Maytown cargo center plans dropped

Port of Tacoma will sell its property, not renew agreement with Olympia

By Jim Szymanski | The Olympian • Published June 20, 2008

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MAYTOWN – The Port of Tacoma has dropped plans to develop a controversial transportation and cargo center near Maytown and instead will put the 745-acre parcel up for sale.

The decision means no industrial development is forthcoming for hundreds of acres of south Thurston County prairie, the home of an array of wildlife. It also scuttles plans to add as many as 1,900 jobs in the area and provide a potential source of revenue to the financially struggling Port of Olympia.

In the coming months, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife will work to form a coalition to preserve the prairie as part of a larger conservation plan, the goal of hundreds of Maytown-area residents who had opposed the industrial development proposal on environmental grounds during the past two years.

On Thursday, Tacoma port officials announced they would not seek to renew a joint development agreement for the idea with the Port of Olympia. The Olympia port had been scheduled to consider renewing the agreement during Monday's meeting.

The Tacoma port bought the property for $22 million two years ago in hopes of studying whether a train-to-truck cargo center could be developed there.

The idea quickly ran into opposition from the grass-roots group Friends of Rocky Prairie, which says its mailing list of development opponents has grown to nearly 3,000.

"This indicates that the Port of Tacoma has been listening to the citizenry down here," said Sharron Coontz, spokeswoman for the group. "We have a chance to preserve this wildlife corridor for the future."

The Port of Tacoma's cargo activity has slowed in the past two years, mirroring trends nationally and internationally, said John Wolfe, the port's deputy director.

Hundreds of people showed up at public meetings to oppose the development proposal, saying it would disturb the prairie near Millersylvania State Park and a state nature preserve. The proposal would have required county government to rezone the property and approve a variance because the site is more than a half-mile from Interstate 5. Zoning requires such developments to be within a half-mile of the freeway.