PARKNAPPING DOESN'T PAY
The history of Rescuing a Pacific Northwest Crown Jewel
Darlene Shanfald, Ph.D
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A Very Brief History of Miller Peninsula State Park
Darlene Schanfald, Ph.D - December 2022
In the 1970s, the WA State Legislature recognized that outdoor recreation was growing and more day-use and overnight accommodations were needed throughout the state. The Legislature initiated a process to meet the need. 1000 parcels of DNR land were studied by DNR and WA State Parks. Twenty-six sites were recommended to the Legislature for purchase from DNR for new park lands. Miller Peninsula was included.
In 1988, the two agencies came back to the Legislature with a plan for how these sites could be approved and funded. The Legislature agreed. Prior to this, Clallam County appointed a citizen advisory committee to consider zoning and land use on the Miller Peninsula. In 1985, this citizen advisory committee recommended that 1700 acres should be set aside for day use, and that it should be a state park. Parks agreed to take the land as a state park. It was always referred to as the “Crown Jewel Park”, in part because of the three miles of beach within the park.
In 1985, Mitsubishi initiated a meeting with Governor-Elect Booth Gardner, a businessman and heir to Weyerhaeuser money. They met several times in the U.S. and in Japan to discuss investments. Mitsubishi wanted to invest in a 400- acre golf course plus housing for wealthy Japanese citizens on vacation. After Mitsubishi representatives had been shepherded around sites in Western and Eastern WA by the WA State Department of Economic Development (ED), Mitsubishi chose a portion of the designated park land on Miller Peninsula for their development.
The planners who had been hired for the development encouraged Mitsubishi to create a different plan – a large recreational/residential site that would eventually expand to over 1000 acres, half of the designated park land. It would have a western theme and invite visitors to stay at a hotel or at other rental accommodations. There would be several golf courses as well as an array of other recreational opportunities. It would include shops, a fire department, housing for workers, and on and on. In essence, the plan was to denature the land, build a number of lakes, and build a new city.
Mitsubishi formed a partnership with another Japanese firm, Shimizu, for 90% of the stake, as well as with an American Company, Lowe Enterprise NW, with a 10% investment. They called it Peninsula Partners. Agreements were made in secret. Local citizens were not to know about this “until the ink on the paper was dry.” Mitsubishi’s Seattle attorneys actually wrote new regulations for Clallam County, because County staff had no idea how to write regulations for a planned recreational development. The County had become so controlled by the development consortium that the plans were to be approved in Japan by Mitsubishi. As well, ED met with Parks and DNR and encouraged them to agree and cede some park land for the development.
When local citizens learned of this deal, they decided to oppose it. Save Our State Park (SOSP) was formed in 1990. Together with Protect the Peninsula’s Future (PPF) and the Clallam County League of Women Voters, we challenged multiple permits. SOSP and PPF sued DNR and Parks. While we were winding our way past the State Parks Commissioners, who approved the deal, and then through the court system, we created two citizen initiatives.
One initiative mandated that if Parks didn’t want the land, then the County should take it as a County Park. It was still county land held in trust by DNR. The other initiative was to repeal the planned recreational-community ordinance. The County refused to allow our citizen initiatives. Multiple law suits followed until we were allowed to collect signatures. The District and Appellate courts upheld the initiative rights of the citizens. After more-than-sufficient numbers of signatures had been gathered, the County refused to accept them. More law suits followed. We also held three marches in downtown Seattle.
This story was covered by statewide media. People throughout the state and beyond supported our work – financially, writing letters to editors, holding fundraisers, and donating items for raffles to raise money for the lawyers.
During the first Seattle demonstration, held on July 3, 1991, Mitsubishi asked demonstrators to meet with them in their office. The result of that meeting became clear in October when Mitsubishi and Shimizu pulled out of the development. That left Lowe Enterprise NW (the 10% investors) with the option to bow out or continue. Lowe hoped to find new investors.
The first lawsuit against DNR and Parks was held in Superior Court in Thurston County in 1991. We lost and immediately appealed to the State Supreme Court. The Supreme Court decided in early 1992 that the Appellate Court should first hear our case. Lowe and friends, hedging their bets, went to the Legislature to change laws in their favor. To make a very long story short, in early 1992, the Legislature wrote language ceding the park land to Mitsubishi, a one-time State action. DNR and Parks agreed to the deal because Mitsubishi's money was part of it. Without those funds, Parks and DNR had become very nervous and were looking for a way out. When the State Legislature entered into the fray, Parks and DNR promised legislators that if Lowe had not secured new investors by December 31, 1992, Parks could reclaim the land.
The State and Lowe asked the Appellate Court to moot our case because the Legislature had already gifted the property to the developers. An Appellate Court Clerk heard the argument in July 1992. The Clerk would decide the merits of mooting versus honoring SOSP and PPF arguments that SEPA wasn’t followed and the entire process had been illegal. A month later the Clerk agreed that SEPA had been violated. She recommended that the case be heard by the Appellate judges, but she refused to expedite the case. Therefore, it would not be concluded by December 31, 1992. Case closed. We would keep the park land that the developers had been claiming was theirs.
I called Parks Director Cleve Pinnix and asked whether State Parks was willing to purchase the DNR land that Mitsubishi had planned to buy. A few days later, Mr. Pinnix agreed to include all the land SOSP wanted if we were willing to support Parks in the purchase of private land that the developers had agreed to buy. Of course we agreed. The bigger the park, the better!
Parks personnel held a public meeting at which attendees expressed support for enlargement of the park. Parks created an advisory group for help in asking the state legislature to purchase the additional properties and to provide funds for development. A meeting in Olympia with legislators culminated in an agreement to purchase the additional properties but not to provide development funds. In 1994, the state purchased all the land; rather, Parks funds were reallocated to DNR so the latter could purchase additional trust properties in Clallam County and invest some in the public schools. All else was concluded. By the time the courts finally ruled on the initiative cases, the land purchases had been completed.
In 2007, Parks planned to initiate the development process with the use of its own funds. Parks created an advisory group, hired consultants, and came back with a proposal to develop 20% of the land. The advisory group scaled it back to 5%. Parks approached the Legislature for the planning and development funds, but were unsuccessful in attaining them.
Over the years, volunteers have upgraded the trails. Many individuals and organizations use the park land for day use and recognize the parks' value as an undeveloped, natural ecosystem. In 2019, the SPRC Commissioners gave staff the go-ahead to begin development plans. Once again, upon “stakeholders” latching onto development options, the community has organized to oppose development and to maintain the park land in its natural state. And this is the juncture we are now at.
• In 1973, Protect the Peninsula’s Future (PPF) was formed to stop a twin nuclear power plant and an oil port from being built in Miller Peninsula. By 1975, PPF succeeded.
• In 1982, PPF and the community stopped DNR’s proposed sale of 700 acres of MP forested land for the use of off-road vehicles.
• In 1987 the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe partnered with a Scottish company to put floating finfish pens in Discovery Bay. The WA State Department of Ecology approved this. MP residents sued Ecology, but lost. The pens went into Port Angeles Harbor.