A St. Louis, Missouri developer has proposed turning the Shaw/Pioneer farmland area into a massive industrial warehouse district.  This proposal runs counter to the City of Puyallup’s land use plan that was adopted in 2009 after years of working with the landowners, citizens, and Pierce County.  The developer is trying to take advantage of existing County zoning and ignoring past agreements and the adopted plan for this Puyallup future annexation area.  The impacts of the proposal would be enormous: traffic congestion from 8,000 trucks and cars per day, costs to Puyallup citizens to repair roadways, decreased property values, destruction of farmland, incompatibility with the City’s Van Lierop Park, and an overall diminishment of land use character and quality of life for the Puyallup community.

Thanks to the nearly 5,000 citizens that have signed this petition and to the City of Puyallup, a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) has been prepared to assess the impacts of the project and propose mitigation measures. The public can provide comment on the DEIS until March 15, 2024.  

The proposed mitigation in Alternative 2 of the DEIS is a good start. Alternative 2: 1) reduces the number of warehouses; 2) preserves some open space/farmland; 3) limits truck traffic; 4) provides some traffic mitigation; 5) protects Van Lierop Park from sound and visual impacts; and 6) reduces impacts to the Puyallup River and wetlands.

However, the proposed mitigation in Alternative 2 is not sufficient.  Reducing warehouse square footage and traffic volume by 35% is not enough.  Even at that scale, the project is too massive for this area.  At least 50% reduction is needed.  Fewer warehouses, less traffic, and more farmland protection should be incorporated into the City of Puyallup’s preferred alternative in the Final EIS to Protect Puyallup.