Daniel and Jamie Nowogroski’s Alpine Pioneer Mobile Home Park sits a chain-link fence away from the Pierce County surplus property proposed for sale along Pioneer Way near Puyallup, Washington, shown on Tuesday, March 12, 2024.
Tony Overman
toverman@theolympian.com
The Pierce County Council voted unanimously to authorize a $1.2 million sale of surplus property between Puyallup and Sumner after confusion about the sale prompted community outrage last week.
The decision approved a sale of 8.35 acres at 14503 Pioneer Way E. to Pioneer Logistics Land LLC.
County staff clarified Tuesday, March 12, that a tire-recycling plant is being considered on a parcel with a similar address adjacent to the county-owned property, at 14053 Pioneer Way E. Prior to Tuesday’s meeting, over 80 people left public comments opposing the sale.
Last week Council chair Ryan Mello made a motion to push the final vote until March 19 to give the public more time to understand the terms of the county-owned property sale.
Pierce County is considering selling 8.35 acres of surplus property outlined in red on Pioneer Way East in Puyallup. Property that is not owned by the county, outlined in green, is proposed to become a Liberty Tire Recycling Facility. A final decision about sale of the county property at 14503 Pioneer Way E. will be before the council March 19, 2024. Pierce County
Under the terms of the sale agreement, Pioneer Logistics Land LLC purchased the county’s land at 14503 Pioneer Way E. for $1.2 million. In addition, Pioneer Logistics Land LLC agreed to reimburse the county $60,000 for environmental studies and transfer ownership of a warehouse on the property to Pierce County.
That warehouse, valued at $625,000, will be used as a trail-maintenance facility for the Parks Department to maintain the nearby Foothills and East Puyallup Trailheads, according to county officials. The property sale proceeds benefit the Conservation Futures Fund, which preserves open spaces, wetlands, wildlife habitat, timber and agricultural plans in Pierce County.
At the council meeting March 12, county staff emphasized that the county is not planning to sell land to Liberty Tire Recycling but said tire recycling would be allowed under the Employment Center zone classifications in the Alderton-McMillan Community Plan area.
Liberty Tire Recycling has proposed to remodel a currently operating tire-recycling facility inside a warehouse on the 14053 Pioneer Way E. property, county planning and public works public information officer Michelle Kircher told The News Tribune on March 15 via email. A commercial building permit for an internal remodel was applied for in late January and fire, building and planning permits are pending, Kircher said.
At the March 19 council meeting Rob Jenkins, a planning supervisor at Pierce County Planning and Public Works, told the council Liberty Tire told him March 15 it had entered into a lease on Aug. 1, 2023 and has minimal tire-shredding operations occurring outside while permits are pending.
A tire-recycling plant is permitted under the community plan according to Steve Wamback, deputy director at Pierce County Facilities Management. If outdoor tire recycling were to be proposed, the operator would have to meet landscape buffering, size and height requirements as spelled out in Solid Waste Handling, Treatment and Storage Facilities design standards, he said.
“It’s our understanding that this activity will take place inside. The ground-up tires will be put into bags, which will then be stored on pallets in the yard,” Jenkins told the council March 12. “It’s our understanding that there will be no open piles of tires.”
On its website Liberty Tire Recycling touts the benefits of recycling tires and claimed to have diverted more than 4.3 billion pounds of rubber from landfills last year. The company operates dozens of tire-recycling plants around the United States and has another location in Lakewood.
“Through close collaboration with Washington Department of Environmental Quality and Pierce County officials, Liberty Tire Recycling is working to obtain the permits required in an area of Pierce County zoned for commercial and industrial operations. Liberty also remains in compliance with existing requirements during the permitting process, which allows us to conduct minimal operations in the interim,” the company said in an emailed statement to the News Tribune on March 15.
“At each recycling location, Liberty Tire adheres to all state and federal environmental protection regulations and is committed to making a positive impact in the communities we serve. We are proud to operate our new facility in Puyallup as part of our ongoing mission of environmental stewardship and sustainability in Washington and across North America.”
