Documents filed under Washington’s environmental review process reveal a list of projects in the works for the Mid-Columbia. 
The State Environmental Policy Act, or SEPA, often provides the first look at the mixed-use projects, mini-storage facilities, apartments, industrial expansions, subdivisions and more that are working their way through the various planning departments of Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla counties. 
Here’s a look at projects that appeared in the SEPA register in the past month.  

Cities are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to address one of the most persistent sources of housing permitting delays: incomplete applications. And two new streams of federal money aim to help them.

The days of having to worry about a crack in a concrete wall or driveway may soon become a thing of a past, thanks to a new self-healing material developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. 

Five Mid-Columbia school districts and the private company renovating a shopping center in the Columbia Center retail district have received hundreds of thousands of state dollars aimed at identifying and implementing energy efficiencies in their buildings. 

Eight years after closing its doors, the Tri-Cities will soon once again have a place where a kid can be a kid. 

If the cost of lumber, metal and fuel are any indication, the affordability of homes isn’t going to get better any time soon, according to one analysis of building materials. 

The Pacific Northwest will need a massive buildout of new energy infrastructure over the next six years to meet rising electricity demand, according to a draft regional power plan. Implementing the plan will cost the Pacific Northwest approximately $2.3 billion. And the rate of building will need to quicken to make it happen by 2032. 

Franklin County’s administrator recently spoke with the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation about transforming the Pasco’s HAPO Center into a tribal casino, saying if there’s any tribe the county should be talking to, it’s the Yakamas.

Real Estate & Construction Briefs for August 2026