Most landscaping in Longview Heights, WA comes down to one fact: the yard is on a hill. This census-designated place, known locally as Columbia Heights, has a listed elevation of 869 feet and sits on the hills northwest of central Longview. Lots tilt, soil moves when it is wet, and a patio or lawn usually needs a wall or a terrace before it can be flat enough to use.
Bogar Landscaping drives about 30 to 35 minutes up from Woodland to build those walls, terraces and drain lines, and to keep hillside yards in shape afterward. We work along Columbia Heights Road and the streets around it, on view lots and on the wooded parcels farther up. Our crew digs with a mini excavator where access allows, which matters on steep lots where hand digging a wall base takes days.
Longview Heights and Columbia Heights: Hillside Homes Above the City
The CDP covers about 4.3 square miles and had 4,033 residents in 2020. Homes here are newer than in the valley below. The typical house on the hill dates from 1980, fifteen years newer than the typical Longview home, and many sit on larger, sloped lots built to take in the view.
That mix shapes the work we see:
- View lots. Many homes look out over Longview and the river valley, so owners want plantings that stay below the sightline and patios placed where the view is.
- Houses set into the slope, with a high side that sends water toward the foundation and a low side that needs a wall.
- Wooded parcels with conifer shade, needle drop, moss and brush that creeps in from the edges.
- Original 1970s and 1980s landscaping near the end of its life: aging timber walls, overgrown shrubs, and lawns on banks too steep to mow safely.
Because the CDP is not an incorporated city, building questions on most of the hill go to Cowlitz County instead of Longview City Hall. Ask the county before planning a tall wall or major grading, since permit thresholds are set locally.
Slopes, Soils and Runoff on the Heights
Soil survey points across the hill come back as Olympic and Centralia silt loams on 8 to 30 percent slopes, with Buckpeak silt loam on the steepest ground. Olympic soil is well drained, weathered from basalt, with a reddish clay subsoil. Water soaks into the top layer, slows at the clay and travels downhill along it.
The diking district runs a separate interior levee along Pacific Way, from 30th Avenue to its Main Pump Station, built to intercept runoff from the hillside areas above Longview. On your lot, the job is to move water downhill in a pipe or lined channel instead of letting it soak a slope or pour over a wall.
How we handle hillside water:
- Downspouts never dump onto the slope. Roof water goes into solid pipe to a stable outlet at the bottom, not into a trench halfway down.
- Every wall gets drainage. Perforated pipe in drain rock, wrapped in filter fabric, with an outlet that daylights where it will not erode.
- No rain gardens on steep ground. The state handbook limits conventional rain gardens to slopes under 10 percent and calls for a geotechnical engineer when one sits within 50 feet of a steeper slope.
After the 1998 Aldercrest slide across the river in Kelso, the state mapped landslides across 260 square miles of Cowlitz County. If you see cracks opening in the ground or a wall moving, call the county and a geotechnical engineer before a landscaper.
Retaining Walls, Terraces and Views in Longview Heights
A sloped yard becomes usable in two ways: one taller wall, or several shorter terraces. Terraces are often easier to drain and plant, and they keep each wall lower. One tall wall gives a bigger flat area at the top but takes more excavation, more base and more careful drainage. A wall holding up a driveway, a parking pad or a house is a different job from a garden wall and may need an engineer.
On our block wall jobs, the steps are the same: excavate to firm soil, build a compacted crushed-rock base, set the first course level, then backfill with drain rock behind filter fabric and run perforated pipe to daylight. Steps can be built into the wall so you are not walking a muddy path to the lower yard, and capstones finish the top. For more detail, see our retaining wall installation and repair page.
View lots need restraint. We pick shrubs whose mature height stays under the sightline, put taller screening only where it blocks a neighbor rather than the river, and keep patio furniture zones on the side with the view.
