Is it inconvenient to care about a small town’s future Comprehensive Plan when one’s seasonal reason for living in such a location begins to blossom to life again?

It’s warm and sunny, and I am distracted by the glowing cottonwood fairies lazily speckling the air above a rainbow valley.

Like a lumberman’s ax, the distant ‘crack’ of a skateboard deck hitting the concrete pan at Bacon & Eggs Skate Park. A long train of tourists, cars of different decibels, confirm the once-constant rumble of locomotives rolling into Wilkeson or switching south toward the Mountain. Bird, birds, birds!

Still, the game must be played for maintenance, then progress indefinitely.

Or I could just rage-quit. Opinions abound:

“I feel we need places for the younger generation to live when they leave home. There are no rentals in town.”

“Restrictions on building styles…so as to keep the town old-fashioned and quaint would be nice.”

“Keep growth low, no big city ideas.”

“We need new consumer services that elderly citizens can reach easily, and all can use without driving so far.”

“Small, specialty shops would be nice and in keeping with the general style of the town.”

“Could gain revenue by supplying water to areas.”

“Think we need more interest in our senior citizens and youth.”

“Utilize what we have better.”

These snippets of residents’ comments (recorded in the Comprehensive Community Plan prepared for the Town of Wilkeson Council in May, 1983) stand out to me, but have never made much impact.

These are other forty-year-old survey opinions that I believe have remained:

“Population growing too fast.”

“We are both violently opposed to any additional mobile homes.”

“If you begin to build apartment units and/or fourplexes you will be opening the door to fast development of the community and find control of population and ‘undesirables’ uncontrollable.”

“In making rules and regulations for a ‘cutesy’ old time town, especially in times like these, all improvements and new things will stop, and Wilkeson could be worse off. Added expenses to new ventures could be a deterrent.”

“Nothing historical left to preserve.”

Between the 1980 census and the current 2021 tally, the Town of Wilkeson’s population has only increased by 170 people. Small business and tourist retail is scarce. Most of the growth that has taken place has occurred outside of town limits.

Many townsfolk live in Wilkeson for its charm yet commute or Zoom to work. Small-in-home businesses lag. The Town’s own enterprises have more room on their server, which means much of the tax revenue generated by citizens does not fold back into the town and those profits are lost.

To keep up the small-town quality of life that Wilkeson residents seek: just the basics- drinking water, sewage, safe streets, the Council must seek grants and outside funding.

Regular business revenue should pay the bills and do the daily chores. Grant money and other funds can be used for supplementary projects, as needed.

I see the Town of Wilkeson in a poverty-like status, much like that some of us experience. The calculated dance of money coming in and money going out, choosing who to pay and what project to forestall, while never fully catching up.

In 2022, the preliminary plat of Henley Estates, a 67-lot subdivision on a 388-acre property between State Route 165 and Wilkeson-Spiketon Road, was submitted to Pierce County. This set off the community and its supporters with 798 signatures on a petition to Stop the Wilkeson/Burnett Expansion.

I was one of the frustrated citizens who had chosen a rural lifestyle and was worried that throwing in more people would ruin my life.

I sought to know more about other historic mining towns and how they have handled this same predicament.

Bill Kombol, Manager of the Palmer Coking Coal Co., offered to give me a historical tour of Black Diamond- where the construction of a new housing community called Ten Trails is well underway.

The Ten Trails site happened to be a stop within the first half of the trip.

“They are all so cookie-cutter!” I revolted, peering to see the development through the window of Kombol’s unpretentious weatherworn SUV.

Kombol calmed my discomfort and educated that there were six styles of homes within Ten Trails, each from a different home builder.

After a visit to the Union Stump (the 1907 pulpit used to inspire the workers to joining the United Mine Workers of America), we backtracked to Morganville (a few streets of non-company land that Timothy Morgan donated to the Union where the striking miners could live).

“It looks like Burnett!” I rejoiced in familiarity of the old-timey aesthetic.

“They are all so cookie-cutter,” Kombol replied, with the inclusion that Burnett’s early 1900s identically built homes were also a product of Pacific Coast Coal Co. to house its workforce.

Schooled again.

And again, and again: buildings can safely be constructed on mineshafts (depending), stove “clinkers” come in boulder-size, and there are ways to work through sacrifice and change where the result is ok for me and others.

Though thousands of houses more than Henley Estates, the Master Plan Development (MPD) model for Ten Trails could be modified to fit the growth needs of the Carbon River Valley.

Beginning in 2006, the developer Yarrow Bay (later Oakpointe) worked with Black Diamond to define the parameters of an MPD where infrastructure development was the key that would unlock housing starts.

Moreso, every time someone buys a home within the community, money is set aside for the school district to build additional schools. Once a certain population threshold was met, a roundabout would be provided at SR169 and Robert’s intersection before any further homes could be built.

These custom single-family smart homes are likely a similar new construction Henley Estates would probably offer.

Yet almost 70 homes annexed into the Town of Wilkeson could really bulk up bill money through real estate excise taxes, not to mention potential retail, utilities, and transportation revenue. Possibly a new school, too.

Squat down another pipe dream, and a good developer could create a Master Plan that incorporates all the necessary demographic growth and environmental requirements for the Wilkeson area. Concurrently with the Cooperative Action Plan, steps could be taken to cushion the corridor and support more people as they arrive.

We can’t ignore that people procreate new people while our planet maintains roughly the same size.

In support of the new housing development, I think of ways potential infrastructure could be used to benefit my family, my town.

I hope for safer street-crossings for kids walking to Wilkeson Elementary School. I pray for my creek neighbors during the yearly flooding of their homes and feel helpless for restrictions surrounding the Wilkeson Creek shorelines and salmon habitat. I curse the hooligan drivers that slice through the middle of our community.

By the way, the Town of Wilkeson operates a water treatment plant and agreed to supply potable water to Henley Estates in December 2021.

Nonetheless, the hoop law surrounding this area has placed things on pause: a Mine Hazard Survey has not been initiated (the Burnett Mine was considered the deadliest in the area!); the Nisqually Indian Tribe requested a cultural resources survey and asks to be kept informed of any inadvertent discoveries of archaeological resources or human burials; the Department of Fish and Wildlife is concerned with human disturbance of elk habitat and stormwater runoff; plus the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department concurs that the water letter was not valid as Town of Wilkeson’s franchise does not extend to that area and further approvals are required.

Let’s just say there’s a whole lot of content to play through.

Uploaded in April 2023, letters stamped “Return to Sender” overtop the developer’s address may prove that this city building game will take many years to complete and can only be beat in multiplayer. GG