By Spanaway Concerned Citizens As concerned citizens, we rely on our elected officials to make decisions regarding topics that significantly impact the well-being of our communities — addressing critical issues such as providing housing for our chemically dependent, chronically homeless individuals is undoubtedly important. However, does this effort justify compromising regional environmental integrity and public…
Category: Housing
Jan 22 Spanaway Court Appeal to be heard
[Updated with corrections.] At 9 a.m. on January 22, 2025, the Spanaway Concerned Citizens administrative appeal to the Pierce County Hearing Examiner decision regarding the permitting of the Good Neighbor Village will be heard at the Pierce County Annex. The event will be available on Zoom if the public wants to watch. The meeting room…
Prickly Pete is homeless
It’s a bit ironic and terribly sad if you love wildlife. All the neighbors tried to explain to the Hearings Examiner what the Tacoma Rescue Mission and the former County Executive just refused to get through their heads. The Spanaway Marsh property already had numerous residents. Residents that could not attend the hearings or testify…
Spanaway Lake, now it’s the beavers
Over the past several years Spanaway Lake has been having issues. For us swimming as children, it was the “duck itch” caused by a parasite getting under our skin if we didn’t dry off well with a towel after swimming. Over time, the swimming beaches became less popular, the diving docks were removed, and the…
Unhoused people are like everyone else, until…
By Marianne Lincoln Becoming unhoused is a very difficult thing to experience. It happens to many very ordinary people. It could be a medical situation, a job loss, sale of a rental property, death of a spouse whose pension or income helped support the household, or many other traumatic life events. Many people have close…
Aerial photos of the watershed in jeopardy
Spanaway Concerned Citizens got drone footage from the area where the Good Neighbor Village is being constructed under “Executive Privilege” in Pierce County. We all hope that there can be solutions for our unhoused citizens, but a wetland that is the watershed for Spanaway Lake is not popular with the community. To make it easier…
Groundbreaking for Good Neighbor Village draws supporters and protestors
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….
Stop building cul-de-sacs in unincorporated county
EDITORIAL OPINION Years ago, when the Spanaway Community Association was starting and the Growth Management Act was in its infancy, Pierce County explained to us that the housing developments with cul-de-sacs were useful to slow crime. The county was allowing, mostly even, asking developers to build all these little pocket communities on large parcels. Each…
Hearing Examiner allows the Village to proceed
The decision has arrived. The Hearings Examiner is allowing the tiny home village in the Spanaway Marsh area to proceed. His decision is at the link here: https://pals.piercecountywa.gov/public/documentView?docSysId=2135634 The document is 79 pages long. The findings and conclusions begin on page 20. Page 49 is the end of the report. The remaining pages are documentation,…
Donations needed for new homeless facility
Family Promise of Pierce County has housed DOZENS of families since our doors opened in Jan 2024. We need YOUR help now more than ever as the current grant cycles have ended and though we are constantly applying haven’t been yet selected for the next cycle.. There are still HUNDREDS of children in parks, in…
Lakewood, what have you wrought?
Don Anderson (Mayor/City Council), followed by Steve O’Ban (State Senator), both attorneys and officials from Lakewood, worked on County Executive Bruce Dammeier’s proposal to put a community of tiny homes in the watershed above Spanaway Lake. The city recently voted to contribute $1,000,000 to the effort. On the other side of the military base, lake…
Helping the homeless a better way
Family Promise of Pierce County is part of a nationwide organization that is helping families get re-housed after a catastrophic event leaving them without a home to live in. Last year the group in Pierce County was organized, garnered grant monies, hired a CEO, hired and trained case management staff. They officially opened in January,…
Pierce Prairie Post 