SEQUIM — Battelle is slowly approaching the city’s door.
The marine research laboratory expects to submit a request by May 31 to annex the 105-acre campus into the city of Sequim, Battelle’s facility manager said Wednesday.
City Planning Director Dennis Lefevre distributed an annexation process timeline to City Council members on Monday that described what will happen once the city receives the annexation application.
The schedule includes meeting with the City Council within 60 days of the application to determine if the city accepts the proposal.
The application will be subject to city Planning Commission review and must be approved by the council by ordinance after a hearing, Lefevre said in his memo.
It also must undergo a cost-benefit analysis, and Battelle and the city must know how the expense for laying the utilities will be covered, Lefevre said Wednesday.
“We still have to do our due diligence, but I think it’s a good move,” Lefevre said.
“I think [the City Council] would view it positively as well.”
‘A really great thing’
Mayor Ken Hays said Wednesday that he doesn’t foresee any hurdles to overcome.
“As far as I know, the entire City Council and everyone I’ve talked to thinks it’s a really great thing,” Hays said.
“It’s just a matter of going through the steps. It’s symbolic to luring other low-impact industries.”
Hughes said the application must be completely reviewed by the Battelle’s “mother ship,” or Battelle in Richland, which operates the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory there, and which is “working on it right now.”
Battelle Mariner Research Operations in Sequim also must coordinate the application with Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, which owns the Sequim Bay property.
“All of this stuff is slow,” Hughes said.
“I know a lot of people are excited about it. We are excited, too. We’ve just got to realize that these things don’t happen overnight.”
As a first step, Clallam County in December approved incorporating the campus into the county urban growth area.
That paves the way for the city providing sewer and water services to replace Battelle’s septic system and which, in turn, will allow Battelle to expand its campus.
New marine science lab
That expansion will include a $6 million to $14 million marine science lab that will replace the existing facility and could be built next year if all goes well with financing, Hughes said.
Battelle’s long-range plan calls for hiring 200 to 300 people over 20 to 30 years of expansion.
“The nice thing is, we are one of your dream employers,” Hughes said.
“There is almost no impact, because the jobs that come here are very well-paying jobs. They really don’t have any impact whatsoever on the ecology or anything else.”
Battelle is altering its focus to measuring the environmental effects of tidal generators, wind farms, algal growth and other types of alternative energy, Hughes said.
Battelle’s buildings occupy 7.5 acres of a 140-acre campus. The land that would not be annexed is unused land on Sequim Bay.
The labs have run the marine research campus northeast of Sequim since the mid-1970s.
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Senior ttaff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
