What Will Stanwood Become?

HeraldNet, WA 02-18-07

What will Stanwood become?

Residents chased Wal-Mart away, but now the town finds itself at a crossroads.

By Kaitlin Manry Herald Writer

STANWOOD - The battleground is empty, overgrown with weeds and sticker bushes.

The grass has yellowed and branches have fallen off trees. A driveway leads onto the 23 acre-property, then abruptly fades away in a clearing of matted-down grass. An overturned bucket and a tire hide under brambles.

The deserted land looks forgotten, but the controversy it sparked two years ago continues to burn today. It lives on in quiet coffee-shop conversations and in City Council debates.

Two years ago, angry people stood near this land, waving anti-Wal-Mart signs and demanding that the nation's largest retailer leave their town alone.

In the end - after a fiery debate and raucous town meetings - it did.

Today, the land remains zoned residential. It remains empty.

It has stayed the same, but it changed the way Stanwood sees itself.

Stanwood is at a crossroads, trying to redefine itself and envision a future rich in tax dollars, but devoid of Wal-Mart.

Some in the city dream of a La Conner-like tourist town. Others worry Stanwood won't attract enough tourist-generated sales tax dollars to support a city that tripled in size from 1990 to 2005, growing from 1,961to 5,068.

"Stanwood made a huge decision when we fought Wal-Mart," said Leanna Anderson, president of the Stanwood Chamber of Commerce. "It's the first time the community really came together. We came to the decision we're not going to be big-box. But what now? That's where we're at."

Is tourism enough? Wal-Mart had not unveiled plans to build in Stanwood when the controversy erupted. A spokesman for the company had merely acknowledged Wal-Mart was interested in the land.

That was enough.

In the ensuing weeks a petition against the retailer was signed by about 3,000 people - more than half the town's population.

Residents who had never set foot in City Hall packed City Council and Planning Commission meetings when the so-called "Wal-Mart property" was on the agenda.

Landowner Brent McKinley had asked the council to rezone the land from residential to general commercial, paving the way for Wal-Mart or another big- box retailer.

In the end, McKinley withdrew his request on the day the City Council was scheduled to vote on the matter.

The City Council's subsequent refusal to rezone McKinley's land, combined with the lack of large tracts of commercial property in other parts of town, has essentially kept big-box retailers out.

Apparently unfazed, Wal-Mart has opened or planned stores in Marysville, Arlington and Mount Vernon. Many Stanwood families routinely drive to these towns to shop.

Now city leaders and residents alike are asking the question: Is it possible for a growing suburban town not especially known for tourism to thrive without big-box retailers? And if so, how?

It's possible, but not at all easy, according to Ken Stone, professor emeritus of economics at Iowa State University.

"If they're a tourist town, uniqueness tends to draw people to stores," he said.

"When people come to a place to recreate and tour, they don't particularly like the same old thing - chain stores," he said. "So I've seen several touristy towns that tend to keep big-box stores out, but if you don't have tourism, you have a pretty rough go of it without the big-box stores."

Small businesses in towns both with and without Wal-Mart suffer because of the retailer, Stone said. He has studied the impact of Wal-Mart on communities since 1988 - and the results are the same everywhere. In a 1997 study of Iowa towns, he found that after 10 years of Wal-Mart, total sales in Wal-Mart towns were 4 percent below their pre-Wal-Mart level. Sales in towns without Wal-Mart were 15 percent lower than their pre-Wal-Mart level. That's probably because residents left town to shop at chain stores in neighboring communities, Stone said.

Like them or hate them, big-box stores provide the kind of sales tax dollars growing cities need, he said.

Wal-Mart Supercenters in Stanwood-size towns generally produce around $40 million to $50 million in sales tax dollars a year, he said. Subtract for nontaxable food sales, and around $30 million remains.

"It takes an awful lot of smaller stores to make that kind of revenue," he said.

Stanwood city leaders hope to compensate for the tax dollars a big-box retailer could have brought in with a well-fueled, functioning downtown. The current downtown is a hodgepodge of antique shops, restaurants, thrift or dollar stores, and offices.

"We need to quit looking like a bunch of hayseeds and start being a professional bedroom community - without losing the agricultural character, because I think that's why people move here," Mayor Dianne White said.

"If you move to Stanwood, it's not going to be Seattle," she said. "It's going to be Stanwood, and Stanwood's agricultural."