Pierce County surplus property proposed for sale along Pioneer Way near Puyallup, Washington, shown on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Tony Overman toverman@theolympian.com
What we know about the county-owned property
The former Pasquier Property at 14503 Pioneer Way E. was purchased by the county Parks and Recreation department in 2011 from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to establish the Foothills Trail and East Puyallup trail head, according to a frequently asked questions document put together by Department of Facilities Management Karl Imlig and included in the March 12 council agenda packet. After trail development the county divided the 55-acre parcel into smaller parcels, including the 8.35-acre property at 14503 Pioneer Way East, which was then declared surplus, the fact sheet said.
Pasquier Panel Products Inc. was a long-term leaser of the property and leased the buildings and land to six industrial sub-tenants until it sold several parcels to Pioneer Logistics Land LLC in 2022, the fact sheet said. The area has been used for industrial business since 1954, according to county officials.
Now that the sale is approved, Panattoni Development Co., an entity affiliated with Pioneer Logistics Land LLC, plans to build a one-story 211,129-square-foot warehouse shell on the land and several adjacent parcels.
Currently there are three buildings on the site that have had a number of tenants over the years, including a glass-recycling facility that is expected to be cleaned up this week, Panattoni Development senior development manager Darren Peugh told The News Tribune on March 14.
Pending approval of the appropriate building permits, Peugh said, the existing buildings would be demolished this summer. A tenant for the new warehouse has not been identified yet, he said.
Neighbors voice opposition to tire recycling plant
At the March 12 meeting, several members of the Pierce County Council said they’d received dozens of messages and complaints over the weekend from constituents who were under the impression that the county was selling land to a tire-recycling facility. Although that’s not the case, neighbors said they’re still opposed to the idea.
Heather Hernandez lives on the hillside about a mile away from the properties in question. Hernandez told The News Tribune on March 14 that when she drove past 14053 Pioneer Way E. the other day, Liberty Tire Recycling’s sign was already up, workers were taking their lunch break outside and she could smell rubber in the air.
Hernandez said her family moved to the Puyallup Highlands neighborhood four years ago because it was a quiet, clean and safe area. Her daughter is 8 months old, and Hernandez said she worries about the lasting environmental impacts of a tire-recycling plant.
“Tire recycling is notoriously a really chemical-filled industry. And it’s not really appropriate to have that right by a neighborhood. I think of the elementary school aged kids in our neighborhood that are not only downwind of this at home, [but] Shaw Road Elementary is about roughly a mile from this tire plant as well,” she said. “God forbid there’s a fire or something like that at the tire plant. Those are very, very toxic fumes that would be ignited right in our backyard, essentially.”
Knowing that most of the tire recycling would take place inside a warehouse doesn’t make her feel better, Hernandez said, as she still worries about contaminated runoff and pollution. A plant like this should go into a more industrial and less residential part of the county, she said.
“They’re talking about putting [additional] warehouses in the valley,” Hernandez said. “So that coupled with the tire plant, it could really potentially not only affect our property values as homeowners [but] … lots of young families live here and to be next door to basically an industrial district, I don’t see how the county could allow that.”
Galina Lobets, who also lives on the hillside close to the proposed projects, said the developments make her feel uneasy about the future. A mother to two children, ages 2 and 5, Lobets said she and her husband moved to the area four years ago to be close to nearby schools.
When she called Liberty Tire Recycling on March 11, Lobets said a representative told her operations had already begun at the site, which “was shocking and it seemed like it was hidden from the residents until they had already opened it,” she said.
Lobets said she has concerns about increased air pollution and more traffic congestion as a result of the proposed tire recycling plant and warehouse, and said when she’s contacted elected officials it’s disheartening to be told that the developers are permitted to build these types of projects so close to her neighborhood.
“[It makes me feel] very uneasy about the future that we have in the city. It just kind of makes me question the Council, it makes me question if where we live is truly a family-oriented neighborhood when you have literally next door a tire recycling facility that’s supposedly already open,” she said. “It’s sad and it’s just not the best situation for our family.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
Becca Most is a reporter covering Pierce County issues, including topics related to Tacoma, Lakewood, University Place, DuPont, Fife, Ruston, Fircrest, Steilacoom and unincorporated Pierce County. Originally from the Midwest, Becca previously wrote about city and social issues in Central Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Her work has been recognized by Gannett and the USA Today Network, as well as the Minnesota Newspaper Association where she won first place in arts, government/public affairs and investigative reporting in 2023. Support my work with a digital subscription
