PIERCE COUNTY PPW– As part of our commitment to improving the permitting process, Pierce County will implement changes to the online resubmittal procedure starting Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. What’s changing? Currently, applicants can resubmit or upload documents at any time in the review process via the orange “I Want To” dropdown menu in the online permits…
Category: Planning Zoning
When the faucet is dry…
By Marianne Lincoln Where did the water go? That is a question a lot of us have been asking for years. It is the end of November. Clover Creek is still dry in From Brookdale Golf Course to Midland and Spanaway Loop Road. The Chambers Clover Creek Watershed is based on a Sole Source Aquifer….
BRT, Cross Base, and other fictitious creatures
EDITORIAL OPINION Around 1995, folks living on 174th Street wanted some traffic control measures added to their street due to high traffic and safety issues. The County Council promised to put $2 million into the issues. That $2 million was reallocated to a project in Gig Harbor a couple weeks later. Spanaway and Frederickson had…
CDEC to Hold Public Hearing on Comprehensive Plan Update Proposal
The Council’s Community Development and Environment Committee (CDEC) will hold its first public hearing on the proposed 2024 Comprehensive Plan update on Monday, Nov. 4 at 1:30 p.m. in the Pierce County Council Chambers. The CDEC will likely continue its deliberations on the Comprehensive Plan update to its Monday, Nov. 18 meeting to allow time…
Nov 4 Council Committee Comp Plan Hearing
TACOMA – The Council’s Community Development and Environment Committee (CDEC) will hold its first public hearing on the 2024 proposed Comprehensive Plan update on Monday, Nov. 4 at 1:30 p.m. in the Pierce County Council Chambers. What: Public Hearing on the Proposed Comprehensive Plan UpdateWhen: Monday, Nov. 4 at 1:30 p.m.Where: Pierce County Council Chambers, 930 Tacoma…
Sept 7 protest and bake sale, Zoning changes
Spanaway Concerned Citizens will be having a protest sign waving and fundraising bake sale at 176th Street and Spanaway Loop Road on Saturday, September 7, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. There is not yet a decision on the appealed items from the Hearings Examiner’s office. That decision is expected very soon. A group of…
Alert! County changing zoning in sub plan areas
Sliding in a bit under the radar for the average land use change is a state mandated Comprehensive Plan Review. The reason is, state law changes and Comp. Plans need to stay current. This review and resulting changes don’t come with public notice or yellow signs posted on a neighbor’s property. No, this is only…
Biennial Comprehensive Plan Amendments will not be initiated in 2024
[Editor note: in case this is confusing, this means no changes are being made to the comprehensive plan through this process in this cycle. The next cycle for review is in 2 years. Citizens rarely submit comp plan amendments, it is usually developers. Citizens just have to spend time watching, commenting and trying not to…
Stop building cul-de-sacs in unincorporated county
EDITORIAL OPINION Years ago, when the Spanaway Community Association was starting and the Growth Management Act was in its infancy, Pierce County explained to us that the housing developments with cul-de-sacs were useful to slow crime. The county was allowing, mostly even, asking developers to build all these little pocket communities on large parcels. Each…
Hearing Examiner allows the Village to proceed
The decision has arrived. The Hearings Examiner is allowing the tiny home village in the Spanaway Marsh area to proceed. His decision is at the link here: https://pals.piercecountywa.gov/public/documentView?docSysId=2135634 The document is 79 pages long. The findings and conclusions begin on page 20. Page 49 is the end of the report. The remaining pages are documentation,…
A Tale of Two Wetland Specialists
by Claudia Finseth27 March, 2024 Last week the Tacoma News Tribune carried some interesting articles related to the Hearing Examiner meetings that had just wrapped up on the proposed use of the Spanaway Marsh for a high-density development. The plan is for a tiny home village for people experiencing chronic homelessness at the end of…
Please, protect the water – a poem
TO THE HEARING EXAMINER Please, protect the water at the heart of our community—The Spanaway Marsh may mean little to some, but not to us. It is our arterial blood,our breath, our home. We are done with the hundred-year destructionof filled-in wetlands, re-routed streams,toxic human pollution and buildings too closeto these arteries of life. We are done with…
Pierce Prairie Post 