

“They may be the only ones to survive climate change, because they’re the trees — out of all the ones here — they’re most drought resistant; they’re even fire resistant, and the other ones are already dying,” she said. Manetti argues shallower roots and a longer drought season are causing trees such as the Western Red Cedar to die while the Garry oak persists.

Pratt said the nearby trees are amazing, and ones by Klear Mont Farms provide a great area for trail riding.

“They took down huge old trees to build what they’re building,” Pratt said. “You know, we all get the growth — OK, we get that — but just hopefully they don’t just annihilate the whole entire area.”

When it comes to an appeal, Manetti said she will be notified as a party of record when the threshold determination is announced. The determination will come in about 60 days, Kopriva said.

Manetti and more than 20 others made public comments condemning the SEPA checklist and decision to remove all of the oaks. An appeal would cost them $450 to file.

Kopriva said fees for appeals are rare but can be necessary for the costs associated with having a hearing examiner consider the matter.

Ultimately, the appeal could extend or delay the project at 4901 123rd St. SW. It also could influence what mitigation Panattoni must do on the property, but a lot rides on what the exact threshold determinations from the city are.

“There’s a lot that can happen from an appeal or hearing,” Kopriva said.

Manetti said she’s working on contacting more experts to testify during the appeal and is hopeful those opinions will bring extra weight to her argument.

“I’m glad that we can get a lot of experts on our side. I think that’s helped a lot,” she said. “They’ll think, ‘Wow, we’ve got something really special here and we have to protect it.’”

This story was originally published June 22, 2021 at 5:05 AM with the headline "Neighbors rally to save native oak trees threatened by Lakewood warehouse proposal."