Is Lake Tapps a good place to live?

Who tends to love living at Lake Tapps

The people who settle in happiest here use the lake on ordinary days. They swim off the dock after work in August. They paddle out before the boats wake up, and from June on the life vests hang on hooks by the back door.

It also suits people who like a place that is mostly homes. Around the lake you’ll find houses, docks, the golf course on Tapps Island, a couple of parks and a great many firs. You won’t find a main street, a movie theater or a row of cafés. For a lot of owners, that quiet is the whole appeal.

The other requirement is not minding a drive. Nearly every errand starts with a trip into town, and nearly every commute starts with getting down off the plateau. If that sounds fine, the rest of this is about which version of lake life fits you. If it makes you wince, read the last section first.

A busy summer lake and a quiet off-season

Lake Tapps is a reservoir. Cascade Water Alliance owns and manages it on a yearly cycle: the water is kept up for recreation through the summer, lowered in the off-season, and brought back up in spring. Exact levels and timing change from year to year, and Cascade posts current information on its website.

Summer is the lake people picture. On a warm weekend the water fills with ski boats, wake boats, pontoons and personal watercraft, and boats raft up together in the coves for the afternoon. It is lively and, at times, loud. A house on a long stretch of open water will hear engines on a Saturday, and its dock will feel the wakes. Weekday mornings are a different lake entirely. A kayak pushed off the lawn at first light has the water nearly to itself, and evenings settle down again as the sun drops behind the trees.

Then the water comes down. Boats go up on lifts or out on trailers. Bulkheads, old stumps and the lake bottom near shore come into view, and how far the water pulls back from a given dock depends on how deep it is there. Shallow coves change the most.

Late summer can also bring algae advisories to parts of the lake. The health department posts them, and the article on swimming safely in Lake Tapps explains how to read one.

In the off-season the lake goes still, the neighborhoods go quiet, and on a clear day Mount Rainier stands up over the treeline. Newcomers are often surprised by how much of the year the lake is a view and how little of it is a playground. Before you decide what a dock is worth to you, see the house at both ends of the cycle, or ask the seller for photos of the shoreline at low water. Sellers on the lake often have them.

Errands happen in Bonney Lake, Sumner and Auburn

There is no Lake Tapps downtown. The south end of the lake sits inside the City of Bonney Lake, much of the rest is unincorporated Pierce County, and the stores, restaurants, doctors and hardware aisles are all in the towns around the edge.

For most households, groceries and everyday shopping happen along SR 410 in Bonney Lake. Downtown Sumner, down the hill to the southwest, has the Main Street restaurants and shops, a Sounder commuter rail station, and my office on Fryar Avenue. Auburn, off the plateau to the north, covers a lot of shopping, medical appointments and quick access to SR 167 for people on the north side of the lake. Which town becomes your town depends mostly on which shore you live on.

That pattern works well for people who batch their errands into one trip. It is harder on people who like to walk to coffee, or who expect the run for a forgotten ingredient to be a short one.

School districts follow the same patchwork. Depending on the exact address, a home near the lake can fall in the Sumner-Bonney Lake, Dieringer, Auburn or White River school district, and the lines don’t always match what a neighbor down the road has. Confirm with the district using the full property address before you fall for a house.

Getting off the plateau every morning

Lake Tapps sits up on a plateau above the valley, and the commute begins with getting down. From the south and west sides, most people take SR 410 west through Bonney Lake and down the hill into Sumner, where it meets SR 167. From the north side, several roads drop toward Auburn and its own connections to 167. From there, SR 167 runs north toward Kent and Renton, and south toward Puyallup, where SR 512 connects to I-5.

Transit is possible with a little planning. Sumner and Auburn both have Sounder stations with weekday commuter trains toward Seattle and Tacoma, and plenty of lake-area commuters drive to a station and ride from there. Check the current train schedule and the station parking situation before you build a life around it.

Drive the commute from the actual house, on a weekday, at the hour you would really leave. The plateau has only so many ways down, and a house that looks close to 410 on a map can still mean a slow crawl through Bonney Lake at the wrong time of day. Which roads each part of the lake uses is covered in the guide to Lake Tapps neighborhoods, shore by shore. Those same valley roads are part of the lahar question, since a plateau address still means a daily drive across the valley floor.

Waterfront, lake view or a neighborhood lake park

“Living at Lake Tapps” can mean three quite different things.

Waterfront. The lot touches the lake and usually has a dock, or room for one if current permits allow. This is the swim ladder and the boat lift at the bottom of the lawn. It also brings the responsibilities: the dock and lift, the bulkhead, the shoreline permits, and on many lots a septic system not far from the water. The buying on the water page lays out each of those checks.

Lake view. You see the water from the house but don’t own the shoreline. The view is real and the upkeep is lighter. You’ll launch a boat somewhere else. The city launch at Allan Yorke Park has recently been open only to Bonney Lake residents with a launch pass, and Pierce County runs a launch at North Lake Tapps Park on the north end, so check the current rules for whichever one you’d use. The Lake Life page covers the public parks and beaches around the lake. Ask what could be built or grown between you and the water over the next decade. The two are valued differently too, and an appraiser shouldn’t treat a lake-view sale as a comparable for waterfront, as the article on how Lake Tapps waterfront homes are appraised explains.

A neighborhood lake park. Several communities around the lake share a private beach, dock or launch run by their association. For a family that wants to swim and paddle without maintaining a shoreline, it can be the sensible middle ground. Read the association’s rules on moorage, guests and dues, and ask whether there is a wait list for boat slips before you count on keeping a boat there.

It is common to start out certain you need waterfront and end up happier with access, and the reverse happens too. Spend a warm Saturday and a gray Tuesday in the kind of place you’re considering, and the answer usually gets clearer. If boating is a big part of the plan, read up on the boating rules on Lake Tapps as well, since they shape what a summer on the water looks like.

Who might be happier somewhere else

A few situations where I’d look hard at alternatives:

• You want to walk to restaurants, shops or a train. Downtown Sumner, a few miles away, gives you more of that.
• You commute north every weekday on a fixed schedule. Test the drive at your real hour before you commit.
• You want the water without the upkeep of a dock, lift and bulkhead, and lake view or community access doesn’t appeal either.
• You want total quiet on summer weekends. A busy recreational lake brings engine noise and wakes when the weather is warm.
• You want a big, flat backyard. Many waterfront lots slope toward the water, and flat usable lawn is not a given.

None of these rules a buyer out on its own. They are the questions that tend to decide it, and they are better answered before an offer than after the first summer.