Looking for small town near Portland Interested in Camas. (Vancouver: for sale, real estate)

[liveablecity]

Hi,
We are a family with three children from the bay area and I want to move back to the Northwest where I am originally from. After living in the big city which is not family friendly we are looking for some specific things which would make a town very family friendly. Firstly, we want to be a part of a smaller community where the town comes together for celebrations and you know your neighbors or fellow citizens. Critical is a walkable downtown, preferrably with wide sidewalks where the kids can ride bikes or we can put them in the wagon as we go and get ice cream or pizza for example! This downtown needs to be easily accessible by bike from the residential areas. I mean not riding along a major highway or up or down huge hills, a town with an extensive system of bike paths that we could ride on would also be nice. Updated neighborhood parks or at least a great city park possibly with a water feature is very important, as is a great parks and rec center with swimming and classes for the little guys. Great accesibility to nature like hiking, swimming and river is important, I know Camas has this.

Being close to an economic base is important my husband does law/financial advising and I am an architect.

We would prefer to buy something with a couple of acres a little bit out of town, but still close enough to ride in and have some neighbors, this land cannot be on a busy street as we have small children.

Things that concern me about Camas and would like more feedback on. 1. How bad is the papermill smell?
2. How high are the winds, I know the Columbia Gorge is known for wind and I don't want to live in a super windy area, it just brings the chill factor to far down when you are fighting for a warm day.
3. Is anyone concerned about living on a dormant volcano, i.e. prune hill?

Any comments or suggestions would be great we want to move in the next 6 months to year.

[StealthRabbit]

Sorry to say Camas is not your Mayberry, but it may work (with adjusted expectations) Look for some of the Craftsman homes between Camas Library and St Thomas Catholic Church, best terrain / access for your desires. I know of a couple really nice ones for sale. (they are 'older and smaller', but that is necessary for decent atmosphere and affordable taxes (I pay $33 / day in property taxes, that is NOT affordable).

Originally Posted by liveablecity

Hi,
... Critical is a walkable downtown, preferably with wide sidewalks where the kids can ride bikes or we can put them in the wagon as we go and get ice cream or pizza for example! #(no bikes allowed on sidewalks, Great community downtown Pizza joint is moving to 192nd (where most of 'Camas lives'... over the hill from downtown, suburbia)

This downtown needs to be easily accessible by bike from the residential areas. ... huge hills,

a town with an extensive system of bike paths some to the east of Camas towards Washougal, they will be opening up a trail / bridge to Goot Park, this area will improve.

Updated neighborhood parks or at least a great city park possibly with a water feature is very important, as is a great parks and rec center with swimming and classes for the little guys NOPE !. I was fighting for that since 1991 (I gave up recently). As a commercial designer and RE investor myself, I provided drawings, fund raising, bid sheets, materials list ... for very recent community centers (Free info from Colorado P&R at the time)

Great accesibility to nature like hiking, swimming and river is important, I know Camas has this.

Being close to an economic base is important my husband does law/financial advising and I am an architect. (Camas will probably work for this)

We would prefer to buy something with a couple of acres a little bit out of town, but still close enough to ride in and have some neighbors, this land cannot be on a busy street as we have small children. (Fern Prairie, between fire station / airport and store) east and west of the main road. Rural streets in WA are NOT safe for biking. They are FAST, narrow, curvy, hilly and NO SHOULDERS

Things that concern me about Camas and would like more feedback on. 1. How bad is the papermill smell? on EAST side... Mostly non-existent, except a few days in March. BUT West... (downwind...) and above the mill (where the high $$ folks live, it is much worse
2. How high are the winds, ...fighting for a warm day. No warm days here Between Nov and May (you claim to be from We_t Wa?) coming from Colorado (sunny and cold, but I rode my bike to work DAILY, year-round) this place (Camas / Washougal) is FREEZING. I get lots of 50 -80 mph winds at my home, but reminds me of home (Colorado and Wyoming) + it keeps out the riff-raff. (BMW drivers ) Camas will see 40 mph once in a while, but downtown is not bad, probably 20 mph would be howling for Camas, but... the east wind is COLD, it is coming from Canada / Montana

3. Is anyone concerned about living on a dormant volcano, i.e. prune hill? Don't think Prune Hill is a threat. Maybe Mt St Helens or Mt Hood. What a way to go !!! (beats other more 'gruesome ways)

Any comments or suggestions would be great we want to move in the next 6 months to year.

