Newsletter - April 2005
Dear Cooper Point Residents,
Here is the Spring newsletter of the Cooper
Point Association. Our Annual Meeting is coming up on April 21st at Marshall
Middle School. I hope you can attend, meet some of the people who live
around you, and learn a little bit about some of the issues that we all care
about.
First of all, I want to let you know that
Thurston County has been working to finally purchase some land for a park on
Cooper Point. It is a wooded waterfront property on the East side of Cooper
Point, about halfway up the Point. The County is still a long way from
deciding any of the important details that everyone cares about, such as
what types of uses the Park will have. However, we will have a
representative of the County attend our meeting to begin talking about how
we will all decide what to do with this property. I would like anyone who
wants to learn about the new park or join this discussion to come to our
meeting.
Secondly, I want to mention Evergreen Parkway,
and some of the controversy about The Evergreen State College’s decision to
re-design their portion of the Parkway. The College’s decision will decrease
traffic lanes, and will also result in roundabouts and wider pathways. This
was a controversial proposal, and I think that both the College and the
Cooper Point Association learned a few lessons from it.
This experience has caused me to hope some
things, and to know some things. I hope that the College’s decision on this
project will result in a better Parkway. I know that the College and all of
their neighbors will begin to talk to each other some more. We are inviting
a representative of the College to our meeting to discuss how this will
happen.
Finally, we are continuing to see a rapid pace
of development on Cooper Point. Some of the developments are large, and two
of them are huge. One of these is on the parcel behind the current Fire
Station headquarters, between Highway 101 and Mud Bay Road. The other is on
the parcel where the Sundberg Gravel Pit is located, along Cooper Point
Road. Each of these proposals is inside the urban growth area, and they are
consistent with the Growth Management Act. They will change the character of
the Point, however, and we need to continue to ensure that all of these
developments protect our quality of life and our environment as much as
possible.
In closing, let me repeat my invitation to all
of Cooper Point’s residents to come to our meeting to learn about these and
other issues. I hope to “pass the baton” to someone else to serve as the
President next year, and I want to let you all know that you live in a
special place that we all need to work together to keep livable.
Sincerely,
Eric Johnson, President, Cooper Point Association
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