By Kevin Hanson-The Courier-Herald
It's often said the only certainties in life are death and taxes, but that's not quite true in the still-small community of Black Diamond.
An added fact of life is growth is on the way. It's likely to come fast and furious and the city is planning to be ready when the wave hits.
No one is more aware of the pending building boom than Rick Luther, the city's longtime police chief who is serving a second stint as interim city administrator. His first go-round at wearing two hats, in the 1990s, lasted six years. He's hoping for a much shorter tour of duty this time.
Luther said he talks frequently with representatives from the Kirkland-based Yarrow Bay Group, the developer aiming to add thousands of homes to Black Diamond and forever change the face of the historic mining community just north of the Green River.
There are bound to be some nagging doubts when major change is proposed, Luther said, but everything appears to be moving ahead calmly.
“There's always some concern when there's change, and there's significant change coming,” Luther said. “But we've been pleasantly surprised. So far, they've been good neighbors.”
Yarrow Bay Group is one of the largest property development and management organizations in the region, with a handful of developments now either in the planning stages, under construction or recently completed. Last fall, it was announced that the company had acquired 860 acres in the Black Diamond area, to go with the 320 acres it already owned in the Lawson Hill area. About 400 nearby acres had been purchased just a couple of months earlier.
Yarrow Bay's Web site noted the company intended to “create two master planned communities that will align with Black Diamond's vision of the future and meet regional growth needs.”
Black Diamond has been keeping development at arm's length for years, realizing the planning process needed updating and the city's infrastructure was inadequate. Now, with the addition of a 4.5 million gallon reservoir, water and sewer are no longer an issue.
Local government leaders are still dealing with an update to the city's comprehensive plan, which calls for a population increase from 4,000 to 18,000 during the next two decades. Development regulations, zoning and traffic issues are being tackled and plans are in the works for adding enough city staff to handle the anticipated building boom.
Changes to city codes will go before the City Council and will be the topic of public hearings during the coming months, Luther said. He anticipates everything will be wrapped up by the end of the year.
“The impact on city staff will be enormous when all this breaks loose,” Luther said, noting there are presently about eight full-time city employees, not counting the police department. By this time next year, he hopes the roster will have swelled to perhaps 20. A plan to get some up-front financial assistance from Yarrow Bay is in the works.
Yarrow Bay has indicated plans for two developments, Lawson Hills on the city's east side and The Villages on the west. Lawson Hills is seen as primarily residential, while The Villages is envisioned as a larger area complete with commercial and retail development. Luther said Lawson Hills could eventually include approximately 1,200 homes while the second development, off the Auburn-Black Diamond Road, could range between 2,500 and 3,500 units.
Given the amount of work the city still needs to accomplish, plus the hurdles Yarrow Bay would have to clear, Luther figures construction will not begin until at least the middle of 2009.
