[DJC]
[design '97]

Developers rise to challenge of industrial land development

By Nicole Faghin
Reid Middleton

If you've ever tried to find a reasonably priced piece of industrial land ready for use in the Puget Sound area, you would know it's a scarce commodity.

While the Growth Management Act clarified where to find land zoned for industrial use, the land may not have the infrastructure in place to make it useable. This has led to the need for well-planned industrial sites and an increase demand for master planning efforts for both private and public sector clients.

Until recently, the assumption has been that there just was not any industrial lands left in Puget Sound. Now what we find is that the land is there, but it lacks water, sewer and utility services, not to mention adequate access. In the greater Puget Sound area there is a real shortage of properly zoned industrial land with improvements in place, and ready to go for building permits.

Two years ago, the Economic Development Council (EDC) of Snohomish County initiated a survey of land designated for industrial uses in Snohomish County. While this study identified plenty of land designated industrial, the majority had no value to potential industrial users because there was no infrastructure present.

"The problem is finding fully serviced land with infrastructure," remarked Michael Cade, Vice President for Resource and Business Development of the EDC. "It doesn't help if there are no services. Our business is to make sure there is available land that is developable and that will generate employment and taxes. Right now, there is a shortage of that kind of industrial land."

"Land Readiness" is the theme of the Industrial Land study prepared by the Puget Sound Regional Council. Fueled by its industrial policies in Vision 2020, the PSRC began a comprehensive study of industrial land supply and demand for Snohomish, King, Pierce, and Kitsap County. The study focuses on the location of sites and the availability of infrastructure on these sites. A similar "Land Availability" study was sponsored in part by NAIOP and compiled by the U of W Center for Community Development and Real Estate. Kitsap County EDC conducted a similar survey to determine industrial land availability.

All of these studies have arrived to the same conclusion: there is not enough ready land to meet the demanded needs. The lack of land ready for use is driving up costs and forcing industrial and manufacturing users to seek land elsewhere, out of the Puget Sound area.

In response to this market demand for planned industrial sites, a number of private developers, as well as public sector land owners, are looking to prepare land for development. These developers and land owners are assisted by firms such as Reid Middleton, Inc. The critical step is the industrial site master planning process, which sets the stage for all future development. This process requires an economic analysis of the potential market demand, an inventory of existing services, and a review of the regulatory requirements on developable land.

These newer land use regulatory tools created by the legislature set the stage for expedited review of building permits. The "planned action" approach approved in 1996 consolidates planning, site development and environmental review in the early stages of the development process. In this process, the relative environmental impacts of a variety of potential land users are assessed up front. In addition, it allows industrial users to avoid many of the permitting problems formerly associated with this type of development.

For instance, the "planned action" approach can eliminate future public comment periods and opportunities to appeal a project. Expedited reviews of building permits are assured where the proposed building "fits" into an approved development plan. Techniques to consolidate the shoreline permitting processes with other land use permitting are also being explored at the site planning level. This potentially reduces the typical duplication of efforts required for projects along the shoreline.

Site planning has new meaning when its end result is an expedited permit review process for all future land uses on the site. Re-use of the CSR Associated gravel extraction operation in Everett, Washington, for industrial use, is an example of such a planning effort. With more than 300 acres of land available, this company has embarked on an ambitious effort with the help of Reid Middleton to prepare the site for industrial users. This planning process will provide an overview of property development constraints, including regulatory approval processes, factors affecting the construction of infrastructure, and anticipated costs for development.

Unique to this project is the nature of the underlying land use actions taken by the City of Everett. The area is part of the Southwest Everett/Paine Field Subarea Plan and EIS, an extensive environmental review of over 4,000 acres of land in Everett. Having completed this environmental review, the City has clear standards by which lands developed within the Subarea can avoid further SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) review and public hearings. So long as the developers of the CSR site stay within the defined "planning envelope" for the area, the permit review process will be minimal.

Public property owners, particularly ports and airports often have significant inventories of underutilized land that could be used for industrial development. Some of these public entities have taken the initiative to go through the industrial site master planning process to set up industrial parks and prepare this land for development.

For example, the Port of Bremerton is in the final stages of preparing a master plan for 560 acres of land adjacent to its airport.

"We believe Kitsap County will be the next wave of industrial land development and we want to be ready," said Dick Brandenberg, Executive Director of the Port of Bremerton. "Our property will have its master plan in place with the County permit ordinance in mind to ease the permitting process. It will make it less expensive because all the permitting issues have been dealt with already."

Similar efforts by the Port of Grays Harbor have already paid off. After an extensive master planning effort last year by the Port of Grays Harbor, that community is in competition with sites in Oregon, vying for a major steel mill that would be located on existing Port properties. To be in contention, the Port went through the master planning process to identify land and infrastructure resources available for industrial users. This study allowed the Port to quickly identify its available resources and respond to information requested by prospective users.

Other examples of public properties that are planned for industrial use in which Reid Middleton has assisted include Kennewick Vista Field, Port of Ephrata, Port of Shelton, and Paine Field in Everett.

There is a strong need in the Puget Sound area to transform land, whether raw or ready for re-use, into useable industrial land. By applying state of the art planning tools, firms such as Reid Middleton, can help clients address this need.

Nicole Faghin is a senior planner at Reid Middleton in Lynnwood.

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