Rumors & Questions

Check this page for updates on rumors, chatter heard about town to get the facts and real scoop straight from the source.

Check this page for updates on rumors, chatter heard about town to get the facts and real scoop straight from the source.

Q&A

What question do you have? Have you heard a rumor that you want to check? Let us know! Scroll down to see information on other questions/rumors we've received.

Full DIsclosure: Questions asked by "City of Sumner" are ones we're receiving a lot of in other forums (email, phone calls) so have added ourselves.

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  • What happened to the fountains and the engraved plaques/bricks at Heritage Park?

    CityofSumner asked 22 days ago

    The fountain at the tip of Heritage Park was at the end of its life with ongoing maintenance issues and constant vandalism. The plaques within the fountain were also at the end of their life, brittle, cracked and nearly illegible. See the picture below. The City removed it last year as part of the work to replace/upgrade the utilities under Main Street, Kincaid and Cherry Avenues and to repave with the at-level "woonerf" plaza that connects the park to its adjacent blocks with no curb. This design better allows events to use the space without a tripping hazard and  still allows vehicle access on "normal" days while helping slow down drivers in a pedestrian-friendly area.

    There were also decorative bricks behind the fountain that people bought to engrave names. Those also had to be removed for the same project. It turns out, they were not installed as full bricks but as decorations that were a fraction of the depth of a real brick. They were also secured really well. In removing both the fountain plaques and the bricks, most bricks and some plaques simply shattered. We documented the names included before the project. Although some of the plaques are in storage, they are in no condition to be put into use again. 

    Heritage Park is currently in the process of a complete redesign. See the project page for updates and details. This year is the full design process to take the park from conceptual design to construction-ready. Then, we have to find funding for construction. This will take time. We are committed to returning the names to the park as part of the redesign and will find a way to honor the names that were on the plaques and bricks. If you have specific suggestions on what you think that should look like, let us know. 

    The former fountain had reached its end of life with the plaque inserts cracked, brittle and very difficult to read. 

     

     

     


  • I was under the impression that the Academy St. Bike lanes project was going to improve the intersection of Sumner Ave and Academy St (in fact, the project cover photo is of this intersection). Was this cut from the project scope? It's really unfortunate since this intersection has no ADA ramps. It's a bit interesting that several existing ADA ramps at other intersections were replaced. For example, Wood and Academy had existing ramps that were torn out and rebuilt, yet other corners within the project boundaries are without ramps (another example is Boyd and Academy). Why were these cut from the project scope and are there future plans to finish what was started along Academy? Thanks!

    BM asked 24 days ago

    It isn't so much about cutting corners (literally) as the funding didn't extend to every corner in the first place. The City was able to get a grant from Sound Transit to construct the Academy Street Bike Lanes. We were able to stretch that funding to also reconstruct some, but not all, of the ADA ramps along the Academy Street corridor. Efficiency has it's advantages! Yes, in hindsight, we should have changed the rendering to show one of the corners we could include.

    You are correct that this corner is not alone. In the downtown area south of Main Street, the portion built predominantly before ADA ramps were even considered, we have 490 ADA ramps, 174 of which are compliant to current standards. There are also 36 corners that have no ramp with a sidewalk, and 37 corners with no ramp and no sidewalk. We continue to look for grant money for sidewalk and ADA ramp improvements to supplement the City general fund. We also take advantage of any funding available, which is why it looks so scattered. The Sound Transit funding for Academy Street is one example. Another is Academy at Alder & Kincaid, two more corners we did not use this funding for as they will be replaced already as part of that block's redevelopment. Thank you for asking!

  • Can someone put a group home, treatment facility or transitional housing in my neighborhood? What if I have safety concerns about that?

    CityofSumner asked 28 days ago

    This is a complex, serious and emotionally charged subject, and we don’t want to do it a disservice. We’ll give you a short(er) answer plus links to look into more details. Yes, group homes can locate in Sumner as an outright permitted use. Smaller group homes housing up to eight people can be in low-density residential (neighborhoods with single-family homes), while larger facilities of nine or more residents can be in multi-family and commercial zones.  Both can only be minimally regulated by the city, and there is no public or permit process.  In-patient Behavior Health Facilities that provide treatment for substance abuse disorder, harm reduction programs or mental health disorder treatment can be located in residential and commercial zones. Out-patient Behavior Health Facilities can only be allowed in commercial zones. For these facilities, we can, and have put into code the ability to regulate through a conditional use permit process; however, permit processes are about reducing potential impacts: the City has no ability to prohibit these uses outright. The conditional use permit process requires public notice to neighbors and a public hearing.

