There's a point on Whidbey Island from which you can see the Olympic mountains, Mount Ranier, the Cascades, Vancouver Island in Canada and, if you're lucky, a gray whale swimming by below. The tribal name for that spot translates roughly into Where the Earth, the Sky and the Sea Meet and You Can See into the Past and into the Future. It's a piece of paradise.

When Bayview opened its doors 10 years ago, owners Jim and Maureen Rowley wanted to nurture Whidbey's natural beauty. At a time when organic gardening carried the taint of extremism in most garden retailers' minds, Bayview carried only nontoxic goods. Those in the Northwest who were devoted to organic gardening were willing to travel to buy supplies, but the store's customer base is its local community of about 15,000. If the Rowleys wanted to stay afloat, they realized they would have to demystify organic gardening for the average person.

The Rowleys found a receptive audience. Those who move to South Whidbey Island chose to live there because of its beauty. Water resources are scarce, and no one wanted to threaten the quality of their fresh water supply. Wildlife is also abundant on Whidbey. So with a little gentle prodding, the community rallied to the Rowleys' banner of organic gardening and helped them grow from a $300,000 business to $1.2 million today.

Bayview sits on 21?2 acres of a 15-acre triangular piece of land, nestled next to a few other businesses - a coffee house, a farmer's market, an art galley and a community hall. When the Rowleys first set up shop a decade ago, the farmer's market was at a fledgling stage. With only a handful of booths, customer flow was anemic. The Rowleys wanted to create a sense of community not in just their own store, but with all the businesses. They laid defined paths between their store and the market and the coffee house. On weekends, when the nursery was buzzing with customers, they would hire local musicians to set up near the walkway to the farmer's market to draw customers' attention to their neighbors.

The market immediately blossomed. "It grew exponentially," Maureen said. "And today we benefit each other. We wanted to develop a town square feeling. We put up signs to let customers know where the coffee shop was and landscaped the gardens around the farmer's market."

Within a couple of years, the newly dubbed Bayview Corner (as the 15-acre area is called) became exactly what the Rowleys envisioned - a place to shop, visit and relax for the community.

When word of the island's appeal leaked to Seattle- based developers, those ties to the community would play an important role in Bayview Farm & Garden's future.

The developers realized the southern half of Whidbey Island is a gem. While the northern half of Whidbey is dominated by tract houses, fast-food joints and a naval base (home base of the China spy plane crew that made headlines in 2001), the southern half of the island is still rural. In the mind of a developer, this means there are woods and meadows just begging for condominiums and strip malls.

One main highway threads through Whidbey Island, and Bayview Corner lies about 7 miles from the southern ferry landing. It falls away from that highway, lending a view of the group of businesses. On an island where cedars and hemlocks edge most highways, a view like this is to be envied.

In 1998, the Rowleys were leasing the land when the property owner decided to sell. Those who could afford Bayview Corner were those interested in tearing down existing buildings and putting in office buildings or a small shopping mall. The Rowleys began looking at various financing options so they could buy the 1 acre they were leasing as well as another 11?2 acres so they could expand. "While we were looking for a solution, we were never that worried," Maureen said. "My community would not have let the developers take over." And indeed, the Rowleys were approached with an unusual proposal.

Goosefoot project

Bayview had two powerful customers, attorney Linda Moore and a local philanthropist, Nancy Nordhoff. The challenge the Rowleys faced, buying land that interested off-island investors, made the two realize how big a part the retailer plays in the community. Nordhoff was also concerned about losing historical buildings to modern convenience stores.

The pair met with the Rowleys, then the other business owners. Strongly influenced by the Rowleys' enthusiasm and creative retail approach, an unusual vision developed. Inspired by the cooperative business technique the Rowleys had started years before, Nordhoff and Moore decided they could do much more than reach their original goals of preserving the open spaces that were part of Bayview Corner and restoring the historic buildings.

First, they could help businesses like Bayview Farm & Garden receive funding to purchase or lease their land at reasonable rates. But most importantly, they could create an organization to foster the Rowley brand of responsible, resource-sharing retailing for other businesses. And so they did, calling the organization Goosefoot (named after the low-growing salt-tolerant plant).

Goosefoot purchased the entire 15-acre Bayview Corner, then invited the various businesses, including Bayview Farm & Garden, to purchase or lease the land from them. The low-interest loan came with a few strings attached in the form of a legal, permanent covenant that restricted use of the land and preserved its historical character. The covenant would pass from owner to owner, so that no matter who held the property, the owner was legally bound to uphold the restrictions. A non-compete clause (between businesses at Bayview Corner) was thrown into the agreement as well.

