The possibility of the Port of Tacoma building a 700-plus acre rail center and logistics facility in rural South Thurston County is fading fast.

"We've backed away from the notion of a logistics center," the port's deputy director John Wolfe said today.

The Tacoma port purchased 745 acres near Maytown two years ago as a potential site for a South Sound Logistics Center.

The original SSLC concept included a rail yard for parking trains and an industrial park with the potential for distribution centers and warehouses.

The Tacoma and Olympia ports then partnered to explore the idea. But the concept proved quite controversial.

Hundreds of Thurston County residents have attended public meetings in the past year to oppose the project, voicing concerns about the environmental, traffic and quality-of-life consequences of such a facility.

The now downgraded pitch focuses on developing just a rail yard - and explores several alternatives for the rest of the property including preserving some of it as prairie.

Wolfe will be at the Port of Olympia commission meeting Monday night to discuss the revamped concepts and alternatives for the property.

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The need for more rail capacity in the future is still an issue, Wolfe said.

In Tacoma the port has started to develop the Blair-Hylebos Peninsula for new shipping terminals and the Puyallup Tribe of Indians is building a large, private container terminal as well.

Trains need a close place to wait off the main line tracks and Maytown could serve that purpose, Wolfe said.

The scaled-down concepts come as the interlocal agreement between the Olympia and Tacoma ports is set to expire at the end of this month.

The Tacoma port needs the agreement with the Port of Olympia in order to own land in Thurston County.

But how involved the Olympia port wants to be in any version - rail yard or otherwise - of the Maytown project remains a question.

Olympia Port Commission President Bill McGregor said today that he's open to hearing more about the rail yard concept.

But he's looking for answers to how such a project might benefit the Olympia port and community - and he's wanting resolution sooner rather than later.

"We can’t let this agreement go on forever and I don’t want to let it keep getting extended and extended," he said.

If the Olympia port commission terminates the agreement, the Tacoma port will need to get rid of its Maytown property.

The rail yard concept is a step in the right direction, according to some of the project's loudest opponents, Friends of Rocky Prairie.

"Less is better," said Sharron Coontz, the group's spokeswoman. "But our goal is still to preserve (all) of the land itself because it's part of a 3,000 uninterrupted wildlife corridor."

Coontz favors creating a sort of land bank out of the property that the ports could use for mitigation projects.

The Tacoma port's Maytown property is within a mile of Millerslyvania State Park and adjacent to state Fish and Wildlife property.

The Tacoma port's chief concern is recouping the $22 million it spent to buy Maytown, Wolfe said.

And though Wolfe is pushing for more rail capacity, he said that port is not interested in constructing a rail yard itself.

More plausible is that the agency would sell the property to a private party for development, Wolfe said.

The property also includes a permitted gravel mine.

"The port doesn’t need to own that property into the future," Wolfe said.