BAYVIEW RIDGE — Jeff Hieb’s two children ran around his and his wife’s Bayview Ridge home Wednesday afternoon kicking a soccer ball. The neighbors were coming home from work, and a stream of trucks were returning to the nearby FedEx distribution center after a day of deliveries.

To the east of Hieb’s home on Peterson Road are more than 2,000 residents and a country club. To the west, acres and acres of undeveloped land buffer his home from the Port of Skagit County and the airport.

The county predicts that area’s population will double to 5,600 by 2025 after full build-out. The open area will become a new urbanized cluster of residential, commercial, light industrial and mixed-use developments.

Skagit County is preparing development regulations for the nearly 4,000 acres that make up Bayview Ridge.

County officials say they have an opportunity to create an urban area that is environmentally friendly, includes low-income housing and puts people close to where they work.
Developers see it differently. Their concern is to develop properties that will fare well on the market.

Some current residents are hesitant to embrace any change.

“I like it as it is,” Hieb said, looking past his neighbors’ homes at the open fields. “Growth is good, but you hate to see your neighborhood double in size.”

Bayview Ridge is ripe for growth, however, after its recent designation as an urban growth area. Counties are required to have these areas, which allow denser development. The county has committed to keeping 80 percent of future population growth in urban areas, limiting the amount of development in rural zones.

Most urban growth areas are just outside of city limits and are eventually annexed into the cities. But Bayview Ridge is an exception. It’s one of only two areas in the county that allow for urban development — averaging no more than 6 homes per acre — away from the cities.

“It’s truly unique,” said county Planning Director Gary Christensen. “It’s really an anomaly.”

Christensen wants the county to keep the area unique by implementing low-impact development regulations and encouraging developments with mixed low- to middle-income housing surrounding a central business hub. The idea is for the residences to be close to family-wage jobs at the Port of Skagit County.

Commissioner Ken Dahlstedt said the Bayview Ridge plan also guides future development out of the flood plain.

“That’s a good reason to put them there,” Dahlstedt said. “It’s out of the flood plain and it’s not on timberland.”

If development takes off, Bayview Ridge will be Skagit County’s next urban community — maybe even a city — between Burlington and Anacortes.

The county is preparing to complete Bayview Ridge’s development regulations by the end of the year. Developers say permit requirements could push back construction projects at least another year, to 2012.

Developers and residents have mixed feelings over the county’s plans. Poor economics and strict regulations can change everything. The plan may not pan out with all the specifics the county foresees, developers say. They want the flexibility and freedom to build houses and commercial buildings that are competitive and profitable.

The project is 10 years in the making but still has hurdles to cross before development can begin. Planners will strive to balance the concerns and requirements of developers, residents, emergency responders, utility providers, and dike and drainage districts.

Jon Sitkin, representing Bouslog Properties, said the county should work with developers closely. The whole plan hinges on buy-in from a small group of developers who own most of the property at Bayview Ridge.

John Bouslog’s company owns hundreds of acres in the area, including much of the space the county hopes to turn into a town center.

Sitkin said the county can’t make a prediction about development and expect everything to fall into place. The housing market is key, and developers have to get the flexibility to develop properties that can compete and turn a profit in the recovering economy.

“We need to have the dialogue on what’s economically feasible or at least flexible enough in the ordinance to design,” Sitkin said. “We can’t be overly prescriptive or restrictive on the regulations for the market to function.”

He said strict regulations would make it more difficult for Bouslog Properties to build homes and commercial developments that pencil out.

Christensen is holding meetings with developers and community residents to brainstorm possible building design regulations. The department will hold a community workshop in Bayview Ridge in late March or early April.

Sitkin said he won’t necessarily put a lot of stock in ideas that come out of these meetings, because the market may not be able to sustain them.

“We’re going to get into a lot of ideas that people may fixate on that may or may not be real,” Sitkin said.

Christensen said the input is essential to come up with the best possible plan for the community.

“You don’t get a second chance,” Christensen said. “We want to make sure this opportunity is done right.”

And Christensen is confident it will get done, even if the population predictions don’t pan out by 2025.

That’s bittersweet news for some residents, who have long used the land for agricultural purposes.

Bill Henry runs an alpaca farm on Sunrise Lane. He said the agricultural tradition will fade with development, even though it’s meant to preserve ag and timber land elsewhere.

“It certainly will change the aspect of the place,” Henry said. “The character will no longer be one of livestock and pasture land.”

Henry was part of a citizen advisory committee that helped outline the area and offer a rough idea for what kind of developments should be allowed.

He said even though his neighborhood will change, he sympathizes with major property owners who have been waiting a long time to develop.

“It seems as though it’s taking an awfully long time to get this ordinance through,” Henry said. “The poor developers and landowners have waited a long time and put a lot of money, effort and consideration into the plan. The economics the way they are will delay it even further.”

Aaron Burkhalter can be reached at 360-416-2141 or .

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