Lacey’s growth is outpacing its sister cities in Thurston County, new estimates show

New state data shows the city of Lacey is growing faster than Olympia and Tumwater and now may be the largest city in Thurston County.

Washington’s Office of Financial Management released new data about the state’s population on Wednesday. The data shows the estimated population of each county and municipality as of April 1, putting Lacey at 54,780 and Olympia at 55,010 — just a 200-person difference.

The data for Thurston County shows at least 1,600 new people have moved into the city of Lacey in the last year, while Olympia added roughly 900 new residents in the same period.

That is on top of growth between 2016 to 2018, when Lacey’s population grew by 2,600 people. In that same period, Olympia only grew by 900. Olympia did see a greater uptick in population in 2020, when about 1,400 new people became residents.

But the reason Lacey may now be bigger is because of annexations since the April 1 estimate. An annexation Lacey approved in May added an estimated 1,100 people to its overall population. The city council approved another annexation Thursday night.

Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder said he is proud the city had “come so far in such a short amount of time.” Ryder was born and raised in Lacey and seeing the city gradually transform itself, he said, is “profound.”

But Ryder said Lacey will have to start to deal with big city problems. “The challenge is: can we keep it up?” he said.

Some of the issues the city will need to stay on top of are maintaining its parks and roads, developing adequate traffic infrastructure, and “housing, for sure,” Ryder said. “Now it’s more important than ever that we look at the big issues facing our community and have solutions.”

When it comes to housing, he said he wants to work with Thurston County so land is developed in a way that maintains the city’s character.

“You need that cooperation with the county to make sure you’re on the same page vision wise and feel wise, so when (unincorporated land) does come into the city, it’s as seamless as possible,” Ryder said. “I’m really happy with the relationship that Lacey has developed with our surrounding jurisdiction.”

This story was originally published July 1, 2021 at 3:12 PM.