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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
February 23, 2012     Shelton Mason County Journal
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February 23, 2012
 
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Continued from page A-1 Dobson said the port respects Judge Casey's decision. "We're disappointed ... but we'll move forward," he said. Port of Shelton Commissioner Dick Taylor said the port would not pursue any further litigation on the matter. After an appeal by the port, the GMHB invalidated the city's rezone for the first time on Oct. 27, 2010. The board's decision stated the city needed to submit further testing to show noise lev- els from the airport on the Shel- ton Hills property would be con- sistent with residential develop- ment. Judge Casey commented on the earlier GMHB ruling in her written decision. "The GMHB may only overturn a local decision if it is clearly er- roneous in view of the entire re- cord before the board and in light of the goals and requirements of the Growth Management Act," she wrote. Judge Casey wrote that the GMHB was right to overturn the city's rezone in 2010, because the board found the city's first noise Journal photo by Natalie Johnson John Dobson, Port of Shelton executive director, said the port respected the Thurston County Superior Court decision to uphold a city decision to rezone Hall Equites' Shelton Hills property to residential. study on the project, completed After the GMHB's first deci- by the Parametrix company, to sion, Hall Equities submitted a be flawed, second noise study, using noise "The GMHB's analysis of flaws engineering firm BRC Acoustics, in the Parametrix study is suffi- which also supported the city's cient to determine that this study assertion that noise levels on the alone did not constitute substan- property were consistent with tial evidence to support the city's residential development. noise findings," she wrote. According to Judge Casey, the city submitted a 2008 noise and Highway 101 to allow for m- study done by the port in addi- creased traffic to the new devel- tion to the BRC study, which also opment. showed the area to be compatible "We've been waiting three with residential development, years for this." Goins said. The city voted a second time to "There's an ongoing push to get rezone the land in April 2011. those to a point where they can On July 13. 2011, the GMHB get a complete bid set for the m- invalidated it a second time. say- terchange and get a plan for (the ingthatthe citydidnot adequate- Washington State Department ly consult with the Washington of) Ecology." State Department of Transporta- Goins said the city hopes to tion Aviation Division. see progress on the interchange The city appealed that deci-project in 2012, but said he ex- sion to Thurston County Supe- pects most work on the Shelton rior Court. Hills project to begin in summer Casey disagreed with the 2013. hearing board's assertion that "We are pleased with this the city did not properly consult decision and we believe this with the dviation division, and should bring to a close, once validated therezone, and for all, the controversy "[I]n this instance the sound surrounding our carefully pre- levels on the proposed property pared and studied application," are consistent with, or below, said Mark Hall, president of the FAA's (Federal Aviation Hall Equities Group, in a state- Administration's) standards for ment from the company. "We residential development," she look forward to a positive work- wrote, ing relationship with the Port In light of the decision, Gains of Shelton, and we hope the said Hall Equities will soon be- Port will join us in a construc- gin the process of permitting tive manner going forward to the Shelton Hills development, create an environment where He said Hall Equities will also jobs, retail services, and qual- move forward on a project to re- ity housing can coexist harmo- design the interchange between niously with Sanderson Field Wallace Kneeland Boulevard operations." The 40 et 8 veterans club is celebrating 90 years this Saturday, Feb. 25. Journal photos by Aria Shephard 4oet 8 Continued from page A-1 and female family members of the 40 et 8 was formed in Shelton called Les Femmes. The 40 et 8 is also open to female veterans and currently has two women in the group. A copy of the original charter, listing the names of the 25 founding members, was damaged in a fire near the KMAS ra- dio station in the 1950s, Radovich said. For the 90th anniversary, Radovich contacted the national 40 et 8 headquar- ters in Indianapolis and found the names of the original 25 members. "I was interested in the historical for this 90th party," he said."I thought %Vhat better than to get those names.'" The group is trying to add new mem- bers as older members die, Radovich said, and has attracted a few veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. 