Strange Times, Strange Voices

UPDATE BELOW

 It's been about six weeks since we last were drawn up and into the distress about the 'Point Roberts Beach Club at or near Lily Point Housing Development."  At that time, the County was about to approve the environmental assessment plans of the development company.  And, in general it did, although it also put some things over, including a historical assessment of the two houses on the property.  Also, over this time, the developers, mainly Wayne and Anders (of previous discussion) have been meeting with a group of folks on the Point in an attempt to reconsider some of the planning, including saving more of the trees that border APA.  All to the good.

But not, necessarily, all to the best, at least not to those who think that a development of this sort is a poor plan for Point Roberts, although it might be a good plan for providing economic improvement for Wayne and Anders.  But this is the sort of thing that will doubtless go on here for years to come.  In fact, of course, this particular one has been going on for years, although the players have occasionally changed.  I think that the opposition is not so much a 'not in my backyard' feeling as a sense that things are difficult enough in this strangely appealing place without adding to the difficulty at the same time as one is taking away part of the appeal.  And especially when, on the other side, there is nothing much more than money to be made by outsiders.  (I know, Wayne lives here, so he's not an outsider.  But in my view, developers are by nature outsiders.  I will not defend that proposition here, however.)

Anyway, there's this general community uneasiness about this proposed development, even if it's not as over the top as the former version of it.  And, during this past six weeks, there have apparently been two incidents in which some vandalism has been committed or allegedly committed on the property.  Survey sticks removed, strings uprooted, etc., causing economic loss to the owners.  The only reason I know about this is that Anders has written the residents of Point Roberts twice--on Point Interface--to warn us that if this doesn't stop, he will be obliged to close up the property so that we can no longer have access to it.

I found these communications strangely condescending.  It's his property, of course, so he can keep it unfenced or fence it or whatever.  And, since most of us here don't spend a lot of time trotting around in other peoples' property, it is likely that closing it off will be no greater loss to us than the loss of access if Anders takes to building 30 or 40 or whatever number of houses on it.

But beyond that is the assumption that it is the readers of Point Interface who are up to no good here, while the Lord of the Manor is killing himself trying to accommodate our views.  Such ingratitude on our part!  And so in need of a punishing response.

So I just want to take this opportunity to say that, if he keeps up building this development the way he seems to want to, then I will really, really be offended, even though I'm normally a friendly, good-time Charlie.  Further, to clarify the extremity of my irritation,  I'm throwing down the gauntlet right now.

Anders:  If things go on the way they are,  I'm not inviting you to my birthday party....Not this year, and not ever. You've been warned.

Reber informs me today (May 30) that the County has voided/declared moot the previous ruling on the Beach Club project that it made earlier this month (because of technicalities) and the whole process now starts over again.  June 15, July 15 seem to be relevant dates for further hearings, meetings, what have you.  One is reminded that 'the wheels of justice grind slow but exceeding fine.'  And, in this case, perhaps all for the good, once again.

The Value of What? And, to Whom?

Okay, so yesterday's bottom line was that the members of the community in attendance at the new Lily Point LLC development didn't want it to happen but figured that the best way to have the development avoided (or at the moment, the only way since the actual hearing on the development itself isn't until June) would be to have the County planning board decide that more work needed to be done on the environmental impact statement that they'd already said didn't need any more work.  However, they left it up to the public to point out where they might be wrong about that.  Thus, the meeting was intended to encourage people to write about that.  It was more a matter of using whatever law was available to slow things down because there is a general concern that the trees are at risk of being cut very soon.

But, here's my other concern.  I certainly share in the general emotional concern of those at the meeting that this is not what I want for Point Roberts, nothing that is likely to improve Point Roberts, nothing that is likely to make it more scenic or more livable.  But there is a very big 'not in my backyard' nature to that concern.

Wayne and Anders have, after all, laid out real money for this property and this is, after all, a country devoted to capitalism, profit-making, and private property and everybody owning a house or two.  So why shouldn't they be allowed to do that here?  Granted, we'd all like it done somewhere else, but so what?  There are plenty of things in the world that I'd like done somewhere else, but I have no evidence that my wishes in such matters carry or should carry any particular weight.  Even when I would like something done somewhere else, it's very likely that some of my neighbors either don't particularly care or in fact value whatever it is being done in our neighborhood. So, I don't know that just not wanting something to happen is much of an argument, even if it's a strong feeling.

Plenty of the people, including plenty of the permanent residents here, probably rarely go down to this property.  I live near the road that heads to it (APA Road) and as far as I can tell, it is a little trafficked road.  And many of those who are driving down it either live that way or are going down to the Lily Point Preserve which is, after all, being maintained as a preserve exactly because it merited protection.  Isn't this next piece of property just a ragged edge, of which there is bound always to be one?  And isn't our concern a tad impersonal in the sense that we are mostly concerned about the idea?

If this property is so extremely valuable to those of us who live here, how come the Point Roberts Foundation (a non-existent non-profit corporation that we could all contribute money to for such purposes if we had one and if we wanted to make such contributions to improve the community's life) doesn't offer to buy it from the bank and Wayne and Anders?  And, more to the point, why isn't there a Point Roberts Foundation to do such things?  A couple of years ago, I was proposing that everybody with a house on the Point donate, say, $500 a year for the community betterment.  If we'd been doing that for a couple of years, we'd be on our way to buying the Butler property's 40 acres and saving ourselves the inconvenience and unaesthetic qualities of this development and its minus trees.  My guess is that the people with houses here, regardless of whether they do or do not have discretionary income, would mostly say, 'Hey, I already pay taxes.  Why should I pay more to live here?'

I suspect that, for the most part, people here would not be willing to put significant amounts of money to this purpose.  They would not, e.g., all give up their vacations next year and put the money they might otherwise spend on the vacation into the buying out Wayne and Anders fund.  Instead; they largely just don't want Wayne and Anders to put their money to their purpose.  The Nature Conservancy, or the Trillium Corporation, or Whatcom Land Trust will be encouraged to reach into their deep pockets, but those of us who live here and care about this?  Well, my guess is not so much.  My guess is that the Point Roberts Conservation Society still exists as a legal entity to donate funds for taking treasured Point Roberts property out of the development arena.  It was started to try to raise money for Lily Point before the Nature Conservancy, Whatcom Land Trust, and the County and State ponied up those funds.  But it was not phenomenally successful in getting contributions from Point Roberts homeowners; not in the millions of dollars, certainly.

