Kennewick is out of space for industrial development. Court agrees city can expand

The Washington state Court of Appeals has sided with the city of Kennewick to allow 280 acres of land at the southern edge of the city to be used for industrial development.

Without it the city has almost no land for industrial development and has watched as companies have instead picked land elsewhere in the Tri-Cities for industrial projects, including the two massive Amazon warehouses being built in Pasco.

“We’re excited this could be finally behind us,” said Evelyn Lusignan, spokeswoman for the city of Kennewick, in response to the court decision.

Kennewick has been attempting for a decade to expand its urban growth area to get more land designated for industrial use south of Interstate 82.

The land has been seen as a attractive area for large scale industrial development, given its access to I-82, Highway 395 and Interstate 84 in Oregon and its lack of nearby residential development as the interstate serves as a buffer to housing to the north.

According to court documents the city needs industrial land available to develop to “provide employment opportunities now and into the future that will diversify its economy.”

An attempt in 2012 to designate 1,260 acres for industrial development failed when the Growth Management Hearings Board overturned Benton County’s approval of the change. The city did not appeal then.

More recently the city applied to Benton County and won approval in 2019 to add 280 acres along the southern edge of the Interstate 82 right of way to the west of Highway 395 to the city’s urban growth area for industrial use.

The vacant land, which was not irrigated, had been designated as “rural remote” and the city said previous and current owners are interested in development.

An ECONorthwest study paid for by Kennewick in 2016 found a lack of large sites ready for development.

Over the previous two years the city had received 15 requests for information from the Washington state Department of Commerce for industrial land, according to court documents.

Kennewick was unable to respond to 10 of them because it lacked large parcels zoned for heavy industrial activities and land near an interstate.

Futurewise appeals

Futurewise, a Seattle land-use advocacy group, successfully appealed the decision to add more industrial land south of Interstate 82 to the Washington State Growth Management’s Hearings Board.

The city of Kennewick responded by appealing the hearing board’s decision that would block industrial use to the Washington state Court of Appeals Division III.

The city also went ahead and annexed the 280 acres while legal proceedings were underway.

The unanimous decision in Kennewick’s favor by a three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeals clears the way for infrastructure to be extended to the land and the owners to decide what to do with it.

The judges concluded that Kennewick had made a case that it needed more land for industrial development.

Futurewise had argued that Kennewick shared an urban growth area with Richland and West Richland and that together those cities had adequate industrial land to develop.

Kennewick said that its population was projected to grow to 112,000 by 2037, which would require an additional 1,000 acres to be used for parks, public facilities, schools, industrial development, open space and other uses.

The deficit for industrial use was calculated at 775 acres, which was more than the 280 acres proposed for industrial use south of Interstate 82, the city said in court documents.

But Futurewise said that the 775-acre deficit was more than covered by expansion of the urban growth area elsewhere, as 1,641 acres of Hanford site land near Richland was transferred by the Department of Energy for industrial development.

The transfer of the unused nuclear reservation land was adding 901 acres to the Richland urban growth area after the city removed some acreage elsewhere, Futurewise said in its appeal.

Futurewise has 30 days to challenge the Washington state Court of Appeals decision in Kennewick’s favor.

The group is active across Washington state, fighting for local government land use policies and decisions for growth management that protect farmland, forests and shorelines for future generations.

This story was originally published March 15, 2022 at 12:35 PM.