Staff photo/Ian Gleadle The luxury model homes, which were destroyed in the March 3 fires, are located at Quinn’s Crossing, a gated residential development in a rural setting near Highway 522 off Echo Lake Road.	Staff photo/Ian Gleadle A realtor’s sign was melted by the heat from the fires set March 3 that destoryed three houses and damaged a fourth.	Staff photo/Ian Gleadle Puget Sound Energy workers inspect the damage to one of the houses which was completely destroyed by the fire.

The cause of the high profile March 3 fires that consumed three luxury model homes and damaged another in a new subdivision in unincorporated Snohomish County remains unknown. The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department estimated damage at $7 million. No one was injured.

A message spray-painted on a sheet and draped on a fence at the scene ended with the letters “ELF,” presumably standing for Earth Liberation Front, an eco-terrorist group suspected of setting other well-publicized fires and leaving similar “calling cards.” At this point, however, federal investigators are unwilling to definitively label the fires as acts of domestic terrorism committed by E.L.F.

The homes, none of which have been sold yet, are located at Quinn’s Crossing, a gated residential development in a rural setting near Highway 522 off Echo Lake Road. The 4,000-plus square-foot homes are built on half-acre lots and priced shy of $2 million. They were featured in last summer’s Street of Dreams home tour and promoted as “BuiltGreen” or environmentally friendly. The degree to which these or any home or product is green is open to debate since the term “green” has been adopted by many companies and coalitions with standards that vary greatly.

According to John Heller, president of Street of Dreams Inc., “The theme for our past summer event was focused on green and sustainable building. Each home shared a message of how various aspects of new home construction, architectural design, landscaping and home furnishing could be more environmentally sensitive, ecologically responsible and sustainable. These homes showcased some of the newest innovation in green building and design. One of the homes received the first ‘Five-Star BuiltGreen’ ratings ever awarded in Snohomish County. Each of the five Street homes was BuiltGreen rated, a proud achievement for each builder involved.”

Aaron Adelstein, Director of BuiltGreen, said, “The 2007 Street of Dreams represented an important home building demonstration by showcasing green building practices, materials and landscaping techniques to over 80,000 people who viewed these homes. That was a major step forward for the emergence of environmental priorities and construction practices to a mainstream audience.”

Though the entire Quinn’s Crossing subdivision is 114 acres, the homes are clustered so that 48 single-family homes will eventually sit on 11 acres. Eighty of the remaining acres are set aside as a “native growth protection area.”

In addition to the E.L.F. signature, if that is, indeed, what it was, the message on the sheet read, “Built green? Nope Black! McMansions + R.C.D.’s r not green.” RCD presumably refers to “rural cluster developments.”

According to Catherine Cloud of Stanwood, who is opposed to rural cluster housing, “The concept is being abused beyond all reason. Unusable acreage is being set aside as ‘green’ space in these wildly proliferating projects while homes are located cheek by jowl on whatever remains.”