City of Sumner--Long Range Planning

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ORTON JUNCTION/EAST HILL
URBAN GROWTH AMENDMENTS

Orton Junction is the plan for a new neighborhood in Sumner. This mix of commercial and residential uses would encompass a "lifestyle" center, creating a vibrant mix of living, shopping, and recreational opportunities. The neighborhood is planned to address the needs for the residents and serve as a regional shopping destination. The area, which would include both a YMCA and the Riverside Park, currently requires an amendment to the south Urban Growth Area.

Where
The area is generally south of SR410 and boarded on the east by the Elhi Hill, the west by the Orting Hwy and 75th Street and Riverside Drive to the south.

Orton Junction Amendment Quick Facts

Dwelling Units: 397

Population: 875

Employment: 1200 jobs initially with potential to 2,100 new jobs

Zoning
Acres

General Commercial (GC)
112

Interchange Commercial (IC)
11

Low Density Residential-1 (LDR-1)
59

Orton Junction UGA Total*
182

*Because the recommended option removes 284 acres along the east hill, this proposal is actually a reduction in Sumner's overall UGA by 102 acres.

East Hill

The East Hill area is approximately 284 acres in the vicinity of 166th Avenue, Forest Canyon Road, and Sumner-Tapps Highway. This area is primarily large-lot single family residential uses developed on County and rural roads. The current zoning, under Pierce County regulations, is Moderate Density Single-Family Zoning, which allows for 6-8 lots per acre. The proposed zoning is for Rural-10, which basically would be single-family zoning with a minimum 10-acre lot size. Parcels 20 acres or smaller in size would not typically be allowed to subdivide.

Process Overview—The Big Picture

Including Orton Junction in the City Limits is a three-step process.

1. City of Sumner Comprehensive Plan Amendment (now-Dec. 2010)

2. Pierce County Comprehensive Plan Amendment (January 18, 2011-November 2011)

3. Annexation Process (January 2011 to March 2011)

What We've Done

The City of Sumner approved the 2010 Comprehensive Plan Amendment Docket
The City issued a Determination of Significance, which says this project requires an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
The City sent a notice telling people what topics and impacts it believes the EIS needs to study and address. The "Scoping Notice" asked neighbors if we covered all the topics or if they had others to suggest. Comments were due by April 13 and were also gathered at a public open house on April 6.
By including the Orton Junction area in the Comprehensive Plan Docket, the City already knows it will need to analyze the project’s impacts to the City’s comprehensive plans for water, sewer, stormwater, and transportation.
The Draft Environmental Impact Statement is available for review. Although you can still view the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, comments were due on October 8.
Planning Commission Public Hearing on August 30. Watch online
The Planning Commission recommended approval of the proposal with a 5-1 vote on October 21.
The City Council held a public hearing about the proposal on November 1. Watch online (WMV VIDEO) or View memo outlining comments made and responses (PDF, 15.2 MB)
The City Council approved the proposed amendments at the November 15 meeting. Watch online
Submitted application to Pierce County for an Urban Growth Area Amendment. View the application and cover letter.

Where We Are Now

The Final Environmental Impact Statement is available both online and at City Hall.

Pierce County Application for UGA Amendment-2011

Pierce County separated Sumner's proposal into parts: on July 26, the Planning Commission voted 4-3 to not recommend adding the Orton Junction area to the UGA but still approved unanimously the recommendation to remove the East Hill from Sumner's UGA. The East Hill portion automatically proceeds to the full County Council while the Orton Junction section would have to be added back into the Comprehensive Plan amendments by a member of the Council. Link to notice of application letters sent to property owners on East Hill and in the Orton Junction area.

The Pierce County Regional Council, which is made up of elected officials from cities and towns and the county, voted 15-3 in favor of the full Orton Junction proposal.

NOTE: The City application to Pierce County contains slightly different acreage figures than those presented in the Draft EIS and Final EIS. This is due to the fact that the East Hill reduction had to include an additional 37 acres and the Orton Junction area had inadvertently counted 5.7 acres south of Riverside Road as part of the proposal. These discrepancies, however, do not affect the overall environmental impacts analyzed during the City’s process.

