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Pasco has started a $1.6 million road project in east Pasco with the goal of attracting industrial development.
The city will officially break ground on the Commercial Avenue project in a ceremony at 10 a.m. today. The event is a thank you to state Sen. Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, who helped the city get an $800,000 state grant to pay for the new road, said Pasco Mayor Joyce Olson.
The city will add about a mile of road north of Hillsboro Street to connect with East Foster Wells Road, said Bob Alberts, city public works director. Capitol Avenue will connect to the new road and become Commercial.
The project will open up about 400 acres east of Highway 395 for industrial development, Olson said.
"We want industrial development because it creates jobs and broadens our tax base," she said. Adding industrial development would reduce the property tax load on other property owners, she said.
The city has decreased its property tax rate for the past nine years, Olson said. It dropped to $1.99 per $1,000 of assessed value, or $199 for a $100,000 home, in 2010.
The city did a similar project in 1995, when it added infrastructure for what is now the Pasco Food Processing Center west of Highway 395. Since then, City Manager Gary Crutchfield said, the area has attracted about six food processing facilities and added more than 1,000 jobs.
Over the next 20 years, the city hopes to see millions in industrial development in the Commercial Avenue area and 500 to 1,000 new jobs, Crutchfield said.
Most of the land is already zoned for industrial development, he said. Some land is in the city's urban growth area and would be zoned business industrial after being annexed.
However, Crutchfield cautioned that it will take time before industry starts locating in the area. The city hopes to see a project there in a few years.
The city has already extended sewer and water lines from just north of Hillsboro Street to East Foster Wells Road, Alberts said. The city paid $800,000 for the project that was contracted to Premier Excavation of Richland.
Granite Northwest of Pasco will start construction on the arterial road Monday, Alberts said, and it should be completed mid-May.
There may be some traffic delays on Commercial Avenue during construction but for the most part, the road will be open for use, he said.
Franklin County plans to extend East Foster Wells to the Pasco-Kahlotus Highway to create a second arterial route that would bring more truck traffic to the eastern part of Pasco, Alberts said.
Franklin County hopes to get about $800,000 from the second round of federal stimulus funding for East Foster Wells, or, if that doesn't happen, to get $1 million from the 2011 federal appropriations budget.
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