HomeMy WebLinkAbout09. SEPA2022-038_New Heritage - Comments City of Pasco 04112023_signed � City�1
���0 Community Development Department
� PO Box 293, 525 N 3�d Ave, Pasco,WA 99301
P:509.544.3441/F:509.545.3499
April 11, 2023
Attention: Darral S Moore, P.E., Land Development Manager
J-U-B Engineers, Inc.
3611 S. Sintel Canyon Way
Kennewick, Washington 99337
Subject: Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed City of Pasco
Comprehensive Plan Amendment—Jubilee Foundation/New Heritage;
CPA2002-003 & SEPA2022-038
The City of Pasco appreciates the continued dialogue and opportunity to review and provide
feedback on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement prepared for the Jubilee
Foundation/New Heritage Comprehensive Plan Land Use Amendment (CPA2022-003). The
purpose of this communication is to inform you that the Department of Community and
Economic Development will not issue a Final Environmental Impact Statement prior to the City
Council recommendation of the 2022 Comprehensive Plan Docket, scheduled for April 17, 2023.
This letter also responds to several of the assertions contained in your email of April 10, 2023.
As expressed in earlier communications, the current DEIS does not adequately discuss, evaluate,
or identify the probable impacts of the large-scale change of the City's existing planning and
zoning designations for industrial use to a new residential-intensive use. Staff has preliminarily
determined that this change may have probable significant adverse environmental impacts
arising from incompatibility between current industrial users with the introduction of residential
dwellings.
Due to the pending status of the environmental review, the City staff will not make a
recommendation to either approve or denythe Comprehensive Plan Amendment application. As
stated in WAC 197-11-070, "Until the responsible official issues a final determination of
nonsignificance or final environmental impact statement, no action concerning the proposal shall
be taken by a governmental agency..." In this case, the responsible official (City of Pasco) will not
take final action on the final environmental impact statement due to the above-mentioned
comments and the provisions of WAC 197-11-070(1-2).
The possibility that the lack of an FEIS could affect the timing of review for the Comprehensive
Plan Amendment has been noted previously. As referenced in City of Pasco Resolution No 4251,
Exhibit A, page 3, "The applicant is preparing a Non-Project Environmental Impact Statement,
required per the issuance of the Determination of Significance issued on 06/07/2022.The timing
of an accepted and approved EIS may impact if there is sufficient time to consider the application
in the 2022 cycle, and if the City will have sufficient analysis to develop policy and related
regulations (if necessary) during the 2022 cycle."
With respect to your email of April 10, 2023,the City wishes to clarify several statements therein.
The email portrays the DEIS process as a matter of argumentation and contains several
contentious statements that mischaracterize the present status of SEPA review. For instance,
the City does not agree that reviews of other proposals, whether mistaken in any respect or not,
affect the necessary review process for this proposal.
It is also not correct that the City Staff will never provide a recommendation for a comprehensive
plan amendment regardless of information provided. The City Staff position was previously
articulated to the Planning Commission. City Staff's reservations about the merits of this
proposal remain, and it would be a disservice to your team to not be clear about this. City Staff
will continue to work with you to improve the DEIS and explore mitigation measures and/or
modifications of the proposal that could better respond to Staff's concerns.
Part of improving the proposed application is adapting the DEIS to respond to these concerns in
a methodologically sound manner. As an example,the last statement of your email asks the City
to provide "specific levels of acceptance for components of the DEIS that are measurable." This
question reflects what the City believes has been a fundamentally misguided approach to the
DEIS to date. The City does not have the expertise to specify or define, for instance, "an
acceptable level of air quality." This is precisely the purpose of the DEIS process. WAC 197-11-
400(2). Providing a useful discussion of these points with a systematic interdisciplinary approach
is the main purpose of an EIS. RCW 43.21C.030(2)(a).
The City also wants to take this opportunity to state that your team is placing undue reliance on
the concept that the DEIS may avoid more detailed anaiysis because you have advanced this
matter as a non-project action. The City recognizes that the actual application pending is for only
a comprehensive plan amendment, but proposed non-project actions that are functionally or
practically related to subsequent projects require a coordinated evaluation. WAC 197-11-060(3).
Details on how to accomplish this coordination are beyond the scope of this letter. The City
recognizes that some aspects of SEPA review for this proposal could be deferred by a purposefu)
phasing of review (e.g, specific traffic impact analysis and mitigation). But other impacts are
integral to the SEPA review process now, and cannot be deferred by describing this as non-
project. Impacts associated with air quality, public health, changes in land use inventory, and
environmental justice are associated with fragmenting this industrial vicinity with residential and
mixed-use commercial/retail activity.
Next Steps
The application and environmental review associated with CPA2022-003 will be continued and
placed on the docket for the 2023 Comprehensive Plan Amendment cycle. Staff expects that
applications in the 2023 will be prepared for Planning Commission discussion in Summer 2023.
The City looks forward to reviewing and coordinating with your team to ensure the contents of
the DEIS meet the SEPA standards for adequacy.
If you have any questions, please contact our office.
Sincerely,
Rick White, Director
City of Pasco, Community and Economic Development
whiter@pasco-wa.�ov � (509) 545-3441