City seeks a balance between the farm and the future

By LISA STIFFLER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The heart of Burlington still beats -- though it can be difficult to detect over the pounding pulse of the outlet stores and shopping malls.

To find it, go past the generic sprawl of fast-food restaurants and discount shops, beyond the monstrous 14-screen movie theater and a new video rental store, to Fairhaven Avenue, where the stores are decades-old institutions that still harbor the city's soul.

In a numbingly common scenario, this city has continued the evolutionary progression from a pioneer-days logging town, to fertile farming paradise, to all-American small town, finally mutating into a shopping destination for urban shoppers looking for a good deal and plenty of parking.

Locals still remember when strawberries grew where the interstate bisects the valley, when Axelson's -- a main street cafe with swivel stools and a seafoam-green Hamilton milkshake machine -- was a Burlington household word, the default destination for coffee and conversation.

Now pavement covers farmland and Axelson's Cafe competes with espresso stands.

Natives are not without hope of preserving their community. They patiently practice CPR on their ailing small town, replacing street lights and funding facade improvements for Fairhaven storefronts.

But it might take bypass surgery and a pacemaker to save what remains of this small town, which has seen its population grow by more than 20 percent -- to 5,525 residents -- from 1990 to last year. And this doesn't include the 30,000 or more shoppers who visit daily.

Dick Irwin, director of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce, says the city is trying to develop "intelligently," maintaining its rural image.

It was once called the "hub city" because of Burlington's location halfway between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., and between the San Juans and the Cascades. Irwin and others favor a change to the "farm and garden city."

"People want to preserve the agricultural aspects of Skagit Valley," says Irwin. "We want growth, but let's not zone the farmlands (for development)."

The plan is to develop the hills surrounding the city for housing, preserving the fertile flatlands for farming.

Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland is a grass-roots group working to protect agriculture by encouraging farmers to sell development rights to the land trust, forever allocating it to agricultural uses.

Their bumper sticker commands: "Save Skagit farmland -- live on a hill or move in with your in-laws."

"We would hope Burlington would grow up and not out," says Bob Rose, director of the group.

But the commercial development that took hold in the late 1980s with the opening of Cascade Mall continues to spread within the city. More car dealerships line I-5, a 75-room hotel has opened, and 300 acres of commercial property await development.

"We're losing that hometown feeling," says Jim Clem, athletic director and baseball coach at Burlington-Edison High School, where he has taught for 21 years. "We've had a history of the school being the focal point of the community."

Athletics have been popular with students and supported by the community. But while the teams are still winning and games are well-attended, Clem has seen a decline in school participation over the last five years.

"Kids are finding other things to do than what the school offers," says Clem, adding that students who used to work on farms in the summer are now taking year-round jobs in retail and fast food.

"Kids don't get to be kids as long as they used to," he said.