Puyallup must decide between warehouses and long-time residents in zoning feud
A potential warehouse development has neighbors divided, and Puyallup unsure about how to move forward on zoning changes.
The Freeman Road property, an “island” surrounded by Edgewood, Fife and Puyallup, is slated to be annexed by Puyallup, but how the city chooses to zone the area could mean big changes.
The city is considering changes to its comprehensive plan to allow for warehouses to be built off Levee Road. The annexation would occur when City Council members decide how to zone the 134 acres.
Currently a neighborhood stretches across the border of Fife to 11 parcels a warehouse developer, Vector Development, wants to purchase.
Four holdouts, Joyce Asbjornsen and her son Steve Asbjornsen, Charles Almont and another long-time resident, have refused to sell to the developer.
Homeowners were offered twice the market-value of their homes, 64-year-old Steve Asbjornsen said. His mother, 87, was born in the house on Freeman Road East. She spends her mornings with a neighbor chatting about years past over coffee. A neighbor will grab her a carton of milk at the grocery store, and another scolds her for leaving without telling him she’s gone for the day.
“My mom was offered $1.7 million, but what she has here, you can’t put a price tag on it,” Steve Asbjornsen told The Puyallup Herald. “I want to let my mom live out the rest of her life here in an area she’s known her whole life, not surrounded by warehouses.”
Almont, 70, said he is tired of seeing cities side with money over residents. His family moved to his home on 49th Street East when he was in junior high.
“I grew up in this house,” he said on Dec. 1. “I don’t want to move. I feel like my freedom is leaving me.”
If those four refuse to sell, city staff said it would be a challenge to build a warehouse.
Most of the 54 residents on the east side of Freeman Road East have signed paperwork that they will sell their homes to Vector Development if the area is re-zoned for light manufacturing and warehousing.
Some spoke to the Puyallup City Council at the first hearing on the issue in the Nov. 10 council meeting.
Jeremy Lane told the council the area would be developed and already has warehouses surrounding the neighborhood.
“I see the writing on the wall,” he said on Nov. 10. “If you rezone, we can start this process and get the ball rolling. Because eventually, it will happen no matter what.”
Land north of the potentially annexed property is owned by the Washington Department of Transportation, and slated to become the link between Meridian Road and I-5. The state Route 167 project is anticipated to be completed within the next 10 years, city staff told council in a Nov. 10 meeting.
Vector Development responded to concerns, saying warehouses would be more appropriate near the state Route 167 extension, and the project would help “bolster local economic development.”
Tyler Litzenberger, president of Vector Development Co., told the council on Nov. 10 there are increasing warehouses in the area, pointing out the Amazon warehouse that is to be built west of the property.
Recommending that the residential zoning remain, Puyallup’s Planning Commission agreed with the City of Fife in last month’s decision, but the City Council is unsure.
Concerned Stakeholders
Across Freeman Road, the Fife side has rallied to hold the line against Vector Development in an effort to save the integrity of their neighborhood. Forty-four households on the Fife side have signed a petition against the re-zoning.
Jane and Andre Tsitsey moved into their home on 50th Street East in 2018. She loves the quiet, close-knit community.
“The thought of this whole stretch becoming a warehouse would destroy the neighborhood we love,” she said.
She understands that those who are selling their properties are making a smart decision for themselves.
“I don’t blame them for taking the deal,” Tsitsey said. “ It’s not good versus bad. It’s just in their best interest.”
The City of Fife wrote a letter to Puyallup, saying the current residential zoning is more compatible and asking for the current land use standards to be kept in place.
The Puyallup Tribe also weighed in on the zoning. The parcels are located within Puyallup Tribe trust lands, and the tribe has expressed concerns about housing opportunities, potential “cultural resources” that could be found and stormwater flow control.
“Industrial warehousing development zoning has all but absorbed natural buffers within the Puyallup-Fife valley corridor within the Puyallup Reservation,” the June 29 letter said.
“Managing additional runoff from new warehouses will be problematic in this area, creating issues concerning where stormwater runoff generated by new impervious surfaces will be placed.”
Puyallup City Council
Mayor Julie Door said she has significant concerns about the Freeman Road zoning.
“Unless those concerns are addressed, I will be voting no on this,” she said in the council meeting.
Council member Cyndy Jacobsen said she is trusting the process but not certain yet.
Council member Robin Farris quoted the Puyallup Tribe’s letter to share her hesitancy.
“On this, I think that I would follow the Planning Commission’s recommendation,” she said in council.
Council member Dean Johnson wants to move forward and work with Fife and the tribe on the development.
Council member Ned Witting agrees with Johnson. He said Route 167 will have significant impacts and make changes to the area.
“But I’m sensitive that some residents don’t want it rezoned,” he said. “ When you live somewhere for 50 years, 60 years, the idea that you’d want a warehouse in the front yard or forced to move, you’d not be happy.”
The final vote will be held Dec. 8.
This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
