Saving The Land The Mclellan’s Land Could Be Preserved By The County With Funds From The Conservation Futures Tax

Rumbling down a three-mile-long gravel road, Bob McLellan turns into a patch of timber and descends toward the Spokane River.

When he’s surrounded on three sides by water, McLellan stops his pickup truck and looks at what conservationists say may be the most pristine piece of waterfront property in Spokane County.

For 47 years the McLellan family has used this 400-acre parcel to graze cattle and horses, and as a refuge to hike, camp, swim and let loose the energies of 11 children and 25 grandchildren.

Soon, this land could come into public ownership through the county conservation futures program. The program, funded by the conservation futures tax, enables the county to acquire and preserve property with exceptional natural features. The property tax costs the owner of a $100,000 home $6 a year.

County Commissioner Phil Harris, who lives near the McLellan preperty and bought his property from the family, said purchasing land for conservation purposes should not be the business of government. He wants the public to vote on the tax this fall, either reauthorizing it or abolishing it. Commissioner Steve Hasson also wants the tax put on the ballot.

Advocates of the tax say it is the only way the county could ever acquire properties so special that they deserve to be preserved in a natural state. They point to McLellan’s land, with 4,000 feet of undeveloped shoreline, as the perfect example.

If the tax is repealed, the county would have no way to purchase the land from the Trust for Public Land, which agreed with the family last week on a purchase option. The trust would hold the land only temporarily, until the county is able to buy it.

McLellan, 78, who sees development moving closer and closer, sees public ownership as the only way to preserve all 400 acres. But, he concedes, whether that happens might now be up to the voters of Spokane County rather than him.

“At my age I feel we need to do something to preserve some of this unique land, not only for our grandchildren but for the public in general.” he said.

“Our family has an intense connection to the land,” said Marcia McGivern, 46, the oldest of seven McLellan daughters. “It would break my heart if this were turned into a development. It would be almost sacrilegious.”

Six other pieces of land in north Spokane County - one in Gleneden, others along the Little Spokane River - face the same fate. Of the 15 properties cited by the county as priorities for conservation program purchases, seven are on the North Side.

McLellan said he’s been increasingly eager to sell since a fire raged through Riverside State Park last year. He has often visited the property and found fences torn down or the remains of a campfire left behind by boaters.

He said he’s getting too old to maintain the property and concerned about what would happen to the parcel if he and his wife died.

The Trust for Public Land, a national conservation organization, was contacted by the Spokane County Parks Department and members of the park advisory board. It agreed to enter into the purchase option only because money would be available through the conservation program for the county to purchase it later, said Phil Pearl of Seattle, the administrator for the organization.

“It’s just a spectacular piece of property,” said Pearl.

The McLellan property is distinctive on county maps - a peninsula that sticks into Lake Spokane just across from Tum Tum. Because of the bend in the Spokane River, the land reaches as far north as Chattaroy and offers a view of Scoop Mountain, a peak as tall as Snoqualmie Pass that overlooks Scott’s Valley in Stevens County.

“Some people go to Lake Coeur d’Alene to see bald eagles,” said McGivern. “I remember seeing six in one day.”

The Trust for Public Land and the McLellan family reached agreement on a purchase option last week. Terms were not disclosed.

The non-profit organization has been involved in 1,000 property transactions in 41 states and, unlike government, can step in quickly when land becomes available. It usually holds land for less than a year.

Pearl started negotiations with the McLellan family before county commissioners talked about putting the tax on the ballot. He said he doesn’t know what the trust would do about the purchase option if the tax is repealed.

Pearl hopes county residents recognize the value of the program and vote to keep the tax.

John Roskelley, a mountain climber and author who is a member of the county parks advisory board, was one of the first to look at the land after McGivern came to a public meeting on the conservation futures tax.

“There are very few places along the lake that have that much shoreline,” Roskelley said. “There’s lily pads and and waterfowl and birds. There’s a beautiful bay and off-shore islands. It’s just a great place to take the family to enjoy a piece of property that’s pristine and not developed.”

For years the land belonged to Charlie Kimball, an employee of Washington Water Power Co., which still owns two islands that sit across from the McLellan land.

In the midst of the Depression, Kimball fell behind on payments on his land and leased it to McLellan’s father, who owned Mac’s Riding Stables.

Until 1976, the three McLellan brothers - Bob, Dick and Ray - owned some 5,000 acres around Seven Mile that was held in a family corporation.

The corporation was dissolved when all three brothers had taken jobs in town and were working to support their own families.

But the difficulty deciding which brother got what land played a part in Bob McLellan’s decision to sell his holding.

“There were times we thought we’d never be able to agree,” McLellan said. “It was very hard to decide who wanted what.”

Lola Anne McLellan, Bob’s wife, said the Lake Spokane land has always been special to her family. They used to pull a trailer down to it and set up camp.

Mainly, its been a place for the McLellans to enjoy the coming of spring.

Though he’s had purchase offers over the years, McLellan was able to preserve the land - it has never been logged - by keeping it in the county’s program for open space. Otherwise taxes would have forced him to develop.

“What they were doing was forcing you to sell or develop it,” he said. “We were always being pressed by real-estate people.”

The family can now only hope the purchase by the county becomes a reality.

Said Lola McLellan: “It’s so primitive, so special, you hate to change it.”