SEQUIM — Faced with a proposal that promises to bring upward of 200 clean, green jobs to town, the City Council all but flung its urban-growth gate open this week.
Battelle and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have run their Marine Research Operations campus northeast of Sequim since the mid-1970s, raising annual contracts to $15 million last year.
In labs along Sequim Bay, scientists conduct research on chemicals’ effects on the environment, how mollusks can be used to detect bioterrorism and how algae can generate hydrogen fuel.
But Battelle’s buildings, which occupy 7.5 of the 140-acre campus, need Sequim’s sewer and water service.
For the past year, Sequim and Clallam County planners have searched for a way to extend those utilities to the labs — without violating the state Growth Management Act.
During Monday’s council study session, Sequim Planning Director Dennis Lefevre told the council they’ve settled on an avenue: expanding the urban growth area, or UGA.
Then he turned the microphone over to Battelle’s Sequim operations manager Van Briggs.