Final Environmental Impact Statement

Cover, Fact Sheet, Table of Contents (PDF, 935 KB)

Chapter 1 Summary (PDF, 1.2 MB)

Chapter 2 Description of the Proposal and Alternatives (PDF, 814 KB)

Figure 2-1 (PDF, 2 MB)

Figure 2-2 (PDF, 4.1 MB)

Figure 2-3 (PDF, 2.3 MB)

Figure 2-4 (PDF, 2.3 MB)

Figure 2-5 (PDF, 2.3 MB)

Figure 2-6 (PDF, 2.3 MB)

Figure 2-7 (PDF, 2.3 MB)

Chapter 3 Environmental Review of Preferred Alternative (PDF, 828 KB)

Chapter 4 Clarifications and Corrections (PDF, 749 KB)

Figure 3.8-2 (PDF, 2 MB)

Figure 3.22-1 (PDF, 731 KB)

Chapter 5 Responses to Comments (PDF, 6 MB)

Chapter 6 Acronyms/Abbreviations and References (PDF, 547 KB)

Chapter 7 Distribution List (PDF, 557 KB)

Appendix A (PDF, 625 KB) Land Capacity Analysis for the 2010 Comprehensive Plan Amendments

Appendix B (PDF, 1.4 MB) Staff Report: Planning Commission Recommendations

Appendix C (PDF, 24 MB) Record of Planning Commission Deliberations

Link to video comment submitted

Appendix D (PDF, 2.5 MB) Proposed Amendments Associated with the

Planning Commission Preferred Alternative

Appendix E (PDF, 708 KB) “What If” Scenario Transportation Analyses

Appendix F (PDF, 553 KB) Corrections to the Draft EIS Table of Contents

Appendix G (PDF, 1 MB) Puget Sound Regional Council Comprehensive Plan Reporting Tool

Appendix H (PDF, 3.1 MB) Orton Junction Market Study

The FEIS makes many references to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

East Hill Urban Swap

This amendment passed by the City Council removes 284 acres along the East Hill. Because Orton Junction is 182 acres, this amendment actually reduces the overall land within the UGA by 102 acres.

If approved by Pierce County, the East Hill area will ultimately retain a rural zoning and not be annexed in to any city or be served with city sewer. The long-term outlook for growth in the area would be greatly reduced with minimal amounts of additional housing or change to the area.

Why Swap?

The purpose of the Urban Growth Area is to reduce sprawl by clustering together areas of commercial, residential and recreational activity so that other areas can remain more rural and open for farming, forestry and open space.

The Orton Junction area, with its proximity to the freeway interchange, is clearly a growing business area for people from the Sumner and Bonney Lake area. The car dealers and Winco are early indications of this. At the same time, the East Hill has remained more rural in character with large-lot residential and no commercial. Many of the residents have indicated they do not want to be annexed into a city in the future.

Sumner believes that taking East Hill out of the UGA and putting Orton Junction in instead better serves both areas, reduces the overall UGA area and serves the greater intent of having a UGA.

Draft Environmental Impact Statement

Cover Letter, Fact Sheet & Table of Contents (1.2 MB PDF) Fact Sheet summarizes the amendments being requested, and alternatives in greater detail:

• UGA Expansion (Orton Junction) Alternative

• UGA Modification Alternative,

• Action Alternative, status quo option.

NOTE: the Fleischmann Industrial Park, LLC proposal to expand the Manufacturing/Industrial Center boundary to include 23 acres of property is included in both action alternatives.

Chapter 1: Summary (392 KB PDF) provides the essence of how each alternative would impact various areas of the environment from air quality to transportation, noise, city services, and beyond. This section is a fair substitute for Chapter 3.

Chapter 2: Description of the Proposal and Alternatives (9.1 MB PDF) This is a detailed description of the alternatives including maps of the areas, analysis of land capacity for population and employment and discusses major issues to be resolved.

Chapter 3: Affected Environment, Impacts and Mitigation (104 KB PDF) This chapter provides the most detail on each environmental topic. Each topic is reviewed in four sections:

• Affected Environment, background information on the topic including current and past plans, current regulations, history, science, etc.

• Impacts analyzes the impacts that each alternative may have on the plan. Remember that the plan is at a “programmatic” or planning level and therefore the discussions are more general then if it the DEIS were at a “project” level.

• Mitigation Measures, where solutions are proposed to address impacts identified on this area of the environment. Mitigation can range from additional regulations, programs, funding, use of technology, etc. to address impacts. Mitigation needs to be reasonable and possible.

