Home builder acquires 18 acres in Northeast Tacoma. Here’s what’s planned there
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Toll Brothers bought just over 18-acre Northeast Tacoma site for $10.7M this month.
- Toll Brothers filed to subdivide site into 47 single-family lots with road, utilities.
- Hearing examiner approved preliminary plat and critical-area permit in Oct 2024.
A site that has been in the works for new housing development in Northeast Tacoma has sold to the home builder involved in the project.
The Kirkland office of Pennsylvania-based Toll Bros. Inc. this month purchased property at 5920 Browns Point Blvd., along with vacant property along Beverly Avenue Northeast, for $10.7 million.
The combined parcels are just over 18 acres.
The seller was a Federal Way-based LLC.
Plans for the proposed Watchtower Heights development were submitted to the City of Tacoma in February 2022 for the property near the King County line.
According to the city’s project page for the development, Toll Brothers Construction “filed a Preliminary Full Plat Application with plans to subdivide the undeveloped wooded property into 47 single-family residential lots, with a new private roadway, utilities, site drainage, three open tracts for private drainage maintenance, open space and critical area preservation.”
The application included a Critical Area Development Permit for impacts to the wetland and biodiversity area, the city noted.
In October 2024, the hearing examiner approved both the preliminary plat and Critical Area Development Permit, with conditions. Toll Bros. Inc. at that time was referred to in the decision as “an equitable owner (under contract purchaser) of that certain real property ... .”
Both the city’s project page and the hearing examiner’s decision cite neighbors’ concerns over the project. The hearing examiner summarized public comments, including concerns of “traffic impacts, loss of undeveloped green space/environmental concerns, concerns specifically about slopes along the western side of the site and the difference between the pad height of the homes to the west and the new homes along the western edge of the subject property.”
Commenters also “expressed the desire to see the site remain undeveloped entirely,” as well as effects on area schools, parks and emergency services, according to the hearing examiner’s report.
The city on its project page states that while public comment “is helpful in analyzing consistency with the criteria ... ultimately it is the decision of the City of Tacoma Hearing Examiner, who reviews the staff report, exhibits from the City and the applicant, hears public testimony, and then rules on the facts of the matter in a quasi-judicial process... .”
The latest permit applications include one filed in February to erect a neighborhood sign designating the site, and site development that would set up a temporary sales center and parking lot.
The home builder did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The News Tribune.
City of Tacoma media representative Maria Lee told The News Tribune in response to questions that planners are working with the developer on the site-development permit.
“The department is currently reviewing the developer’s recently submitted correction response packet, which includes updated plans, reports and calculations,” Lee said via email.
“Provided the developer has addressed the necessary corrections identified by the department during its initial review, the department anticipates the construction permit could be approved within the next month,” she added.