The Library and downtown is nice, generally walkable with a Safeway, Subway, DQ, shops.... NO INDOOR SWIMMING POOLS, NO REC CENTER *though I here Fristenburg Center is nice for kids (~ 5 miles away in East Vancouver) I won't go there, as it spent all the money on it's Water feature, and I was 'Hoping' for a good lap pool... Need to go to Beaverton to get a 50M pool in a 'public' venue.

As a commercial real estate investor I cannot tell you how HAPPY I was to get my investments out of downtown Camas. This will not be an issue for a resident, only business and commercial property owners, but Camas will not accept that 60-70% of their businesses WERE funded by Washougal shoppers and staffed / owned by Washougal residents. This was not bad, but Camas and Washougal have a major rift and they have a greater than major issue with Economic Development strategy (which is about to be compounded by a joint effort that will include the Camas Mayor's company getting the contract to run it ). Camas and Washougal can't / won't talk, and the politicians are WAY too lame to fix it. Camas wants to think of itself as (Portland districts) quaint and bringing $$ by having boutique shops. BUT... that does not = a Sustainable, enjoyable, walkable community (which it CANNOT be without downtown residents with LOTS of money).
#1 it has few downtown residents
#2 they don't have money (nor services appropriate for their need).

Just imagine if the City would actually leverage it's benefits and be it's own identity to its own residents Good things could happen (which haven't for 25+ yrs). Downtown Camas is not drying up, BUT... it is running a lot of people broke (boutique, and commercial property owners). So Sad, as it could be 'fixed' tomorrow, or languish as it has for decades...(more likely).

If I were you I would move to Colorado, or if education is primary importance, get a job in Singapore till kids are ready for college.

[MellowGuy]

We (my spouse and I) moved to Vancouver last month (March, 2011) after trying to research the best place to retire. We have been house hunting, made an offer the first day out, but despite being the high bidder the other person got the property because they were further along in the process. We finally were able to find another place and, hopefully, will be closing in a month.

We were looking for a house that didn't require much renovation which put us in the Felida and Salmon Creek areas where many of the homes are less than 20 years old. Because many of the houses are short sales or foreclosures it's not exactly a buyer's market. The short sale houses can take a long time for a purchase to occur or are in poor condition despite only being 20 years old.

There are some nice ones left, but you the ones north of Salmon Creek might be best for you because the schools are along one street.

[hml1976]

We've lived in Camas now for three years and love it. But everything that StealthRabbit said is true. This isn't Mayberry or Westport, CT, Franklin, TN or Boulder, CO...which are more like what you describe. Camas is hilly, the downtown is area is framed on one side by the paper mill, parts of the area are wealthy suburban, parts are very rural. My mom always says its closer to a "real" small town than most places so close to a large city are, there's a mix of people and occupations.

Camas is suffering a bit from an identity crisis as StealthRabbit mentioned. Much of the west side of Camas (where I live) can't seem to get over the fact that Camas isn't Lake Oswego and they continue to push for a boutique and bistro downtown. There isn't the population to support it and most of the businesses seem to last less than a year.

That said, the people are friendly, the area is beautiful, the "small town" events are great and you'll see the same people at church, the coffee shop and the grocery store. Your kids will play with the same children on their soccer team that will be in their boy scout troop that will sit in their high school math class someday. We hope to never leave.