Build Up, Not Out
Aerial Maps
The proposal would pave over the Cowlitz Trail
The developers have named their development "Salish Landing" because they are aware that it would destroy a remnant of the Cowlitz Trail, a historical tribal trading route, and they want to whitewash this. The Cowlitz Trail is potentially 9,000 years old. It later became a spur of the Oregon Trail. According to Dave Welch, Oregon Trail historian, there is no other known remnant of the Cowlitz Trail that remains unpaved, other than on the neighboring properties immediately to the south of the Bar Holdings parcel.
Overlay map showing Cowlitz Trail (yellow line) running through Bar Holdings. Map courtesy of David Welch.
The concept design shows a whole lotta pavement.
February 17, 2023, Olympian article, courtesy Mike Brewer, with added markups
Habitat Connectivity
The Bar Holdings parcel is a wildlife corridor that would connect the Olympic Mountains with the Cascades if wildlife crossings were built over I-5. Watch this video on habitat connectivity by WDFW.
Deschutes River
Wildlife corridor
The urban growth area is not bursting at the seams.
The 33-acre forested parcel that the developers want to built a mini-city on is here.
It was logged in 2011 and replanted. The trees are now over 40-feet tall. You can get a good view of it from Sheldon Road. The parcel is just south of 93rd, which serves as the Tumwater Urban Growth Area boundary.
Because Tumwater's UGA is not bursting at the seams in this area, the swap would violate the 2022 and 2024 swap laws. Those laws require there to be no more available land. But the developers admitted in their application that the UGA is "underdeveloped" in this area.
Google Earth Image (c) 2023 Airbus
The maps below show the Tumwater Urban Growth Area in beige
The swap out parcels are already not buildable
The parcels that are being proposed for swapping out of the UGA are next to Black Lake here.
Because the parcels to be swapped out are already not buildable, the swap would not provide them with any more protection. As such, the swap would result in a net increase in development capacity inside the urban growth area. This would violate the 2024 swap law.
The parcels are not buildable because they are steep slopes, floodways and wetlands, and BPA powerline easements. On the first map below, the red lines delineate the parcels to be swapped out. The blue indicates wetlands and FEMA flood zones and floodways. The second map is the same aerial without the overlay. The power lines are visible as the large swath of what looks like mowed grass.