But if we really want to preserve this property, maybe we ought to be thinking about what those of us who live her and care about it need to sacrifice for that goal, not just what Wayne and Anders ought to sacrifice.

So, those are the two sides of my conflicting views.  Today is the final day for comment to the County planners on the SEPA plan.  I wrote such a comment, in line with my first post and in particular in light of my attachment to the Point's rapidly disappearing historic houses.  But, in line with this second post, I doubt if it would--or even should--carry much weight in anybody's decision to move on with this project.

The Price of Everything

Monday night was the meeting about the Stanton Northwest Properties development at Lily Point, which is now called the Lily Point development.  About 75 people showed up with dour looks to discuss what could be done about the matter.

It was an interesting and puzzling experience.  The community members appeared to have  pretty much a single position (This is a very  bad idea.  Why is such a proposal being made again, when the collapse of the real estate market and the banking industry had already defeated it once?  Do we have to have that happen again?).  On the other side of the question was the new developer, or at least half of the new developers.  The pair, let's call them Wayne and Anders, which makes them sound like an old comedy team even though they have nothing to say that is funny, sent Anders to represent their interests.  And their interests appear to be money and perhaps quick profits.

I have taken awhile to write about this because I was very conflicted about the meeting, so the blog is going to have to carry my description over two or three days' entries as I try to explain what was so puzzling.  When the original Stanton proposal came up, with its 100 houses costing a million dollars each and its beach club front and its swimming pool and expansive community center and, for all I know, its polo pony fields, one of the things most people had against it was its over-the-topness.  Now, Wayne and Anders have modified the plan and I was struck with how lacking in vision it was.  Thirty-nine houses for starters, maybe a tennis court, a little meeting place, no curbs and sidewalks.  Stanton wanted something grand, which at least befit the locale.  But W and A want something small, 'cottages' they call them, with piddling amenities, but something that will net them some very big bucks by the time they have disposed of the trees and the lots, letting actual builders move in later to assist the lot buyers.

Way too much of the meeting was devoted to Anders telling us how their plans differed from Stanton's, even though they are still operating off Stanton's plans and environmental impact statement because, he assured us, it was 'so much more efficient to do so,' which is to say 'so much cheaper,' because they don't have to start all over in the process of permits and all that.  I have rarely heard someone talk about a project in this particular manner: nothing seemed to be of import to him other than the financial issues, the 'economic viability.'  I have long known the phrase, but rarely run into someone who, at least to me, so clearly represents someone 'who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.' 

The meeting was largely devoted to a lot of technical explanations: what had the County approved, what was the SEPA statement that they had okayed but could be objected to by the public, what property or properties were actually at issue?  Wayne and Anders, it appeared, like a Junior grade Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein, had been trolling around the bottom as the garbage fell out in the housing/bank crisis and had taken up Stanton's interests for lack of a better word, which included ownership of the closest acreage (called, locally, 'the Butler property'), the plans and permits that Stanton had achieved, options on the additional parcels, and a $3 million dollar mortgage that the bank was still holding. 

The garbage turned out to contain a jewel, of course.  But a jewel with a price.  During the evening's discussion, Anders offered to sell their interests to us for $1.5 million (plus the mortgage).  Which might be a very good deal if you were going to put in a lot of houses and reasonably expected to sell them.  What Wayne and Anders plan initially is 39 lots, 10 or so on the bluff facing the ocean, a bunch more with what he called 'peakaboo' views of the ocean, and the remainder back in what would be left of the 'wooded area' after the trees are taken down for the lots, roads, and all that.  The 'cottages' are to be 2,000 square feet, but that may well be only the footprint, as two stories would be possible under the 25 foot height limit: some cottage!

And what that means, if they actually sold them to the Vancouverites who are their target audience, would be a lot of money.  The 1/4 acre lots in front, facing the ocean would be priced at $500,000 each.  That is the lot, not the lot with a house.  Building a house up here would be in the $150-$200/square foot.  Two or three thousand square feet would get you right up to a million dollars for your cottage with land.  And those little wooded lots in the back would run buyers $150,000 each.  Right away, I'm thinking that the ten lots in front are worth five million total and the other 29 lots would have to bring in 6-8 million (conservatively).  That would be a 12 million dollar return on a $1.5 million dollar (current) investment.  A nice day's (or year's) work.

So, what this certainly seemed like was Wayne and Anders' desire to make many quick bucks off some land that they had grabbed onto in the maelstrom.  Not land they cared about particularly, except for the fact that it had those ocean view lots at the front, way high above the ocean so you wouldn't even have to worry about global warming and rising sea levels.  And after all this discussion and explanation, two of our local real estate sales people, people with long experience in Point Roberts, advised Anders that the chance of selling 39 lots like that in any short term--Anders was talking a year or so--or even in anything but a very long term was very unlikely.  Very unlikely. 

So maybe we are looking at Stanton all over?  Except that, this time, the project could move along far enough before it collapsed so that a lot of trees would already have been logged.  It turns out that the Butler property has the bulk of the big trees, and the optioned property has largely already been cleared.  So by developing the Butler property first, the trees will go first.  But, as Anders pointed out to us, it would be much cheaper to develop the optioned property first, but he and Wayne don't own that property: what they own is the Butler property.

So, what's to be said in favor of this project?  Next round.

We've Been Here Before

You remember that Stanton Northwest Properties was going to build a hundred of million dollar houses back next to Lily Point Preserve, and it was going to have steps down to the beach and everybody rich from ROTUS was going to come and buy the million dollar houses and belong to the Lily Point Beach Club, even though the properties were way, way above the beach, but that's detail.   You do remember?  At the time, it seemed an unlikely development because the problems with real estate housing/development loans made either financing or proposing such a project seem like a very bad business to be in.  And then it actually became a very bad business to be in.  And Stanton, apparently, fell out at/with/through the bottom of the market.

