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Pasco leans toward 1,000-foot buffers and industrial-only zoning for state-required transition facilities
Summary
At a council workshop, city attorneys and staff presented draft development rules for secure community transition facilities and less-restrictive alternative housing, showing maps and recommending a 1,000-foot buffer concentrated in industrial zones plus enforceable community safety plans.
The Pasco City Council signaled support for a tighter local rule on where state-mandated transition placements may be sited, favoring a 1,000-foot buffer and limiting sites to industrial zones while requiring applicants to propose community-safety plans.
City legal staff said state law sets parameters that the city must honor while still allowing locally tailored development regulations. Staff showed maps comparing 700- to 1,000-foot buffers and explained that a 1,000-foot buffer concentrated in industrial areas would likely comply with state law while substantially narrowing locations available for placements.
Deputy mayor and several council members said they wanted to make placements as difficult as legally permissible. "This is our effort to make it as painstakingly as possible for them to be cited here," the mayor said, describing the council’s intent to protect neighborhoods and vulnerable residents.
Public commenters, including regional advocates and a Kennewick council member, urged the city to distinguish between secured, state-funded SCTFs (which the state typically sites with more oversight) and smaller, community-based LRAs that carry fewer state-imposed requirements. Janette Romero of Save Our Children Tri Cities asked the council to focus restrictions on LRAs and explained that SCTFs and LRAs are materially different in security and notice procedures.
Staff recommended codifying a hearing-examiner toolbox that could require additional security measures and a community-safety plan (to be reviewed by police and fire chiefs) as part of approval conditions. Council members also discussed penalties and fee schedules tied to enforcement and suggested staff work with the attorney’s office to draft enforceable, measurable penalties tied to resource costs.
Next steps: staff said the draft ordinance is on a schedule for further hearings and that extending the current moratorium or accelerating the ordinance will affect the timing; council asked staff to return with draft language reflecting the 1,000-foot industrial-buffer approach and proposed safety-plan and enforcement elements.
