April 2008

Our Neighborhoods: Maple Valley

By Carolyn McConnell

Lake Wilderness isn’t wilderness. Strip malls and cul-de-sacs are just a few blocks away. But the tree-ringed lake certainly is peaceful. Floating in a canoe or inner tube on the lake, with the wind faintly rippling the water and the occasional cry of a bald eagle or crow the loudest sounds, you could imagine you’re in the wilderness – and then, if you live in Maple Valley, stroll back to a comfortable suburban home.

Along with a reputation for good schools, it’s this idyll that has drawn so many families to Maple Valley in southeast King County. Just a decade after incorporating, the town has grown from 14,000 residents to more than 20,000, with build-out projected at 24,500. A third of the town’s population is under the age of 17.

Residents praise their schools and boast of high WASL scores in the Tahoma School District. With a single high school serving the town, football games are a community draw. The town supports both Little League and PONY baseball, as well as soccer and other club sports. Arts are in shorter supply, but the Maple Valley Creative Arts Council presents a yearly arts festival in conjunction with Maple Valley Days and supports the Maple Valley Youth Symphony and the AgainToday music education fund (named in honor of local girl Brandi Carlile). The community center has recently expanded to include a gathering place for teens called the Den.

Floating the Cedar River is a popular summer activity. The town also abounds in trails, including many around Lake Wilderness and the Cedar River Trail that runs all the way to Renton.

Sidewalks are another matter. Like much of the infrastructure, sidewalks are slowly catching up with the town’s rapid growth. While a few of the newer developments in town have them, most of the town’s streets are edged with gravel and ditches. Traffic lights are also in short supply, making the crossing between the well-used library and community center, for example, something of a hazard for children. (Word has it the town is planning to install a roundabout.)

The community’s relative affordability is also a draw. Family-sized homes are available for less than $300,000, with the median price at $417,500. A few homes with lake frontage have sold for more than a million. Lot sizes in older developments – in Maple Valley that means 15 to 20 years old – are about 1/3 of an acre to 1/2 an acre, while lots are smaller in the new projects. Nearly all the housing is single-family, although there are two apartment complexes, one senior living facility and a few new townhomes. The town is overwhelmingly white, with a smattering of Asians and African-Americans.

Families come to the town despite the lack of major employers nearby, so significant commutes are common, as are stay-at-home mothers. Tykee Connell and her husband Terry moved here when he received a job transfer from Texas four years ago. The town offered the combination of community and quiet that they wanted. “We definitely wanted a home that had not acreage, but a neighborhood, yet we wanted space and the rural feeling,” says Connell, a full-time mother. Living here is worth the hour each way her husband drives to work in downtown Seattle, she says.

The explosive growth has brought growing pains to the community. Traffic is a looming problem, as narrow Highway 169 is the only major route in and out of town. Jim Lynch, a former city council member and Maple Valley native, explains that it’s not only the number of people, but the type of people who live here that has changed.

“When I was growing up, it was all blue-collar workers,” he says. Now most residents are white-collar and upwardly mobile. Three-quarters of Maple Valley residents are college graduates and median household income is $76,956. Many of the people Lynch grew up with left, and some cashed in on rising land prices. Lynch, a developer of commercial real estate, understands the nostalgia for quieter times, but sees the changes as mostly good. “When I graduated from Tahoma High in ’72, we couldn’t pass a bond or levy. There weren’t enough books to go around.”

Maple Valley has tried to balance old and new. Unlike its neighbor Covington, Maple Valley has discouraged large retailers. While all the basics can be had, from grocery and hardware stores to coffee shops and athletic clubs, there are no big-box stores, although a Fred Meyer is due to arrive at the Four Corners area shortly. In some ways the town is a bastion of traditionalism, with its large numbers of stay-at-home moms and the prominence of churches in community life. There are no mega churches, but, along with a host of other denominations, there is a large Mormon temple in town. Yet the town’s mayor ever since incorporation has been a woman, and both the town attorney and police chief are women.

The major controversy in Maple Valley is what’s known as the Donut Hole, 160 acres of unincorporated land entirely surrounded by Maple Valley proper. The land is owned by King County, and currently houses the Elk Run Golf Course and a King County roads maintenance facility. The county now wants to sell the land to a developer and include affordable housing in any project. This has provoked resistance from town government and residents, who resent the town’s lack of say over the plans and worry about the impact of thousands of new residents on a town already feeling growing pains.

Too, the plans for apartments and affordable housing are at odds with the town’s favoring of single-family homes. At public meetings, residents have said the town lacks the support services, jobs and public transportation to serve a new population of low-income residents. Lynch, who has studied school population for a schools committee, notes that although under existing conditions the school system should be able to weather a coming bulge in the junior high and high school populations with a few temporary classrooms, an influx of new residents from the Donut Hole would create a major challenge for the schools. In the face of community opposition, King County Executive Ron Sims has backed away from negotiations with the YarrowBay Group and opened the process to open bidding.

The downturn in the real estate market may slow any development of the Donut Hole. After years of feverish building, the town has 16 months of unsold housing on the market. Several housing developers have recently halted projects before completion.

Whether it wants it or not, this young city may get a breather to absorb the effects of its rapid growth before it moves to the next stage.

Carolyn McConnell is a Seattle-area writer and mother of one. She blogs at rockthecradleblog.com.

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