“Save our green space!” shouted one person as cars zoomed by on Weyerhaeuser Way South.

Others waived homemade signs that showed the web address of their action site, www.orcaction.org.

The dozen or so residents spent their Saturday morning protesting the proposed Preferred Freezer and Orca Bay Seafoods warehousing, distribution and processing center. The center, which would take up just over 7 acres on 19 acres of forested land, has generated considerable community backlash since a notice of master land use application was disseminated Aug. 5.

The 19 acres of land was previously owned by Weyerhaeuser Company and is now owned by Industrial Realty Group. It’s part of 430 acres of land that could be redeveloped.

Already, there’s a pre-application conference request from applicant KG Investment Properties for an additional 721,000-square-foot warehouse and office building on 50 acres of Industrial Realty Group’s property.

“I’m a 65-year resident of Federal Way,” said Mary Mclellan Aronen at the protest. “A question I ask myself is, ‘Will the city allow there to be even one tree standing that was there when we started?’”

Mclellan said Federal Way has two green spaces left, and “this is one of them,” referring to the forested land on which the project is proposed.

“We have a legacy here that we can leave our children – an ecological legacy right here in our city,” she said. “And they’re giving it away for a fish factory.”

But the vice president of special projects for Industrial Realty Group, Tom Messmer, said there’s a lot of misinformation out there about what exactly the Preferred Freezer and Orca Bay Seafood facility will be.

According to a FAQ being distributed by IRG officials, Orca Bay Seafoods will receive frozen fish that will be processed frozen and re-packaged and shipped frozen. Scraps are frozen and stored in a freezer until they’re picked up. The FAQ states that “any other products leaving the site that are not finished goods, both Orca Bay and Preferred Freezer Services, will use enclosed compactors for all recyclables and all other materials being discarded from the site.”

However, the type of project is only one aspect of the proposal that people are concerned about.

Lori Sechrist, the president of the North Lake Improvement Club, said, “All of it comes down to the lake and the natural habitats and the displacement of a variety of animals.”

North Lake abuts 40 acres of Industrial Realty Group’s property. Owls, eagles, osprey and other wildlife live in the green space.

Messmer said he’s met with many people from North Lake and listened to their concerns.

“Our vision of the lakefront is a win-win by everybody,” Messmer said, noting that the land is zoned industrial but they “would never do that.”

“We have nothing in the pipeline for the 40 acres around the lake.”

Additionally, Messmer said there’s nothing that touches the 50 acres of corporate headquarters and the Weyerhaeuser building. He added the Bonsai and Rhododendron gardens will remain and said he’s hired a marketing firm to play up the Weyerhaeuser building’s historic aspect to prospective tenants.

Residents don’t seem ready to accept these reassurances. Sechrist said the board of the North Lake Improvement Club has already received thousands of dollars in donations, adding that they plan to hire a lawyer to help fight the project. A lawyer, however, can cost “tens of thousands” of dollars, and “our community doesn’t have that kind of money,” she said.

The residents said they hope their efforts lead to a re-zone of the land from Corporate Park-1, or CP-1, to Office Park. Club member Julie Cleary, however, said they’d be happy with anything that “takes care of the trails and protects the forested buffer.”

“They’re following the letter of the law, but they’re taking it to its [extreme] end,” Cleary said.

That “law” is a City Council-approved 1994 agreement between the city and Weyerhaeuser Co. during the latter’s annexation. This “concomitant agreement” has been in effect for 22 years, and abiding by that agreement was a condition of Weyerhaeuser’s sale of its $70.5 million property to Industrial Realty Group in February. The agreement has detailed zoning provisions for its CP-1 zoning, which includes requirements such as a forested buffer, the types of buildings that could be built on the land and the clause that the agreement was binding until both parties mutually agreed on its termination.

Many don’t believe the zoning outlined in the agreement is up to 2016 zoning standards, which typically avoid warehouses near residential areas.

