Growth, with bumps in the road

Outside the Peninsula Market, a quartet sings “Come, Lord Jesus, Come,” inviting shoppers to an Easter sunrise service at Penrose Point State Park.

Across the street, the driveway at Sunnycrest Nursery is busy with homeowners seeking garden supplies in the fair spring weather. The market and the nursery sit on opposite sides of a busy Key Center intersection, where a four-way flashing light slows drivers as they come into town.

On Pierce County’s Key Peninsula, which juts into Puget Sound from the Purdy/Gig Harbor area, a quiet pastoral lifestyle flourishes. It’s a relaxing step back from the hectic urban pace of other Puget Sound regions.

But signs of 21st-century encroachment can be seen.

More people. More traffic. More urban challenges and lifestyle assaults, including a recent rash of burglaries near the community of Home.

This rural area of unincorporated Pierce County is now home to some 19,000 people, an increase of more than 70 percent since 1990.

One significant sign of that growth: Work will begin in June on what Pierce County engineers call “a state-of the-art traffic signal,” and its accoutrements, including left-turn lanes, sidewalks and crosswalks.

The coming of the traffic light – the third to arrive along the State Route 302/Key Peninsula corridor in the last several years – has not been without controversy and consternation.

Many residents fought for a roundabout to calm traffic at the busy intersection of the Key Peninsula Highway, Olson Drive KPN and Cramer Road KPN. They argued that would be more conducive to further cementing the community feel of Key Center, a commercial area that serves as the hub of the peninsula.

“The county’s never built a roundabout. They had all kinds of excuses” for not agreeing to build one in Key Center, said Mike Baum, president of the Key Peninsula Community Council. But then he added, “It is a problem intersection, and we’ve got some traffic calming measures coming in.”

It wasn’t feasible to build a roundabout there, said County Councilman Stan Flemming, R-University Place, who represents the area. But he believes the sidewalks, curbs and gutters promised as part of the signal project will help provide the community feel that residents want for Key Center.

“Some people are very passionate about that traffic light not happening,” said Rebecca Robert of Home. “Other people think it’s inevitable.”

‘A GREAT SENSE OF COMMUNITY’

The community itself is stitched together as tightly as the ecosystem that supports salmon and seals, bald eagles and a bounty of other wildlife.

There are food drives and crime watches, garden clubs and knitting circles, services for seniors, help of all kinds for struggling students – all staged and carried out by teams of volunteers.

“There’s a great sense of community. It’s small enough to know people, and people respect your privacy,” said Robert, who was born on the Key Peninsula and has lived all but about 10 of her 60 years there.

Key Peninsula Community Services provides a variety of aid to community residents; the Mustard Seed Project gives help and comfort to a growing population of elderly; volunteers in other programs help kids read, play Santa at Christmas, run youth sports and scouting groups, build and care for parks and trails.

At Key Peninsula Lutheran Church, more than three dozen volunteers put their ingenuity and persuasiveness and elbow grease into a ministry that collects some 20,000 pounds of food a month from a variety of sources, then distributes it to help hundreds of families.

Last year, the Key Peninsula Lutheran FISH Food Bank gave out food valued at around $600,000, said director Wally Haugaard. He thinks the total will be closer to $800,000 or $900,000 for 2011.

Three times a week, volunteers collect food from grocery stores and nonprofit programs on and off the Key Peninsula. Around 1:45 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, trucks and trailers laden with foodstuffs pull up to the church. In less than 90 minutes, the food is unloaded, sorted and distributed to anywhere from 45 to 60 or so families.

“Most of the people out here are used to working hard and looking out for each other and helping each other,” said Haugaard, who moved to the picturesque Von Geldern Cove at Home four years ago.

Carrie Duramsmith, a Fire District 16 volunteer, likes that her daughters are growing up in such a place.

Her kids agree.

“The people out here are mostly really nice, and you get to know your neighbors” said Leah Duramsmith, a 15-year-old Peninsula High School sophomore.

Carrie Duramsmith says there are benefits for her, too.

“We live out here because I need my trees,” she said, as the combination of rain and evening chill infused the air with the scents of damp earth and undergrowth, evergreen boughs and spring blooms.

FIGHTING CRIME, BUILDING COMMUNITY

But great as it is in the eyes of the generations who’ve called it home, the vacation-residence owners who relax and unwind there, the campers who use its many parks and the hikers who tread its many trails, the Key Peninsula is not without some warts.

That respect for people and property you hear so much about has been somewhat unraveled in recent years. Vandalism, car theft, burglary and other crimes often alarm residents.

Pierce County sheriff’s records show 199 crimes or incidents of varying degrees logged on the Key Peninsula in the first three months of this year. That’s up 21 percent over the same time last year, according to the sheriff’s website.

Last month, someone stole the Key Peninsula Community Services food bank truck, totaled it and stripped it clean.

Deputies recently arrested a man and a woman in their 20s – and are looking for a third person – in connection with a string of nearly a dozen burglaries in the southern reaches of the peninsula.

And last year, a shootout over drugs left one man dead and the community’s psyche wounded after the reports of dozens of ammunition rounds split a quiet October night.

Sheriff’s Lt. Jerry Lawrence, who commands the Peninsula Detachment, acknowledges there’s reason for vigilance and concern. But he adds that, on the whole, crime on the Key Peninsula is not as pervasive as in other communities.

He attributes that, in part, to alert residents who pay attention and report things that seem out of line.

“The community is engaged and they communicate with each other and they hear what’s going on,” Lawrence said.

Two weeks ago, some 80 residents turned out in a drenching rainstorm for a community meeting about the burglaries.

Baum, who’s president of Key Peninsula Citizens Against Crime as well as of the Community Council, urged residents to get to know their neighbors and talk to them, think about a dog as an early-warning system, perhaps invest in an electronic alarm and volunteer with the citizens’ patrol.

Traffic is another concern.

The state Department of Transportation has been studying the state Route 302 corridor for several years. There are options for moving traffic away from the biggest bottleneck – the two-lane Purdy Bridge – but they’re expensive and no solution is near.

Earlier this month, the Community Council adopted a resolution urging the state Legislature to at least get moving on selecting a plan.

Broker Mavi Macfarlane of Key Peninsula Real Estate acknowledges traffic can be a headache. But she believes the area is a “great buy,” noting recession-induced drops in land and home prices.

Pablo de la Cruz, who opened El Sombrero restaurant at Key Center four years ago, is also bullish on the area’s future.

“Starting a business is always risky, but I got support from the community and my loyal customers,” he said. “Thanks to them, we’re still here.”

Yes, the scenery and serenity are spectacular, Baum says. But it is, he agrees, the people of the peninsula who make it a grand place to be.

“What we’re trying to do is to build a community,” he said during the recent crime watch meeting. “That’s what we have out here on the Key Peninsula. “You don’t necessarily have that in Tacoma. It’s a better place to live, and that’s why we like it out here.”

Staff photographer Dean Koepfler contributed to this report.

Kris Sherman: 253-597-8659
kris.sherman@thenewstribune.com