From that first step three years ago, the Bayview Corner companies, led by the Rowleys, began setting even more idealistic goals than before and pooling their resources.

A surprising thing happened. Instead of falling on their faces for their Quixotic vision, they were reaching those goals and - even more amazing - steadily increasing their profits.

Environmentally sound business practices

The Bayview Corner businesses are all owned independently, but they work together in uncommon ways. They share parking agreements, septic systems and storm water. The Rowleys worked with a company to make a durable porous asphalt and shared it with other businesses. The group has tracked down other alternative building materials like Rastra (a cement/foam brick), recycled plastic "timbers," porous pavers and scrap lumber from a demolished warehouse.

About half of Bayview Corner's 15 acres is open space, educational trails or a wetland for wildlife habitats. The businesses have the assurance that the property is in the hands of a group that will not develop the land and will maintain a scenic buffer between them and the highway.

The jewel in the crown of this effort is an unlikely one: the new public restroom. It's a dazzling combination of architecture and engineering. Solar panels on one slope of the roof provide electricity. Building materials, from the fixtures to the structure itself, are all either recycled materials or salvage pieces. And the true wonder is that there is no "net discharge" of wastewater. To accomplish that bit of engineering, it has a composting toilet, recycles gray water and collects rainwater. While "composting toilet" sounds unattractive, primitive and, well, smelly, it actually looks a lot like a traditional toilet except that a sheet of cleansing foam is constantly sliding down the sides of the bowl. As for the smell, there isn't one.

Balance independence with interdependence

The businesses work together on which costs they will share. Some examples are infrastructure development (like the septic system) and shared advertising. On a small corner of the property is the Whidbey Telephone Co., which is not part of the Goosefoot Community Fund. The Rowleys have a parking agreement with the phone company, since peak hours for the two businesses complement one another. There are other projects the group is discussing with the phone company, like the possibility of hooking into the Bayview Corner septic system, a concept that can be expanded in the future to include other nearby businesses and perhaps generate revenue.

The cooperative efforts ultimately benefit each business because the owners are still profit driven. "We want to make money," Maureen said. "But we also want to be responsible about how we do that. On an island, we depend on what fresh water we have to sustain us. In this case, we have an aquifer, and we have to be careful about what we let get into it."

Independence applies to the community as a whole. Older island natives have a lot of island history stored in their memories. The Whidbey Historical Society has teamed with Bayview Corner to sponsor a series of live radio broadcasts called "Bayview Live" that feature their stories. Teaching space in the old Cash Store brings in residents for lessons from fencing to sculpting.

Building the store little by little

When the Rowleys switched from renting to land ownership, they doubled the space of their store to 21?2 acres. Most of the extra space is for outdoor plant sales. Customer and friend Tom Berger, a renowned landscape architect in the Seattle area (he designed REI's flagship store), made the garden center his pet project and laid out the newly enlarged plant sales department. Bob Lilly, another customer and friend, designed the perennial border at Belleview Botanical Garden outside of Seattle. He volunteered to design Bayview's perennial display garden.

Each year, the Rowleys are slowly transforming the store to match their high-quality products and idealistic approach to the environment. Since Berger designed the sales yard, the couple has installed small demonstration gardens throughout the plant sales area. After visiting England to tour garden centers, the Rowleys commissioned a metal arbor walkway to train vines on. It now leads customers from the covered space to the sales yard. This year, there are two big projects. The Rowleys are adding a 7-foot stone and black chain link fence between the parking lot and the sales yard. Maureen plans to grow ivy on the chain link sections, with peepholes in geometric shapes cut in. The second big project is expanding the feed barn another 30 feet and bridging it and the main building with a covered walkway. The store will also move its offices to the new addition.

Bayview Farm & Garden Location: Langley, Wash., on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound on 2 1/2 acres. Founded: 1993 by Jim and Maureen Rowley. Employees: 20 full and part time. Annual retail sales: $1 million plus. Community: South Whidbey Island has a diverse mix of people, and Bayview serves them all. On any given day you can find farmer, retired professionals from Seattle, artists and wealthy landowners shopping in the store. Almost all of them are cause-oriented. For more: Bayview Farm & Garden, 2780 Marshview Ave., Langley, WA 98260; (360) 321-6789; fax (360) 321-0959. Goosefoot Community Fund, P.O. Box 114, Langley, WA 98260; (360) 221-7847; fax (360) 221-8423.

. © 2002 Branch-Smith Publishing