Since its inception in 1973, Sudden Valley, the planned community on the forested southern shore of Lake Whatcom, has earned a reputation for sometimes being a contentious place, where lawsuits fly and residents are pitted against developers, against local governments, against outside interests, against the board of directors — and against each other. But many say that tumult is grounded in a deep and abiding love for the place.
In a 1998 issue of the monthly newsletter, Sudden Valley Views, editor Robin Ireland reflected on the community association’s then-25th anniversary, writing: “Two themes run simultaneously throughout Sudden Valley’s history: The desire to keep this the special place that it is, and the political conflict and upheaval which have characterized that pursuit when visions don’t match.”
Conversations with residents of Sudden Valley and HOA staff 26 years later confirm that the community, now over half a century old, continues to wrestle with those exact themes.
From ranch to enormous HOA
With more than 3,000 single-family homes, 200 condominiums and nearly 8,000 residents, Sudden Valley is one of the largest community associations, or HOAs, in the state. If incorporated, it would beat out Blaine as the fourth most-populous city in Whatcom County.
But as it stands, Sudden Valley, outside Bellingham city limits, isn’t even designated as an urban growth area, and is unlikely to incorporate in the near future.
At the turn of the last century, the site was a remote logging camp where huge Douglas fir, Western red cedar and Western hemlock were harvested. Once the land was cleared of trees it passed from the original homesteaders, the Austin family, to Glen and Betty Corning, who in 1968 sold “the Ranch” to developer Ken Sanwick for $1.8 million.
The next year, Whatcom County approved the first Sudden Valley plat of 158 lots west of Lake Whatcom Boulevard, and in 1973, the Sudden Valley Community Association was established. (A Seattle advertising agency coined the subdivision’s name in the late 1960s but the inspiration behind the phrase has been lost to time.)
Originally, Sudden Valley was a haven for Canadians — the majority of properties in the subdivision were second homes.
Brian Kruhlak has lived in Sudden Valley full time since the early 1990s and raised his kids there. His parents were among those citizens from north of the border, and he estimates that foreign ownership in those days was as high as 90%.
While Kruhlak’s parents visited Sudden Valley every weekend during the summer, he stayed full time to work on the golf course as a teenager in the 1980s. The community association had special dispensation to hire Canadians for summer labor since there weren’t enough American kids in the neighborhood to take all the jobs.
In recent decades, the HOA has shifted from a seasonal retreat for Canadians and Seattleites to a full-time home for most residents.
The community offers diverse housing options from relatively affordable condominiums and apartments to sprawling houses overlooking the lake and rustic cabins high on the hillside in the shadow of Lookout Mountain.
Mary Stidham, a real estate agent with the Muljat Group, has worked with dozens of clients who were interested in Sudden Valley. She said today’s Sudden Valley buyer either wants to live in the forest, or near the lake, or is priced out of Bellingham — or some combination of all three.
A history of conflict
While the demographics of Sudden Valley have changed, one thing has remained constant: its history of discord, documented in the online archive of Sudden Valley Views.
Lawsuits started flying almost immediately after Sudden Valley came to be, when the majority owner sued other owners, who in turn countersued, over public-area ownership. Through the years, battles have been waged over sewer permits, a major flood caused by logging, a tiered dues system and the future of development in Lake Whatcom’s compromised watershed.
More recently, conflicts have emerged around short-term rentals, marina wet slip replacement and board transparency, to name only a few issues. Feuds have spread from the opinion page of Sudden Valley Views to social media platforms.
Today’s disputes, however, are nothing compared to the saga of Ewen Stewart, a Canadian developer who managed to buy up control of the board of directors by owning 800-plus lots. In 1991, Stewart, the board president, managed to oust the editor of Sudden Valley Views and the HOA’s general manager, and was in arrears on many of his properties. At one board meeting, Stewart faced hecklers, irate property owners and even a network TV crew when he was called to task for his debts. Stewart eventually resigned from the board and made a peace offering at the next year’s election by not exercising his voting power.
