By Marianne Lincoln

Good Neighbor Village, the village of tiny homes that the Tacoma Rescue Mission and the Pierce County Executive’s office are trying to build in Spanaway, had a groundbreaking today, November 21, 2024. The event was an invitation only event at the farm site near the intersection of 176th and Spanaway Loop Road.

First note, the road sign says Cross Base Highway, not 176th Street. But with the construction of this site, the Cross Base Highway will never come to fruition. It, too, was controversial with the environmental activists. That time, they won. This time, it appears, they are getting side swiped at every turn. Already construction is continuing in spite of an appeal to the Hearings Examiner’s decision filed in Thurston County Court. According to Spanaway Concerned Citizens, they are working to have a stop work (injunction) put in place.

The groundbreaking, with its coffee and donuts, was made up of officials from Tacoma Rescue Mission and its board of directors, the County Executive and several key members of his staff, two Republican County Council members who voted for the project, and several other large donors for the Rescue Mission and some supportive church pastors.

Before entering the site, attendees had to pass through a gauntlet of protestors declaring the site was inappropriate for the future inhabitants, the local community, the watershed, and accusing TRM’s contractors of starting without the proper permits. The permit issue was real, the contractors were cited, but then the County turned around an immediately issued those same permits so they could continue.

As the Groundbreaking got underway, Duke Paulson spoke and offered to be a “Good Neighbor” to the residents near the site and the protesters who disapproved because of our shared humanity. He spoke of the service that will be provided as well as the long overdue assistance of which these particular long term homeless people are in need.

The County Executive, Bruce Dammeier, and his attorney, Steve O’Ban touted the value they witnessed when visiting the village in Texas and individual homeless people they have been in touch with during the past several years. The event wrapped up with the usual hard hats and shovels of dirt to document the occasion in photographic style. They even took a large photo of the group that attended in front of the old barn.

Following the event, two protestors came on site as disruptions, but were politely ignored and eventually turned around without incident. Apparently, they were disappointed their trespassing was not greeted with arrests, but TRM did not want to go to that level. Those leaving the event once again go to drive or walk through a gauntlet of shouting protestors yelling, “Water is life!”

After the Groundbreaking, I needed to move my car in order for a large truck with an enormous backhoe to get around the corner and enter the construction site. Since it blocked the entire road, I decided to just drive ahead and take a look at the progress of the site construction. I will make that a part two article since there are lots of photos to include in both.

The Pierce Prairie Post Facebook page has live video of the event. It is broken into four segments due to the wireless signal being weak, or maybe just overwhelmed by all the people on their phones nearby.

This story continues to evolve. In January, a new County Executive will take the seat and Thurston County Judge will weigh in on the issues raised. Where this project goes down the road is anyone’s guess right now. Spanaway Concerned Citizen’s is raising money to continue to fight the village in the courts. Tacoma Rescue Mission is dropping trees and putting in the environmental barriers that are expected.