The Federal Way City Council unanimously voted not to approve the South Station Subarea Plan at its Sept. 17 meeting after pulling the item from the consent agenda for discussion and hearing from public commenters from a company that will be impacted by changes in the area.

City staff have been developing this South Station Subarea Plan to provide an overview of possible ways for the city to navigate changes caused by Sound Transit’s construction of the South Station of the Link Light Rail.

City documents describe the intentions behind the Subarea plan: “By leveraging the significant public investment in light rail access and the challenges and opportunities associated with inserting the elevated tracks and station into this part of Federal Way, the city has the chance to build on this area’s strengths and transform it from an auto-oriented, suburban portion of the city into a multimodal, vibrant, mixed-use, urban neighborhood with community-wide benefits.”

It has not been determined what the final route or configuration of the South Station will be. Sound Transit will most likely release an update detailing more information about the options and impacts by the end of 2024 or early 2025.

During public comment at Tuesday’s meeting, the council heard from seven people from local business DBM Contractors Incorporated — a business whose property will most likely be taken by Sound Transit through eminent domain.

While the subarea in the plan is complex, it generally encompasses an area between South 348th Street and South 366th Street to the north and south, and 1st Avenue South and Interstate 5 on the west and east.

DBM Contractors Incorporated are located at 1220 S. 356th St. in Federal Way.

“The plan was really developed in direct conflict with any of our company’s interests … I don’t think the plan is ready. I find that the data is flawed. I don’t think there’s any real understanding of the companies and the employment density associated with them,” said Todd Jarvis, president of DBM Contractors, at the council meeting.

As one example of the data he was concerned about, Jarvis sited table two of the subarea plan that lists 63 construction sector employees in the subarea.

“At DBM alone we had 111 (employees) in 2019 when this data was established,” Jarvis said.

Jarvis shared that since 1990, DBM has completed over $1 billion in construction projects out of their Federal Way office and pays over $200,000 a year just in property taxes, among many other economic benefits to the city from their company’s business.

Other public commenters from DBM spoke to the high wages of even apprentice-level positions in the company and the impact it would have on their lives and on the local community if DBM has to find a new location.

Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell asked Community Development Director Keith Niven to address some of the issues raised at public comment.

“We have had multiple conversations with some of the property owners who’ve chosen to engage with us. DBM did not until recently,” Niven said.

City documents state that DBM Construction President Todd Jarvis attended the Aug. 7 Planning Commission meeting and expressed his concerns.

Niven explained that it is Sound Transit, not the city, whose plans might require DBM to move to another location. Niven also defended the data that was questioned in the report, explaining the source they used gets their information directly from companies themselves.

“As we sit here today, Sound Transit is planning to release their environmental impact statement … for that south light rail station that’ll be in the city of Federal Way. Either one of those takes out DBM and that’s a decision that’s being made by Sound Transit and not by the city. What the city is trying to do here with this subarea plan is really get out in front of any changes that might happen,” Niven said.

When it came time to actually decide on whether to approve the South Station Subarea Plan, Councilmember Jack Dovey said: “I think we need to put the same effort in this like we did when we looked at what we’re going to do downtown with the Target property and really think through it and engage the owners of the properties a little bit more. Keith and his team have done a good job in talking to the ones who want to talk to us or we knew to talk to. We’re fortunate that DBM came forward to talk to us about it and we need to engage them.”

The council unanimously voted to return the plan to committee for further review and discussion.