‘Developers’ are the ones who saved Meadowbrook

Published 10:08 am Monday, November 22, 2010

The Valley Record has long been known as the “newspaper of record” for the Snoqualmie Valley, earned over many years of continuous publication. Your extensive archives enable you to write such interesting feature stories such as October 20’s “History lives on in local lingo.”

Not mentioned in your story, but something that I deduced on my own, was the possible derivation of “Moon Valley Road” which sits direcly under the shadow of Mount Si (sic Moon). But that’s not the point of my letter.

Your delightful reflection on the history of Meadowbrook Farm concluded with the needless swipe at “developers” when you mentioned the “land was sold to developers in the 1960s, but the cities of North Bend and Snoqualmie took control to preserve the open space in 1996.” You must not know who the “developers” were who purchased Meadowbrook. For if you did, you would have credited them for their foresight and generosity.

These developers were actually investors, born and raised in the Valley with the names of Zemp, Vennedge, Glazier, and others. They worked all their lives in the Valley, raising families, pooling together what little savings they had and investing in land in their community. Their investments kept them paying long-term mortgages with very little return for almost 25 years. They invested their time and energies on community boards and commissions. They and their kids are lifelong members of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America, building and donating the Boy Scout clubhouse to the community. They donated the land where the Encompass Learning Center is located, free and clear.

Zemp and his partners were not a faceless bunch of developers waiting to lay waste to Meadowbrook. They knew the sensitivity the community held for this property. Both cities were fiscally weak, unable to get public support for a bond. However, the strength of public support enabled both communities to garner political support for funding from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Fund to earmark money to save Meadowbrook Farm.

The owners collaborated with King County and The Trust for Public Land (TPL) in a friendly negotiation to purchase the property. TPL would purchase the land and hold it until the county could obtain the funding support from the state. The negotiations stalled when TPL could not meet the asking price which the owners had based upon a formal appraisal. In the end, Zemp and his partners agreed to reduce the selling price by almost $1,000,000 in the form of a donation. The county worked with the cities of North Bend and Snoqualmie to create a cooperative agreement which would, in turn, give them authority to manage the Meadowbrook Farm.

So, as Paul Harvey was famous for saying, “Now you know the rest of the story.” The cities didn’t just “take control (of Meadowbrook) to preserve the open spaces” as if to suggest they acquired it through condemnation. Rather they accepted the responsibility to co-manage the land for the benefit of their constituents, which would not have happened without the full consent and cooperation of the landowners.

Dick Zemp was a very good friend of mine. He was no saint; but he was a good man, devoted to his wife and children and loved the town of of his birth.

Dick Ryon

North Bend