Corrections and updates, October 2026

For “The One-Minute Hearing That Cleared the Way for a West Richland Data Center” (published September 14, 2026) and the research brief behind it.

A second research pass, finished October 4, 2026, went back through city packets, signed resolutions, recorded deeds, Ecology files and meeting recordings. Most of the original story held. The items below did not, or have changed since. Each one says what we wrote, what the record shows, and where to check it.

The largest change is the first one. Trammell Crow was in West Richland’s official records by April 2026, not September.

Trammell Crow at City Hall

1. When the city knew about Trammell Crow. We wrote that the council learned the buyer’s name on September 1, 2026, when Community and Economic Development Director Eric Mendenhall told it.

The record shows Trammell Crow in city documents months earlier. On April 21, 2026 the council passed Resolution 16-26 on its consent agenda, 7-0, with no discussion. It approved an agreement with TC Northwest Development, Inc., a Trammell Crow affiliate, to pay for city staff time on “a large industrial complex.” The staff report does not say “data center.”

Source: Resolution 16-26; April 21, 2026 minutes.

2. What else the April 21 consent agenda did. We wrote that it amended two Frank Tiegs LLC agreements, including a reimbursement agreement.

That holds, but the same vote also passed Resolution 16-26. Resolution 18-26, on the same agenda, widened where Tiegs could assign prepaid water and sewer connections. The new list includes “Parcels 1 through 6” of a survey whose title block reads “CLIENT: TRAMMELL CROW COMPANY,” along with three housing and ranch areas. Ordinance 05-26, signed the same night, budgeted the reimbursement on lines the signed copy labels “Trammel Crow.”

Source: Resolution 18-26; Ordinance 05-26; April 21, 2026 packet.

3. Pre-application work. We wrote that no data center application had been filed. That is still true.

What we missed: under Resolution 16-26, TC Northwest Development agreed to reimburse the city up to an estimated $150,000 for staff, consultant and attorney time, effective April 1, 2026. That covers work done before any application. No public record yet shows an invoice paid.

Source: Resolution 16-26.

4. A city land-division letter. A recorded document says Trammell Crow’s survey was approved for recording by a city letter titled “PLAT-008-2026 Trammell-Crow Exempt Parcel Segregation Authorization,” dated May 5, 2026. That was the same day the council adopted the Lewis and Clark Ranch zoning. Under city code, the community development director signs that kind of approval. The letter is not online.

Source: Benton County Auditor, recording no. 2026-012050, via EagleWeb.

5. What staff said on April 21, 2026. We wrote that staff told the council “no specific data center project is proposed.” That line is the clerk’s summary in the minutes, not staff’s words.

On the meeting video, Mendenhall said the new zone “does allow for data centers,” that “the city has not received any application,” and that “There is interest in the [Lewis] and Clark Ranch.”

Source: City of West Richland video, April 21, 2026, 40:56 to 41:59.

6. Trammell Crow’s statement. We dated it to December 2025. The same words were in print by November 15, 2025, in a Wendy Culverwell story that Yahoo credits to The Olympian. It quotes what Trammell Crow “told the Tri-City Herald.”

Source: Yahoo News, November 15, 2025.

7. The Port of Benton remark. We wrote that then-Mayor Brent Gerry let the developer’s name slip at an October 2025 Port of Benton meeting, declined questions, and that the city then issued a statement.

The Port’s audio of its October 15, 2025 meeting has a speaker on the Atlas Agro item saying Trammell Crow “wants to build a data center out there.” The recording does not identify the speaker. The Port’s approved minutes mention data centers in general but not Trammell Crow or Tiegs. The claims that he declined questions and that the city issued a statement rest on the Herald’s report alone. We could not find the statement.

Source: Port of Benton commission audio, October 15, 2025, about 0:21:35; Port approved minutes for the same date.

The land and the deeds

8. Size of the sale. We wrote about 1,000 acres in parcels of 473, 553 and 35 acres, “about 1,061 acres in all.” The Assessor’s roll shows seven parcels totaling 995.19 acres.

Source: Benton County Assessor parcel records; Auditor recordings 2026-018769 and 2026-018771.

9. Phase 1 overlap. We wrote that the sold land was “at least 95 percent outside” the Phase 1 planned action area, with a possible 37-acre overlap. None of the seven parcels lies in Phase 1. The 37-acre corner was not sold.

Source: Ordinance 08-26 as recorded (Auditor 2026-014341) read with Survey 6280 (Auditor 2026-011249).

10. Location. We placed the sale in Sections 34, 33 and 28. The deeds cover land in Sections 27, 28, 29, 33 and 34 of Township 10 North, Range 27 East.

