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In case you missed them, here are some of the top stories of the weekend:
A chart drawn from Census Bureau data seems almost wordlessly to tell a story about Americans’ desire for ever-larger homes.
Year after year, from 1973 to 2013, the line showing the average size of a new home shot up, breaking its stride only briefly when the economy turned bad. By 2013, new homes had reached 2,646 square feet, growing more than 1,000 square feet over those four decades. Clark County has followed the trend, with the typical new home just under 2,400 square feet in 2013, though the growth curve is starting to flatten.
At a time when homes have become too expensive for many would-be first-time buyers, the trend of larger houses for fewer people doesn’t seem to make economic sense. But builders see the economics through a different prism: with high fixed costs for land, improvements and fees, it’s tough to build and sell an inexpensive house when something bigger and better more closely matches buyers’ expectations.
Even as our houses grew, our households shrank. Back in 1973, average U.S. household size was 3.01 residents. Forty years later, a household averaged 2.54 residents.
What are buyers of new homes doing with the extra space?
Some new neighbors will be moving to the quarry east of Southeast 192nd Avenue, and they won’t resemble Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
The Columbia Palisades project, centered around 192nd directly north of Highway 14, will feature a hotel, retail, office space, 50 homes and more than 300 apartment and condominium units over a dozen blocks, according to plans submitted to the city of Vancouver on Thursday.
At 84 acres, the development is bigger than the downtown Vancouver waterfront project and will change the face of Exit 10 on Highway 14.
“It will be a thriving, self-contained community before long,” said developer Ed Freeman with Columbia Palisades Corp. “Certainly it will have a great economic impact.”
RIDGEFIELD — It’s a typical early evening on the Griffith family farm. Brothers Silas, 17, and Samson, 15, shoot hoops in the driveway, while their sister, Mirlie, 18, watches. Standing nearby at a fence, Jennica, 12, deftly braids the mane of an Arabian horse. Their brother, Billy, 17, is still at track practice at Ridgefield High School.
The two older children, Abby, 22, and Abraham, 20, have flown the coop and now live in Vancouver.
Julia Griffith, the mother hen to the seven Griffith chicks, offers a bottle of milk to Major Bull, a calf who hungrily empties the bottle.
The health and fitness teacher at Laurin Middle School in Battle Ground school district doesn’t end her work day after the final bell. After school, she heads to Ridgefield High School, where she coaches track. Three of her own children are on the team.
Griffith, 54, was raised in a large family of five birth children plus five children adopted from Korea. She always wanted to adopt children. But she always thought she’d get married and have babies.
RIDGEFIELD — Police Chief Carrie Greene is excited to spend time with her horses.
“They’ve been more like yard ornaments lately,” said Greene, 57, whose second retirement starts today.
Greene first retired in 2004 after 25 years with the Washington State Patrol, most recently as the district commander for Southwest Washington. She came out of retirement to take over as chief of the Ridgefield Police Department in 2007.
“I was approached to consider it by a few people,” she said. “This is my community. We’ve lived in the area since ’93. Our son went through the school system. It was a nice opportunity to provide a service to my community.”
This time, Greene plans to stay retired, and she thinks she and her husband will be spending plenty of time at their place in Montana.
The majority of Vancouver City Council members say they aren’t happy about their dramatic pay hikes, and some councilors believe the independent commission that awarded them needs oversight.
Five of the seven city councilors have signed a citizens’ referendum petition to retract the controversial pay raises the city Salary Review Commission gave the council last month. The raises go into effect in January.
In addition, a couple of councilors say voters should consider amending the city charter to set checks and balances on the salary commission, which has complete authority over the mayor and council’s pay. The charter establishes the commission’s authority and duties, and any change to the charter requires voter approval.
