By LARRY LANGE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The city has added 7,000 residents since the early 1980s, many of them transplants from Seattle and the Eastside who discovered they could buy homes for 20 percent less in Enumclaw than in more heavily populated Puget Sound cities.

How to balance Enumclaw's quality of life with increasing population pressure is the subject of continuing debate.

Some residents think the retail scene needs a boost. The city's J.C. Penney Co. outlet was one of many small-city stores the company closed in a recent downsizing move, and the Sears outlet burned to the ground a few months ago. Shoppers complain about a lack of a complete line of men's clothing, and drive to malls in Puyallup, Tacoma or even to a few small outlets along Route 410 in Bonney Lake to shop.

Longtimers say some new residents shop out of town based on previous habits and don't patronize local businesses, complicating Enumclaw's efforts to keep a strong business base.

"It's turning into a bedroom community, unfortunately," said Margaret Humberstone, a weaver who has lived here 40 years. Added Mayor George Rossman: "We need to turn that around."

Being a bedroom community can make for a nice, quiet community, but longtime residents and leaders worry that mere "bedroom" status will create a community of strangers whose time and energy is dominated by daily commutes to distant jobs.

The city has a three-pronged approach to boost itself.

The first is to end a two-year building moratorium brought on by a lack of water. The city contracted with Tacoma for enough water for 1,400 new connections, since Enumclaw straddles a Tacoma city water line. Having gotten that guarantee, Enumclaw officials are preparing to open up 500 of those connections, pending state approval of changes in the city sewage-treatment plant designed to accommodate the growth.

Mark Bauer, Enumclaw's public works director, says the city is proposing to allocate 65 percent of the new connections to single-family homes, possibly on existing lots; 24 percent to businesses; 9 percent to apartments; and 2 percent to public agencies. Hearings will be held, and the city expects to discuss the water allocations until early September, when officials hope to obtain state approval for the additions.

The additional water would serve most of the projected population increase of about 3,000 residents in the coming 14 years, Bauer said.

The second step is to rejuvenate Enumclaw as a shopping center and a desirable destination. Billing itself as the "Gateway to Mount Rainier" helps. Tourists come from all over the country for a glimpse of the mountain.

Making central Enumclaw more attractive may be a bigger job. Many of the historic brick downtown storefronts have been hidden by modern, lighter-colored facings. The city and the Enumclaw Area Chamber of Commerce have joined forces to develop a Main Street plan to restore the charming old facades and promote a four-square-block area as a retail center.

The chamber also has taken over sponsorship of the annual mid-July street fair. Green River Community College, which recently established a branch here, has begun offering computer and marketing courses to help local businesses streamline and better promote themselves. And Sears has broken ground for a new store.

The third step is the ongoing search for new businesses to provide living-wage jobs. Some city leaders hope those jobs will keep more residents working in the community and increase their commitment to it.

"When people simply sleep here, they lose ownership," said Sandy Meeve, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce.