FREELAND – When Freeland was founded in 1900, its socialist settlers envisioned a utopia where “equality, justice and love” prevailed. They gave away 5-acre plots of land for $10 and debated the merits of Karl Marx, spiritualism and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
A century later, the small Whidbey Island community is poised for a rebirth its forefathers probably wouldn’t be keen on.
Socialism has given way to democracy. Espousing the benefits of planning grids, sewers and a city council, a group of Freelanders wants to incorporate the town.
Led by leaders of the Freeland Chamber of Commerce, the group hopes to get an incorporation vote on the November 2007 or February 2008 ballot. If they succeed and the measure passes, Freeland would be the first new city in Island County since 1915, when Oak Harbor incorporated.
Leaders of the movement say Freeland’s population has doubled to a little more than 3,000 since 2000. They fear their idyllic waterfront utopia is turning into a strip mall and say the best way to manage it is with local control.
“We need to do something,” said Mike Dolan, chamber secretary and chairman of the Vision 2025 Committee, which is backing the incorporation effort. “We can’t just allow things to drift along. Do we want to be a strip mall along 525? Because that’s already happening. … You get a community with a lot of unique features starting to look like Anywhere, USA.”
Freeland’s socialist ancestors are long dead, but there are plenty of modern-day “free thinkers” in Freeland who think the incorporation proposal stinks.
Vernon Burt has spent 59 years in his waterfront Freeland home. In that time, he’s seen his property taxes rise from $15 to $3,100 a year and watched Freeland transform from a ramshackle sawmill town to a congested, business-oriented community.
Burt, 93, misses the old days. He thinks there are better ways to manage growth than incorporation. Like many opponents of the proposal, he predicts tax hikes and hidden costs if Freeland becomes a city.
“Why do they want to make a city out of it?” he asked. “Somebody’s got a garden to hoe or something. People move here to the island to get away from cities – and all of the sudden they want to make a city out of it.”
Proponents of the measure, led by chamber President Chet Ross, filed a notice to incorporate with Island County in March. They’ve held hearings on the measure and estimate they’ve spent $10,000 and thousands of hours on the plan. They’re publishing newsletters and hosting Web sites.
In order to get the measure on the ballot, they need to gather 113 signatures and wait for the county to adopt Freeland into its urban growth area – a long-planned formality scheduled for October, said Mike Shelton, chairman of the board of Island County Commissioners.
Shelton said he’s keeping his views on incorporation private. He said he’s unsure how incorporation would affect Island County, which is currently home to three municipalities: Langley, Coupeville and Oak Harbor.
As for Freeland’s evolution from commune to city, Shelton said, “Based upon what little I’ve read about the initial settlers in Freeland, it’s probably not what they envisioned.”
At the Freeland Cafe bar, the weekday noon crowd had mixed feelings about the proposal.
“We don’t want to live in a city,” said retired Freelander Larry Bossert. “That’s why we moved here, to get away from the cities. If I wanted to live in a city, I’d live in Oak Harbor.”
Looking around at his buddies perched at the bar, he said, “Would you want to incorporate a bunch of idiots like this and make a city?”
Further down the bar, Ron Porter, who grew up on a Freeland farm, said he’s watched houses replace the trees that once fed the town’s economy. He thinks the growth should be controlled and views incorporation as a positive step.
“They need to do something with the water and the sewers anyway,” said the long-haired 52-year-old who makes a living doing odd jobs. “The way it’s growing, they might as well get some taxes from it.”
There aren’t reliable statistics on the impacts of incorporation on cities and counties, said Bob Meinig, a legal consultant for the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington. However, he’s noticed that counties generally lose money and residents of new cities don’t usually pay more taxes when their communities incorporate.
The last Washington community to attempt incorporation was Fairwood, which failed to become a city in 2006. Meinig said around half of incorporation votes fail.
Decades ago, Freeland lost a similar bid to incorporate. But Ross and his colleagues feel the time is ripe for change. Others in the community look back through history and say Freeland was never cut out to be a city.
Freeland was founded by disenchanted members of the Equality commune in Skagit County. They bought up lots of cheap, waterfront land and built homes and a store. They named the community “Freeland” to reflect their belief that the land was free for all.
Though they were cut off from the mainstream by a long boat ride, early Freelanders were tuned into the days’ intellectual and religious debates. Casual conversation drifted from the ideas of prominent socialists such as Marx to women’s rights leaders including Stanton.
A group of women pushing the motto “Do your own thinking” formed a society and funded construction of a wooden hall overlooking Holmes Harbor. Built by volunteers in 1915, the hall is still used to host weddings and special events.
If the town’s forefathers were around today, Ross expects they’d be a more than a little shocked by Freeland’s growth and its possible transformation to a city.
“They’d say the same thing anyone would say who grew up in the area,” said Ross, who wants to run for Freeland mayor. “They’d say, ‘What the hell’s going on?’ “
Last 10 cities and towns to incorporate in Washington:
2003: Spokane Valley
2001: Liberty Lake
1999: Sammamish
1998: Kenmore
1997: Covington
1997: Maple Valley
1996: Lakewood
1996: Edgewood
1995: University Place
1995: Shoreline
For more about Freeland and its incorporation effort, go to:
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
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