It's not just a wide spot in the road anymore

By JOHN IWASAKI
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

It happened nearly 30 years ago, but Darrell Lee still remembers the day the principal's voice crackled over the intercom, directing the red-faced student to the courtyard of Canyon Park Junior High School.

The summons had nothing to do with bad grades or rowdy behavior, but with runaway cows from the farm operated next door by Lee's family.

"They made me come get them," says Lee, now a school counselor. "You didn't herd them; you led them by calling. We had to say, 'Come, Boss! Come, Boss!' "

The bossy bovines are long gone, along with much of the farmland in Canyon Park. These days, the once-serene area with the grandiose name is synonymous with a high-tech business park, the intersection of major highways and heavy traffic.

Most Seattle-area people probably link Canyon Park to a spot where Interstate 405 crosses the Bothell-Everett Highway, owing to its frequent mention in radio traffic reports.

But even residents and workers in the South Snohomish County area disagree on the boundaries of the neighborhood.

"You can ask 10 people how big Canyon Park is and they'll tell you 10 different things," says Bill Wiselogle, community planning manager for the city of Bothell.

The city defines Canyon Park as the 6-square-mile area of Snohomish County that Bothell annexed in 1992. The annexation added 11,000 people and doubled the size of Bothell, with boundaries stretching to Filbert and Maltby roads to the north, Eighth Avenue to the west and as far as 35th Avenue to the east.

In places outside the business core, the area retains a sense of bucolic life -- two-lane roads, rolling hills, open spaces -- mixed with classic suburbia -- maturing, predominantly white neighborhoods with cul-de-sacs and high involvement in organized youth sports.

"There are large lots, nice neighborhoods, a great school district," says Judy Gratton, a real estate agent who has lived in Canyon Park since 1990. "Soccer is a big deal in this area, absolutely. It's a good family area."

The city's description of Canyon Park is far too expansive for other residents and workers, many of whom tightly define the area as the business park and surrounding shopping centers near the highway intersection.

"I never think of Canyon Park as a residential area at all," says Amy Maki, special assistant to the dean of the University of Washington's Bothell campus in Canyon Park. "I think it's odd to think of it as a neighborhood."

Residents in Thrasher's Corner at the north end of the annexation area typically see themselves as their own community and particularly object to being included within Canyon Park.

What's less debatable is that the area's popularity partly stems from its central location and access to highways, making it a 15- to 20-minute drive to Seattle, Everett or Bellevue in good traffic conditions.

Those conditions can be rare. An active population of soccer moms and dads, combined with commuters, make traffic "a nightmare" at peak times, says Russ Ulrich, a 13-year Canyon Park resident.

"Just going to the grocery is not a simple thing. You've got to deal with parking and lines," he says.

On an average weekday, nearly 153,000 vehicles pass by Canyon Park on I-405 and almost 39,000 travel on the Bothell-Everett Highway near Thrasher's Corner, according to the state Department of Transportation.

One beneficiary of the traffic flow is Country Village, a collection of 48 specialty shops spread over 10 acres on the Bothell-Everett Highway south of 228th Street.

The 17-year-old village has an old-fashioned charm, with ducks, chickens and peacocks wandering freely amid historic farmhouses and rustic-looking newer buildings.

"This used to be a rural area," says Country Village manager Leeann Tesorieri. "Not anymore."

The traffic on 228th Street eventually will improve when a road-widening project between I-405 and 39th Avenue is completed by 2000. But don't expect to see Canyon Park paved over to ease congestion.

"I hate to say this, but I don't think we're going to make that a whole lot better," says Bothell Mayor Debbie Treen, who remembers when the freeways used to grow silent after 11 p.m., back in Canyon Park's more tranquil days.

"None of us want to see that much concrete in our lives."