Tehaleh development to expand faster under new plan approved by Pierce County Council
Pierce County will allow developers of the massive Tehaleh development outside Bonney Lake to increase the number of homes they construct in Phase 2 of their build-out plan.
The agreement approved by the County Council on Tuesday accelerates the project’s completion and amends a previous agreement that capped development until after a new public road had been constructed.
Tehaleh is planned as a 4,700-acre mixed-use community south of Bonney Lake with homes, retail spaces, parks and businesses. When complete, it is advertised to feature “more than 1,800 acres of parks, trails, and open space, up to 9,700 homes, and 475 acres dedicated to employment uses,” as previously reported by The News Tribune.
A 2018 development agreement between the developer and the county allowed a maximum of 1,554 dwelling units to be built in Phase 2, in addition to the 2,586 dwelling units in Phase 1, to total 4,140 dwelling units built prior to the completion of a new public road between Tehaleh and McCutcheon Road East.
An amendment to that agreement approved unanimously by the Pierce County Council allows 60% more dwelling units to be built in Phase 2 prior to the completion of that road. Tuesday’s agreement allows 2,490 dwelling units to be permitted, subject to the posting of a performance bond.
The amendment came after a traffic analysis conducted by Phase 2 owner and developer Nash Cascadia Verde LLC found the volume of traffic generated by the Tehaleh development to date was lower than anticipated in 2018, according to the amended development agreement. Tehaleh also revised the timing of certain projects, resulting in reduced anticipated traffic generated prior to the construction of the new road.
Pending all necessary permits, construction requirements and right-of-way and easements for the new road, a total 9,700 dwelling units could be built in Tehaleh over the two development phases, according to a March 12 staff report.
The council vote came after the Community Development and Environment Committee recommended it pass in February.
As of Dec. 1, 2023, 3,538 dwelling units have been built in Tehaleh in Phase 1 and part of Phase 2, according to the staff report. Residential sales averaged 350 in 2018 and 2019 and 450 in 2020 and 2021 and slowed in the second half of 2022, the staff report said.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, Scott Jones, a representative involved with the Tehaleh project, said sewer-capacity improvements are underway and a new road is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. No other members of the public spoke during the public hearing.
Council member Jani Hitchen commented about how she was excited for the Tehaleh development but wanted to continue to emphasize the importance of building new affordable housing in Pierce County.
“I just want to speak to the whole package here. There’s a section in here around affordable housing, and as I understand it, it looks like there’s ways to not do the affordable housing by paying a fee. And I just want to implore the developers [to] really think about actually building affordable housing in this development,” she said. “As we look at how we as a county are trying to create places and spaces for single family homes that are attainable to those in our community, Tehaleh has really brought up a really beautiful area to light and there’s a lot of homes in there, but a lot of them are not affordable.”
This story was originally published March 13, 2024 at 2:37 PM.