But someone else, apparently, has taken up this burden of building a 100 big houses next to Lily Point Preserve.  It's an appalling idea, but somebody has to do it, apparently, and it is, according to those in a position to know, two companies named Lily Point, LLC, and Cassimar U.S. Inc.  And who would they be?  Googling provided a little Cassimar information but no Lily Point LLC information.  Cassimar is owned by someone named Wayne Knowles, out of the University of Saskatchewan, and now in Bellingham in the real estate world and apparently a Point Roberts resident.  It is surprising to think that someone doing this kind of deal would have so little Google presence.

A recent sheet of information about this appeared at the Point Roberts public library for purposes of providing information to the public.  The public, or at least some subset of it, is in arms or at arms or alarmed.  In any case, there is a public meeting on Monday night at the Community Center, 6 p.m., to discuss what might be done.  There are eagles and eagle nest trees and tree cutting at issue.  Also, the All Point Bulletin has many details from the County level of permits and requirements here. 

Here are some of the trees:

The area at issue is between Claire Lane and Paul's Road, with APA Road on the north and the beach on the south.  This photo is taken from the bottom of Paul's Road, looking back toward APA Road.  As you can see, lots of this acreage has already been cleared and there are lots of deciduous trees, as well.  But in the back, there's a fair stand of big firs, and as I took the picture, an eagle was larking around from tree to tree quite near me.

Another place we've been before is Sterling Bank.  For unknown (to the public) reasons, Sterling's stock today sky-rocketed, gaining about 60%.  Now that's not much in absolute terms, given that it has been hovering well below a dollar, but it went well up above $1.00, which is a big deal since it was under threat of being de-listed on the exchange.  Anyway, some recent developments suggest that someone may be attempting to buy the bank, which would/could be good for stockholders.  Today's stock sales were in the 16 million range, whereas a normal day is about 1 million.

Tending the Reserve

It’s been about 1 ½ years since the Whatcom Land Trust deeded Lily Point Reserve to Whatcom County.  And that deeding, I would suppose, means that the County is responsible for the Reserve’s upkeep.  But in these days of diminishing government income levels because of the financial crisis and of taxpayer resistance to tax increases, even for services the public wants the government to provide, the availability of Whatcom County funds to preserve the Reserve are doubtless scarce.

And that is why it is a very good thing that the Whatcom Land Trust staff organized a work day to help get rid of some of the English ivy that is climbing the big trees as well as spreading out across the land.  The event was organized by the Land Trust’s new Volunteer Coordinator, who comes to the Trust via Americorps.  A bright and cheerful young Kansan who always dreamed of living in a place with mists and tall trees and rain sent out notices via the Point Interface urging Point Roberts residents to join the Trust from 10-2 in getting some of this work done.

And so it was that Ed and I got down there this morning, a little late for the opening salvos, but nevertheless there in time to do almost three hours of ivy eliminating work.  Unfortunately, we were there with only, as far as I could tell, four other people from Point Roberts.  Well, of course, lots of people left after Labor Day, and it was a Tuesday so some people had to work, but still…only six people?  It didn’t feel like we were showing much propensity for community effort here.  And it must have felt a tad discouraging for someone just beginning her volunteer coordinator work.

Doubtless, there are Point residents who go at their own times to do this kind of work.  Certainly it does not need to be done in groups.  But it does need to be done if Lily Point is to be the kind of place that the community seemed to hope it would be back when the acquisition was completed.  For Ed, who was sawing away thick ivy vines scaling very big maple trees—almost an hour and a half on just one tree-- it was very hard work.  For me, on my knees, trowelling and hand-pulling yards of ivy stems from the ground, stems that were heading for maple trees, it was somewhat less hard, but wonderfully peaceful, nevertheless. 

Lily Point is a visually beautiful place. When I go there, though,  it’s usually down to the beach with just a quick walk through the forested part.  This was very different, though.  Digging in the dirt of Lily Point’s forest for a couple of hours, I got especially to hear Lily Point in a way I had not previously experienced.  Thanks to Whatcom Land Trust for giving me that opportunity.

Riding High

The USPO has this tiresome policy of requiring you to pick up your mail every twenty minutes, or something, and if you are going away for more than a few days, you have to fill out a form telling them how long you are going to be gone and when you are coming back and whether you want them to hold on to all your mail until you appear before them or want them simply to hold on to it until the day you come back and then they’ll put it all in your mail box. That latter option requires you, of course, to absolutely know when you are coming back and to be there within two days of it. Or else your mail will have been sitting around in your mailbox getting stale or cold or just too old to be of interest. And do they throw it away? Or what? I fill out the forms, so I have not found out the consequences of not doing so.

I suppose there are reasons for this that make some sense in some other places where the USPO operates. Perhaps people steal the mail out of street mailboxes. It seems unlikely that anybody is stealing the mail out of your post office box, though, and they make you fill out a form for that for every absence, as well. You can fill out the form for the street mailbox on the net, but you can’t fill out the form for the post office box. I doubt if there actually is any reason for that.

But the upshot of all this, is that we often don’t get a copy of the All Point Bulletin, because it is somehow put into the street mail boxes, but not if you have a hold on your mail at the time it comes out. And we usually do. In such a situation, you can generally pick up a copy of the newspaper at the post office itself or at the International Market, but this month, on the 2nd of June, there were copies of the paper neither place. And so I was obliged to wait for almost a week to discover a newspaper and find out whazzup. (In truth, I read some, but not all, of it on the web.)

We’re on a roll, it turns out. The County has decided to leave the remnants of the APA Cannery, including its pilings, down at Lily Point. And the never-ending saga of the Fire Department has taken another turn wherein the new Fire Chief, appointed only one month ago, wrote a very critical assessment of the P.R. Volunteer Fire Dept., and the Fire Commissioners sacked him (not clear whether it was temporary or permanent, but Episode 2,437 will be playing next month, stay tuned). The County Library wants more tax because the County Library has had its budget cut (yes!yes!yes! to public libraries!). And the Taxpayers Association and the Voters Association are going to try a merger. They used to be just one organization (the P.R. Community Association) back in the 1970’s. So we’re back to square one there, I think. The County isn’t going to operate the dock at Lighthouse Park, so I don’t know how anybody is going to get their boat in the water (and the boatowners are not happy). And the Chamber of Commerce wants help with the July 4th Parade, but unless they promise fireworks (I’m sure they’re an environmental hazard, but I have a sentimental fondness for them if handled safely), I’ll probably just watch the parade.

