Ashford, Wash., a rural town of about 1,500 people
that is only a stone’s toss from the western gate of Mount Rainier
National Park, may soon have a big, new neighbor. Earlier this
month, Pierce County endorsed plans for a $70 million, 400-acre
resort that would more than double the number of housing units in
the valley and increase retail space almost tenfold. The size and
design of the facility have some locals and environmental groups
worried about damage to both the park and the character of the
valley.
“It’s way oversized for what’s there,”
says Kirk Kirkland of Tahoma Audubon
Society.
Under a scaled-back plan that dropped an
RV park, Park Junction Partners and the BCB Group from Portland,
Ore., want to build a conference center and resort, complete with
an 18-hole championship golf course and condominiums. Developer
Sylvia Cleaver says the resort’s ability to attract conferences
will draw people to Mount Rainier and the local area, particularly
during the off-season.
“Two million people come
to the park a year; 80 percent come during a three-month period,”
she says. “The park can handle another 500,000 people during the
other nine months. If anything, the resort will help the local
economy.”
That’s a fine goal, says local
bed-and-breakfast owner Jim Harnish. But he doesn’t think the
resort has the potential to draw many people during the winter and
spring, when rain and snow sock in the western Cascades. He
predicts the resort will attract more visitors during the already
busy summer months, overwhelming the park’s already taxed
facilities and siphoning people away from existing
businesses.
A hearings commissioner will listen
to public comment on the county’s approval of the conference
center. Tahoma Audubon doesn’t think the resort complies with state
environmental laws and plans to file an appeal. But if all goes
well for Park Junction Partners, construction could begin next
spring.
*Ali
Macalady
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Resort may crowd Mount Rainier.
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