Pierce County warehouse project near popular trail approved; 100s of trees to be removed

The city of DuPont’s hearing examiner ruled Tuesday that a controversial proposal to build a 256,800-square-foot office/warehouse building near the popular Sequalitchew Creek Trail could move forward. City staff had recommended the plan be approved if certain requirements were met.

Pending appeals, Seattle-based developer Avenue 55 will construct a building on the west side of Sequalitchew Drive, near 1700 Center Drive. It would be about 45 feet tall and house between 90 and 120 employees, according to a 2022 land-use application, as previously reported by The News Tribune.

If approved, construction of the “DuPont West” or “DuPont 243” project, could result in the removal of more than 350 healthy trees, including 56 protected landmark trees.

The project would also relocate part of the Sequalitchew Creek Trail. Visitors wouldn’t be able to park at the end of Sequalitchew Drive and have to take the trail from the DuPont City Hall parking lot instead. Ben Varin, an Avenue 55 development manager, told The News Tribune last month the trail would remain open during construction and the company would add paving and historical signage.

In his decision Tuesday, DuPont hearing examiner Phil Olbrechts concluded the proposal meets city standards “and must be approved overall.”

Olbrechts initially denied a prior proposal for the project in 2019 because the proposal included construction over a historical marker site, the first non-Native built building in the Puget Sound region. He also denied the proposal because it violated a city code provision that prohibits warehouses from “abutting” a main street, in this case Sequalitchew Drive.

In the new proposal, Avenue 55 said it would build around the historical marker area, making it accessible to the public. The main issue Olbrechts considered in this week’s decision was the “abutting issue,” he said.

Olbrechts said Avenue 55 “succeeded in complying with” his 2019 interpretation by separating its proposed warehouse lot with a 50-foot-wide intervening lot, making it “no longer … contiguous with Sequalitchew Drive.”

“It is fully acknowledged that separating warehouse use from Sequalitchew Drive by what amounts to an undevelopable lot is likely not what the City Council had in mind when it prohibited warehouse uses from abutting main roads,” he wrote in his final decision. “The problem at this point is that the abutting standard, DMC 25.45.030(17), is too vague to prohibit what the Applicant has proposed.”

City zoning standards were met, despite opposition

Olbrechts said he received “numerous exceptionally well-prepared and compelling comments” from city residents, who expressed various concerns about the project, including tree retention, noise pollution, habitat loss, neighborhood compatibility, traffic impacts, quality of life impacts and conflicts with the city’s Comprehensive Plan.

The Nisqually Indian Tribal Historic Preservation Office also submitted a letter to the hearing examiner after the comment period ended opposing the project.

Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Brad Beach wrote that a previous cultural resources investigation into the site contained inaccuracies, like falsely characterizing the area as being within the traditional territory of the Puyallup Tribe, failing to recognize the potential impacts to “numerous culturally significant glacial kettle lakes and marshes, and other locations of cultural and spiritual importance,” “fail[ing] to account for the numerous Culturally Modified Trees that have been observed” in addition to the removal of other significant trees.

Beach said the city also failed to “meet contemporary professional standards regarding cultural resource investigative methodologies and reporting” when considering the DuPont West proposal.

Olbrechts said because the Nisqually Indian Tribal Historic Preservation Office submitted its comment letter late it was not admitted to the record.

Although Olbrechts concluded, “There is ample reason to be unhappy about the Applicant’s end run on the City’s ‘abutting’ standard,” but ultimately “the City’s zoning is at least partially responsible for the ‘creative’ permitting conduct engaged by warehouse developers.”

“The City’s exceptional beauty and wealth of historical resources is arguably not reflected in its zoning map. Half of that map is covered with some shade of grey that permits warehouse use,” Olbrechts wrote. “Warehouse developers rely upon this ocean of grey for their development plans. It’s generally too late to try to stop warehouse development in areas where the zoning map warrants that as a development right.”

DuPont’s site plan criteria doesn’t generally require development to avoid impacting the surrounding community “or even be consistent with the comprehensive plan,” he said in the decision.

“Overall that should not come as a surprise,” Olbrechts wrote. “If the zoning map authorizes a particular use, the accompanying zoning district standards usually aren’t designed to prevent that use from occurring.”

Olbrechts said the project is within the Manufacturing and Research Zone, which permits freestanding warehousing/distribution use. If approved, city code requires the south and east sides of the building visible from the public rights of way of Sequalitchew Trail and Sequalitchew Drive to have architectural or landscaping buffers, according to his findings of fact.

The proposal is found to be in compliance with the city’s day and night noise standards, Olbrechts said.

More than 350 trees removed

Of the 669 trees identified on the site, most were considered to be healthy, long-term trees if they were saved, according to his findings. Those trees include Douglas-fir, western hemlock, western redcedar, Oregon white oak, Pacific yew, Pacific madrone and bigleaf maple. There were a total of 75 landmark trees found in the area, which typically require protection due to their rareness, size, age, structure or ecological condition.

A total of 19 landmark trees can be retained on the site and 56 will need to be removed, Olbrechts concluded. Of the 607 healthy trees, 211 will be retained and 296 will be removed, according to his finding.

“Planned tree retention exceeds the minimum requirement by 182 trees, so no tree replacement is required beyond that required by the landscape code requirements,” Olbrechts wrote. “The Applicant shall remove the coniferous trees identified … to the extent the City tree preservation plan will allow such removal and in such a manner that preserves Western Gray Squirrel nesting habitat to the extent possible. The Applicant shall also make commercially reasonable best efforts to incorporate additional oaks into its landscaping plan.”

Olbrechts said Avenue 55 will also have to work with the Nisqually Indian Tribe to identify and preserve “as feasible” any culturally modified trees.

Any appeals are subject to the Pierce County Superior Court. A transcript and recording of an Oct. 15 public hearing on the matter is available online.

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