And, with all these matters in play over the summer, perhaps we can slowly forget about the trash situation.

The Multi-Purpose Future

The saving of Lily Point from development has been a big source of good feelings here in Pt. Roberts over the last year. Well, maybe the would-be developers weren’t so happy, but they have plenty of other things to be unhappy about and the idea that their ostensibly developable property is bounded by a park can’t be a bad thing. Well, not exactly a park, more a marine reserve. And therein lies a tale, I’m afraid.

Last week, the P.R. Historical Society announced a meeting to have a discussion between and among various interested parties, including the Historical Society, the Nature Conservancy, the County Parks people, and P.R. residents as to the plan to remove the pilings, metal debris, and other sources of shoreline evidence of the historical APA Cannery from Lily Point. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend, but here's how Meg Olson described some of the commentary from the recent first anniversary celebration of the County’s acquisition of the land in the All Point Bulletin:

“Some relics of the Alaska Packers Association remain, from lilac trees planted around the long-gone manager’s house, to the old water tank and remaining pilings. Bean said less obvious relics told the story of a more ancient and long-lived tribal fishery that thrived at Lily Point for generations before being displaced by the cannery and the fish traps.

“The cannery came in 1917 and they chose this location because they could see the native peoples were making quite a haul here. Sadly they disrupted how things had been for a very long time,” Bean said.”

Here’s what the Nature Conservancy’s Spring issue of Washington Wildlands said about the same topic: ‘The Conservancy plans to work with the Whatcom County parks department and other partners to restore the site, including removal of pilings, slag, and debris from the tidelands so they’ll no longer impede the sediment from reaching the beaches of Lily Point and western Boundary Bay. Ultimately, Whatcom County Parks will manage the site for recreation and conservation.’’

What we’ve got here, I suspect, is several different ideas about what the Lily Point acquisition was/is about. For some, it was preserving forested land from development; for some it was providing additional recreation facilities; for some it was restoring an ecological system. For some, it included preserving important historical and cultural phenomena. I doubt very seriously that Governor Gregoire or Whatcom County cared at all about preventing development in Point Roberts, per se, or preserving historical markers of the APA Cannery. I suspect that County and State marine biologists are largely motivated by the idea that they will now be able to “restore” the ecology of some tiny part of Puget Sound. I think this might require some careful working out of different and--one might hope—ultimately overlapping agendas.

Here are some pictures of the pilings remaining from the APA Cannery at Lily Point. It’s hard to imagine that the pilings themselves, none of them very large after almost a hundred years, constitute some major impediment to Puget Sound’s integrity, though. I guess that’s my opening position.

Under Attack

Well, if it’s not one thing, it’s another, as my grandmother used to say while listening to my brothers and sisters complain about one another.  Somebody was always being a victim, somebody else was always being an oppressor.  It’s a hard life, and getting harder.

In the great extramural world outside our front doors, we now have two lengthy wars, with Pakistan looking like it might join in more formally in order to produce a much bigger problem.  We have the beleaguered Republicans increasingly under the many thumbs of the inherently disorganized but oppressive Democrats (Arlen Specter can sit next to Ben Nelson when the food fight begins).  

We have the swine flu virus on the attack as well as under attack everywhere, with  Egyptians killing all their resident swine. (And what are the Egyptians, a Muslim country, doing with all those swine?  Making footballs for export?)  Surely the existence of hogs is not the immediate problem; they don't have the virus.  And eating pork is not the problem, or not a problem for swine flu, although a big problem for Muslims.

We have the Israelis insisting that the sensibilities of Jews and Muslims not be offended by referring to ‘swine flu.’  Instead they prefer irritating the sensibilities of Mexicans by referring to it as ‘Mexican flu.’  

I, myself, am at a red alert with respect to raccoons, deer, bear, and slugs in the garden and environs.  And now I am informed that the former “LilyPoint.org has now evolved into a new expanded organization called Lily Point Defenders.”  Just in time to join the 24/7 game of ‘Life As War.’  I’m not sure, however, who is the attacker that they are planning to defend against.  (Iraquis? Al Qaeda? Swine Flu? Democrats? Slugs, raccoons, etc.?)   I would have thought that, given the recent acquisition of two large parcels of land for a publically-owned marine reserve/park, the ‘defense’ mode would be behind us and we would be signing up for the ‘stewardship’ mantle.  But if it's not one thing, it's another.

Well, at least their first step is only to plan a conference  (June 20), which doesn’t sound as dangerous as what might be coming on our southern border.  (link maker isn't working again:  www.lilypd.org/1/Home.html)

Impenetrable Forest

THIS is the forest primeval. The murmuring firs and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic, Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.

Well, Longfellow actually wrote ‘the murmuring pines’ not ‘firs,’ but he was writing about eastern forests and out here in Point Roberts we don’t have pines much. But we do yet have impenetrable forests, forests primeval, that are likely to stay that way because they have been protected, at least in some cases. Today, we were celebrating the Lily Point Marine Reserve’s first anniversary as a protected park.

Last year, representatives from the Lummi Indian tribe, Governor Gregoire’s office, Whatcom County, the Nature Conservancy, and the Whatcom Land Trust all came out to congratulate one another (and the local residents, as well) on getting this Reserve to happen. This year, though, it was a smaller celebration, pretty much limited to Pt. Roberts’ folks and a rep or two from County Parks and the Whatcom Land Trust. About 70 or 80 of us locals got out there around 10 a.m. on a cold but sunny morning and listened to about ¾ of an hour of talk in advance of getting to go out on guided walks through the woods and the beach. I got so cold during all that talking that I began to think that next year they should hold the event at the Community Center where we could sit and be warm, and they could have a microphone and be heard, and then I guess we could have a slide show.

