Centralia Mayor Talks About City’s Growing Pains, Future at Chehalis Basin Board Meeting

As Centralia continues to grow, Mayor Kelly Smith Johnston talked about a number of issues revolving around that growth — including poverty levels and flood prevention plans — during the Chehalis Basin Board’s regular monthly meeting last Thursday.

Smith Johnston explained that while she didn’t speak for the city, she trusted the process and work of the Chehalis Basin Board, which has tried to balance flood mitigation and habitat restoration and conservation. 

Centralia is only one of the many communities within the Chehalis Basin, but it is the focal point for the Local Area Non-Dam (LAND) Alternatives Steering Group’s multiple options for flood damage protection and flooding mitigation. 

Daylighting China Creek, building new levees and diverting the Chehalis River around Providence Centralia Hospital are among the proposals recently offered by the group, which was formed to develop options outside of a water retention facility proposed for the river near Pe Ell.

Smith Johnston said the city trusts the Chehalis Basin Board’s process and is involved in many of the discussions, including with LAND. 

Despite that trust, she said Centralia has still struggled in the past and has been exploited by developers who have done work in the area but were not concerned with the effects on residents, especially when it comes to flooding. 

All of this comes into play as Centralia is currently not only the largest city in Lewis County, but also among the fastest growing. 

“We’ve grown 12% in the last 10 years and we expect that growth rate to continue or accelerate slightly,” Smith Johnston said. 

Even with that growth, Smith Johnston added that only 10% of Centralia’s work force actually lives within city limits. This adds to another problem: Lewis County has one of the longest commute times in the state.

“Commute time is correlated to poverty. When people have to travel long distances for work, there’s a lot of reasons why that’s happening, but generally they are going to be making less money,” Smith Johnston said. “So we have low-wage earners that are commuting long distances.” 

She urged the Chehalis Basin Board to keep growth and commute times in mind as Centralia has limited east-west and north-south corridors. Smith Johnston added that from the city’s perspective, housing also needs to increase to adjust for population growth. 

“Our analysis is showing we need to increase our housing production from 54 units a year to 202 units a year,” Smith Johnston said. 

Considering the Centralia community loves its reputation as a small town, she added she wanted to promote growth while preserving that small-town feeling. 

According to Smith Johnston, half of the housing in Centralia is three-bedroom-or-more houses and 75% of households are one- to two-person households. She said the city is focused on building more standalone housing for one to two people. 

“I think this is very relevant to some of the work (the Chehalis Basin Board is) doing,” Smith Johnston said. 

Smith Johnston also urged the board to keep poverty rates and household income in mind. She told the Chehalis Basin Board Centralia’s median household income is $40,625, barely half the statewide median income and even lower than Lewis County’s median household income of $54,970. 

The U.S. Census Bureau’s website stated that from 2017 to 2021, Washington State’s median household income was $82,400. 

The poverty rate in Centralia is higher than both the state and county’s rates as well.

Even with these factors, Smith Johnston said she is still optimistic about Centralia’s future and saw evidence of positive growth already. She told the Chehalis Basin Board that 72 new businesses were licensed by the city last year. 

Education is growing, too, with improvements coming at all levels from elementary school to college, Smith Johnston said. 

“While this is our current reality, this is not the way I think of our city. I think of our city as having tremendous opportunity,” Smith Johnston said. 

Whatever growth is fostered in the coming years by the Chehalis Basin Board and Centralia itself, Smith Johnston said she hopes it will focus on retaining the small-town feel Centralia has with its small, walkable blocks and compact streets. 

“You should be able to access a lot of your daily needs within a five-minute walk. We really want people out of their cars and walking,” Smith Johnston said.  “You want to have a range of housing options that serve diverse people at (different) income levels. And we find that when you segregate out housing designed for low-income people, the results are worse. We need to mix housing for all income levels all together.”