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Commission hears opposition to large distribution warehouses on rural lands; staff to add asphalt manufacturing to Rural Resource Industrial code language
Summary
Public commenters urged restricting large distribution warehouses on Rural Resource Industrial (RRI) lands to protect prairie, hydrology, and drinking water; staff said they will revise RRI use language to prohibit broad warehousing and to add asphalt manufacturing as an allowed resource‑related use.
Residents and conservation groups told the Thurston County Planning Commission on March 19 that large distribution warehouses should not be permitted on rural resource industrial (RRI) lands, and county staff said they will refine draft code language to limit warehousing and add asphalt manufacturing to the allowed uses in the RRI zone.
Why it matters: Public commenters said large distribution centers (often 500,000 to 1,000,000 square feet) would increase impervious surfaces, risk aquifer impacts and flooding, and destroy native prairie habitat. Black Hills Audubon and other groups urged the commission to reserve RRI lands for timber, mining, and agriculture‑related processing rather than general distribution.
Public comment and staff response Sue Danver, representing Black Hills Audubon Society, said the county's rural prairies are sensitive and urged the commission to limit warehousing on rural industrial lands. "Distribution centers currently tend to be half a million to a million square feet...The prairie destructing impervious surfaces of these large warehouses are worsened by the huge impervious areas required by semi trucks...The complex water channels within the shallow gravels underlying these areas can be damaged, creating floods, disrupting wells, and potentially harming the major aquifer and sole source of Thurston County's drinking water," Danver said. Kyler Danielson, land‑use project manager for Lakeside Industries, asked that the RRI use table explicitly list asphalt plants. "The Rural Resource Industrial Zone currently allows asphalt plants. Asphalt manufacturing is a resource dependent, mining dependent industry, and it's essential to ensure that the county's roads are safe and maintained and that the asphalt plants are located where the rock is," Danielson said. He asked for asphalt to be listed alongside concrete manufacturing for consistency.
Staff said code edits will emphasize that more intensive industrial uses be limited to activities that directly support natural resource industries, and that language will be added to clarify that manufacturing of asphalt products may be an allowed use in RRI where it supports resource industries.
Outcome and next steps Staff said they will revise the RRI use table and memo language to reflect the commission's direction: prohibit general distribution warehouses on RRI lands and clarify allowed uses are those supporting timber, mining, or agricultural resource industries. Staff committed to adding asphalt manufacturing in the use list and to return updated language for the public‑hearing draft. This change was described as a staff revision rather than a formal vote by the commission.
Ending Commissioners directed staff to make the RRI edits and return the modified use table in the public‑hearing packet so the public can review the proposed restrictions and clarifications.