“Sudden Valley has survived political turmoil almost since its inception, because at its core it’s so special,” said Brian Kruhlak, whose father served on the board that wrested control back from Stewart. “It would be great to see a change in Sudden Valley’s reputation — invite people to come see the community and how great it is, instead of just hearing how crazy it can be.”
Two camps: ‘Upper’ and ‘Lower’ Gates
According to multiple Sudden Valley stakeholders interviewed for this story (not all of whom wished to be named due to possible blowback from neighbors) one of the main points of contention that separates the community into two camps is the resort-style amenities (and their cost).
The two camps are described by some as “the resort people” and “the naturalists,” or “the lower gates” and “the upper gates,” referring to the different neighborhoods based on their proximity to the golf course and waterfront. (Sudden Valley is loosely divided into areas called “gates,” but the failure-prone and frequently-vandalized road gates were removed in the mid-1980s.)
The homes located in the upper gates, on the flanks of Lookout Mountain, are generally more affordable and smaller. But regardless of the size of the house or property, monthly dues are the same for all owners: $146.06 for developed lots and condos, and $138.71 for undeveloped lots.
The golf course and marina are supported by specific user fees but some SVCA members still resent that any general dues go to the resort amenities. (Real estate agent Stidham said of the many buyers she has worked with, not one of them “had any interest in the golf course.”)
In the modern era, the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, or WUCIOA, became the subject of controversy in 2017. The law superseded Sudden Valley’s budgeting and voting process and made it almost impossible for voters to reject dues increases — previously, a dues increase required approval from a supermajority in Sudden Valley, but now 50% of voters plus one are required to veto an increase.
Prior to WUCIOA, residents had enjoyed decades of low dues, but that led to a lot of deferred maintenance of facilities and infrastructure. Once the new law passed, the board quickly raised dues from around $70 a month to nearly double that. Unhappy property owners retaliated by voting the majority of the board out in the next election.
Kruhlak spent 13 years as the Sudden Valley golf director before retiring in 2023, a job he called “a satisfying labor of love,” but said working where he lived wasn’t always pleasant. In the heated, hyper-local political environment, he was often grilled about the actions of the board of directors or general managers, even when he was away from work in social settings.
“It fascinates me as a poli-sci grad — partisan ideology has absolutely no bearing on Sudden Valley politics,” Kruhlak said. “It bums me out how divided the community is, and I’d love to see it less so. I just want to see Sudden Valley thrive and succeed.”
Governance in isolation
The Sudden Valley Community Association oversees the 1,200-acre community, levying dues from the owners of 3,157 lots, maintaining facilities, swimming pools and pocket parks, enforcing strict building regulations, mulching downed trees, plowing 40 miles of snowy roads, clearing out 80 miles of ditches and culverts, and generally functioning as its own jurisdiction, complete with an elected board of directors.
Nine voting members and two non-voting members make up the unpaid HOA board. Every year during the Annual General Meeting in November, three seats are voted on, as is the annual budget. Each property owner gets one vote per lot or condo owned. (Renters do not receive a vote.)
Voter turnout is relatively good for an HOA — property owners are invested and involved in the process, said general manager Jo Anne Jensen, who does not live in Sudden Valley. She’s been overseeing community operations since 2022, but she’ll be retiring to her east county farm this fall. The SVCA board is in the midst of its search for a new manager.
Jensen likes to bring visitors up to the second story of the historic Dance Barn to see the meeting room, a large wood-walled gathering place that was refurbished from a working barn. Home to everything from quinceañeras to film screenings to board meetings, the room clearly shows the agrarian roots of the 51-year-old community, she said.
Similarly, she believes the newsletter, Sudden Valley Views, which has an independent editor and is required in the SVCA bylaws, speaks to a core principle, established in the articles of incorporation: to engage with the community through social activities and communication.
