This editorial will appear in Monday’s print edition.

For 20 years, the Cascadia planned community has been a dream on the horizon, high on a plateau between Orting and Bonney Lake in East Pierce County.

Thousands of people would live there, and because it would be largely self-contained – with a variety of residences, workplaces, schools and shopping – it wouldn’t add significantly to local traffic congestion.

It was the community of the future – planned, not hodgepodge like most of the development in Pierce County.

But the dream came crashing to earth in the recession – along with the housing industry, banks’ ability to lend money and and people’s ability to borrow it. Cascadia was caught in the crunch; HomeStreet Bank foreclosed on developer Patrick Kuo in 2009 after he defaulted on $75 million in loans.

Now there’s hope that the state’s largest planned community will start moving forward again. The new owner, Newland Real Estate Group of San Diego, is a highly reputable developer with a 43-year track record of building planned communities all across the United States.
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