Community plans in unincorporated areas and city urban planning are all being pressed by the state Growth Management Act to add more and more housing. Prices of housing are high because of housing shortages. But lost in all this demand for housing is how we plan for out green space and floodplains.

Beginning in June, 2026, Pierce County will be doing a zoning plan update for the Parkland Spanaway Midland Community Plan. The Parkland – Spanaway – Midland Land Use Advisory Commission will be reviewing changes mostly proposed by Pierce County planning staff. There are opportunities for community input also. The PSM LUAC meets on the first Wednesday of the month, at 6p.m. to 8 p.m. The location is usually at the South East Tacoma Community Center, 1614 – 99th St E, Tacoma, WA 98445. (Near 99th & Portland Ave.)

Here is the agenda for June 3, 2026:

1. Call to Order
2. Roll Call
3. Approval of Minutes Action Item
   March 4, 2026
4. Sign Variance: Ross, App. No. 1062061 Action Item
   Kaycee Hathaway, Associate Planner, kaycee.hathaway@piercecountywa.gov
   A. Public Comment
   Public comment is limited to 3 minutes on Agenda Item 4 only.
5. Sign Variance: Grocery Outlet, App. No. 1067723 Action Item
   Kaycee Hathaway, Associate Planner, kaycee.hathaway@piercecountywa.gov
   A. Public Comment
   Public comment is limited to 3 minutes on Agenda Item 5 only.
6. Other Business
7. Adjourn/Continue
8. The site also has resources on planning. Here is a new one: NEW RESOURCE! Short Course on Local Planning – WA State Department of Commerce

The PSM Plan updates have not yet begun, but if you are following these sites, you will know when they begin.

There is a great deal of interest brewing among watershed advocates regarding the availability of groundwater for the amount of housing being built in the PSM, South Hill, and Frederickson Plan areas.

WRIA12 – the Department of Ecology naming for the Chambers Clover Creek Watershed, is a sole source aquifer. That means it is only sustained by rainfall. Currently, Washington State is in the fourth year of drought conditions. In spite of a snow pack melting incident that happened in December 2025, there has not been enough rainfall in the state to restore the amount of water being used.

The snow pack melting affected the rivers that are connected to the Cascades and Olympic mountain snow areas. On the other hand, the aquifer in WRIA12 is all rainfall based. It is not connected to mountain snow pack. That is why Clover and Chambers Creeks did not flood in December. They did get fairly high when an atmospheric river passed through in March.

Still, there are only so many water rights issued for wells that tap into the ground water aquifers in WRIA12. When that aquifer gets low, the creeks run dry. Each year, Clover Creek seems to be drying up for more weeks from Spring though Fall. This leaves the creek looking like a ditch beside the road, rather than a fish bearing water resource that runs to Puget Sound.

Repairing culverts helps in some places. Leaving unpaved aquifer recharge areas like parks, ponds, and swamps help as well. As much water as possible should be kept where it can get back into the aquifer underground.

Twice this Spring, cars have run off Tule Lake Road near Washington High School into the creek. That is not a ditch. It is a creek and the fines for contaminating it with an automobile that can lose gas, brake fluid, transmission fluid, and other pollutants can create a costly fine from the Department of Ecology. It is possible for fines to be as high as $25,000 a day.

If the rain cannot get into the ground and the water companies cannot get permission to drill a new or deeper well, what do you suppose our next solution will be for drinking water?

Creative thinkers in Thurston County are already taking treated water from their sewage treatment plant and circulating it back through the ground. These purple water pipes are watering plants in road medians in Lacey and running to settling ponds in fields between warehouses in industrial areas.

We can do this. We need to start planning better about our water, soon.