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The road less traveled

As Cascadia Corporation forges ahead on a new 5,000-acre ‘city’ in Pierce County, the project gains fans and foes alike

By Avani Nadkarni/of The Herald

On an unusually sunny late-February afternoon, a group of kindergartners were running around at recess, many wearing paper crowns to commemorate their 100th day of school.

Their giggles and screams were a stark contrast to their serene surroundings, acres and acres of empty home lots surrounded by 360 degrees of sky-scraping evergreen trees and a snow-capped Mount Rainier on the horizon, a mountain that was so close that it seemed to be suspended mid-air.

These children would normally be attending Victor Falls Elementary, just four miles down the road from where they are now attending Elementary Nine, Sumner School District’s newest school. They are housed here for the year as Victor Falls is remodeled and modernized. Most districts don’t have the luxury of relocating their students while a school is remodeled — usually the work has to be done around the students. But because of the delay of homes being built in Cascadia, a massive, 4,800-acre construction development on the outskirts of Bonney Lake that, when completed, will house 10,000 homes, several parks, a shopping complex, golf course and resort hotel, a winery and Elementary Nine, the district, which built the school specifically for Cascadia, can utilize the space.

“We certainly built (Elementary Nine) with the idea that Cascadia would be building homes and families would need a school nearby,” district Assistant Superintendent Craig Spencer said, adding that the cost of the school was part of a 1997 bond package. “But (since the development is delayed), we’re thrilled to be able to use it during construction.”

Although the delay is beneficial for the district, it’s potentially frustrating for Cascadia officials. The development, which is the largest planned “city” in the history of Washington, is the brainchild of Taiwanese immigrant Patrick Kuo, a self-described dreamer who often quotes poets Robert Frost and John Keats and architect Frank Lloyd Wright when explaining his Cascadia philosophy.

“(I) looked at the beautiful Cascade Mountain range and the beauty of the region,” Kuo said of his first impression of the area when he moved to Seattle from Taiwan to study law at the University of Washington more than two decades ago.

After graduating and practicing law for a few years, Kuo decided to put his heart and soul into a new development project, Cascadia.

“I wanted to look for a place that we could build an ideal community for this region, to incorporate art and science together ...to really exemplify what the Puget Sound region living experience can be,” he said. “Robert Frost wrote about taking the road less traveled ... that’s what I wanted to do.”

Cascadia Chief Operating Officer John Ladenburg, who is a former Pierce County Executive, takes a more logistical view on the self-sustaining community.

“Think of Cascadia as a big spaceship,” Ladenburg said. “Everything has to stay in, everything has to be recycled.”

The development, which Ladenburg refers to as “a city,” includes several man-made lakes, ponds and rivers on the property, which will collect rainwater and reuse it. The planned golf course will also use reclaimed water as well as non-artificial fertilizer and sand and gravel from the development’s own mines, located at the north end of the premises.

“Cascadia is designed to recycle all the water on-site,” Ladenburg explained.

Kuo has permanently set aside one-fourth of the nearly 5,000 acres for open space, including parks and 15 miles of walking trails, some paved and some unpaved. He has saved some of the best views of the mountains and sweeping valley not for the most expensive homes, but for the community parks. He feels strongly about making this not his project, but a community project.

“As people move in ... it’s going to define the character of the community going forward,” Kuo said.

Kuo is also a big advocate of letting the area’s natural wildlife, such as deer and elk, which Victor Falls teachers say they can see driving to and from Elementary Nine, remain on the property. Residents, Ladenburg said, will be taught how to live with such animals, in classes taught at the development’s discovery and educational center.

“We’ll have classes to teach people how to live with the animals, how to live a green lifestyle,” Ladenburg explained. “People are going to live with nature in a real sense in Cascadia and we’re going to work with people to teach them how to.”

It was that eco-friendly mindset that attracted Ladenburg to the project about a year ago.

“I did a lot of environmental work when I was the executive and I became aware of this project,” he explained. “I was fascinated. (Kuo) has that wonderful Asian philosophy that you do things right.”

Uninterested in building just a housing complex, Kuo is striving to make sure there are jobs available on-site. Besides the dozens of retail stores, like a possible Trader Joe’s, that Ladenburg said will be housed on the property, the completed Cascadia will have a commercial center. Ladenburg said project officials are in talks with an eco-friendly water bottle company that is interested in opening a plant on the premises.

“There will be 10,000 homes but there will be 10,000 jobs as well,” Ladenburg said.

Kuo is also adamant about having homes in all different price ranges. The homes nearer to the elementary school are in the $250,000 to $300,000 range while homes in other areas can be up to half a million dollars.

The first phase of three phases of the expansive project, which includes 3,200 homes, the discovery center, stores and much of the parks and trails, will cost $1 billion and take about seven more years until construction is complete, Ladenburg predicted. The project was originally on track to be finished by 2015, but a lagging real estate market is slowing the process down, he added.