Source: Auditor recording 2026-018769.

11. Instrument 2026-018770. We described it as an agreement indexed to Sections 34 to 36 that might settle the Phase 1 corner. It is a Water Option Agreement dated July 15, 2026. It gives TC West Richland I an option, by notice on or before December 31, 2027, to negotiate a contract at market rates for up to 850 million gallons a year of Yakima River water from Tiegs. It does not mention the city’s prepaid water and sewer connections.

Source: Auditor recording 2026-018770.

12. Who signed for the buyers. We wrote that the public record stopped at two company names. The recorded documents name the signers: Keith Tiegs for Frank Tiegs LLC, and Michael C. Nelson as CEO of TC West Richland I. That company registered in Washington on June 25, 2026. The deed to WKC31 Development LLC names no signer for the buyer.

Source: Auditor recordings 2026-018769 through 2026-018771.

13. Zoning of the sold land. We placed the Mixed Use Light Industrial (MU-LI) zone “across the south-central ranch.” It runs along the southern edge of the subarea, north of the old railroad line, from its southwest end east to the Phase 1 line.

On the last public zoning map layer (2020), all seven sold parcels were zoned Urban Transition. That means the February 2025 ordinance, Ordinance 03-25, made data centers a permitted use on that land on its own, more than a year before the ranch rezoning.

Source: Benton County and City of West Richland 2020 zoning layers; Ordinance 03-25.

Power and water

14. BPA’s megawatt figure. We wrote that the Bonneville Power Administration’s (BPA) queue sheet had no megawatt figure and that 912 MW came from a third-party tracker. BPA’s own sheet, downloaded October 4, 2026, lists 912 MW for request L0621, filed by Benton Rural Electric Association (REA) on September 6, 2024, still in study.

Source: BPA interconnection queue.

15. Benton REA’s policy. We quoted the REA’s deputy general manager on large-load costs, and wrote that the website showed no written policy. Its Data Centers page now cites a “board-approved policy” that data centers pay their own costs. The page gives no date or vote.

Source: Benton REA, Data Centers.

16. The city’s Columbia River water right. We wrote that S4-33044(B2) was pending and its status was not public. The Department of Ecology approved it on August 25, 2026, for 12.758 cubic feet per second and 3,539.85 acre-feet a year. Scott Turner of Ecology’s Office of Columbia River signed it.

Source: Ecology report of examination.

17. When that water right was filed. We wrote that it was filed in October 2022. The application and priority date is November 28, 2011. October 2022 is when four cities signed the split of the larger right that created West Richland’s share.

Source: same Ecology report; Lewis and Clark Ranch Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), p. 259.

Process and records

18. TXT-0006-2026. We wrote that no record of it existed. It is on Ecology’s State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) register as record 202603014, filed July 16, 2026. It proposes moving some permit decisions to a hearing examiner. Mendenhall signed its environmental determination.

Source: SEPA register 202603014.

19. Notice of the February 2025 hearings. The brief said those hearings were noticed. The agendas were posted on time. We found no hearing notice for them in the city’s News Flash archive or in the statewide newspaper notice archive. The city’s file of newspaper publication receipts would settle it. The April 2026 ranch hearings did have a city web notice.

Source: City News Flash archive; WNPA notice archive.

20. “Data center” in the Final EIS. We wrote that the phrase appears only in an appendix index entry. It appears zero times in the main volume, once in Appendix T and three times in Appendix U.

Source: Lewis and Clark Ranch Final EIS and appendices, Ecology SEPA record 202601599.

Votes and counts

21. The 2025 mayor’s race. We gave Brink’s win as 2,500 to 930, the election-night count. The certified result was 3,412 to 1,344, certified November 25, 2025.

Source: Washington Secretary of State results, Benton County.

22. April 9, 2026 Planning Commission vote. We wrote that it passed 3-0 with Retter and Utecht excused. The minutes list four members present (O’Neill, Peterson, Utecht and Aldrich) and say the motion passed unanimously, so four yes votes. Utecht is recorded speaking at the hearing. The line excusing him appears to be a clerical slip.

Source: April 9, 2026 minutes.

23. Speakers on April 21, 2026. We wrote that eight people spoke. The minutes list seven.

Source: April 21, 2026 minutes.

24. Two more vote counts. We called the August 12, 2025 preferred-alternative vote “reported as unanimous.” It was 6-0, with Stoker excused, Fetto moving and Moran seconding.

We wrote that Richland’s Atlas Agro option passed with all seven council members’ support. It passed 6-0 on December 2, 2025, with Mayor Pro Tem Kent absent.

Source: West Richland minutes, August 12, 2025; Richland council minutes, December 2, 2025.