A SHORT HISTORY OF THE DELPHI ASSOCIATION
In the late 1960’s
the Delphi Area was approximately fifteen square miles of forest, small
farms, rural homes and the beginnings of a few small suburban developments.
The community has always had a strong sense of citizen interest and
commitment to the preservation of the beauty of the area. This was
particularly evidenced when garbage dumps were proposed for the area and
intense community action averted these proposals. One of the proposed
dumpsites later became the Alpine Hills development.
As the result of this
and other developments and the fear of runoff from a large number of septic
tanks, the Thurston County Planning Commission was contacted and asked to
meet with the community to help them design a plan for responsible
development of the Delphi Area. A meeting was held in the old Delphi School
and was enthusiastically attended. From this meeting the Delphi Association
was formed and began the task of designing a land-use plan for the area.
The Association
developed a survey and hand-carried it to 225 families residing in the area,
of which 176 were returned. 125 surveys were mailed to landowners not
living in the area, of which only five were returned. The results of the
survey were analyzed for a couple of years during which many meetings were
held to gain insight into the wishes and desires of the Delphi residents and
to supplement areas of development not covered in the questionnaire. There
were many disagreements among those that wanted to maintain the area as it
was, and those that wanted to develop their property for profit.
Out of these meetings
and discussions came a report with suggested guidelines and recommendations
for preserving the rural character of the area and still allow healthy
development within the capacity of the land and its resources. The report
was called:
The Delphi
Area, Road to the Future, a Peoples Report. The report was
submitted to the Thurston County Planning Commission and was regretfully
turned down. A group from the Nisqually Delta had also just submitted a
report calling for a deep-sea port and heavy industry rezoning for their
area and the Commission said that if they accepted our report, they would
have to accept their report too, and that would be a disaster for the
Nisqually Delta. The Association felt badly, but understood the situation
and wondered, sadly, what to do next. But, the story has a happy ending!
A short time later a
meeting was called in the Littlerock High School for all residence to meet
and develop local land-use plans. The Association was well represented, and
when people from different areas were sent to different rooms, the
Association members followed the crowd to their assigned room and waited to
see what would happen. People just looked around and asked what they were
supposed to do and all the eyes of the Association members lit up. They
knew what to do and were well prepared to do it, hence most of the
recommendations from The Peoples Report were incorporated into the
land-use plan that eventually came to guide development of The Delphi Area.
It should also be
noted that during the years that the report was being written, the
Association was involved in many encounters with developers who wanted to
‘leave their mark’ on the area. One example is the development called
Cougar Ridge. The developer wanted a gas station, convenience store, a
high-rise office building and apartments that lined the McLane Nature
trail. The Association successfully contested this development, resulting
in the current Cougar Ridge development, which better fits the area’s rural
character. At one of these hearings one Commissioner began the meeting by
saying: “I can tell that the Delphi Association is here, I couldn’t find a
parking place.” The Association was always there and always active during
those ‘planning years’ and contributed a great deal to why we now often hear
people say, when we tell them that we live in the Delphi Area, “That is such
a beautiful area.” And it is. The Delphi Association will always work to
preserve that beauty and to maintain the rural character that has attracted
the residents that choose to live here.
