By Chris Carrel, Thinking Locally

Today’s look at debunking myths about Federal Way takes a look at our strip malls.

When people criticize Federal Way, they usually start with our proliferation of 1970s-era strip malls. Talk about plucking the low hanging fruit.

Yes, Federal Way has a rich heritage of ugly strip mall development. But go to any community that developed heavily in the late 1970s and early 1980s and you’ll see a similarly ugly style of strip mall. What can I say? At the time, they didn’t seem so bad. If you think the strip malls of the 1970s are bad, you should’ve seen the clothes we wore back then.

Critics, however, overemphasize the old strip malls and acres of hard surfaces in the downtown core, suggesting that is all there is to Federal Way — strip malls and pavement.

There are two fatal flaws in this Federal Way myth. The first is that it ignores recent history. The face of downtown Federal Way is changing from the strip malls of my youth to something more presentable. The Commons, long an unfortunately strong visual relic of the 1970s (think Carter Era 1970s), has been undergoing significant renovations.

In addition to exterior improvements, the construction of new restaurants like Applebee’s and McGrath’s Fish House near S. 320th modify the view of the parking lot and make for a more inviting mall and downtown.

The Pavilions Mall and Ross Plaza have similarly been updated. Unfortunately, the strip malls across S. 320th from The Commons are mostly untouched by the remodeling wave. This will change dramatically, however, as the Symphony development unfolds. Not only will the construction of four tall buildings alter the skyline, they will undoubtedly spur spin-off development that will remake that section of the downtown as well.

There is definitely some measure of ugly in our strip malls. But that is changing.

The second fatal flaw is the suggestion that the suburban strip mall-chic of our front door is what the rest of Federal Way looks like. Let’s look at the neighborhoods of Federal Way and its natural environment.

Federal Way’s neighborhoods represent a range of styles and personalities. There are solid, older middle class neighborhoods like Twin Lakes (formerly one of Federal Way’s premier neighborhoods), wealthy view homes along the water, obscene mega-mansions, rural enclaves like Spring Valley and rundown homes that are on the verge of becoming trouble magnets.

Our neighborhoods reflect a range of residential development that is typical of most Puget Sound cities and offers families a diverse range of living options.

It’s the natural environment, however, that really busts up the “strip mall is all there is to Federal Way” myth.

This city contains a remarkable bounty of natural landscapes and ecological systems for a suburban city our size.

First, there’s the Hylebos Creek Watershed, including the West Hylebos Wetlands and Hylebos Creek. The wetlands preserve attracts visitors from around the region, nation and, yes, world (our sign-in log has attracted signatures from just about every country).

The park has been called Seattle’s Best Urban Nature Walk by the Seattle Weekly and One of 50 Things Every Seattleite Must Do by the Seattle Metropolitan. It’s been written up by Sunset Magazine and The New York Times.

Hylebos Creek is one of Puget Sound’s urban stream success stories, with a well-known volunteer stream conservation effort that is working to preserve and restore more than 745 acres of stream and wetland habitat. There are parts of the watershed you can hike to where, surrounded by moss-covered Western red cedars and towering Sitka spruce, you forget you’re in the middle of a city of 83,000.

And there’s much more than Hylebos Creek. There’s some of the most beautiful and least developed Puget Sound shoreline in the urban zone of Pugetopolis. There’s the beautiful and well-hidden primeval bog off I-5. The Dumas Bay nature preserve contains great blue heron habitat and one of Puget Sound’s vital eel grass beds. Dash Point State Park offers hiking and nature enjoyment that ranges from the forested uplands down to sandy shoreline.

Over the years, as part of my job I’ve taken many Seattlites on tours of Hylebos Creek. They all say a variation of the same thing: I had no idea this was in Federal Way.

It’s funny what you can find when you actually get out and look.

Rate this one as myth. Yes, we have strip malls, but Federal Way is so much more than that.

Chris Carrel is a lifelong Federal Way resident and executive director of the Friends of the Hylebos. Chris can be contacted at chinook@hylebos.org or (253) 874-2005.