Permitting in Centralia’s urban growth area (UGA) might look quite different starting next month if a new interlocal agreement including the City of Centralia and Lewis County is signed.
Currently, the UGA is governed by the county, which gives the City of Centralia permission to handle the permitting through an interlocal agreement signed in April 2006. The city processes all permits in the UGA, including for land use such as commercial and industrial site plans, long subdivisions of four lots or more, short plats of four lots or less, conditional use permits, and variances. The city also processes all building permits, utilities, State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) entries, and more within the UGA. Code enforcement is handled jointly by the county and the city, while floodplain permits are processed by the county.
However, under a proposed interlocal agreement by Lewis County and Centralia, as well as other municipalities in the county, the county would take over permitting processing in the UGA including land use, SEPAs and critical areas. The county would review building permits first before the permit is issued by the city, while utilities would remain under the control of the city and code enforcement would still be done jointly. Floodplain permits would also be maintained by the county.
Emil Pierson, Centralia community development director, said during a Tuesday evening workshop with the Centralia City Council that port projects would also go through the county.
He said the county’s goal is to have the interlocal agreement signed sometime in October and that the city will likely sign it shortly after the county does. The agreement was triggered by a state change in permitting timelines.
“Because of the way we have to process permits within a certain time frame … for example, a final plan has to be reviewed and approved within 30 days,” Pierson said. “If it came to the city, our code says it has to go through you, then we’ve got to ship it to the county for the county to sign it. There’s no way we can do that within 30 days. Impossible. The same way with short plats. We’ve run into this with subdivisions. Most site plans we can do within that time frame, but because of those time frames, the liability for us, as well as the county, suddenly changed. A lot of that’s because of developers. They want to make sure they’re moving very quickly through the process.”
Pierson then described what he called a significant issue that will create “a lot of heartburn to a lot of developers.” In Lewis County’s code under Title 17.15, an amendment approved by the commissioners Tuesday says single family residential subdivisions that will create five or more lots where any lot is less than two acres in size shall not be approved in the UGA.
“If it’s dealing with single-family homes, and they walk into the community development department and they’re showing five lots or more and they’re under two acres in size, the county will not accept it,” Pierson said. “Previously, the answer would be we would. They don’t.”
Divisions of land that will create five or more lots for single-family residential development where all lots are two acres in size or larger within the unincorporated UGA will be accepted by the county. Divisions of land that will create four or fewer lots or adjust boundaries of existing lots shall conform to the city lot size and density standards. Single-family residential development does not include multifamily residential development. According to the county, no subdivisions that create lots for multifamily residential development will be approved within the unincorporated UGA. Multifamily residential development includes duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, townhomes or more than five attached dwelling units.
“The goal for the county is they would like to see it larger than two acres in size in that UGA so it can develop in the future, once the sewer is available. Or, a developer has the opportunity to annex into the city, and that means they can follow our requirements,” Pierson said.
Pierson said pending developments in the UGA will be grandfathered in using the processing standards that are in place today.
The Centralia City Council voted March 11 to approve annexation negotiations with Lewis County. For a map of the potential annexed areas and more information on the council’s vote in the spring, visit previous Chronicle reporting at https://tinyurl.com/55rjdtm3.
