Residents living on Mayberry Road in Centralia got a big win Thursday night when a property owner withdrew his application for rezoning that would have extended the city’s sewer system past his neighbors’ houses and to his property.
More than 40 people showed up to a Centralia Planning Commission meeting to voice frustration over the effort to rezone the 19.5-acre property from low-density rural to low-density residential R4 zoning, which would have allowed up to four units per acre on the property.
The property is within city limits by way of the UNFI Distribution Center property, and it’s located at the tail end of Mayberry, behind Centralia High School. Mayberry residents and the school are outside city limits in the urban growth area.
The request was part of a larger list of comprehensive plan amendments and rezone requests. The owner, Jeremy Wildhaber, withdrew his request after hearing concerns his neighbors had about the cost of the sewer mandate and flooding on the property, which lies along the Chehalis River.
“I’m not trying to get the whole neighborhood up in arms, and that’s exactly what’s happened. It just seems unfair that my property is in the city, surrounded where it sits. I don’t have any benefits being part of the city. I don’t get any water, I don’t get any sewer,” he said, adding later: “I’m not going to ruin it for everybody. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Wildhaber, who bought the property in 2018 for $450,000, according to Lewis County records, said he originally bought it with plans to live there someday. Circumstances changed during the pandemic, though, and he’s now looking to sell the property.
When he brought the property forward to a realtor, they suggested Wildhaber rezone the property and bring sewer access to make it more developable and appealing to buyers, paying his application fees. He now feels the city should work with him to find another way around Mayberry.
“My plan was to just live there. But with COVID hitting the way it did, and a lot of the problems happening to the economy, I don’t have the income coming in to develop it at the moment,” he said, noting that they were originally looking to apply for a high-density R20 zoning on this and nearby properties for a motorhome park.
Wildhaber owns a total 87 acres out along the Chehalis River, most of it in the floodplain and with significant environmental restrictions, according to city documents. Though it is located within a 100-year floodplain, about 16.78 acres of the 19.5 acres was deemed developable pending further environmental review.
“City utilities do not currently exist to the parcel. Future development would require extension of all utility services,” read city documents.
Connection costs are often quite hefty, sometimes requiring residents to shell out tens of thousands of dollars in connection fees, meter costs and physical connection work. Many residents were deeply distraught by the thought of burdening costs, and also held concerns with traffic and flooding in the area that would be caused by the development.
“The thing is most of us cannot afford to hookup to all this. I’m retired, I’m on fixed income. Most of the people I talk to said when it goes through and they have to hook up, then there’s going to be for-sale signs going up on our lots,” said Lawrence Granville, 80, a Mayberry resident.
Even the prospect of having a development at the end of the road would interrupt their quiet way of life, he said, noting that some people already come through going 40 mph.
City Community Development Directory Emil Pierson suggested Wildhaber consider speaking to the Centralia School District and a local game farm about bypassing sewer connections. The school district, while not within city limits, is serviced by the city.
Speaking to The Chronicle after the meeting, Wildhaber said he planned on initiating those discussions with the district.
