Tollgate western business park OK’d by council

Published 1:52 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

NORTH BEND – The remaining few acres of Tollgate Farm that haven’t been preserved as open space can be developed after the City Council last week approved a plan to turn them into a business park.

The land, a 24-acre parcel located on the western half of the farm along West North Bend Way, would contain 385,000 square feet of office space under the Western Business Employment Park Master Plan, which was approved by council members at their Oct. 30 meeting.

To help mitigate the development, the master plan included the addition of a left-turn lane on North Bend Way, speed bumps on Northwest Eighth Street between Bendigo Boulevard and North Bend Way and a provision for more traffic lights at railway crossings if the need arises. New traffic lights at the Meadowbrook Way and North Bend Way intersection and the North Bend Way, Alm Way and Boalch Avenue intersection are also in the plan. A new light would be installed at Interstate 90’s Exit 31 at Bendigo Boulevard, and a new lane would also be built in the eastbound off-ramp at Exit 31.

Additional provisions in the plan include stormwater facilities that will not impact flood flows during a 100-year flood event, as well as the requirement that all structures in the business park be built at least 1 foot above the floodplain. Overflow corridors for Gardiner Creek and Kimball Creek will also be preserved.

“These conditions will serve the North Bend community well,” said Gregg Dohrn, a planner from Bucher, Willis and Ratliff Corp. of Seattle, which is the planning firm working with the city on the project. “It is truly an elegant solution.”

Originally submitted with the Tollgate Master Plan in 1996 for the 410-acre farm, discussion of the western business park has taken a back seat in recent months as the City Council and North Bend residents worked to preserve the more environmentally sensitive areas of the farm, including the “central meadow.”

Much of the farm was purchased this summer by King County, and the 56-acre central meadow was bought with a combination of public and private money last month. An anonymous donor contributed a large, unspecified amount of money toward the purchase, and the City Council approved $1.6 million in general obligation bonds to help guarantee the central meadow would remain as open space.

That left the western business park as the only part of Tollgate Farm that hadn’t been preserved.

Although the original Tollgate Master Plan included more than 1 million square feet of office space and a housing development, the farm’s developers say they are happy with how things have worked out. Tollgate Farm is owned by the Miller family.

“We’re excited with the outcome,” said CenturyPacific Vice President Campbell Mathewson. “This has been around for a while.”

Although the Trust for Public Lands (TPL) still has an option to buy the western business park land through next year, it is unknown yet whether the TPL will try to keep the land as open space. TPL Project Manager Kent Whitehead said the conservancy group will meet sometime in January or February to decide if they want to move forward in protecting the rest of the land.

Development of the 24-acre parcel will not occur until it has access to water and sewer lines. The land falls inside the city of North Bend, which is currently under a building moratorium due to its lack of water rights.

City staff and council members expressed relief over putting the finishing touch on a debate that has lasted more than five years.

“I like the idea of the western business park,” said Councilman Ed Carlson. “I think it will help rejuvenate the downtown.”