'SVe have to find some new blood to keep the programs going," he said. %Ve only grab people that we think would be an asset to the organization." From left, 40 et 8 correspondent Brian, Walsh and Chef de Gare and Directeur George Radovich are making preparations for the veterans club's 90th anniversary. Donation Continued from page A-1 this and then figure out how to do it,'" he said. Quinn retired from teach- ing in 1990 and lives on his teacher's pension and social security. He said he donates his extra money because, simply, you can't take it with you when you go. "It doesn't take a rocket sci- entist to say I'm not going to live forever," he said. 'TVhen I accumulate a little bit then I look for a place to pUt it. It feels good, it really does. The Mason County Historical Society thanked Roland Quinn this month for making a $936 donation to the society. Journal photo by Natalie Johnson SAVER Continued from page A-1 to new businesses and to just improve the vital- ity of downtown in general," said Steve Goins, City of Shelten community and economic direc- ter. In November 2011, SAVER, a committee within the Shelton-Mason County Chamber of Commerce, made five recommendations to the City of Shelton, that chamber director Heidi McCutcheon said would help new businesses flourish in downtown Shelton. On Tuesday evening, Goins presented what he called a "refined" version of five suggestions, with input from city staff. "This is five recommendations we made to the commission last year. At that point they wanted just a little more fleshing out ... as far as what it was we were looking for," McCutch- eon said. The first of the five suggestions is a tempo- rary moratorium on signage requirements, al- lowing businesses 180 days to install a perma- nent sign, rather than the current deadline of 30 days. Goins said there is nothing in current city codes to impede such an action. The second suggestion involves waiving Business and Occupation (B&O) taxes for new businesses in Shelton's downtown core for the first year of operation. McCutcheon defined the "downtown core" as Railroad Avenue between First and Seventh streets, and First Street roughly between Har- vard Street and State Route 3. However, Goins said historical definitions of the "downtown core" have included Cota Street and portions of Franklin Street. Goins said B&O taxes for new businesses seem to have little impact on either the busi- ness or the city. Of nine new businesses cre- ated in downtown Shelton in 2009, none paid more than $200 in that year for its B&O tax, and the majority paid less than $100. The cost in staff time for the city to elimi- nate the fee for some businesses is uncertain, Goins said. Third, the SAVER would like the city to waive Transportation Impact Fees (TIF) for new busi- nesses in existing buildings in the downtown core. McCutcheon said this is intended to draw business owners to downtown Shelton. The city already plans on analyzing its TIF fees this year to see if any changes need to be made, Goins said. A fourth recommendation is to create "low- rent incubator space" in downtown. According to SAVER, these spaces are statistically shown to help small businesses grow. "In this case we thought there might be op- portunities in the downtown," Goins said. "From a staff level our thought was to try and spend some time to see if there were grant opportuni- ties. We think it's worthy of consideration." Last, SAVER asked that the city work with the Economic Development Council of Mason County (EDC) to create marketing materials to draw new businesses to vacant spaces in Shel- ton. The city commission did not make a decision on any of the suggestions Tuesday night, but pledged to continue to consider them. In their comments, the commissioners' opin- ions on the viability of the suggestions were split. "I would like to move forward on these types of recommendations," Mayor Gary Cronce said. 'Tour intent is not to take money away from the city -- it's to bring money into the city." Commissioner Dawn Pannell expressed con- cern that policies favoring new businesses, or those located downtown would be unfair to old- er businesses located in less central locations. 'WIy concern continues to be the whole eq- uity issue," she said. "I'm not sure as an estab- lished business I would be in favor of giving that break to a new business -- I don't think a couple hundred dollars is going to make or break a company in a year." The commission plans to revisit the sugges- tions in a few weeks. "I think that before I can make a final deci- sion I would like to talk to our city adminis- trater and get a little legal opinion on how this would work," Cronce said. Shelton-Mason County Journal -Thursday, February 23, 2012 - Page A-7