State hearings board denies Kennewick’s growth area expansion

The state has shot down Kennewick’s plan to attract large-scale industrial development to help replace Hanford jobs.

The three-member Growth Management Hearings Board ruled that the Benton County Commission made a mistake when it approved expanding Kennewick’s urban growth area by 1,263 acres south of Interstate 82 and west of Highway 395 for industrial development.

The board said the February commission decision violated state law and county planning policies. Futurewise, a Seattle-based advocacy group, appealed the Benton County commissioners’ approval to the hearings board.

The hearings board concluded that Kennewick failed to show how anticipated population growth justified the expansion. Kennewick’s population is expected to grow by 31 percent, or about 24,000 people, to more than 102,400 people in the next two decades. A one-third increase in population doesn’t justify a 17-fold increase of industrial land, the hearings board said in court documents.

Basing the expansion on the Kennewick City Council’s desire to have at least 15 percent of the city’s land base as industrial land by 2029 is arbitrary and overstates the city’s need for industrial land, the hearings board wrote.

“(The expansion) is not based on planned population growth, appears speculative, and given the city of Kennewick’s sizable areas of vacant and underdeveloped residential, commercial and industrial lands, will likely result in additional developmental sprawl,” the documents said.

Kennewick can appeal the hearings board’s decision to Superior Court.

Evelyn Lusignan, Kennewick’s customer service manager, said, “We are very disappointed in the decision. City staff is currently working on options that will be brought forward for the council’s consideration and direction on a path forward.”

Kennewick officials see the expansion as a way to bring more jobs into the community. They hope to market it to a range of companies.

Overall, Tim Trohimovich, Futurewise’s attorney, said the advocacy group was pleased with the hearings board’s decision because the board agreed with virtually all of the group’s arguments.

He told the hearings board earlier this year that Kennewick has available land just north of I-82 and west of Highway 395 that would be a better option for industrial development. The county would have Hanford reservation land for industrial development along with existing land.

Trohimovich also argued then that the land needed to be protected as agricultural land. I-82 separates the property from the city of Kennewick and acts as a manmade buffer to protect agricultural land from urban encroachment.

Kennewick officials failed to consider reallocating existing undeveloped residential and commercial land for industrial purposes, the hearings board ruled. Kennewick had developed only 45 percent of the 5,400 acres of its urban land when it applied for the expansion.

“The city has apparently started with a ‘great site’ which, having excellent freeway access, seems easier and more cost effective to develop than existing lands already in its (urban growth area) and in the (urban growth areas) of other cities in Benton County,” the board ruled.

The county also violated state law and its own planning policies by agreeing to change the agricultural land to industrial, the board concluded.

The hearings board said the city and county should document whether population growth backs up a need for the additional industrial land and submit a complete development proposal for the property.

“It is unclear whether 1,263 acres is too much land, too little land, or just the right amount of land,” the hearings board ruled.

Futurewise recently asked the hearings board to reconsider a portion of its decision.

“Our concern is that the city will just go ahead and annex the land between now and when the county takes it out of the urban growth area,” Trohimovich said.

Benton County previously has taken several years to remove land from a city’s urban growth area after a similar decision, he said.

Futurewise filed its request Oct. 27, and the board has 20 days from then to make a decision. Otherwise, Trohimovich said his request will be automatically denied.

Both Kennewick and Kennewick Industrial Development, which has an option to buy the property and proposes to develop it, oppose Futurewise’s reconsideration request.

Kennewick’s attorney Ken Harper said in court documents that the hearings board already heard Futurewise’s argument on the topic and that the idea that Kennewick would annex the land is mere speculation.

This story was originally published November 11, 2014 at 5:00 PM with the headline "State hearings board denies Kennewick’s growth area expansion."