NCW Real Estate Blog

The Open House to discuss a sewer plan for the Olds Station and Sunnyslope areas last night drew quite a crowd of 60 plus!  It opened with Chelan County Commissioner Buell Hawkins discussing the history of the situation in Olds Station. 

In the past, the PUD has put sewer mains in the Olds Station area and has served the fruit warehouses and primarily the Port of Chelan properties in the area.  Virtually all remaining connections available have been banked by the port for their future needs.  The main that runs to the city sewer plant on Worthen is also at capacity as well as the pumping stations serving the area.  High volumes of biosolids from the fruit processing facilities have also caused issues for the sewer treatment plant in Wenatchee.

The situation was basically where the city did not control what was coming into their system and there was no ability or incentive to expand service to an area that is slated to take a large share of growth in the region.  So, several years ago the city, county, port and PUD started working together to address the situation.

A plan was developed on how the system could be upgraded incrementally to allow additional service while scaling capital costs to the usage.  The open house last night was the introduction to the public on how a plan might be developed from here and what interest there might be from the public.

There are basically three types of customers that might be [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Land Use, Local by Al Lorenz
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The latest Snapshot Report from Pacific Appraisals shows that pricing in the Wenatchee market is basically stable, with little change since February of last year.  Sales volume, while still below last year, is remaining down about 27% by transaction volume and 30% by dollar volume but not declining further.

Inventories are continuing to rise, with more homes being listed than sold and a total of 653 homes on the market at the end of September.

In the current environment, Wenatchee is really doing incredibly well.  Thanks again to Pacific Appraisals.

Tags: General Interest, Local, Marketing by Al Lorenz
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This is the type of fun that everyone in the county can still have.  Admittedly, I am a geek about this kind of stuff.  Regardless, the first workshop in Chelan was well attended, lively, and productive.  For those of you who like to do your homework and have useful information at these events, I even have a link to the list of questions that will be asked by the moderators!

As public meetings go that impact our lives, these are important and well run events that even stayed on schedule!  I’ll probably even go to a second one!  The shorelines (usually considered 200 feet from the water) under regulation by the Shorelines Management Act in the county can be found in the Draft Shoreline Inventory.

The first few questions in the session included, and there are many more:

1. Are there adequate areas for residential, business, recreation, public access, [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Land Use, Local by Al Lorenz
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Chelan County and the City of Wenatchee together are inviting citizens interested in municipal sewer in the Olds Station and Sunnyslope areas to a public open house.  Both the City and County have information to share and will be available for questions regarding sewer service north of the Wenatchee River. 

Topics are to include:

1. A summary of infrastructure needs based on the City’s comprehensive plan;
2. Information for significant industrial users in the Olds Station Area;
3. Financing improvements through Local Improvement [Read more →]

Tags: Land Use, Local by Al Lorenz
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The Shoreline Master Planning program currently underway with Chelan County, the cities of Chelan, Cashmere, Entiat, Leavenworth and Wenatchee is looking for public input.  They have a series of public workshops scheduled throughout the county.  Also, available here, is the Draft Shoreline Inventory which you can comment on in writing by Friday October 31st by sending comments to:

Erin Fonville
SMP Project Manager/Natural Resource Specialist
Chelan County Natural Resources
316 Washington St. Suite 401
Wenatchee, WA  98801

Office:  (509) 667-6324
E-mail:  erin.fonville@co.chelan.wa.us

The schedule for the workshops:

City Workshop Schedule:

Tuesday, October 21st, 6-8 p.m., City of Chelan, City Hall
135 E Johnson Avenue, Chelan [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Land Use, Local by Al Lorenz
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The Stella Street Condominium project, just off McKittrick in Wenatchee completed its phase 1 of 24 units just this September.  Of course, this is not the ideal time to have inventory coming on the market so the developer, Gary Noyes, is getting adjusting his game plan to rent the units as apartments.

According to an article in the Wenatchee Business Journal by Ryan Bently, normally Mr. Noyes would expect to sell the units as condominiums in about 6 months.  In the current market, it would take much longer.  So, to adjust to the market, he will now rent the condos as apartments.  He intends to market the project as apartments as well.

While not an ideal outcome, it may well be [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Local, Marketing by Al Lorenz
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