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A moratorium on new warehouse and distribution center facilities in and around the City of Centralia could stay in place for another six months after the Centralia City Council approved an extension.
Members of the council on Tuesday evening voted 6-1 in favor of city Ordinance 2575, which extends the city's restriction on large warehouse facilities above 250,000 square feet in the city limits and its urban growth area. The council also took up discussion on the best way forward for negotiations over the moratorium with Lewis County and the Port of Centralia as true mediation has still not begun.
Councilor Tucker Voetberg voted against his colleagues on the moratorium extension Tuesday night after requesting the council shorten the extension to just three months.
“I think six months is too long,” Voetberg said. “Extending it three months would give us four months from here on out, so that we could not hold up anything.”
Voetberg stood alone, but many other councilors echoed his sentiment of wanting a speedier conclusion to the warehouse zoning issue. Even so, most said they would prefer to err on the side of caution by passing the longer extension and repealing it early if necessary.
Deputy Mayor Chris Brewer spoke immediately after Voetberg and stressed his desire to pass the six-month extension, believing that it will allow the city to maintain local control over warehouse zoning until a solution is found. He added that he believes his constituents support that approach.
“I just don't want us to give up any of the control that we have locally over this process,” Brewer said. “And ending in a moratorium early, especially before the appeal is done, is us giving all of our control on this process up.”
Other councilors, such as Adriana Garibay, Kelly Smith Johnston and Kevin Curtis, echoed the same opinion as Brewer, citing community support for the moratorium and the ability to repeal it should the county, city and port come to an agreement on warehouse zoning before the end of the summer, Sept. 9, when the extension would expire.
Councilors also said they would like to see what comes of negotiations with the other local governments. Smith Johnston outwardly agreed with Voetberg's desire to wrap up negotiations quickly, but pointed out that negotiations have not begun largely because of turnover at the city and the port, and said she believes the six-month extension is “standard.”
The three local governments — the county, city and port — have been in a battle over warehouse and distribution center permitting since the city first enacted its moratorium in September of last year. The parties agreed to mediation over the issue in November 2025. They had previously agreed to meet for mediation late last month, Jan. 22, before that meeting was canceled.
The council approved the six-month extension on the second reading of the ordinance after hearing it for the first time during a meeting two weeks earlier on Tuesday, Jan. 27.
During the previous meeting, the council held a public hearing on the issue and heard from eight members of the public. Six members of the public supported extending the moratorium and two opposed it while all councilors openly supported the extension, according to previous reporting by The Chronicle. For reporting on the previous meeting, visit https://tinyurl.com/z6en8uvw.
Port of Centralia Commissioner Peter Lahmann notably opposed the extension during the Jan. 27 meeting and also advocated for the county, the city and the port to move forward in negotiations without an official mediation process in order to save costs.
The county took up discussion on that exact proposal Tuesday evening. The council began the discussion immediately after approving the moratorium extension after City Manager Michael Thomas requested that the council advise him on his next steps forward for negotiations.
After some debate, the councilors unanimously agreed to move forward with negotiations without an official mediator, but retaining the city’s negotiating team as before, which includes Thomas as well as Mayor Norm Chapman, City of Centralia Community Development Director Emil Pierson and Centralia City Attorney Kyle Manley.
That team will now have to be adapted after Chapman announced his resignation from the council at the end of the meeting and after the moratorium discussion. Chapman took the spot on the team after being selected as an alternate to replace former Councilor Mark Westley, whose term expired at the end of 2025.
In agreeing to the path forward, councilors did reserve the right to hire a mediator in the future. All councilors agreed it would be wise to save costs if all parties were willing to negotiate without a mediator; however, Councilor Ray Chapman-Wilson added that the city should not hesitate to go back to mediation if negotiations struggle to move forward.
“If it does go to mediation, it's money well spent,” Chapman-Wilson said. “I hope that it doesn't go to mediation.”
Smith Johnston added that the city could consider hiring a professional facilitator, which would be cheaper than a mediator, but could act as a referee and help settle concerns with all three parties that the negotiation process is fair.
“That person would be a lot less than a mediator, but somebody to help set the agenda and be a neutral person to keep the conversation on track and moving,” Smith Johnston said.
The next meeting between the city and other parties of the mediation, according to Thomas, is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 26, to be held at a Lewis County facility.
