Diverse coalition seals land-preservation deal

By Ashley Bach
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

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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."
 
He gestured to the view, which includes the rushing falls and miles of green hills on the horizon. "Just look at it. ... There's something awesome about the falls, the power that's in the water," he said.

The partnership blazed a trail for other deals, such as the massive Cascade Foothills Initiative, Duvernoy said. The new initiative, announced earlier this year, would bring together officials from Snohomish, King and Pierce counties to prevent development of 600,000 acres of forest.

Other deals will be announced in the next several months, Duvernoy said.

The template used in the Snoqualmie initiative was necessary because local open space wasn't easy to buy anymore, County Executive Ron Sims said. Relatively small tracts of land no longer had single owners. "This is the [deal] that had to work," Sims said.

Members of the Snoqualmie Tribe recited a prayer at the ceremony. The site is sacred to tribal members, who believe the mist connects heaven and earth.

"Conserving [the falls], protecting it, is something we don't just feel is important," said Lois Sweet Dorman, a tribal spokeswoman. "It is our spiritual responsibility."

Ashley Bach: 206-464-2567