Chelan Hills is a neighborhood that was built in 3 phases, known as divisions I, II and III. It is between Lake Chelan Shores and Crystal View Estates along the north shore of Lake Chelan.
Chelan Hills is the neighborhood that started it all! It was the most ambitious of the original projects on Lake Chelan that promoted vacation homes in the Seattle area. It was conceived and marketed before Wapato Point or Lake Chelan Shores.
It started with a group called Chelan Riviera in the 1964 or 1965 time frame. That group of investors included Jerry Scofield who is still creating at Bear Mountain. Currently he is the driver behind the wonderful Bear Mountain Ranch on the south shore.
But, after getting started with Division I of Chelan Hills and putting in the original dirt road in that area, the Chelan Riviera group ended up selling to Chelan Associates which was a development group who had built out recreation subdivisions on Lake Cushman and Lake Tapps. Eventually the part of that group that was Lake Tapps Development took over the Chelan Hills project.
Chelan Hills, when it was first conceived, was outside of the City of Chelan boundary and had no water available. So, in what was a different time, they accomplished a “ribbon annexation” in where a 100′ wide strip of land from the city limit, near Darnells at the time, was annexed into the city all the way out to Chelan Hills.
That allowed water to be run out to their 550 acres and the subdivision to have the infrastructure it needed to get started.
Chelan Riviera had sold, or taken deposits, on about 30 lots in Division I. The Chelan Associates group approached the original purchasers and informed them that they were going to get the water installed and asked them to either get current on their payments or give their lots back. 15 or 20 stayed with the program.
The program in those days was the sale of lots for somewhere in the $1,150 t0 $1350 price range. That usually meant a couple of hundred bucks down and payments of around $25 per month on a ten year contract!
This was also the time frame when the last person leaving Seattle was supposed to “turn out the lights” when they left town! The economy was reeling and Boeing and Seattle were having a particularly rough go.
Tim Flood, an associate Broker at Windermere in Chelan, was one of the original sales folks involved with Chelan Associates and Lake Tapps Development. He gracefully told me these stories and of the challenges of the time.
He also told me of being at the Seattle Home Show with a 14′ long model of Lake Chelan under a clear cover. At that time, only maybe 3 in 10 folks at the show had ever heard of Lake Chelan. But, they advertised. They ran ads in newspapers, radio and at home shows all over Washington. At times in the newspaper their ad trying to sell vacation properties was right next to headlines telling people to stay away from Lake Chelan because of forest fire danger!
The economy and a few summers with bad forest fires added to the challenge of getting the property sold!
In that era, the roads in Chelan Hills were a type of chip seal that did not hold up all that well. But, there really wasn’t much traffic since the area didn’t really take off for people actually building until later.
As time passed, and they got 8 of 10 folks in Seattle having heard of Lake Chelan, a few things fell their way and later lots were sold in the $4000 plus range.
In the late 70′s and early 80′s the area became popular as more and more homes were built out. The need for services, school buses and other urban services also increased as many folks decided to live there full time.
What is now Lake Chelan Shores was property owned by these same developers. When the purchased the property, it was common to fill in property that was flooded by the dam and utilize that waterfront. However, in 1971 a Supreme Court decision on a property near the Three Fingers put an end to that practice.
Had it not, the developers planned to use the hill where The Highlands is now to fill in their 1200″ or so of additional water frontage between the Lake Chelan Shores area and what is now Crystal View Estates. With that ended, and no more need for the gravel and fill from that hill, the Highlands area was eventually divided up into 5 acre lots. In 1978 or 1979 the Lake Tapps Development group did start work on Lake Chelan Shores.
Today, Chelan Hills is revered for its narrower, intimate streets that curve through the hills of the neighborhood, and its active and well maintained community amenities. It has two community pools, several sets of tennis courts and the community beach up lake from Lake Chelan Shores.
It has a mix of housing from original lake cabins, many with additions through the years, to newer custom homes. Today, it is has a relatively high percentage of year round residents, paved streets and sewer availability.
The area that originally had locals 40 years ago wondering “who would ever live out on that sage brush hill” has blossomed into a swan that is one of Lake Chelan’s most desirable neighborhoods to this day.
The Chelan Hills Acreage Tracts Association has a web site that has the Articles of Incorporation, Covenants, Bylaws and minutes from Association meeting as well as plat maps.
