Owners Spruce Up Corner at Site of Old Slaughterhouse

By Eijiro Kawada, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.

Mar. 20–Blue tarps cover parts of the roofs on an abandoned chicken-processing complex just outside Tacoma.

The old Pederson Farms ran the plant for several decades in the Summit-Waller area, on the corner of 72nd Street East and Waller Road. The owner filed for bankruptcy 10 years ago.

The buildings have sat unoccupied ever since. They turned into a target for vandals while Pierce County and Tacoma quarreled over who should control the site.

The property came to symbolize what’s at stake for a small community, pinned between Tacoma and Puyallup, that is trying to cling to its rural roots.

Now the state has settled the dispute, and a Seattle-based nursery is cleaning up the site.

Julius Rosso Nursery and Garden Center owners say they don’t yet have specific plans, but the neighborhood could see a viable business there in several years.

“We can’t put in a big box, but maybe little stores or something,” Gene Rosso said.

Opening a nursery is a possibility, Rosso said.

“Anything would be better than what’s there,” said Jim Akers, a nearby resident. “It’s been a trouble site for many, many years.”

The old farms used to occupy about 30 acres on the northwest corner of the intersection. The processing plant stands on a six-acre parcel containing 12 buildings.

In 1994, as the state Growth Management Act went into effect, Pierce County designated the area as a “Rural Separator,” according to county documents.

That land-use label allowed the old slaughterhouse but no other commercial business.

Since the 1996 bankruptcy, creditors have asked the county to change the land-use classification so that something productive could be built on the site.

Meanwhile, Tacoma has showed interest in annexing the area. The city’s sewer line already runs along 72nd Street East in front of the property.

But Summit-Waller residents have long resisted a city expansion.

“They didn’t want Tacoma in the heart of their community,” said Chip Vincent, Pierce County’s principal planner.

Many residents identify the intersection as what’s left of the old Waller Road neighborhood. Across from the Pederson Farms is Thunderbird Trading Post, and across 72nd is Mount Rainier Lutheran High School, which opened in 2005.

“Once you give up a little, it just continues,” Akers said of the residents’ wariness about a possible expansion of Tacoma.

The county denied Tacoma’s request to include the area inside its growth boundaries and instead designated the property as “Rural Neighborhood Center.” That way, a new owner could clean up the site and open a business.

In 1999, Tacoma appealed to the state, and the state sided with the city — a step that blocked the county from allowing commercial development there.

The property sat idle for several more years.

Then in 2002, the county began drafting a growth plan for the area and again designated the slaughterhouse site to allow new business. The County Council adopted the plan in December 2005.

Tacoma appealed once more.

But this time the state sided with Pierce County, making its decision in November. And now Rosso Nursery, which bought the property two years ago, is moving forward with cleanup.

Rosso said it will take several years.

“We are trying to make it a nice part of the community,” he said.

Eijiro Kawada: 253-597-8633

eijiro.kawada@thenewstribune.com

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Copyright (c) 2007, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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