After 20 years in Snoqualmie government, including 16 years as the city’s mayor, Matt Larson called for adjournment of the city council for the final time Dec. 13.

“Have a good evening everyone,” he said as a final sign-off. “It’s been a pleasure.”

The adjournment marks the end of an era for Snoqualmie and for Larson, whose two decades in public office coincided with the most transformative and challenging periods in the city’s history.

Larson led the city through rapid population growth, the buildout of the Snoqualmie Ridge, the revitalization of historic downtown, and the worst of a once-in-a-century pandemic, just to name a few.

“I was just so deeply grateful for the community that they elected me to council and even more [grateful] when I was elected mayor. It was such a profound privilege to feel that the public had given me so much trust,” he said. “I walk away feeling nothing but deep heartfelt gratitude. It was a real gift to serve as mayor for this community.”

Larson was first elected to public office in 2001, when Snoqualmie had less than 2,000 residents, winning a seat on the city council with less than 900 votes between the two candidates. Today, the city’s population is above 14,000.

“When I moved in, even before I was on council, it was forest and dirt roads around much of the Ridge,” he said.

The growing pains of what at one point was the state’s fastest-growing city was a recurring theme for the Larson administration, as the city tried to find a way to meet the needs of a growing and diversifying population.

When Larson first took office, the city only had the standard police, fire and administration offices and had services mandated by the state that it was unable to meet. Even today, the city still lacks a human services department.

To address this need, one of Larson’s first actions was to prioritize funding and support for the food bank, recreation services, the homeless shelter, Encompass, the senior center and other nonprofits.

Jennifer Kirk, the executive director of Snoqualmie Valley Shelter Services, said the support Larson and the city have provided over the years has been invaluable in advocating for the betterment of residents, regardless of socioeconomic status.

“He is someone I could always call upon to brainstorm ideas and discuss creative solutions to challenges we were facing,” Kirk said. “Without [his] advocacy, partnership and support, I’m not sure our agency would have the reach it does today. He leaves behind a beautiful legacy and will be greatly missed.”

Much of the growth — and animosity — during Larson’s time in office came from the 1,300 acres the city annexed in the 1990s for the Snoqualmie Ridge, which grew the city population by nearly 400% between 2000 and 2010.

“You don’t [more than] quadruple the population of a town in 10 years and think everything’s going to be all happy-face,” Larson told the Seattle Times in 2011.

Reflecting on possibly his most visible achievement, Larson said he often felt the weight of adhering to an original vision of the Ridge as a pedestrian-centric, walkable, smart-growth community with a design that encourages neighborhoods to come together. He said holding to that vision was not always easy as the economy fluctuated throughout the decade.

“I stood on the shoulders of a lot of giants who put the Snoqualmie Ridge in motion with an extraordinary vision,” he said. “The difference in design really changes how people behave and interact. I’m proud of that vision and that we held to that standard.”

More recently, Larson and the city have battled other challenges, including the ongoing economic shortcomings that followed the Ridge buildout. Larson said fiscal sustainability will be the biggest challenge facing the new mayor and council.

In 2019, at his annual state of the city address, Larson said Snoqualmie was in the best economic position in its history. He said the city had worked hard for over a decade to ensure that once all the one-time revenue generated by the Ridge development went away that the city would not be in a financial crisis.

“That was not hyperbole,” he said.

What changed just a few months later was the fallout of the Salish Lodge Expansion Project, after its purchase by the Snoqualmie Tribe halted construction. Larson said that development represented four to five years of funds that would be needed to address rising annual service costs and inflation.

Less than half a year after the expansion project fell through, the pandemic struck, taking an even bigger toll on city revenue as the bottom fell out of many local businesses. Since then, the city has pulled back on a lot of new initiatives and maintenance, keeping staffing numbers to a minimum.

“It went from a storm to a perfect storm,” Larson said.

Kelly Coughlin, the executive director of the SnoValley Chamber of Commerce, credits Larson for working diligently alongside businesses in Snoqualmie and North Bend during the pandemic to help them apply for grant funding.

“Without him, a lot of businesses would not have made it,” she said. “Our Valley has a lot to be thankful for.”

Although Larson said he was disappointed that he could not see the city through the pandemic, he did achieve his goal of seeing the city through the final buildout of the Snoqualmie Ridge. Starting in January, he will be replaced by Councilmember Katherine Ross, whom he endorsed for mayor last May.

“I have learned a lot from Mayor Larson over these past four and a half years as a councilmember and as I prepare for my role as mayor,” Ross said. “He has reinforced his belief that as mayor, you cannot accomplish goals and priorities by yourself. It takes collaboration and relationships.”

After over 600 council meetings, Larson said he is looking forward to being a private citizen and is hoping to take a semi-retirement to spend time with his family and new 1-year-old grandchild — before beginning to take on new challenges. This includes the possibility of helping out the short-staffed bus fleet at the Snoqualmie Valley School District.

“I’ve been half-joking with people that you might find me driving school buses,” he said.

During his time as mayor, Larson said some of his favorite accomplishments were the Sister Cities program, rebuilding the historic downtown infrastructure, seeing out the original vision of the Snoqualmie Ridge and helping build the city’s new community center.

However, despite all these accomplishments, when asked about his legacy, Larson said he has no interest in taking credit for these projects and only hopes people remember him as a collaborator who could bring opposing sides together.

“There’s no way I could point to any of these things and even suggest that any of them had to do with me,” he said. “Those successes were born of hundreds of individuals. If anything I just played the role in making sure their voices and genius rose to the top.

“As the old saying goes, success is born of many fathers, but failure is an orphan.”