Growth Threatens Religious Haven's Peace

SEABECK, Kitsap County - To tens of thousands of urban-weary residents from throughout the Northwest, the Seabeck Christian Conference Center has offered a haven of unparalleled sylvan tranquility.

So restful are the tall firs, mirror-smooth lagoon and 19th century mill-town cabins that people say coming here can provide a life-changing spiritual experience.

But signs of encroaching urbanization are popping up everywhere, from the increasing automobile traffic on Seabeck Highway to the appearance of more businesses in the small retail-marina center nearby.

"If you don't think civilization is coming to Seabeck, there is a damned espresso bar across the street!" thundered Larry Hill, the conference center's executive director.

The appearance of an espresso bar, though, pales in comparison with another concern the center is confronting this summer.

Earlier this year, 188 acres of forest adjacent to the center was sold and logged. For hikers emerging from the center's wooded trails to the clear-cut zone, it is somewhat like stepping onto the landscape of the moon, said Hill.

Worse, said Hill, he and others at Seabeck fear the land eventually will be developed for housing, removing any shred of the peace and solitude that have shaped Seabeck's character since its establishment in 1915.

There are even whispers that maybe the Seabeck conference center should start looking for a new site. But those thoughts are virtually blown away by cries of protest. "Seabeck is Seabeck," one camp attendee cried out last week.

Ted DePriest, president of Pacific Sound Resources Inc., said his company would not have sold the land except that it was under federal mandate to clean up a Superfund site at Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island that he said was polluted by former owners. Money from the sale of the Seabeck property will help pay for the Eagle Harbor cleanup, said DePriest, whose company makes poles, pilings and railroad ties.

Thomas Ord, whose Guava Trust of Pierce County purchased the property, said he is willing to sell some buffer land.

ASKING PRICE TOO HIGH

But Hill says the asking price is too high for Seabeck.

For now, Ord says he will replant the Guava Trust property. But he says he wouldn't be surprised to see the property developed someday. The Kitsap County Public Utility District is acquiring easements on his property for a future public water system that would serve the general area and have hookups for up to 75 homes on his land, he said.

On a larger level, the controversy over timber harvesting and potential development at Seabeck is a microcosm of the debate over growth in Kitsap County.

County officials are estimating Kitsap will grow by 91,000 residents over the next 30 years, a 46 percent increase over the county's present population of 200,000.

Ron Perkerewicz, director of Kitsap County's Department of Community Development, said a citizens' Rural Policy Roundtable is finishing nine months of work mapping out preservation and growth-management strategies for the county. One possibility, said Perkerewicz, is that the Seabeck area could be categorized as a rural resource.

While nothing has been finalized, Perkerewicz said a working rural landscape would retain 50 percent or more of the land for forest practices or farming. That means while some of the land could be developed, half or more would have to be used to farm or to harvest and grow trees.

Growth has already come to the Seabeck area. Dr. Eugene Hertzke, superintendent of the Central Kitsap School District, said the district recently opened a new elementary school, Green Mountain, to ease the student load at Seabeck Elementary, which has 507 students. The district also has bought land for a new senior- or junior-high school and another elementary school, said Hertzke.

With those forces at work in the background, summer-retreat goers are streaming into Seabeck with a mixture of happiness over seeing an old friend and anxiety over what may happen down the road.

For the Rev. Barbara Allen, who has been coming to Seabeck each year since 1985, crossing over the wood bridge leading into the 90-acre retreat center, with its view of Hood Canal and the Olympics, is like stepping back in time.

"It is a more gracious and caring world. You shed politics and wars. You have a chance to heal and regroup within yourself," said Allen, the minister of the Church of Universal Love based on Camano Island.

Anita Swarm, who was among 239 people at the Seabeck Family Camp last week, said she hiked to one of the clear-cut areas and was heartbroken. "It was pretty awful. It was so devastated," said Swarm, a Seattle resident. She has come regularly to Seabeck since 1958.

Hill, the center's executive director, said the land the center is on and the adjacent property originally were purchased by Laurence and George Colman as forest land and conference grounds. Laurence Colman was involved with the Seattle YMCA and in 1915 allowed the group to use the former mill town on the property as a conference center.

10,000 VISITORS A YEAR

In 1936, Laurence Colman's son Kenneth set up the Seabeck Corp. to run the conference center.

In the late 1940s, the land adjacent to Seabeck was purchased by the Wyckoff Co., which subsequently became Pacific Sound Resources Inc.

The Seabeck conference center today hosts approximately 10,000 visitors a year from a variety of nonprofit organizations, especially religious groups of all faiths.

It is not unusual to find generations of families returning to Seabeck each summer.

Sherry Baran of Ketchikan, Alaska, was at the Seabeck Family Camp with her sister, Bonnie Rushmeier of northeast Tacoma, and their families. Their father is planning to come to the family camp's second session later this month. The family has been coming to Seabeck for 49 years.

Baran's daughter, Laila Qudsi of Seattle, has hiked all over the area in the past, but was having difficulty bringing herself to see the fresh clear-cuts.

"I am still in the mourning stage for the loss of trees in the Northwest," said Qudsi.

DePriest, the head of Pacific Sound Resources, the new name of the Wyckoff Co., said his company had always tried to be good neighbors with the center. The company only selectively logged and never made an issue of people hiking on its property.

"In effect, Seabeck Christian Conference Center was safe as long as we owned the land, in the sense that we would only do sustained-yield (selective) logging," said DePriest.

But in early 1991 a potential buyer of the land approached the company, said DePriest. That deal fell through, but word began circulating that the acreage might be sold. Seabeck made an offer that DePriest considered too low and dependent on grants, contributions and other sources. Hill said Seabeck offered $641,000 for 142 of the 188 acres.

Guava Trust made the successful bid of $1.3 million for all the property owned by the former Wyckoff Co. and a parcel owned by Walter Wyckoff's children.

"I felt because of our environmental obligations at Eagle Harbor that we couldn't forgo that much profit. I felt it would have been irresponsible," said DePriest.

The sale to Guava Trust closed in March. Guava Trust sold the trees on the land to another company and logging began in April.

"It's certainly not pleasant to have people upset," said Ord, who said he is still willing to discuss the sale of buffer land to the center.

Tim Wolff, sales associate for Coldwell Banker Park Shore who is handling the sale of buffer land for Ord, said the cost to the Central Kitsap School District, which is interested in four acres, and to the center would average around $11,500 an acre, below what he considers market value.