Anyway, they eventually sent us off on guided and unguided walks. Getting down to the beach involves a somewhat steep and narrow path which I'd never walked down before, but it was easy enough down (despite my uncertain knee) and hard going up because it was going up. As Ed said, ‘just work going up.’ Not recommended (at least for me) if there had been rain because that downhill path is just packed dirt and is likely to be slippery while wet.

We decided we were not feeling like being guided and instead went down to the area of the beach where the old APA cannery had done its business. The ruins of the piers are still there, and far more beautiful as rock holders (if less useful) now than they probably were when the boats tied up to them and unloaded their shiny, silver fish who were destined to be canned in tins with lead solder closures. And to then go out into the world to benefit those who didn’t have enough lead in their diet, I guess.

The woods above on the bluff were truly impenetrable, to my surprise. When I read that phrase last week in the book about the Icelanders, I couldn’t quite imagine what the author was describing. But up at the top of Lily Point, the flat paths are edged by woods that are thick and thicker with trees and bushes and lichen brabcges and other growing things as well as dead branches and other impenetrable objects. And while we were walking down a pathway through them, a bald eagle flew by, about 25 feet over my head. Very impressive.

When we left the house this morning, I was asking why I was going for a walk in the woods when I already live in the woods. It was good to ask the question because I had to see that the woods I live in and the Lily Point woods are really different places. And happy I am that Lilly Point will be able to preserve that difference over the years.

So even though they weren’t all there today, thanks again to the Governor and the County who used peoples’ taxes to buy this land, as well as to the Nature Conservancy and the Whatcom Land Trust who used peoples’ donations to buy this land, and to the Lummi Indians and the Icelandic settlers who preserved the land for so long. It’s a nice place. It has steep trails and flat trails and something for everyone, including naturalized daffodils and lilacs. But, we were advised during the talking parts, no camping, no unleashed dogs, no fires, no bikes, and no memorial benches. At least not now.

There are additional pictures of Lily Point taken during today's event, here.

Speaking of Living Things, ...

I ran into this today while looking for something else. Didn’t find the something else, but was happy to find this on this day, this week, in this world. Note the tattered condition of the ribbon. Wore this for a lot of years back in the 1960’s and 70’s. And it’s still a sound sentiment, well to be remembered.

And speaking of other living things, there is the very good news for this new year that the second parcel of Lily Point property has been obtained by the Nature Conservancy to add to our cherished Lily Point Reserve. According to the Bellingham Herald, this brings the total Lily Point Reserve acreage up to about 280 acres, all to be used for ‘conservation and public recreation.’ The Conservancy will eventually deed the land to Whatcom County and the County expects to get grants to cover the costs. This is a major achievement for Whatcom County, for Point Roberts and for the many people here who contributed time and money and spirit to get it to happen.

Awhile back, I fantasized that maybe some zillionaire could just buy all of Point Roberts and that would be the best way to keep this little gem from becoming what the area to the north of us has, understandably, become: i.e., formerly wild land now wallpapered with houses and postage stamp lawns. (And, very beautiful gardens, it must be acknowledged.) Suburbs are okay; they are what they are, but the Point is really something else and it is so worth keeping, but it is so hard to know how to keep it.

Maybe, instead of the zillionaire, we could persuade the Nature Conservancy to just buy it. E.g., each year they could purchase yet another 150 or so acres. At that rate, the whole place would be in the reserve in twenty years. I could talk to them. We have about an acre and it includes a lot of great trees, including one arbutus and one (volunteer) young Geary oak. Not only that, we have an eagle roosting tree and also, out in the back corner, quite a respectable area of wetlands. (Also, if I do say so myself, a very nice garden.) We ought to be preserved! Right now, living here is the best way to preserve it I guess. But I’m happy to think that this year’s 150 acres might lead to even more…more living things!

Will Stanton Settle In? Part II

I had expected that the tone of the P.R. Taxpayers Association meeting might be somewhat hostile, but it wasn’t. In part, that might have resulted from the fact that Stanton Northwest’s founder was at the meeting, ready to not create a bad impression for his company and its development. In fact, it turns out that he himself intends to move here and is, of course, already a property owner and taxpayer. He kept a low profile in the discussion and when he did speak, he was clear but not confrontational.

The Taxpayers’ current President--this meeting was his swan song—directed the discussion, responding to questions from the audience but making a concerted effort not to let things get out of hand. There was, e.g., no mention of the charge that Stanton had cut down trees with eagle nests. There was some discussion as to whether the kind of development that Stanton was proposing (and its founder obligingly brought a very nice, large, colored map of the proposed design) really fit in with the kind of community that Point Roberts has become—which I would describe as a simultaneously laid-back, crotchety, economically diverse, and individualistic place. Why a gated community within an exclave? Who/what were these future homeowners separating themselves from? And wasn’t it, really, an awfully big development for a place this small; and wasn’t it the case that similar—if smaller--developments here sit around year after year with unsold lots and houses?

There was some discussion of technical questions as to whether the design would make water runoff in the area more problematic because of the porous nature of the soil. Around the question of public access, the Stanton rep had no problems with the idea that people would be able to walk on the trails and streets of the development, as well as on the beach. I wanted to cheer when he spoke despairingly and disparagingly of signs on the beach ordering people to keep off. “Surely,’ he said, ‘the people here should be able to walk on the beach,’ and he promised that the public would be able to walk on the beach of his development. He also suggested that the term ‘gated community’ did not mean a walled-off community. There would be a gate at the entrance, and it would be closed at night, perhaps, but that would not keep people from walking into or on the open space sections of the property.

He also implied that he did not know about the 30% public access option that had previously been in the zoning but that he was not necessarily opposed to that idea. By and large, he was a reasonable voice. But when it came to the easternmost section of the development that the Taxpayers’ think should constitute the 30% public access, he was clear: that he could not and he would not do.

The Taxpayers’ President repeatedly moved back to the 30% public access zoning question, suggesting the possibility of legal action if necessary. But it was not clear to me that there was much to base a legal case on (although I’m not a lawyer nor providing legal advice). I would sum up the meeting as one in which there was a clear undercurrent of unhappiness about the development. Nevertheless, that undercurrent failed to find any focus. Those who opposed this development going forward were urged to write to County officials telling them of their concerns; those who supported it were also urged to convey their views.

