There’s something worth paying attention to in Seaview, Wash. There’s a realistic chance that a long-standing fight over dune development can be resolved with a fair and sensible compromise. This experience would serve as a model for land planning up and down the coast.

A broad-based negotiating group – comprised of citizens for and against development, state and county planners, and others – has a plan that achieves a number of important goals.

From the public’s standpoint, this compromise means most of Seaview’s dunes would remain undeveloped. If decades of fighting over this land has demonstrated anything, it is that an amazing number of people have a passionate concern for this precious piece of wetland-laced grassy seashore framed by cliffs and forests. This passion is reflected in the fact the Washington State Parks Department considers Seaview dune preservation one of its highest priorities.

Over the course of the past five years, long-overlooked Long Beach Peninsula has begun to come into its own, with recognition as one of the West Coast’s most historic and scenic areas. But well before real estate prices started to soar, a regionwide constituency saw what local residents sometimes perhaps did not: The Seaview dunes deserve to be more than just another target for development.

By permitting additional homes only in a zone near Seaview’s existing residential area, the proposal now on the table preserves the area of dunes that people can see from the beach. In the spirit of Washington’s Growth Management Act, it concentrates new houses in the area where municipal services may most reasonably be provided.

Allowing any houses at all won’t please those who consider the entire area sacrosanct. But from a pragmatic standpoint it protects the most traveled and visible portion of the dunes.

Another important public purpose is served by this compromise, which is the generation of property tax revenue and construction-related business activity. Home building is a key driver of the coastal economy. By breaking the logjam that long stopped what will surely be ultrahigh-end home construction in one of Washington’s most prestigious places, this compromise will be good for everyone from the framers who put up the walls to the grocery clerks who sell corn flakes to new residents.

Those dune owners who wish to develop will gain certainty. By locking in subdivision rights, probably accompanied by an advance sign-off from state and federal agencies, potential developers can sidestep years of permitting hurdles, bureaucratic red tape and private lawsuits. There’s also a distinct possibility that funds will be available to purchase development rights from any willing sellers.

None of this is business as usual in Pacific County or, for that matter, any other coastal county. All those who have worked so hard to bring this agreement about deserve thanks and praise. It’s time to close the deal.