Tacoma neighborhood wants moratorium on industrial projects. Will council agree to it?

The City Council will decide whether to begin studying the impacts of a halt to industry in South Tacoma after residents raised concerns about the city’s drinking water.

As a part of its annual amendment to the Comprehensive Plan and Land Use Regulatory Code, City Council members will consider adopting a work plan for the South Tacoma Groundwater Protection District, which would be the first-phase response to a South Tacoma Economic Green Zone to address environmental and health risks.

The South Tacoma Neighborhood Council applied for the economic green zone and pushed for a moratorium on new permits within the groundwater protection and recharge area until the city’s code has been updated.

Council will consider the resolution with the moratorium amendment Tuesday night, along with three other ordinances to amend the Comprehensive Plan and Land Use Regulatory Code. The plan and code are generally updated once a year through amendments.

The moratorium clause states that immediately following the adoption of the work plan, “the Planning Commission will conduct a public process to develop findings of fact and recommendations as to whether a moratorium on heavy industrial uses and storage of hazardous materials within the South Tacoma Groundwater Protection District is warranted, and if so, to recommend the scope, applicability and duration for City Council consideration.”

The Planning Commission said in its recommendation to approve the code amendment that it received comments about enacting the moratorium on Bridge Industrial’s proposed warehouse project that is currently under administrative, permitting and environmental reviews. The commission noted it does not have review or decision authority.

Bridge Industrial filed construction permits for four buildings earlier this month in its Bridge Point Tacoma 2MM. The company plans to begin work April 2023.

During a public hearing June 14, dozens of South Tacoma residents asked the City Council to adopt the amendment and place a moratorium on future warehouse projects. Residents raised concerns about the impact on the South Tacoma aquifer, which supplies up to 40% of the city’s backup water supply during summer’s peak. The proposed overlaying zoning and land-use control district changes would prevent the degradation of groundwater in the South Tacoma aquifer system by controlling the handling, storage and disposal of hazardous substances by businesses, according to a presentation of the Planning Commission’s annual amendment recommendations given to the Infrastructure, Planning and Sustainability Committee last month.

The city has applied a moratorium in the past. A moratorium in 2011 got the city into legal trouble and cost it $2 million after the council enacted a moratorium to stop the development of big box stores. The emergency moratorium prohibited applications for development permits of retail sale establishments with a floor plan more than 65,000 square feet within Tacoma’s city limits.

According to the city’s land use regulatory code, a moratorium suspends accepting or processing new applications for building, zoning, subdivision, or other types of development in order to preclude development from occurring for a specified period of time.