    This new code is in response to recent State legislation. The State’s Engrossed Substitute Senate House Bill (ESSHB) 5536 in 2023 amended the state definition of essential public facilities to include opioid treatment programs (both mobile and fixed-site medication units), recovery residences, and harm reduction programs (excluding safe injection sites). In addition, House Bill (HB) 5235 in 2021 states that jurisdictions may not regulate or limit the number of unrelated persons that occupy a household, with few exceptions related to the building code.

    We understand this required change will create concerns. The designation “essential public facilities” is used specifically for those kinds of facilities that are essential but not usually appreciated in anyone’s backyard. In the past, this designation was used for things like airports, transit centers and solid waste facilities. By using this designation, the State acknowledges that neighbors will likely not be pleased but removed a city’s ability to zone these uses out of the City. We’re only left with the ability to place conditions upon the use and regulate the placement of such facilities.

    What can you do? Here are a few tips that work in any situation. We unfortunately know too well that neighbors can have disputes over a variety of topics, not just this one.

    • For unusual activity from any source—single-family residence, group home or business—that is negatively impacting you, fill out a code complaint form. That starts our process to check it out. We cannot code-enforce people or their choices, so avoid complaints like “I hate my neighbor’s dog” and focus more on specific impacts such as “My neighbor’s dog barks all night and keeps me awake.”
    • If you ever feel unsafe, call Sumner Police. No call is too small. If your concern is not imminent enough to dial dispatch, use our online form to share your concerns.
    • We recommend every neighborhood hold routine block watch parties. You can invite an officer to stop by. Crime has gone up from a number of sources, and we encourage neighbors to know each other for many reasons. It would be unwise to focus on one thing, like a potential group home, and ignore the very real risks coming from a variety of other sources including car prowls, drug overdoses and even the potential for natural disasters.
    • Please do not expect a notice from the City about any specific group home locating in Sumner. The way State law enacted this, there’s a limited ability for the city to even know about such use. Likely, neighbors will know before we do.
    • Please help your friends and neighbors focus on the facts. As we said, we know this topic can create many emotions. Fear limits people’s freedom more than crime itself. We also know how easy it is to share opinions and assumptions on social media, especially when having an emotional response.


    LINKS:

  • My neighbor is operating a commercial business out of their backyard and we live in a medium residential zone. Constant noise of trucks being worked on and coming in and out. They also have workers living in trailers in the backyard, is this legal?

    seagal12 asked about 1 month ago

    It sounds like there may be some code violations. The best way to check is for you to start by filling out a compliant form, which goes to the Code Enforcement Official to look into the situation. Here's the form for now: https://sumnerwa.gov/permits/code-violations/. We're just working on cleaning up this webpage and putting the form itself online. That will come in a few weeks, and I didn't want to wait that long to reply to you.

  • Why are there no warming shelters In Sumner?

    Pattimckee asked 3 months ago

    There are two warming shelters in Sumner: the Gordon Family YMCA and the Sumner Pierce County Library, as posted on our website and promoted on social media. We thank these partners for their generosity in providing this service.

    If you mean overnight shelters for homeless individuals, Pierce County's Department of Emergency Management coordinates that on a regional basis, working in conjunction with non-profits who provide shelters all the time. We also shared online the resources available for housing, transportation and coordinating assistance in general. If you have a location in Sumner you'd like to offer, please contact Evan Brazitis, our Emergency Response & Safety Coordinator, and he can connect you.

  • Hello, as a renter I'm curious what Sumner plans to do to make/keep rent affordable? The median rent in Sumner (per Zillow) is $1,795 a month. While I see that Sumner has their "Comprehensive Plan" on housing, rent prices continue to go up year over year. Allowing multiplexes on single family home lots and allowing more apartments to be built won't help with rent affordability if the property managers just make rent high. Someone paying the median rent in Sumner would spend $21,540 a year on rent. Most apartments want your salary to be 3x the amount in rent per year. That means someone would need an income of $64,647 per year (~$31.08 an hour) to qualify to rent an apartment in Sumner. Meanwhile the median hourly wage in Washington state (per https://www.bls.gov/) is $27.08. Given this information, I'm sure you can see how I'm curious how Sumner plans on making/keeping rent affordable.

    ryanjh asked 3 months ago

    Let's not talk about future plans and focus instead about what Sumner has already done to help housing be affordable. You might want to grab a cup of coffee - this is a long and complicated one. 