Both sides seemed to believe that economic development of the Point is much needed. They disagreed as to whether the proposed development or expanding Lily Point Park would be most likely to provide the desired kind of economic development. No one offered the view that further economic development might not be the best way or indeed a way to keep the Point Roberts they want to live in. And in the face of the current financial collapse, it is very hard to imagine that any bank is going to be funding such an inauspicious development in such an unlikely locale. But that doesn’t mean that the county won’t issue permits: not their job to pick economic winners or losers.

At the end of the discussion, all questions asked if not answered, the Taxpayers Association elected six new members to its board of ten (plus one alternate). By my count, at least three of the six, are generally supporters of real estate/commercial development on the Point. Among these new board members is the founder of Stanton Northwest: the guy at the meeting . So now he will be able to negotiate with himself when the Taxpayers take on Stanton Northwest. I guess Stanton is settling in, for the moment, but come spring, we’ll be looking to see what happens. Honk!

Will Stanton Settle In? Part I

Today, in a brief outside time, I hear the snow geese flying overhead. They come in from somewhere farther north and settle in for a comfy winter in the northwest. Flocks of them have been flying overhead for several days. They call to one another, ‘Honk! Honk! What’s it look like down there? Should we stay there?’ And eventually they make a decision, stop honking and settle in to a temporarily unused agricultural field.

Today was the Point Roberts Taxpayers Association Annual Meeting. The group has a Board that meets more regularly but the membership seems to show up only once a year. Today’s meeting was to inform the troops about the status of Stanton Northwest Properties plan to create the fabulous gated community of 100+ homes, each costing $1 million, next door to the Lily Point Park. Or maybe it was to incite the troops. Or maybe it was to confuse the troops since at the end of the meeting there was a peculiar coda about the urgency of global warming, which I’m pretty sure Stanton has nothing to do with.

Anyway, the current unhappiness of the Taxpayers is that the County government which, some 8-10 years ago wanted a new zoning plan that required endless meetings here in Point Roberts, somewhere along the way changed that zoning plan, after it had been formally accepted by the County Council, without notifying the people on the Point.

Here’s the history as I heard it today:
1. Originally, the zoning permitted only one house per five acres in areas of the Point that weren’t developed (i.e., large parcels).
2. The new zoning plan (which might have been called ‘The Character Plan'--I'm not sure about the name) that local people worked on and the county accepted created something called ‘Transitional Zones’ for areas involving five or more acres. In such areas, a developer could have one house per acre (instead of one house per 5 acres) if he clustered the houses and left 50% of the parcel as open space. A second option was also included: a developer could have one house per acre if he clustered the houses AND provided 30% of the parcel as open space, including community access and trails, as well as beach access if beach was accessible
3. Sometime after the acceptance of zoning plan #2, the County eliminated the choice involving the 30% open access. That is, the option that required public access to beaches, trails, whatever, was eliminated entirely. Only the clustered houses +50% open-space option remains. Strangely (?), the county does not seem to know how this change occurred.

The Stanton Northwest development is designed to meet the 50% open-space requirement. The Taxpayers wants it to meet the 30% requirements with public access, and are making vague noises about demanding #1 as a fallback position if they can’t have the 30%+ public access. Stanton has not yet received permits for this development and owns only one of the two parcels of land that it needs for this development. According to a Stanton principal at the meeting , the piece the company owns (about 30%) involves the company’s current investment ($4 million, involving bank loans). The company is said to have an option to buy the second, larger property. The 30% that the Taxpayers’ want set aside is the property that Stanton has already purchased. This parcel is next to the already completed Lily Point Park and that is why that is the part that the Taxpayers want devoted to community use. The Stanton group: not only not so much, but not at all.

That is the nature of the dispute. In tomorrow’s post, I’ll try to summarize the discussion at today’s 2.5 hour meeting. Honk!

Protecting the Land

According to the Lily Point website, Stanton Northwest has done some initial work on the property that abuts the Lily Point Reserve/Park in Point Roberts, including cutting down trees and brush. I suppose once you own property, you can pretty much do whatever pruning and trimming and mowing you want to do, even if it is, in fact, some kind of site preparation for a project for which you don’t yet have approval. Of course, if that site work includes taking down trees that are eagle nest habitat, that is a different matter. I can imagine that for lots of people, the idea that a developer would be restricted from developing land he/she owned because it would inconvenience local bald eagles is an outrage or at least news. But whether it’s an outrage or not, it’s a law.

Some years back, when we were building a smallish outbuilding on our property so that I could have some space in which to quilt, we went down to Bellingham to get permits for the building. I’d never been involved in that particular kind of citizen/government exchange and was both interested and puzzled by the nature of the process. I can certainly understand, after that several hour activity, why people get so angry about bureaucrats, but the thing that most surprised me was the eagle issue. We went through person after person getting okays for various aspects of the project (keep in mind that the permit was for a 24x12 ft. structure without water/plumbing) and, at the very end, we were interviewed by the eagle person. She looked up on a map and determined that we were within the area of an active eagle nest which, she said, could change everything. The tree with nest wasn’t on our property, and in any case we weren’t proposing to cut down any trees. But it turns out that if you are planning to build anything that is within the area of an active eagle nest, there are additional regulations, including specific times of the year in which you may not build. This all happened some years ago and I can’t recall the specific months (in the spring, though), but it surely surprised me to find that that was the last approval we needed. After all, if we’d actually had an eagle nest on the property, the rules would have been even more stringent. Since it would have been a deal breaker, I would have thought they’d check that issue out first.

Anyway, I have some minor experience with eagle rules and can well imagine that there are people not too impressed with the idea that eagles would take preference over their own plans. The people at lilypoint.org say they have evidence that trees with eagle nests have been cut down, which would definitely be a violation of the law. They have a new video on their site to accompany that claim. I don’t have any independent evidence, but trees come down all the time on the Point, and not always from natural causes.

