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…
Category: Spanaway Lake
When the faucet is dry…
By Marianne Lincoln Where did the water go? That is a question a lot of us have been asking for years. It is the end of November. Clover Creek is still dry in From Brookdale Golf Course to Midland and Spanaway Loop Road. The Chambers Clover Creek Watershed is based on a Sole Source Aquifer….
Clover Creek, groundwater, urbanization, beaver dams, watershed issues discussion Nov 20
Clover Creek is dry most of the year. Water companies are extending water lines across the county to other water company areas to provide water for new construction. Surface water runoff from Military Road is pouring straight into Spanaway Creek. Beavers are trying to build a dam between Spanaway Lake and the little Spanaway Lake…
Watershed Issues Forum Nov. 20
The Chambers Clover Creek Watershed Council will be presenting their annual Issues Forum on November 20 at Sprinker Recreation Center. The event will begin with an optional field trip at 1:15 p.m. and followed by the presentations in the Rainier Room upstairs starting at 2:30 p.m. Registration is required, link provided below. Theme: UrbanizationSchedule1:15pm Optional…
Still raising money to defend the wetlands
Spanaway Concerned Citizens members were out in force Saturday to remind people the fight to save the Spanaway Marsh wetlands from a commercial tiny home development is ongoing. The Hearings Examiner is about to release the decision on the recent appeals to the original hearings from the end of April 2024. It is likely there…
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,…
A Tale of Two Wetland Specialists
by Claudia Finseth27 March, 2024 Last week the Tacoma News Tribune carried some interesting articles related to the Hearing Examiner meetings that had just wrapped up on the proposed use of the Spanaway Marsh for a high-density development. The plan is for a tiny home village for people experiencing chronic homelessness at the end of…
Spanaway Marsh site tour May 8
Back by popular demand, another site tour opportunity at Spanaway Marsh where Pierce County and the Tacoma Rescue mission have proposed a homeless village of tiny homes and park model RV’s. See what the wetlands above Spanaway Lake look like now. Wednesday, May 8 at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. the guided tours will begin….
April 29 – Flying Tomato fundraiser
The Flying Tomato has offered to donate 20% of their sales on April 29th and on April 30th to the Spanaway Concerned Citizens fight for the Spanaway Marsh! We are so grateful for this opportunity! In order for us to receive this generous donation, they ask that you print out and present the attached flyer when placing your order…
Saturday walk at Spanaway Marsh
By Marianne Lincoln Spanaway Concerned Citizens is raising money to fight a Pierce County Executive’s project to build a village of tiny homes to house homeless individuals with drug, alcohol and mental health problems. These are the hardest people to bring into a stable housing situation. There is a plan. (You can see it at…
Village deadline for written comments April 22
Regarding the April 29 hearings on the Tiny Home Village, Pierce County Village, or whatever they are calling it this week…. All written comments & concerns should be submitted in writing to the Hearings Examiner by Monday April 22nd, for his review to: pchearingexaminer@piercecountywa.gov If you have no idea what I am talking about, read…
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…
Toxic algae caution advisory lifted for Spanaway Lake
TPCHD — On Feb. 2, 2024, we lifted the toxic algae caution advisory for Spanaway Lake. The water is safe for people and pets. Always use caution when you’re in the water. When you see algae, don’t swim, wade, waterski, or fish. Keep in mind as wind direction changes, the algae could move elsewhere in…
Frigid weather is freezing the lake and creek
Clover Creek and Spanaway Lake resister the first day or so, but now that this weather has been dipping below 15 degrees F for several days, the north part of Spanaway Lake, known as the cove is starting to freeze. It is truly thin ice that no one can stand on, but it has frozen…
House demolition, but no silt fence
By Marianne Lincoln Spanaway is watching. There is already a high level of concern about how the Tiny Home Village project was dropped on our community. There are lawyers being paid to defend the interests of people living on the lake self-taxing to improve water quality. Then this project comes along and threatens to make…
PSM-LUAC Nov. 15, 6:30pm, Sprinker !!
By Cindy Beckett This will be heard at the Parkland-Spanaway-Midland Advisory Commission public meeting date is November 15, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. at Sprinker Recreation Center. (Remember, you will hike a distance to get in from parking due to construction right now.) The Land Use Advisory Commission will be reviewing the homeless village project now labeled…
New Tribune opinion piece a political farce
By Marianne Lincoln, Editor Another opinion, or three. For my entire lifetime, I have lived in unincorporated Pierce County. Everyone here I know has always been cynical of the opinions of the New Tribune because they always seem to back up the opinions of the County or city of Tacoma officials and disregard the information…
Veto Override today? Aug. 22, 2023
By Marianne Lincoln UPDATED Spanaway, Parkland and Frederickson, being unincorporated urban communities get many promises for infrastructure and services. Since the 1980’s, the Cross Base Highway was promised to help alleviate traffic from all the housing developments the County allowed to squeeze into the area. The highways project meetings went on for decades, involving community…
More than a risky, bad idea, developing in critical wetlands
The proposed Tiny Home Village, or Pierce County Village that the County and Tacoma Rescue Mission are working to locate between Spanaway Marsh and Spanaway Lake is addressed in these comments by Cindy Beckett, Master Watershed Steward. In Cindy’s words: I hope you know that this is being challenged in a court with representation by…
Cyanobacteria Treatment for Spanaway Lake – Public Meeting June 22
By Marianne Lincoln There is a Spanaway Lake Cyanobacteria Treatment Briefing Thursday, 6/22/23, 5 p.m., at Sprinker Recreation Center. This is a public meeting for the Spanaway Lake Management District, if you are interested in hearing what is proposed and give input. “Join us Thursday, June 22 to discuss the upcoming Lake Cyanobacteria Management Plan. We’ll be…