Jensen was quick to acknowledge the HOA’s tempestuous reputation but said it comes with the territory. “People are passionate because they love this place,” she said. “The setting is what makes it special.”
Everyone wants a bright future for the hamlet on the lake, she said, but each person believes in different means to achieve those ends.
In general, the community has been welcoming and warm to her through her brief tenure as general manager, and only a small but vocal minority is responsible for most of the grievance-airing and infighting, Jensen added. Other residents interviewed confirmed they appreciated the friendliness and generosity of their neighbors.
In a recorded address to the community in October 2023, however, the general manager was more pointed with her remarks.
“Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the association is how to get along,” Jensen said in the speech. “As many of us know, Sudden Valley has the reputation of being a contentious and litigious community. This harms property values and hampers the ability of the association to attract and retain high quality staff and volunteers.”
She said that in order to change perceptions and get along better, residents need to keep a clear head and insist on “facts, not rhetoric, hearsay or gossip.”
Underserved by local government
On one front at least, many of the residents, staff and board members are united: They believe that even though Sudden Valley provides significant property taxes to Whatcom County, the community is neglected by local government. Jensen said she wants to see county leadership make more of an effort to check in on Sudden Valley.
Starting in 2007, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office dedicated a full-time deputy to Sudden Valley and Glenhaven area, but stopped doing so in 2022 due to limited resources. Deb Slater, the public information officer for the sheriff’s office, said the position may be reconsidered in 2026. In the time period from August 2023 to August 2024, officers responded to 18 accidents, 20 thefts, 10 vehicle prowls and 11 incidents of vandalism, according to the county’s live Crime Stats webpage. These numbers include the nearby Glenhaven neighborhood.
Because the 40 miles of road in Sudden Valley are privately owned, the sheriff’s office is not responsible for traffic enforcement except in the case of felony activity such as DUI or hit and runs. But, Jensen pointed out, SVCA’s contracted security firm isn’t empowered to perform traffic stops or other law enforcement actions — the HOA can only dole out fines for offenses after the fact.
Sudden Valley isn’t an urban growth area slated for more dense development, and there’s little appetite from property owners to form a new municipality, but on top of that, a major reason that Sudden Valley will likely never become a city is that its private roads aren’t built to code and weren’t designed for winter use. Even residents find the convoluted road network confusing, and the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t offer home mail delivery in Sudden Valley — each neighborhood has cluster mailboxes.
South Whatcom Fire Authority Chief Mitch Nolze said that topography is the biggest challenge to emergency response in Sudden Valley, which is the most densely populated part of the fire authority’s service area. The narrow, steep, unlit roads offer few evacuation routes. For example, Gate 1 has around 600 houses and only a single egress road — residents there have been told they can drive across the golf course in case of an emergency.
The heavily forested area around Sudden Valley is mostly under the Department of Natural Resource’s firefighting jurisdiction, with South Whatcom Fire Authority sharing resources as back-up. SWFA has a dedicated Sudden Valley station, although the station hasn’t housed emergency responders since January, when a burst pipe caused major flooding in the building. (Administrative staff and officers are still based in Sudden Valley.)
“We feel really lucky to have a fire station here,” Kruhlak said. “It’s a huge concern out here with forest fires. A fire would be devastating.”
Nolze said last year’s Blue Canyon fire on the northeast shore of Lake Whatcom was very visible and made Sudden Valley residents anxious about the possibility of a wildfire occurring closer to home. It drove home the importance of clear, speedy communication from emergency responders to residents, he said.
The fire chief also lives in Sudden Valley, and acknowledged that the HOA “runs more like a town, and with that comes politics.”
But even in a place with impassioned residents who have been known to pick a fight or two, there’s consensus on life’s essentials, like connection and safety.
“This community is really supportive of us, we have a good relationship with the community members,” Nolze said. “We’ve never had a poor interaction with the board or association. Any time there’s an opportunity for a partnership with them, we take it.”
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