    1. Yes, the Comprehensive Plan addresses housing, but you're really going to want to review the Housing Action Plan, completed in 2021. This plan spent a year looking in detail at the housing needs in Sumner and Bonney Lake and then outlined the key steps each city should take to make housing more affordable. I think we're over half-way through completing these steps. They include things like passing new ADU laws that make it easier for people to add accessory dwelling units (ADU), or "mother-in-law apartments" as the old term used to call them. This step inserts smaller housing units throughout homes already in the city, adding more affordable options that are not in large multi-family complexes. That said, we do have multi-family being planned and built. I think it's something like 600 additional units recently built or in the permit pipeline. At a high, basic level, those units do help with rental rates thanks to simple supply and demand. The more supply you have, the less one property owner can charge astronomical rates because people can and will go someplace else. But, beyond that, one of the other steps from the Housing Action Plan was to increase the multi-family tax exemption, which we did in 2022. This is an incentive program that gives a developer  financial advantages IF--and only if--they keep  a certain percentage of their units at affordable rates. (There's a definition and equation for "affordable"; it's not just subjective.) In other words, property managers could not just make rents high. There are other steps we took to help expand options for senior housing, zero-lot-line housing, etc. that you can explore in the full report. It might seem daunting to dive in there, but you have an interest in this topic, so that report will give you way more details than I can include here or are available in Zillow or the broader Comprehensive Plan. Even at that, it's not the sole piece of the puzzle.
    2. When property owners have to pay high property taxes, those costs get passed onto renters. We work every day to keep the city's portion of property tax rates as low as possible while we also face rising costs to provide services. In addition, the industrial area now accounts for over 50% of Sumner's property tax revenue. The more industrial owners fund key services like police and parks, the less we have to lean into residential owners for that funding, which means less cost from property taxes gets passed onto renters.
    3. Many renters do pay for utilities. If they don't pay utilities themselves, then the cost of utilities is included in the rental rate. We need good utility services because people need an ample supply of safe water, but we do our best to keep rates as low as possible and spread out large projects so owners/renters never get a huge rate hike in one year. This year, we're also assessing if the way we structure utility rates is still the best for fairness and affordability. One of the areas we're specifically looking at is our base rate. Is that still the best model now that Sumner has not just single-family homes but also smaller apartments with only one resident? It could be, but it's important to ask the question and explore the options. Stay tuned - that process is beginning right now.
    4. The other piece of what makes rent affordable is the ability to pay it from wages, as you mentioned. The warehouses on the north end offer residents a wide range of jobs, most of which are well above minimum wage. Sumner currently has 10,000 residents and over 17,000 jobs. Unlike the rest of the region, our residents have easy access to those jobs without the burden of a long commute, because let's face it, when it comes to escalating costs, gas is right there with housing.

    There's more, but if your eyes haven't already glazed over, I'm guessing they're close. It's understandable that housing costs worry you. They worry us and have worried us for years now. They also worry pretty much everyone else in the region. While the answers might be long and complicated, that's kind of the point. It would be rather suspicious if we tried to say we had a quick fix to such a deeply important issue. Hopefully, that helps alleviate your worries, even if just a bit.

  • I was wondering who to contact regarding a city property listed as a drain field/catch basin that people are long term parking trailers and vehicles in. My neighbors and I are hoping that this property will be fenced off like most of the others in the city so that this problem will no longer happen.

    JAB15 asked 3 months ago

    Thanks for asking! Depending on the details, this could be a combination of Police and/or Code Enforcement. Please email details to codecomplaint@sumnerwa.gov and our staff will help guide you from there.

  • Does the city have any plans for the intersection of Main Street/60th and 160th Ave E? There are no streetlights anywhere near that corner and people blow through that 4-way stop constantly. This morning there was a collision and one person left in an ambulance. I am concerned about what will happen when people start moving into the new units at Sumner Mill. We need more light and better control of that intersection.

