Some residents of greater Brush Prairie say the neighborhood’s new WinCo Foods store is one more example of urban sprawl in the area.
“It’s another sign of encroachment on the rural character of Brush Prairie. We don’t need another supermarket,” said Mark Gawecki, his voice on the sorrow side of anger.
Others, like Wendy Baumgartner, have high praise for the nearby convenience of the warehouse-style store and its bag-your-own groceries.
“WinCo has an amazing selection, and some of the best prices around,” she said.
When her baby arrives this year, Baumgartner said she can buy cheaper diapers and wipes at WinCo. The Boise, Idaho-based company opened the store on March 1 at the corner of Northeast 119th Street and 117th Avenue (also state Highway 503).
The development received mixed reviews this month from a sampling of the approximately 6,623 residents who live in the Greater Brush Prairie neighborhood.
Covering an expansive area north of Vancouver and south of Battle Ground, the neighborhood is seen as Clark County’s next outlet for growth as the local economy recovers. Development plans for at least 1,000 single-family homes are on the drawing board around the community’s largest public school, Prairie High School.
Other high-density housing subdivisions and apartments have begun to break ground throughout the community, which stretches roughly from Northeast 99th Street north to Northeast 199th, and from Northeast 72nd Avenue east to 172nd Avenue.
WinCo Foods was attracted by Brush Prairie’s growth potential and its state Highway 503 connection, according to Michael Read, a company spokesman.
The company’s new store is the first phase of a planned 10-building complex called Bowyer’s Marketplace, planned by Vancouver-based Killian Pacific. The name came from the former owners of the 18-acre tract, long a wooded golf course called Bowyer’s Par 3.
“The first thing the developer did was cut down all the trees,” Gawecki said.
A retired chemist, Gawecki and his wife, Susan, moved to Clark County from Michigan eight years ago to live out their golden years. The couple chose a home in The Cedars subdivision where houses on large lots are near another forested golf course on the banks of Salmon Creek.
Gawecki said he has grown accustomed to the sight of deer wandering onto his 1-acre property to nibble at grass and foliage.
He misses seeing the trees at the WinCo Foods site, and so does Scott Beckstrom, a Brush Prairie resident since 1984.
“I’m OK with the new WinCo going in. I guess it’s progress. The only thing I don’t understand is why they couldn’t leave some of the big trees that were on the site. It would have made it so much more appealing,” Beckstrom said.
He and many other Highway 503 commuters were front-seat observers to the site clearing, which took place in 2007 to make way for the shopping complex.
Killian Pacific chose not to profit from the site clearing, opting instead to dispose of the trees in an environmentally responsible manner, said Philip Bretsch, a development associate with the company.
Killian donated the removed trees to the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group. The trees with intact root balls were replanted for local stream bank improvement, while the cut trees were used to augment fish spawning grounds, Bretsch said.
“Typically, you can make quite a decent profit from clearing a site of that size,” he said.
But some witnesses still have not forgotten the image of workers logging the golf course, said Robyn Kim, vice president and founder of the Greater Brush Prairie Neighborhood Association.
Dealing with change
“People around here don’t seem to have a great appreciation for change,” Kim said. “They (residents) moved here because it’s quiet.”
Kim and her husband, Sam, have lived for 20 years in their Brush Prairie home, raising two sons who recently graduated from Prairie High School.
“It was a wonderful place to raise our twin boys,” Robyn Kim said.
That’s why she and other neighbors nine years ago launched an $80,000 legal battle to stop plans for an asphalt plant development in the heart of Brush Prairie.
The group dropped its efforts in mid-2008, after the plant’s developer, Issaquah-based Lakeside Industries, won an appeal to move forward.
“Now we realize that when there is vacant land next to you, unless you own it, you don’t have any say in what happens,” said Robyn Kim. The proposed plant, at 12500 N.E. Caples Road, would be located across the street from her home.
But for now, plans for the asphalt plant are on hold, at least until the regional and local economic picture improves, said Karen Garnes, environmental director for Lakeside Industries.
“We do have a permit for constructing the facility, but there are currently no plans in the immediate future. It would be driven by market conditions,” she said.
Brush Prairie resident Tony Morrell was among the neighbors who staunchly opposed the plant. He said he would much rather see a new grocery store than an asphalt plant.
He and his wife, Margery, have lived in their Brush Prairie home for 35 years.
“We fought it every step of the way,” Morrell said.
“I think it’s an insult to put a heavy industrial use like an asphalt plant in the middle of a neighborhood,” Morrell said. “But a grocery store is very compatible with the neighborhood. It’s an asset.”
Cami Joner: 360-735-4532 or cami.joner@columbian.com.