“When they were talking about selling the land, one of the most important things was the concomitant agreement that was passed by the City Council 22 years ago. It stays with the land,” Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell said. “I think that was our legal interpretation and that was the interpretation of Heartland and IRG, and Michael Morales [the former Community Development Director], as late as last fall in October, basically said that.”

Residents had until Aug. 22 to submit comments on the application for the Preferred Freezer and Orca Bay Seafoods processing center. Those who submitted comments can appeal the project if the application is accepted by acting Community Development Director Scott Sproul.

Cleary and Sechrist, along with 60-plus members of the North Lake Improvement Club, the North Lake Ridge Association and the Lake Killarney Improvement Association, submitted a 28-page document outlining their main concerns about the project. They also set up a petition and a Facebook page, “Save Weyerhaeuser Campus,” in addition to their Orca Action website.

“The biggest concern is that this kind of sets precedent,” Sechrist said. “If it just goes through then we’re, like, accepting the ‘94 agreement, and where will we be able to stand for the rest of the parcels?”

The North Lake Improvement Club argues that the city isn’t bound to the terms of the agreement because of a long-standing Washington law that allows cities to retain their police power as it relates to zoning.

“The Washington State Constitution provides the city with the police power to regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals and welfare,” the club’s comments read. “This is a nondelegable duty, and – if city staff’s position that the concomitant agreement requires the property owner’s agreement to rezone – the city illegally contracted to restrict its ability to legislate and exercise its police power forever.”

And while the mayor said in a previous report that the land falls under current zoning uses, he said he didn’t believe that comment sufficiently highlighted the process the city needs to undertake to ensure all legal processes are followed.

Ferrell pointed out he is not a sponsor or advocate for the project “in any way.”

“It’s very, very important that people understand we’re going to follow the letter of the law, but I also think it’s important to treat everybody equally and uniformly before the law,” he said. “I’m a very positive person and I tend to look at things in a positive way, and I saw the investment in Federal Way, the moving of a corporate headquarters and the location of jobs in our community, as a good thing. But I think it is critically important to know that nothing is predetermined in this process, and we will go through a vigorous legal review to make sure that this fits within the current zoning.”

Messmer said Industrial Realty Group didn’t “plop $70 million” down without knowing what was permitted under the zoning. And because of that agreement, he’s taking the required 100-foot tree buffer along Interstate-5, the 50-foot tree buffer along Weyerhaeuser Way and the other required environmental protections seriously.

“I really want people to understand all the positive things we’re trying to do here,” he said, adding that the Weyerhaeuser building can hold up to 1,300 jobs.

Sechrist hopes the city will slow down and better communicate with residents and nearby businesses, such as World Vision, on the current and future projects.

“They’ve probably been inundated with comments from hundreds of people, I’m sure, so if they don’t listen… it’s not just our lake and we’re not just talking that it’s ‘not in my backyard,’ because we know something’s going to come in there, it just needs to comply with today’s laws,” Sechrist said, adding that this project will impact all of Federal Way.

She also takes issue with the process the application is going through, as she believes there could have been more public notice and more time for public comment.

Ferrell clarified that the application for Preferred Freezer and Orca Bay Seafoods is already vested, and it would open the city to “extreme legal exposure” if they changed the process.

To answer residents’ questions, the city has scheduled a Sept. 1 study session that is open to the public and will address residents’ concerns. Ferrell said he’s invited representatives from Industrial Realty Group and Orca Bay as well.

Messmer said he’ll be there.

“I really do appreciate the energy around trying to understand the project,” he said. “I really appreciate they’re concerned about their community, and we owe it to them to answer their questions.”

[Correction: In paragraph 13 of an earlier version of this story, North Lake was identified as occupying land in unincorporated King County. Federal Way annexed the area in 2005. This story, as well as the Aug. 26 print edition of the Mirror, have been updated accordingly]