The massive project is completely funded by Kuo and his investors, many from his home country. It was originally set to have a couple hundred model homes by last month, which is why the school district completed Elementary Nine last year. However, when the economy tanked, Ladenburg said three builders walked away from contracts totaling $50 million. Now, Ladenburg expects to have model homes in by this summer and, if they are sold, residents could move in by the end of the year.

Many builders have offered to build homes quickly on the property but Kuo, who has invested the better part of two decades on his vision, has declined.

“He said, ‘I’d rather lose it all,’” Ladenburg said of his boss.

Cascadia neighbors, like adjacent Hillside Tree Farm co-owner Bobbie Matt, is appreciative of that.

“If anybody’s going to develop the whole area, it’s better (this) way than piecemeal,” Matt said. “This way, they have parks and trails planned.”

Matt likes the idea of Cascadia. She expects that having up to 30,000 residents nearby will increase her business and she said that Kuo and his crew have been in constant contact with Hillside.

“They’ve been at it for many, many years,” she said. “They have meetings and they’ve been calling and letting us know what’s going on. They stop by.”

Not everyone is a big fan of the planned development. Sumner Mayor Dave Enslow is worried about traffic impacts to his city, just down the hill from the development.

“The impact of (Cascadia) is frightening to Sumner,” Enslow said. “There are thousands of houses going up there and all of them will generate traffic.”

His main concern, Enslow said, is the increase to the number of cars that will come through the Orting Highway into Sumner, a city that is already overflowing with outside through-traffic.

“According to state growth management laws, once you get to a state highway (like the Orting Highway), you don’t have to be responsible for your impact,” Enslow said. “They are going to put a lot of traffic down in the valley and my main complaint is ... congestion.”

Ladenburg doesn’t think traffic will be an issue. The main entrance, 198th Avenue East, will be converted to a four-lane road all the way to State Route 410, he said.

But, said Enslow, that doesn’t help the potential issues to Sumner. There are no plans to dedicate the already limited funds to road projects in Sumner to help combat the issue, said Carmen Palmer, the city’s communications director. Enslow said there isn’t much the city can do.

“I’m very skeptical about ... Cascadia,” he said. “I think the quality of life in Sumner is jeopardized.”

Officials in Bonney Lake, which, along with Orting, is the closest city to the county land that Cascadia is planned on, are also working to prepare for the project’s windfall. Bonney Lake Public Works Director Dan Grigsby said several mitigation projects have been planned, including adding an additional left turn lane for westbound traffic and a new traffic signal at the intersection of State Route 410 and the Sumner-Buckley Highway and adding sidewalks to the Sumner-Buckley Highway. A planned project that the city and Pierce County are teaming up on is to create a road on the as-yet-unpaved section of 198th Avenue East, which would create a direct route between Cascadia and Mountain View Middle and Bonney Lake High schools.

“The biggest development impact on the city is ... from additional traffic that would flow through our city,” Grigsby said, adding that the projected population of Cascadia, about 30,000, is double the size of Bonney Lake. “We’re working on that.”

Bonney Lake Mayor Neil Johnson said that Kuo and Cascadia officials have mitigated much of their impact, giving the city money for some of those projects. He said he speaks often to Kuo and thinks that as long as Cascadia lives up to the promise of offering thousands of new jobs, the development will be positive for the city.

“If it remains an employment-based community, it could have a positive effect for Bonney Lake,” Johnson said. “That’s what we’ve been banking on ... that’s the biggest key.”

Still, Johnson said, he understands Enslow’s concern for traffic. It’s a concern he shares as well.

“There will be a traffic flow and (we worry about) how will people live the plateau?” he said, adding that his greatest fear is creating a massive housing-only development like Sunrise Village on South Hill. “From that standpoint, (Cascadia officials) have done a good job with mitigation. I think the big question will be in 10, 15, 20 years, will the state and county follow through on (construction) that they are planning? All it takes is for (one) road not to happen and ... that could be gridlock.”

Regardless of whether the immense development project is welcomed or shunned in East Pierce County, Ladenburg is convinced the completion of such a project will alter the course of developments in the future.

“I’ve been in government long enough to know that when somebody does something like this, it changes the rules,” Ladenburg said.

As for Kuo, he said he’s being “cautiously optimistic” about the speedy completion of his brainchild. He has let his law practice be on the backburner as he’s now working full-time on this project. He’s even traveled throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, visiting some of the most highly-praised communities, garnering ideas and gaining friends.

“This is my life’s work,” he said.

Reach Reporter Avani Nadkarni at 253-841-2481 ext. 314 or by e-mail at avani.nadkarni@puyallupherald.com.