Sumner’s moratorium on asphalt plants is expiring. Legislation will allow them with restrictions.
After more than a year of reports and community engagement, the City of Sumner is looking to restrict any potential asphalt batch plants through permitting and zoning.
The Corliss Resources site recently floated the idea of building an asphalt batch plant, sparking a city-wide debate, and a temporary prohibition on mineral extraction facilities.
This prohibition is set to expire on July 20, but the council is expected to vote on legislation that same day to add new barriers for asphalt batch plants.
A proposed bill would revert planning zones prior to the prohibition and require city approval for an asphalt batch plant.
Asphalt batch plants would be allowed in three areas of the city: a section of the Corliss Resource site, an area east of the White River in North Sumner, and the warehouse district in Northwest Sumner.
These plants have been allowed in certain zones in the city, like areas marked as heavy industrial zones, low-density residential and resource protection zones. The two latter zones require conditional-use permits, while the heavy industrial zone didn’t require any additional permits.
In the new legislation, any new asphalt batch plant would require a conditional-use permit. There are also added noise restrictions and trucks leaving the site must be covered.
To date, Sumner has not received an application for an asphalt batch plant, but Corliss has considered adding one.
Ryan Windish is the Community Development Director. He told the council in a July study session that the portion of Corliss Resource site is zoned as “General Commercial.”
This area is where the company has indicated they would consider an asphalt batch plant, because it’s flat and close to the highway. The General Commercial zone prohibits mineral extraction.
Eric Corliss, the vice president of Corliss Management, said several studies, public meetings and hearings have confirmed that an asphalt plant will not have adverse impacts on the city.
“Asphalt production has always been an allowed accessory use within our Sumner mine,” Corliss said in a statement to The Puyallup Herald. “We look forward to continuing to work with the City in our efforts to meet this community’s concrete, sand, gravel, soil and asphalt needs.”
Council member Patrick Reed said this has been the most controversial issue Sumner has seen.
“Council members who have been here longer than me said they have received more feedback on this issue than any other decision,” he said in a July 8 study session.
A group of concerned residents created a Facebook page and website warning residents that a concrete company in East Sumner requested a zoning change to build an asphalt batch plant.
How did this start?
A section of the Corliss Resource site was annexed into the city in 2003.
This 18-month conversation began when the Corliss Resource site asked for city code to be corrected. At the time, the zoning ordinance caused the concrete site to be in “violation.”
The concrete company has been on the plot for 100 years and was recently annexed into the city limits. An asphalt plant is believed to have been on Corliss’ property in the late 1960s to help build state Route 410.
Facing much community outcry, the city council created a temporary prohibition on future expansion at Corliss or the addition of new mining facilities.
Over the past several months, many reports have been conducted on impacts of a potential asphalt batch plant in Sumner.
In an environmental review, the City of Sumner said there would be no significant adverse impact on the environment.
The Department of Health and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department provided a Health Impact Assessment. The health assessment was inconclusive in determining if there are significant environmental impacts to an asphalt batch plant, due to scarce studies on air and water quality.
BERK, a land-use and environmental consultant company, concluded that there would be no demonstrable impacts to single-family real estate property values within a two-mile radius of existing asphalt batch plants.
A traffic report by a consulting firm Transpo Group analyzed the traffic impact of developing an asphalt batch plant in Sumner.
The analysis said an asphalt batch plant at the Corliss Resources site would add 18 vehicle trips per day, resulting in a one-second delay at the intersection of Sumner-Tapps Highway and 64th Street E. This area’s traffic flow is already failing.
The city’s Planning Commission recommended making changes to the zoning code for asphalt batch plants last month.