I still have trouble believing that a company with a relatively small repertoire of finished work is going to be able to find financial backing for a Point Roberts project that involves as many as one hundred homes in the million dollar range in these times of difficult credit and a dead housing market. Indeed, if they had such funding, I’d want to know the name of the bank that’s providing it so I could be sure I didn’t have any investments/accounts in that bank. This development may not be realized. But it would indeed be sad if in that process of not happening, the terrain of the land were irreparably destroyed by a lot of clearing and deforesting.

Does the County know or care? I guess we’ll find out. On October 11 (10 a.m.), the P.R. Taxpayers Association will be holding a meeting at the Community Center about the Stanton Northwest development proposal and the County’s zoning views. Everyone welcome to attend, I’m told.

10/1/08, Follow-up: A friend points out that the bald eagle is no longer on the endangered species act (as of June, 2007). However, there are still many federal and state laws that deal with eagles and eagle habitat. The most recent (February '08) information on Washington law is here.

Storm Developing

Some years ago in Point Roberts, there were plans for a big golf course on the bluffs at the south eastern end of the peninsula. Several hundred acres were to be involved and I think there were also to be houses along the fairways. This was back before 9/11, I am pretty sure; back when we first came here. But the plan for this all fell apart for some reason. Later, a different 18-hole golf course was built up on the northwest side of the peninsula and, I suppose, everyone breathed a sigh of relief because surely we wouldn’t have two golf courses inflicted upon us. That completed golf course had its problems: it immediately adjoined the heron rookery, one of the largest on the West Coast. A lot of negotiation resulted in a special building schedule to keep the developers from irritating the herons during the nesting season. The developers followed the rules, but within two years of completion, the herons up and left anyway. Not actual partners to the negotiation, they were apparently irritated by some other part of the deal. So now we have the golf course but we don’t have the rookery. Unintended, if foreseeable, consequences.

The original golf course planned property, however, remains an issue. There are three pieces of it (roughly 100 acres each, I think): the first part is Lily Point, which is now a public park area. The second part appears to be the subject of negotiations for an additional park area, with big conservation groups actively involved. So things look good for maintaining those areas.

The third area, however, is more of a problem. There is now a plan before the county to create a gated community on that 100 acres: a private and gated “Beach Club,’ with about 100 residences, a ‘community center’ (in quotes because, of course, it wouldn’t be a center for the Point Roberts’ community, just for their community), and a swimming pool, and presumably an enormous amount of traffic increase down that narrow road that would bring those 100 families into town should they ever want to drop in to see how the other 95% lives. Emails have been flying about locally on this issue and clearly the air is growing thick with unhappiness.

Development rarely draws a lot of ‘Hurrahs!’ from local residents anywhere but, in the case of Point Roberts, everyone who lives here is a local resident with respect to any development that is planned. This development—unlike anything here on the Point--will, of course, be made possible by those recently discovered water connections (see July 30, 2008 post, below, ‘Mistake Were Made’). It’s not a done deal, of course. We are in a pretty bad time for selling a hundred high-end houses in a gated community inside another gated community and where access to the ROTUS is difficult at most times. It’s going to be a hard selling campaign: I mean it’s a Beach Club, but they’re high on the bluffs, way above the water: it’s more of an ‘Ocean View Club,’ at best. Nor will they be docking their boats at the bottom and thus never having to deal with the border for ingress and egress.

I don’t think it’s a project I’d be willing to invest in, but if nothing else, the past five or ten years have shown us that people are willing to sign bizarre pieces of paper if, thereby, they think they’re going to make money. The storm approaches.

Thanks to Whom?

Today was the celebratory day for the purchase of Lily Point, the southeastern 90+ acres of Point Roberts, which is now the joint responsibility of the Whatcom Land Trust, Whatcom County and Washington State. An exquisite piece of land and waterfront is now safe from development. One of the speakers at the ceremony pointed out that the Lummi Indians had taken care of this land for 10,000 years and now it was the responsibility of the people of Washington to take care of it for the next 10,000 years. (There is a little in-between time there that we're not talking about that ended in somebody selling the area for $3 million and change, and I guess we can stipulate that for that price the 'owner' took good care of the land along his way.)

I try not to be too much of a cynic, but it does occur to me that nobody offered the Lummi a very good price for that land while it was in their hands. It's certainly possible that their cultural values would have resisted the sale of land that provided at least a major part of their food supply, but I'm not so sure that Washington citizens for the next 10,000 years will be able to resist the offer of big money given the many other things that they may be needing or wanting money for (Clean water? Energy resources? Clean air?). Especially given the fact that Point Roberts is no big food supplier for anyone and likely to be less so as the fish and shellfish go away. But let us hope for the best, and just settle for good outcomes for a century or two.

The celebration was set for today because today was the lowest tide for some long period and it was indeed impressive to see the extent of sandy shore that was uncovered. All the bald eagles in attendance, looking for a little seafood of their own, were also impressed. Whatcom County Parks staff provided guided walks around the trails and on the shore; and a spectacularly good lunch was served to all the attendees, some 150 or so people. On the other hand, the weather was less than desirable, being in the late 50 degrees, with a very gray sky, and light wind: weather designed to make you feel quite cold while standing for an hour or so in the gorgeous outdoors to watch and more or less listen to the 'ceremony.' (More or less because there was no amplification and most of the speakers did not have enough personal volume to be heard clearly beyond the first few rows of people standing around them. I got the general drift of what they were saying, but often not the specifics.)

Actually, it was a pretty stunning example of the inability of people of my tribe to produce anything like a ceremony. Elders from the Lummi tribe did their part to pull it off, offering tribal costumes, drumming, singing, and a few stories each about their experience of Lily Point from their personal and tribal past. When they spoke or sang or drummed, it was clear that they were trying to make a connection with the audience. They spoke of how lucky they felt that this land in which their ancestors were buried was now safe for them, as well as for those of us who were later arrivals on Point Roberts. The Lummi elders were followed by the 'new caretakers,' who went through a fairly endless routine of thanking themselves for their good work. I appreciate their good work, but who is it that thinks that repeatedly thanking yourself and your colleagues for your and their good work constitutes a ceremony? Well, to some extent I know the answer to that at this moment.

