Size of the facility. 18,000 square feet is very large. The main room at the Worthington Center, at St. Martin's College, which was designed to seat 450 and is a little over only 8000 square feet in size.

The Olympia Center has 14,000 square feet of meeting room space, not including its offices, bathrooms, gym and lobby areas.

Parking. The proposed Olympia Arts and Conference Center only included 150 new parking spaces, but there's much more parking in downtown Olympia than on Sunrise Beach Road (with no shoulders) or Steamboat Island Road (which has shoulders, but could be a dangerous place to have on-street parking). How could the developer guarantee all 500 attendees of an event (at full capacity) would carpool with an average of more than 3 occupants in each car and would be accommodated entirely by the Center's off-street parking?

Transportation. Most of us have experienced the daily congestion at the intersections of Steamboat Island Road and US-101, and east at the intersection of US-101 and WA-8 during peak hours. This plan includes no steps to mitigate the increased volume of traffic through those intersections. Instead, the plan understates the traffic congestion anticipated as a result of this facility.

New play fields are being built on 41st Ave. NW and an athletic club is proposed near the corner of Sexton and Steamboat Island Road. Add this to rush hour traffic or the traffic when school or events at the school let out and traffic congestion could be severe enough as to delay the passage of public safety teams.

Groundwater. There are serious concerns regarding the source of water and sewage carrying capacity when siting  a facility of this size in our rural residential community.

Additionally, the storm water runoff from such a large building, and its associated paved parking areas, would be significant.

Designation as a "community center." The zoning code permits, as a special use, construction of a building for a “community club, homeowners’ association, private club or fraternal organization”.

However, the terms “community club” or “fraternal organization” are defined as:

“a building in which members of a community or association may gather for social, educational or cultural activities.”

Merely using the term “community” as part of the description of this proposed facility does not magically erase its basic nature as an urban, high intensity commercial facility that clearly is not allowed under the applicable zoning.

This sets a bad precedent for the special use permit process. If this can be approved as a "community center," what other facilities can be approved through a special use permit using similar fuzzy logic?

Many GNA members have questions about direct benefits to our community in a facility of this size and nature. To what degree will the community have access to this center?

Violation of the Growth Management Act. The convention center violates the Growth Management Act (GMA). County zoning ordinance are adopted under the GMA and it is the county zoning ordinance which actually controls land uses in areas outside of cities and towns.

Several layers of controls exist under the GMA. Starting with the most basic and moving to the most general controls, they are:

1) The most basic controls are called "development regulations" or the zoning ordinance. The county adopts the zoning ordinance for unincorporated areas outside of cities and towns. Cities and towns adopt their own zoning ordinances.

2) The zoning ordinance must conform with the comprehensive plan. In our case, the comprehensive plan was adopted by the county. Cities and towns also adopt comprehensive plans.

3) The county's comprehensive plan, as well as the comprehensive plans of the cities and towns in the county, must conform with what is called the countywide planning policy. The county adopted this countywide planning policy.

4) State law (the GMA) controls everything, including countywide planning policies, comprehensive plans, and development regulations or zoning ordinances. Guidelines adopted by the Dept. of Trade, Community, and Economic Development were adopted to "guide" counties, cities and towns in taking their required actions.

A short period of time existed where people could appeal the actions of the county, city, or town to what is called the Growth Hearings Board. A petitioner had to specify what part or parts of these documents did not comply with state law. The board reviewed the matter and could approve what was done or reject what was done. Eventually, the local government had to alter its documents to conform with a ruling of the board. The time is over for these appeals.

One of the basic requirements of the GMA was for the county to designate "urban growth areas" in which urban growth would be encouraged to be located and outside of which urban growth is not allowed. Every city and town must be in an urban growth area, which may also include unincorporated areas adjacent to the city or town. Zoning outside of an urban growth area must preclude urban land uses. This proposed "community center" is clearly an urban density commercial development that is not allowed under the county's zoning ordinance, much less the comprehensive plan or the GMA. A county may designate some areas for limited commercial purposes, such as the neighborhood commercial area designated by US Highway 101. However, these commercial uses must serve the community rather than the general public.

The Willis property is not located in the neighborhood commercial zone. It is located in what is called a rural resource residential area. One housing unit per 5 acres. Some special uses are allowed in this area, including what is called a "community club". That type of use is what the Willis Family Trust is proposing. However, their convention center does not fit this category. They might as well propose something like a "community club/airplane manufacturing facility" and claim that the lunchroom could be used for community gathering purposes.

Many members of the GNA will remember a controversy that arose several years ago involving what is now the Willis property, as well as other parcels. Several land owners at that time (including whomever owned what is now the Willis property) petitioned the county to expand the then general commercial area (about 19 acres) to include a much larger area, including what is now the Willis property. The proposal was either to add an additional 39 acres to the existing 19 acres or to expand the existing 19 acres to a total of 39 acres (we have not researched the details recently).

A large protest arose over this. The county refused to grant the rezone. In addition, the county "downzoned" the existing commercial area to a neighborhood commercial zone which is for commercial facilities serving the community rather than the general public.

To repeat: the commercial zoning is for facilities serving the community rather than the general public.

Click here to view a letter opposing this project, as it is currently proposed.

A pattern of more intensive rural development is not urban growth. When allowed to spread over wide areas, urban growth typically requires urban governmental services." (RCW 36.70A.020(17).)

Urban governmental services or urban services is defined as including "those public services and public facilities at an intensity historically and typically provided in cities, specifically including storm and sanitary sewer systems, domestic water systems, street cleaning services, fire and police protection services, public transit services, and other public utilities associated with urban areas and normally not associated with rural areas." (RCW 36.70A.020(19).)

These are quite vague. An abbreviated definition of urban growth would be the location of buildings and impermeable surfaces in such an intensive fashion as to be incompatible with the primary use of the land for more rural purposes, such as timber production, agriculture, mineral extraction, or rural development. If allowed to spread over wide areas urban growth typically requires city-like services. Rural development centers are allowed where limited commercial development is permitted in areas outside of urban growth areas that are already characterized by commercial development, if the commercial development is "isolated small-scale businesses". These rural commercial areas may not be allowed to spread out but must be compact.

An isolated neighborhood structure, such as maybe twice the size of the Prosperity Grange Hall, would not be urban growth. The basic factor is the size of the building and its purposes. Also, a series of 10 smaller commercial buildings each the size of the Grange Hall located next to each other probably would be urban growth.

Commercial development in the vicinity of Sexton Road occurred before GMA was enacted. The county has designated a relatively small area there as a neighborhood commercial area. However, that area is hundreds of yards south of the property proposed for this convention center. The neighborhood commercial area hugs Highway 101 from the car repair shop next to the vet hospital, along Sexton Road over to  Steamboat Island Road near where the overpass is located. It is not very deep and only goes as far north as the back of the Island Market grocery store. Possibly one of the houses immediately north of the grocery store are also in this area.

A discussion of the history of the zoning of the area provides a valuable guide as to how this development is not consistent with rural land uses and how the county clearly rejected large-scale commercial development.

Remember that the proposed convention center is twice the size of the existing Worthington Center, which is located in the urban growth area, and twice the size of the new convention center in Tumwater, also in an urban growth area.

These facts provide some reference to the massive scale of this convention center.

However, the most important point, is that this type of structure and use is flat not allowed under the county zoning ordinance. It is not a neighborhood "community club" for the use of residents and members of a fraternal organization, such as the Grange.

Even if one could argue that a convention center of this magnitude is not an urban land use (which it is), the county zoning does not allow that type of development here.