“As storage unit rises, so do Freeland concerns”

Published 8:00 am Wednesday, May 16, 2001

“Dominating the skyline north of Freeland on the west side of the highway is the framing of a new storage unit project. Coming landscaping and architectural features will break up the monolithic look, according to the county’s planning chief.Jim Larsen / staff photoPlanning continuesLocal planning for the Freeland community continues Thursday, May 17 when the Freeland Subarea Planning Committee meets at 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church. Chairman Tom Roehl said the public can comment on the storage unit project, but it’s not on the agenda. There’s not much we can do about it except listen, he said.New storage units built atop the crest of a hill above Highway 525 in Freeland have critics in the town stirring.Herb Hunt, a local designer who has been active in the Freeland Volunteers, a planning group, said Monday that the high visibility of the structures came as a surprise, even though he reviewed plans over a year ago.I’m shocked and amazed, Hunt said. This is completely different than the drawings presented to a workshop meeting (of the volunteers) at my office. We were told it was going to be built into the hill and a berm used to shield it.At present, there is little sign of shielding for the facility, built by former county commissioner Gordon Koetje, Nichols Brothers Boat Builders President Matt Nichols, and Freeland businessman Terry Otey. When plans were first made public nearly two years ago, 18 buildings totaling 71,300 square feet of storage space were proposed. According to Phil Bakke, county planning director, those plans were pared down by about one-quarter at the request of the county.The initial storage unit drawings were made by Freeland architect Richard Rhydes. But he said Monday he had nothing to do with what’s actually being built. We found our design proposals were not being administered and we said we couldn’t serve this client, he said.Rhydes said his initial plan called for actual barn structures, and a residential building to buffer the facility.In no way was it an immense pole building that wraps around the property that’s fairly monumental in scale, he said.The design apparently changed from the first time it was introduced to the public. Although neither Koetje nor Otey returned phone calls, others in the community saw the new design developing.Jerry Hill, a founder of PROUD (People for Responsible, Organized, Urban Development) said the final storage unit design grew out of changes at the controversial Exxon gas station site nearby which is being developed by some of the same people. The county required Exxon to use a bigger drainfield, and the developers decided to pump effluent off-site to the storage unit property.We had copies of all the plans, Hill said Monday. We knew it was all tied together. He said the drainfield change forced a redesign of the storage project. They had to totally reorient it, he said.PROUD tried to stop the Exxon project, but quit after losing at the Hearing Examiner level. Hill said members were concerned about legal liability if they proceeded to court. But he still questions the project, including the county’s decision to approve the off-site drainfield for Exxon without opening the matter to further public comment.Planning Director Bakke said Tuesday that he had already heard from Steve Shapiro, a member of the county-appointed Freeland Subarea Planning Committee. Shapiro too remembered a berm associated with the storage plans, but Bakke said that was never a county requirement. Another new Freeland business, Frontier Industries, had to build a berm because it planned outside storage, Bakke said. That was not the case with the storage project, so a berm was never required.The mini-storage followed community design guidelines, Bakke said.Bakke said the storage project will look better as time goes by. At present there is only framing that suggests a long wall is planned. Still to come are design features he described as roof enhancements, fake windows and barn doors, to break up the scale and bulk of the building. Landscaping featuring fairly large clumps of trees will also break up the effect.Let’s see what it looks like when it’s done, Bakke said. You really won’t see until it’s finished.Hunt, for one, may be hard to convince. There’s some pretty ugly building going on, he said. It’s pretty sad. “