New road appears on side of Candy Mountain. Why Benton County shut it down
Excavation for a road on the northern flank of Candy Mountain near West Richland is stopped for now.
But in the future, the road rising at an angle from Kennedy Road could serve new homes while doubling as a trail head for a future extension of the wildly popular Candy Mountain hiking trail.
Benton County officials ordered a neighboring property owner to halt the road excavation work after the Tri-City Herald asked about the unexpected appearance of graders on a strip of land owned by the Kennewick Irrigation District this spring.
Several curious residents in the area asked the Herald what’s going on through our “What’s being built there?” feature.
The site is in unincorporated Benton County, but is in plain view of the West Richland city shops on Belmont Drive.
The excavation work apparently began after March 4, when KID granted an easement across its property to a Richland resident who owns 10 acres that are landlocked by other owners.
“The landowner stated the excavation is to provide an access road to multiple parcels that are to be sold with the potential for future residential construction. There is currently no planned development of these properties,” Glenn Vaagen, Benton County spokesman, told the Herald.
Vaagen said the owner was told to halt work until they received the proper permits.
Work stopped several weeks ago, but at least three pieces of heavy construction equipment remain on the site.
Benton County property records identify David St. Hilaire as the legal owner of the 10-acre parcel. The KID property serves as a barrier between his land and Kennedy Road. St. Hilaire could not be reached this week by the Herald.
Future homes, hiking trail
KID granted an easement to St. Hilaire and two relatives in early March, according to a document recorded by the county auditor’s office.
Seth Defoe, the irrigation district’s land water resources manager, said the easement was meant to serve twin purposes. First, it would give its neighbor access to Kennedy. Second, it would serve as a corridor for the future extension of the Candy Mountain Preserve hiking trail.
Defoe said KID expects that any development on the easement across its property to comply with legal development requirements.
The only route to the Candy Mountain summit is an out-and-back trail that starts at a trail head off Dallas Road on the opposite side of the hill.
Friends of Badger Mountain, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving public access to local ridges, hopes to push the trail over the summit and down the north flank toward Kennedy. It would turn along a canal and head west from there, said Bob Bass, president.
Bass noted that its project doesn’t require a full road, just enough to accommodate a trail with a minimum width of 5 feet.
8-year effort
Friends of Badger Mountain has been working to secure easements on Candy Mountain’s north side on and off for about eight years, Bass said.
The trail will descend from the summit along an undetermined route across mostly private land.
Friends of Badger Mountain is finalizing an easement deal with Ramer B. Holtan Jr., a Mercer Island attorney who owns hundreds of acres on Candy Mountain.
Holtan told the Herald he initially invested in Candy Mountain more than 20 years ago, anticipating it would develop in the future,
Over time, he’s come to view it more as a preservation project.
Last August, he sold 40 acres near the 1,400-foot summit to Friends of Badger Mountain. Bass said a supporter who wanted to stay anonymous funded the purchase. County records show the price was $720,000.
Bass said the agreement with Holtan included the right to negotiate an easement to bring the trail down the northern face across his property. The trail could be rerouted if needed to accommodate future development.
“We said, we’ll put a trail in and if you want us to move it, we’ll move it. The only thing you have to guarantee is we’ll have a route through that meets our grade and width specs,” he said.
He’s optimistic the trail extension and possibly even a new trail head could be ready for hikers in two years.
“It will be neat trail. There’s some neat gullies going through there,” he said.
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