Citizens will support growth if past mistakes are avoided

"Pugetopolis," the young teacher said. "One continuous mass of businesses, industry and homes from Olympia to Bellingham."

They laughed at him, this group of high-school sophomores who in 1972 would become Mariner High School’s first graduating class. How could their teacher say that this area would look like the East Coast of the United States in a few short years?

I wonder who is laughing now. Certainly not me — I would rather that I had been wrong.

My words really came back to haunt me as I read in The Herald that the "alternate site" for Snohomish County’s NASCAR dream was two blocks from my lifelong home. Ouch!

The "preferred site," still close enough to make race days an auditory nightmare, will further reinforce my commitment to stay away from the formerly bucolic setting of Smokey Point between the hours of noon and 6 p.m. Gridlock rules there now, so what does the future hold?

This whole situation begs a few relevant questions — to wit, why do our leaders plan major projects without first assuring sufficient road access? When Marysville added a group of large stores and a cinema complex to the north end, why didn’t they eliminate the bottleneck at what old-timers referred to as "the fill," a narrow road that bridged the ravine carrying Quil Ceda Creek, and which still impedes egress from the area?

Why did the county allow the massive home building from Sunnyside to Arlington to proceed without assuring decent road access? Try 4th Street, 88th Street or 172nd Street accesses to I-5 before the work day starts or after it ends to get a feel for just part of the problem.

Why are some roads shut down with little if any public warning, such as 156th Street near Lakewood? Wow, less access in that area. There’s an idea! And now that blocked street will sit right in the middle of NASCAR choice No. 2.

How did the county approve the development of an artificial lake just off 140th Street right in the middle of a stream that feeds the Quil Ceda Creek system? I might add these homeowners should be right at the end of the far turn of the NASCAR track if choice No. 2 flies.

Local residents can be fined for trying to dig out this creek when it becomes silt-filled and floods their property, but a lake can be excavated, surrounded by homes and inundated with God knows how many pollutants into the area’s premier salmon spawning creek? Who makes these decisions?

And why? Perhaps that’s the quintessential question.

Cynics and skeptics usually identify the almighty dollar as the culprit, and there is strong evidence that there is a lot of truth to that supposition. Take the NASCAR issue, for example. We have a county with financial problems, schools looking at painful cuts to staff and programs, and cities, such as Everett, considering reductions which, based on recent news stories, will be injurious to many people. The area clearly needs an economic shot in the arm, and one need only to look to the concessions made to Boeing recently to see just how desperately we seek these injections.

Truly, citizens must avoid automatic NIMBY (not in my backyard) responses, because a clear financial need exists. We must, however, ask the tough questions. A recent letter to the editor voiced a query of my own. How can NASCAR site No. 2, which would eliminate prime agricultural land currently in use, be considered in the face of the recent rejection of the proposed land use at Island Crossing?

In order for our county and local leadership to have the support of the citizenry, they must show that questionable planning and inequities from the past are not repeated.

We’re talking about NASCAR being up and running by 2008. If this is truly in our future, then the timeline to ensure that a semblance of normalcy can be retained for local residents is very tight.

So if, indeed, it is "Pugetopolis" that we face, can we at least do so with a plan to maintain as much of the character and beauty of this area as possible, as well as allow us access to the elements that make this a special place to live? Or will we find, as spoken in the immortal words of the comic character Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us"?

Freelance writer Bruce W. Burns, a retired teacher and coach, lives in Marysville.