GRANITE FALLS — One of the oldest summer camps in Snohomish County shouldn’t ever get bulldozed and developed under an agreement brokered by a conservation group.
Hidden Valley Camp, a summer camp near Granite Falls, will remain a natural, backwoods escape no matter who owns the property.
The owners of the camp sold the rights to develop the 62-acre camp to the nonprofit Cascade Land Conservancy.
Hidden Valley will continue to host summer camps for the foreseeable future, said Todd McKinlay, camp director.
“Our hope is the camp will continue,” he said.
Under the agreement, those rights to develop and build would eventually be transferred to an urban property. In theory, a developer would then buy the right to develop a high-density project in the city.
The program is supposed to preserve forests, farmland and open spaces and encourage in-fill in cities.
A similar program in Arlington stalled after no one wanted to buy the rights. Snohomish County officials bought 49 certificates for development for houses from a Stillaguamish Valley farmer for $2.1 million two years ago. In exchange, the farmer agreed not to develop his land. The county was supposed to act as a middleman, reselling the right to build on 337 acres east of Arlington. The county found no buyers.
Unlike that project, Cascade is bearing the risk of buying and holding the development rights.
A $3 million state grant paid for the purchase of the camp’s development rights and four other projects totalling 640 acres in Kittitas and Pierce counties. Hidden Valley Camp received $500,000 for its rights.
So far, the nonprofit hasn’t nailed down where those development rights will go.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com.
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