Conscious Choice Seattle: Washington Coast’s Seabrook

July 2007 | Escape the Pace

Washington Coast’s Seabrook

An eco-village—complete with green space and ocean spray

You know that special place that you visualize when tangled in traffic inertia and pending deadlines cascade from every direction? Like Voltaire, we each visualize our own El Dorado. Some of us disappear into a cedar forest, perhaps on the Olympic Peninsula or in the North Cascades. While others (like me) choose the Pacific’s pulse, the vision of wave swell that carries our burdens away on the translucent spray. Seabrook, a new beachfront community one mile south of Pacific Beach, provides the perfect setting and amenities necessary to enjoy this fantasy getaway—our rugged Washington coast.

On arrival at Seabrook, issue “The Truman Show” and “Pleasantville” jokes, then peek behind the façade of weathered gables and bungalows to confirm you’ve not trod upon a movie set of an ephemeral beach town. Okay, now breathe in the salty air, stroll a path down to the sandy beach and realize that spending a few days at a picturesque “beachville” isn’t such a bad idea after all.

Walking through the three-year-old eco-development located about 45 minutes north of Aberdeen (2.5 hours from Seattle), one can’t help but feel the briny essence of Portsmouth (New Hampshire), Essex (Connecticut), and especially, Seaside, Florida—each a paragon of what a coastal village ought to be like.

Seaside, the pioneer project of “new town” building, an enlightened model that places more import on porches than carports, provided Seabrook founder Casey Roloff with his inspiration to create a coastal village. To Roloff’s delight, Seaside founder, Robert Davis visited Seabrook this spring and issued a ringing endorsement.

Paths meander through coastal Douglas fir forests and course beside narrow lanes leading to fire pits and barbecues stocked with wood and marshmallows. (There are also marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate waiting in a basket at every rental.)

Kids spill into adjacent Crescent Park, the village green, at all hours where soccer balls and Frisbees are pulled from two chests of park equipment. Like the fat-tire touring bikes, the toys stand ready for anyone to use. This bevy of accoutrements may look familiar to visiting suburbanites, but for this city-dweller, a weekend in this planned community provides a welcomed opportunity to exhale and relax.

“I can’t think of the last time I could sit on a porch and watch my kids play across the street,” Seattleite Elizabeth Kiyasu observes. “And in a park no less.”

Plenty of other minty green elements are evidenced on this bluff of sylvan saunters and ocean vistas. In fact, Roloff and company are likely building Washington’s greenest community to date. Evidence abounds, including Green Seal–certified indoor paints and Oriented Strand Board, materials made of wood chip scraps. Outside, 32 percent of the area is set aside for green space, including several pocket parks and a frog pond where the peepers sing each night.

There’s an appealing quality and variety to the architecture, suggesting these dwellings will improve with age. This is far from true in many of Washington’s previously established ocean shore
communities.

“Because people [in the past] weren’t thinking about what would look good in 50 to 100 years,” Roloff explains, “we wanted to build places that would take on a legacy. So it was natural to use more authentic materials and historical details. Developers seem to go bigger is better and cheaper, rather than designing small spaces well.”

I was particularly intrigued by a set of eight simple bungalows orbiting a small green at the east end of the property. These cottages conjure instant visions of social gathering spaces—the ideal place for family reunions, birthday weekends and friend getaways.

We extract our broods from the park and slip down onto the beach. Crossing Route 109 becomes the weekend’s only obstacle to relaxation. Pedestrians press a button to activate flashing lights posted strategically a half-mile away. Though traffic is scarce, the drivers who do pass aren’t thinking “crosswalks” yet. This is especially true at the terminus of the nicest trail, which spits our party out at an ominous highway curve. Grip the young tightly, wait 30 seconds and look both ways, thrice.

Asphalt traverses are quickly forgotten once our toes dig into the sand. Six year olds cum engineers dam the stream, three year olds clamor off toward the surf, and adults slouch against stranded logs as we surrender to the sonorous arias of breaking waves.

Gingerbread houses? A too-perfect village green? Who cares? Loved ones dance on the beach and nothing else seems to matter.

Crai S. Bower recently appeared on KUOW’s “The Beat” to discuss “Escape the Pace” travel. Listen to archive: http://www.kuow.org/programs/thebeat.asp?Archive=05-25

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