New vision taking shape

Stanwood's downtown is divided into four unmarked spheres.

Chain stores, a movie theater and a Haggen grocery store sit up on a hill, separated from the traditional downtown area. The area most residents think of as downtown is spread out over several blocks.

It's off Highway 532, and many people cruising through Stanwood on their way to Camano Island don't even realize it's there.

"A lot of people are moving into the area, so Stanwood has to expand to support that," said Pearl Schaar, a local architect and president of Design Stanwood, a group trying to shape the town's future. "Yet it's a delicate balance between providing those services and not becoming a strip mall."

Leaders want to give the community a facelift. They've developed plans and written downtown rejuvenation into the city's comprehensive plan. The plan, which directly shapes council decisions and city priorities, calls for tourism-related businesses such as small boutiques, wineries and cheese shops.

The document also plays on Stanwood's agricultural image and calls for the preservation of its farmland.

Agritourism, organic produce and a farmers market are suggested. One of the design sketches included in Design Stanwood's downtown plan even features two turkeys pecking at the road.

Mayor White and other civic leaders want to model Stanwood after the quaint riverfront community of La Conner. The town's narrow streets are ripe with cafes, kite shops and specialty stores, but extremely low on chains. The nearest McDonald's is eight miles away in Mount Vernon.

Schaar even wants to change Stanwood's name to Port Susan to fit with its new image.

"I think it's a fresher sound, a newer sound," she said, sitting in the sleek meeting room of her downtown office. "It paints a different picture than Stanwood. I think in most people's minds, they'd say, 'Oh, that would be kind of interesting to see what's in Port Susan.' "

Not everyone likes the idea of transforming the traditionally blue-collar town of Stanwood into Port Susan.

Rob Freedman wants the town to change, but in a more practical way. He wants to be able to buy a CD and a suit without getting on I-5 or Pioneer Highway.

"If you want a pair of pants, there's a country feed store and they sell Carhartt clothing," said Freedman, a married father of two. "If you want a pair of pants and you buy it in town, that's what you wear. And if you want a pair of shoes, Romeos, the big clunky brown ones - that's what you get. We're not talking Abercrombie and Fitch. We're talking blue jeans."

Freedman, owner of Gargoyle Billiards, says he definitely wouldn't mind having a Wal-Mart or Target move to Stanwood. He thinks the city is losing a lot of potential tax money to big-box stores in Arlington, Marysville and Mount Vernon.

"Indianapolis may have the Indy 500, but every weekend around here we have the Wal-Mart 40 - the mad dash to Wal-Mart, 20 miles down and 20 back," he said. One thing is clear: If Stanwood is going to succeed without big-boxes, it's going to need to attract businesses that can boost its tax revenue.

As Stanwood's population continues to climb, the city is struggling to afford the basics its new residents expect: well-maintained streets, enough workers to process building permits and a city hall devoid of mice and black mold.

At the current town hall, the computers go out if the air conditioning is turned on.

City plans call for a new town hall to be built as part of a municipal campus, possibly in conjunction with the police station and library. But that will cost money, and right now, the city doesn't have it, Mayor White said.

"There are so many bedroom communities like Stanwood that are just starving, and we need to look other places" for tax money, she said.

White owned an independent pharmacy in Chewelah for years, and she thinks small businesses can earn valuable tax dollars for cities if they're run properly.

But she thinks Stanwood needs more than retail. White lobbied hard to bring a university to Stanwood.

Despite a state-paid consultant's recommendation favoring the Marysville and Everett areas for a new four-year university, White continues to push.

She'd also like the Legislature to pass bills that would redistribute Internet sales tax to the buyers' communities. Rural communities such as Stanwood would benefit, she said.

These things take time to work themselves out. And so the debate about Stanwood's future continues - and people continue to move there.

Much left unresolved

In the meantime, Wal-Mart has decided it's no longer interested in Stanwood, spokeswoman Jennifer Holder said. Stores in neighboring communities have eliminated the need, she said.

On a rainy Friday morning in February, a steady parade of cars drove east along Highway 532, past the "Wal-Mart property." Their headlights illuminated the way out of town.

The hum of accelerating cars is constant.

Drivers point their vehicles toward I-5 - jobs and shopping opportunities. If they look left as they drive by Haggen, they see an empty field and little else. The picket signs are gone.

The battle may be over. But the outcome is far from clear.

Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or [email protected].