‘Losing Wild Waves is a real bummer’: Ursula says housing should replace park instead of massive warehouse
Jun 1, 2026, 3:01 PM | Updated: 3:12 pm
A massive 1 million-square-foot industrial warehouse is slated to replace longtime local aquatic treasure, Wild Waves. A proposal was submitted for the facility to fill the 66-acre site, according to KOMO News.
KIRO hosts Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin debated the best replacement for the park on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio.
Ursula called for more housing, saying every single community in western Washington will have to do its part to provide more affordable housing.
“We have a housing crisis, more housing,” she said. “More housing with appropriate planning, streets, and services.”
Gee said that while he agrees there needs to be more affordable housing in the area, next to a freeway is not the right spot.
“We have a history in this country of putting some of the homes and neighborhoods that have freeways next to them,” he said. “It’s not really a great thing to have, but I do agree with you, though. More affordable housing is definitely important.”
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Neighbors worry warehouse replacing Wild Waves will flood streets with semitrucks
KOMO News spoke with neighbors who weren’t thrilled about the idea of the warehouse bringing more semitrucks and increasing truck traffic in the community.
“There’s going to be so much more traffic, truck traffic, through the backstreets of Federal Way,” local David Cook told the media outlet. “People are going to be leaving.”
However, Gee thought that with the location right off the freeway, a trucking facility would make sense.
“The whole trucking thing, I didn’t think about the fact that trucks in neighborhoods, that might play a factor, but I didn’t see anything wrong with it at first,” he said.
Gee added that a commercial building could be a good idea, but anything other than apartments.
“I just don’t want to see apartments next to a freeway, that’s the only thing,” he said.
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.