But welcome to Lily Point Park! If I had a sparkler, I would wave it in the sky as a ceremonial gesture. Since I don’t, here’s my imaginary sparkler saying, ‘Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Stay 10,000 years.’ (And thanks, too.)

Park Right Here

N.B. Yesterday’s post noted that the Lily Point purchase had been completed by the Whatcom Land Trust. It should also be noted that private fund raising continues for this purchase. This is because the Land Trust was coming up against a deadline and used about $250,000 from its reserves to complete the purchase. However, the Trust needs to recoup this funding. And that is why private fund raising continues, including an event this weekend, April 26, at the Point (open to the public: meet at the cemetery at 10 a.m.). So it’s not only not too late to contribute to the future of the Point, but it is close to a real duty, in my view.

Lily Point is the new park, right at the southeast corner of Point Roberts. For unknown but aesthetically pleasing reasons, there is a park at each corner. At the northeast corner is Maple Beach, which has no maple. At the southwest corner is Lighthouse Park which has no lighthouse. And at the northwest corner, high up above the ocean, is Monument Park, which doesn’t have much park but does have a monument.

The monument was built, I am told, in 1861, while the U.S. was engaged in its very own civil war, so it was nice of them to take the time, to make the effort. I assume it was a follow-up to President Buchanan’s decision to hang on to Point Roberts as a military asset when the border was set at the 49th parallel (instead of the much more memorable ‘54-40 or fight’ that I learned in elementary school; apparently, no fight happened and the bottom half of Vancouver Island went away, too). It’s twenty feet high and undistinguished, but perhaps in 1861 it looked better. Perhaps in 1861, not much of anyone was looking. It is the first monument placed by the International Boundary Commission which is responsible for keeping clear a 6-meter space on each side of the U.S.-Canadian border.

The International Boundary Commission has managed to make news in recent years now that we have an administration unimpressed by International anythings. The Commission has a U.S. and a Canadian commissioner, each of whom is appointed by the appropriate country. However, it is not a Commission that is ‘owned’ by either country: it is an international commission. A few years ago, in connection with a suit about property on the border owned by an American, the Commissioners argued that the property owner could not build a fence right up to the border, because the 6-meter space is supposed to be kept clear and has always been kept clear.

The Bush Administration, displeased with this reasoning, then fired the American Commissioner and appointed someone else to replace him. The American Commissioner whom the administration was trying to replace pointed out that the treaty that created the International Boundary Commission permitted the two countries to appoint one Commissioner each or to fill a vacancy should it occur, but it did not permit either country to fire a commissioner once appointed. The administration appointed someone else anyway, the Canadian Commissioner said he didn’t have a dog in this fight, and the previous U.S. Commissioner maintains he is still the Commissioner. You can hear this whole story on This American Life, whose archives are located here. The relevant program is March 28, 2008, and is titled ‘The Audacity of Government.’

Point Roberts itself may be some kind of monument to the audacity of government, of course.

Here's to the Future!

As I’ve pointed out, I’m a relatively recent (1995) arrival to Point Roberts. I’d like to see my life out here, but that’s not always something one can be entirely in control of as one gets to the end of a long road. So maybe I will, but maybe I won’t. I can’t imagine that my kids will ever come to live here. They have lives that began in other places and will end in other places, I’m pretty sure. My grandchildren will never come to make their homes here on the Point, either. They all visit, now and then, of course, but the Point experience is essentially one that Ed and I have chosen to have for ourselves, and it will end, for our families, with us.

There are a lot of people here with a similar story. And that’s one reason that people may be hesitant to plan for the distant future of Point Roberts, unwilling even to imagine that future. It isn't a future that they will ever be in themselves, of course, but it isn’t even a future in which their descendants will participate. It’s a future for strangers. For example, we’ve put a lot of effort into re-creating our house and yard and even as that work goes on, I know that the person, the stranger, who comes to live here after we’re gone may not even bother to leave our work standing, let alone love it, admire it, and remember us as we created it. On the other hand, we have tried to keep some parts of the house that were the work of our predecessors, the Brennie’s, identified and recognized. It is the Brennie’s very ordinary chest of drawers that I refinished and painted all over with flowers that sits in our bedroom and I think of it as theirs, not mine, even though I have contributed to its new appearance.

Anyway, connecting ‘what came before’ with the ‘me-filled right now’ with the amorphous ‘what is to come’ is no small task. And I am even thinking about it at all today because I received this morning an announcement via email that the purchase of the main Lily Point parcel of land has been completed by the Whatcom Land Trust.

“The Associated Press. Bellingham, Wash. -- Whatcom County is getting a 90-acre shoreline preserve that was once slated for development. Whatcom Land Trust officials said Friday that Lily Point has been purchased from Welsh Developments Inc. for $3.5 million. The scenic area was appraised at more than $4.3 million. It's at the southeast corner of Point Roberts between Boundary Bay and the Straits of Georgia.
Half of the funds were provided in a grant from the state Fish and Wildlife Department's new estuary and salmon restoration program. Land Trust President Chris Moench says Lily Point may be the most culturally and ecologically rich undeveloped private shoreline in the greater Puget Sound area. It's being deeded to the county for use as a marine reserve and public park, with the trust retaining a conservation easement.”

Now, the Whatcom Land Trust is in the business of conservation for the future, so I am not going to congratulate them particularly for their thoughtfulness, although certainly for their good work in getting the total package together. But I do want to congratulate all the people on the Point who helped to make this happen: first, Michael Rosser and the Taxpayers’ Association for initiating the effort to raise money on the Point, The Point Roberts Conservation Society for keeping the ball rolling, and Samantha Scholefield for working on a last-minute effort to gather some additional funds. Second, and even more, all the people--Americans, Canadians, anonymous donors, named donors, big donors, little donors--who contributed money for a future reality that they will pretty much never know. We can appreciate Lily Point’s new situation today, of course, but its meaning to the community will be fully known only far away in a future, by definition, beyond us.

I hope the future remembers that we did it for them. But if it doesn’t, that’s okay too. It’s pretty much something we forget to do, too: to remember, to think about, and to thank all the people who came before us for thinking about what we might need in that future that they wouldn’t be in, and for providing it. We were their future. Thanks to them and, today, thanks to us, too.