4,500 Acres Sold To Developer -- Bonney Lake Tract Could House 50, 000

BONNEY LAKE - Pierce County has strengthened its growing reputation as the new hot spot for development in Puget Sound with Weyerhaeuser's sale of 4,500 acres to a group of Taiwanese investors.

County officials welcomed the prospect of a planned community that, by one estimate, could bring as many as 50,000 new residents to the fast-growing area south of Bonney Lake.

Cascadia Development Corp., which bought the commercial timberlands south of Bonney Lake, has not made any specific development plans, said Cascadia attorney Dick Sprague. He said the company will work closely with officials of Pierce County and Bonney Lake in developing plans for the site.

Sprague said the transaction may be the largest sale of land to a developer in state history. The price of the sale was not disclosed.

The sale was announced Monday, less than a week after the news that Boeing may build an 11,000-employee plant in nearby Frederickson.

Pierce County Councilwoman Barbara Skinner, who represents the area sold by Weyerhaeuser, said it is easier for the county to require "good development" of a large parcel than of many smaller parcels. "I think 4,500 acres will really give them an opportunity to shine," she said.

Debby Hyde, the county's planning and land-services director, also rolled out the welcome mat to a planned community in an area zoned for up to four homes an acre. "We joke about becoming the Nordstrom's of the public sector," she said, saying her department's slogan is "creating yes" for developers and growth-control advocates alike.

Some observers were dismayed by news of the Weyerhaeuser sale, however, saying it frustrates efforts to preserve commercial timberlands in the face of urban sprawl and a declining timber supply.

"This is symptomatic of what's happening in the state. This is exactly what we tried to halt through the timberland acquisition program," said Sandi Snell, spokeswoman for Brian Boyle, state public-lands commissioner. Boyle failed to win approval in the Legislature this year for state purchase of private timberlands threatened with development.

Marcy Golde, director of the Washington Environmental Council's Timber/Fish/Wildlife program, called the transaction "horrible news," and said it represented "an acceleration of the rate of converting timberlands to real estate."

Weyerhaeuser, the largest private landowner in Washington, is building planned communities on thousands of acres in King, Pierce and Thurston counties. The Bonney Lake parcel is the largest Weyerhaeuser property to be taken out of timber production in recent years and is the only one sold to an outside developer.

Dick Ryon, Weyerhaeuser's land-use supervisor, said the company remains committed to timber production in Pierce County and elsewhere. But with the high-density development taking place around its Bonney Lake tree farm, he said it was becoming "exponentially more difficult" to grow trees profitably.

Ryon said trespassers cut trees, run over them on recreational vehicles, fire guns and dump waste on the tree farm. Deciding to sell is "just facing reality," he said.

Most of Weyerhaeuser's remaining 86,000 acres of commercial forest land in Pierce County are in a zone where intensive development is not allowed.

Weyerhaeuser bought most of its Bonney Lake holdings during the early 1950s. The land was logged during the 1970s and 1980s, with logs sold for export overseas or sent to Weyerhaeuser's Enumclaw sawmill.

The property could have remained in forestry if Pierce County had not dropped a 1987 plan to buy the land and grow trees fertilized with sewage sludge. The plan was abandoned after neighbors objected to the use of sludge.

County Councilwoman Skinner said she believes residents prefer a 4,500-acre development to a tree farm employing sewage sludge. But she said roads will have to be improved if a planned community is to win wide support.

Cascadia Development Corp., whose stockholders are Taiwanese-based, was created by Seattle attorney Patrick Kuo to buy and develop the Bonney Lake property. Kuo also owns Kuo & Co., an international investment firm, and is a founding investor of the Commerce Bank of Washington, according to a release from Bellevue-based Cascadia. Kuo could not be reached for comment on his investment group.

The planned community will be built over a 10- to 20-year period, said Sprague. He said the company will meet with Bonney Lake and Pierce County officials to discuss how the property should be developed, how services will be provided, and whether it should be annexed to the city of Bonney Lake. Bonney Lake now has more than 7,000 residents and is the third-largest city in Pierce County.

While the developer has not publicly provided any future population figures, Dick Ferguson, spokesman for Pierce County Executive Joe Stortini, said "one figure that we've heard is up to 50,000 population."

Sprague said speculation about the development's population is understandable, but said the number will depend on tradeoffs that take place in negotiations with public officials.