Submitted by Save Our City-DuPont, WA.
Have you seen the large billboard next to Pioneer Middle School at the intersection of Center and Palisade in DuPont with architectural drawings of FOUR 200,000 buildings, for a total of 800,000 square feet? This project would bring in semi-truck traffic off Palisade- in the Pioneer school zone- and would be right behind homes on Charles, Wren and Simmons. It would abut the east side of the Home Course Golf Course. That’s right- 102.36 acres of “light manufacturing” with:
- 266 truck trailer parking stalls
- 111 dock doors, with 8 drive in doors
Northpoint, the potential developer and the largest distribution warehouse builder in the US, met with a citizen group here in DuPont in Nov 2019 and told them that their intent was to ask for a zoning code change to build distribution warehouses, which are NOT allowed anywhere on this property. They told Northpoint they would fight warehouses every step of the way. In total disregard of our zoning codes, Northpoint submitted the same plans shown below in Spring 2020, and twice in 2021. The first two times the city returned the plans as incomplete. The first two times, they called the buildings “light industrial”- the property prohibits light industrial uses. This time, the third time around, they simply changed the language to “light manufacturing” with the same size buildings and same number of dock bays. Their Site Development Data Table even notes:
“(5) INDUSTRIES, WAREHOUSE: 0.3 TO 1 STALL PER EMPLOYEE WORKING AT MAXIMUM SHIFT”
DuPont has fought this battle for the past five years. The citizens of DuPont raised over $16,000 in 2018 to stop warehouses from being built on this property and a hearing examiner ruled that our zoning codes prohibit buildings disguised as distribution warehouses. Yet here we are again having to deal with pure deception by America’s largest developer of distribution warehouse.
HOW CAN YOU HELP TO PRESERVE OUR QUALITY OF LIFE?
Put Thursday Feb 10 from 6:00-8:00pm at City Hall on your calendar. The city will host an Open House with stations, where Northpoint will explain their plans. Read the plans on https://www.dupontwa.gov/633/Founders-Ridge–Old-Fort-Lake–Applicati
Barb Kincaid, DuPont’s Community Development Director, is accepting comments until 4pm on February 22nd for citizen input into the significant environmental impacts of this proposed development. Her email is bkincaid@dupontwa.gov. The city is requiring an environmental as it has determined that the project most likely will have significant environmental impacts. Then the project will go before a hearing examiner, where you may submit testimony.
Again, predatory global corporations have no qualm at waging environmental war against communities, in the name of obscene profits. The quality of life is relegated to the past and nostalgia. Massive truck gridlock, pollution, and noise are forced on those who want quality of life and a peaceful existence
When we talk about “housing shortage” we also need to look at “commercial development” intrusion into established residential areas. Dupont still has some “affordable housing”. It is bad enough that Western Washington farmland has been paved over for warehouses. Now residential neighborhoods are expected to absorb not only warehouses but the accompanying semi traffic. Filling this Planned, walkable, family oriented residential community with warehouses and the resulting truck traffic is unacceptable. The spillover will be increased congestion at the exits and on ramps to I-5 which are already heavily used. With the addition of high speed rail, Amazon and existing warehouses and truck bays in Dupont, I-5 back-ups are already guaranteed. “Quality of Life” for those living in Dupont must be a consideration when denying this request.
Where is the affordable housing in Dupont?
I read through the Traffic Impact Analysis. It is over 170 pages long. And even though the roadway will be along the athletic fields of Pioneer Middle School, and the trucks will be turning through an intersection used by students that attend Pioneer Middle School, the word “school” does not appear in the document. Not once in over 170 pages. Clearly, the safety and wellbeing of the children who attend Pioneer Middle School, or utilize the athletic field is not being considered. This is appalling situation and needs to be prevented.