Diverse coalition seals land-preservation deal
With the mist from Snoqualmie Falls floating in the air, an unlikely crew of government officials, environmentalists and developers yesterday celebrated the completion of a land deal that could pave the way for open-space acquisitions over the next few decades.
The Snoqualmie Preservation Initiative, announced in 2001 and officially wrapped in June, will protect about 9,600 acres in east King County from development. That includes 150 acres directly south of the falls, where the view could have been altered by subdivisions across the water.
An additional 8,800 acres south of Snoqualmie, from Rattlesnake Ridge through the Raging River Valley and to Tiger Mountain State Forest, won't be touched by homes. And 650 acres north of the falls also will be protected.
The deal was brokered by the Cascade Land Conservancy and brought together Snoqualmie, King County, the California-based Fruit Growers Supply Co. and Quadrant Homes, a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser.
The concept of developers and conservationists working together was unusual when the deal was announced, but now the initiative has inspired similar deals, said Gene Duvernoy, president of the Cascade Land Conservancy.
"Conservation and homes are not anathema," he said. "This is one of those cutting-edge projects that change the way we do business."
Quadrant President Peter Orser said the deal was a milestone. "Those are strange bedfellows to be working together, and you know it and I know it," he told the crowd of about 30 people at Salish Lodge above the falls.
Weyerhaeuser, King County and Snoqualmie helped buy the 150 acres south of the falls, which was slated for the Falls Crossing development. Weyerhaeuser also gave up development rights to 2,800 acres in the Raging River Valley and 650 acres north of the falls.
In exchange, the city speeded the approval process for Phase II of Weyerhaeuser's Snoqualmie Ridge urban village, which eventually will include 4,400 homes. The company also was able to add 268 homes to the first phase of the project.
The first phase had been contested by residents and city officials and took 15 years to win approval from the City Council, Orser said. By joining the preservation initiative, Weyerhaeuser avoided another such dispute.
The deal enabled Snoqualmie officials to protect the state's second-most-popular tourist attraction, after Mount Rainier. Mayor Fuzzy Fletcher said the view, which attracts 1.3 million visitors a year, was the "largest incentive for us to go forward."
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Diverse coalition seals land-preservation deal