    Phaslach asked 3 months ago

    We always have plans! Seriously, you can always ask here, but a great resource is our Six-Year Transportation Improvement Plan, or TIP, which updates each year with all the anticipated projects as well as their funding sources and timelines. This intersection is A15. It has an anticipated cost of $2 million with no known funding source to date. The greatest risk at that particular intersection is probably more from the long-term residents who remember it as a 2-way with no stop on Main than the new residents. Because of the change made not that long ago, we tried that new kind of Stop sign where the sign itself flashes, but people kept stealing those. 

    Intersections like this are under constant evaluation. Typically, the progression is not from uncontrolled straight to a full signal. As traffic volumes increase, you'll see the gradual increase from uncontrolled to 2-way stop to 4-way stop, etc. Unfortunately, we have people getting into collisions like you witnessed all around the city. We not only evaluate each intersection independently but also have to prioritize which ones need more work first. Residents understandably prioritize the intersection closest to their homes, but we must worry about the whole city. The other part of this is that engineering only gets us part way. People need to pay attention when driving and obey things like Stop signs. We're seeing an alarming trend of drivers everywhere treating them more like suggestions, and they're not.

  • A recent report seems to show dangerous air quality near us. Two Sumner business seem to be listed as causes in the actual report, linked in this article. Aren't we breathing this, too? https://www.king5.com/article/tech/science/environment/washington-overburdened-communities-negative-health-outcomes-air-pollution/281-b22fb800-f164-48f2-9a03-9e7d8ff009db

    LesleyP26 asked 3 months ago

    A good place to start is to be thankful that Sumner is not one of the areas of concern listed. I double-checked to make sure they didn't mislabel us as "Northeast Puyallup." They didn't! It appears the report is intended to track two things: checking trends in both air quality and greenhouse gas emissions. The facilities listed in Sumner are flagged as not being a major source of criteria air pollutants (the ones bad for our health). They are included in the report because they produce large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide), which is a concern for climate change but not human health. 

    At the City, we often hear that people hate seeing the warehouses on the north end. When you look at old pictures, you realize that Sumner has always had major manufacturing and industrial, but it used to happen out in the open. While warehouses are not visually appealing, one of their main functions is to allow industry, like coffee roasting and woodworking, to happen in a controlled environment that reduces the amount of pollutants released into the air. For more information, visit the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency as they're the ones who track this extensively.

  • Two questions: 1) Some of the crosswalks off of Rivergrove Dr are extremely faded. When crossing at these intersections traffic frequently doesn't slow down. Does the city have a plan to repaint or address these issues? 2) Can we get an update on the pedestrian bridge that would connect the Rivergrove neighborhood to the rest of Sumner? It consistently feels like the City ignores this part of town and prioritizes other projects.

    Rivergrove asked 3 months ago

    And two answers: 1) Our engineering team is just looking at what areas need updated thermoplastic treatment this year. We'll send them your feedback! They evaluate and prioritize based on the greatest need, not based on neighborhood. It's always a good reminder too that any place where two streets meet is a valid crosswalk. Vehicles need to yield to pedestrians whether the striping is fresh, faded or absent. 2) After applying to multiple sources, we were able to obtain funding to fully design the pedestrian bridge that reconnects the Rivergrove neighborhood. It's not easy to earn these highly competitive grants, especially for the design stage. This is an important step because having a fully designed, "shovel-ready" project greatly helps us obtain construction funding, which is the next step. 

    Regarding your last statement, we can't change how you feel, of course, but it might help to note that quite a few things have been going on in and around Rivergrove lately. The 2023 Arbor Day planting added a lot of trees to the Rivergrove neighborhood last spring. We're currently updating the Parks, Trails & Open Space Plan, which includes plans to develop the park at the Qunell property in Rivergrove. The update to the city-wide Comprehensive Plan is also underway, and our planners continue to work on improving affordable housing throughout the city. In addition, Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is working on adding roundabouts to the Valley Avenue/SR 410 interchange. Although not our project, we've been inviting ourselves into their process. Perhaps these examples help to reassure you that Rivergrove is very much part of Sumner.

Page last updated: 12 Feb 2021, 11:22 AM