By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

New development threatens area's 'rural aesthetic' (continued)

Like most North Bend families, the Skolniks cherish their rural lifestyle, which includes stringing fences and spreading manure on their 80-acre farm outside town. They own about 25 horses and almost as many llamas, which they breed and sell locally.

But there is a difference, according to Art Skolnik, between living a rural life and North Bend's "rural aesthetic."

Like most North Bend families, the Skolniks cherish their rural lifestyle, which includes stringing fences and spreading manure. But there is a difference, according to Skolnik, between living a rural life and North Bend's "rural aesthetic."

The area's aesthetic is shaped by its open space preservation, picturesque old barns and livestock, he says. But the rural lifestyle is more tenuous as agricultural land is sold for its development potential.

"If you can't use your land in agriculture, it means your children don't see that as a future or a way of life. As that happens, we train our farmers and ranchers to see their land not as a treasure but a commodity that ultimately will be sold for development," Skolnik says.

The demand for new homes and jobs is pressing in on North Bend.

A few miles to the west is the planned community of Snoqualmie Ridge. The 1,340-acre development will feature a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus, up to 2,000 new homes and a retail core and office park that could generate 4,000 jobs -- four times as many as in all of North Bend.

It will be a year or so before the first residents settle into Snoqualmie Ridge, but the development's impact already is felt. The 12th and 13th fairways of the golf course are visible from Snoqualmie Falls, an area considered sacred by the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe.

Snoqualmie Ridge, which is a Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Co. project, agreed no homes would be visible from the falls, says David Brentlinger, the project's director of finance and marketing.

The golf course fairways are about one mile away from the falls and will be a "ribbon of greenery," he says.

The mixed-use development includes a 3.2-mile, four-lane road, which will form an extension of state Route 18 between I-90 and state Route 202 in Snoqualmie Falls. Homes will sell for between $250,000 and $370,000.

Homes of the same size are popping up in North Bend, which recently instituted a development moratorium to give planners time to craft new development regulations and study financing options for its out-of-compliance sewer system.

North Bend estimates it needs $4.8 million to upgrade its sewage treatment plant -- money it will have to find.

Attracting new employers may be difficult if not impossible until North Bend adds sewage capacity. With a population of more than 3,000, North Bend has only about 1,000 jobs. Its largest employers are the factory outlet mall, two supermarkets and Nintendo, the Japanese game maker some saw as the town's savior.

But Nintendo never moved its headquarters to North Bend, as some had hoped. Its hulking warehouse perched at the edge of town is highly automated, meaning it doesn't need a lot of workers.

"What we have is a good sales tax base, but the jobs pay only $7.50 an hour, and low-paying jobs can't support a family," Mayor Joan Simpson says.

Continued:

• As century comes to close, city searches for new niche
• Where wilderness and suburbia meet ... and clash
• Small-town feel continues to draw newcomers