• Significant Unavoidable Adverse Impacts—when development and growth occurs there is likely to be some level of unavoidable adverse impacts. This section identifies those things such as the fact that any development will reduce the amount of natural vegetation, and would result in increased traffic and emissions. Some level of increase is unavoidable.

3.1 Earth (5.9 MB PDF)

3.2 Air Quality (225 KB PDF)

3.3 Flooding (2.1 MB PDF)

3.4 Water Quality (2.5 MB PDF)

3.5 Plants & Animals (900 KB PDF)

3.6 Noise (181 KB PDF)

3.7 Risk of Explosion (105 KB PDF)

3.8 Land Use (10MB PDF)

3.9 Relationship to Plans & Policies (815 KB PDF)

3.10 Population & Employment (598 KB PDF)

3.11 Housing (210 KB PDF)

3.12 Cultural Resources (740 KB PDF)

3.13 Transportation (706 KB PDF)

3.14 Parks & Recreation (853 KB PDF)

3.15 City Facilities (620 KB PDF)

3.16 Fire, Police and Court Services (598 KB PDF)

3.17 Libraries and Schools (1 MB PDF)

3.18 Water Supply (253 KB PDF)

3.19 Sanitary Sewer (569 KB PDF)

3.20 Storm Sewer (494 MB PDF)

3.21 Solid Waste (145 KB PDF)

3.22 Utilities (814 KB PDF)

Chapter 4: Acronyms, Abbreviations and References (173 KB PDF) provides valuable guide to common acronyms throughout the document and a bibliography by chapter.

Chapter 5: Distribution List (93 KB PDF) lists every agency, special district, etc, that received either a hardcopy or electronic copy or a Notice of Availability. All property owners in the affected UGA areas were mailed notice and those who have been commenting and tracking the amendments have been notified.

Appendix A: City of Sumner Land Capacity Analysis (205 KB PDF) provides details on the assumptions and rationale behind the updated land capacity analysis of the various alternatives for housing and employment growth.

Appendix B: Scoping Notice and Summary and Planning Commission Minutes (1.4 MB PDF) documents the scoping comments and responses.

Appendix C: Study of City Limits (139 KB PDF) explores the idea of the reducing the UGA to the current City Limits and accommodating the future growth without expanding the City.

Appendix D: Staff Report (1.3 MB PDF) proposed development regulations and amendments to the Comprehensive Plan.

Appendix E: Orton Junction Market Study (545 KB PDF) Long Bay Enterprises prepared an analysis of future demand for retail markets in the Orton Junction study area and employment demand.

Appendix F: Agricultural Resource Lands Maps and Orton Junction Soils Report (6.2 MB PDF)

analyses the agricultural soils within some of the large parcels in the Orton Junction area to better understand how soil type relates to long-term farming.

Appendix G: Sumner Historic Inventory: 1982-2009 (130 KB PDF) contains updated information based on the Washington State Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) inventory.

Appendix H: Transportation Data (633 KB PDF) study prepared by Transpo with estimates of future traffic demand based on projected housing and employment and the alternatives examined in the DEIS.

Appendix I: Sewer Technical Memo (2.3 MB PDF) study provides three alternatives to providing sewer service in the Orton Junction area and relative costs.

More Information/Documents

October 22, 2010 Memo to the Planning Commission -- Puget Sound Regional Council comments

October 19, 2010 Memo to the Planning Commission -- Recommendations and Policy Amendments

October 18, 2010 Memo to the Planning Commission -- Adding Agricultural Land to the UGA

Memo to the Planning Commission (PDF 2 MB) in which City staff propose the Commission approve a combination of the two options proposed in the DEIS.

Appendix A (PDF 15 MB), all the letters received during the comment period.

Appendix B (PDF 43 KB), about green house gas emissions.

Appendix C (PDF 1.5 MB), map of volcanic hazard areas.

Response to comments received (PDF 156 KB) cross-referenced with Appendix A

Updated and expanded response to comments received (PDF 292 KB) cross-referenced with Appendix A

May 27, 2010 Memo -- Updates to Comp Plan Amendments (PDF)

This memo covers three major points of the 2010 Comprehensive Plan Amendments process and provides as status update to the Planning Commission. The major component of these amendments includes the Orton Junction Urban Growth Area expansion to the south.

June 7, 2010 Memo -- 2010 Comprehensive Plan Updates (PDF)

This memo provides a status update on three major points of the 2010 Comprehensive Plan Amendments process.

The memo covers the following: