Mammoth Project To Start Grading Permit Approved For Mission Springs Complex

The developers of the controversial Mission Springs apartment complex can walk away from Spokane City Hall any day now - grading permit in hand.

“They’ve been approved for issuance of the permit - as soon as they pay the amount due,” said Bob Eugene, the city’s chief building official.

By late Friday, no one had picked up the $441 permit, but Frank Conklin, attorney for developer Richard Lugli of Sacramento, Calif., said that will happen soon.

“They’re ready to start to work,” Conklin said.

The permit means the developers can start “moving dirt around,” contouring the land for building, Eugene said.

Two more permits - one for construction of infrastructure, another for the apartments themselves - will be needed as the development continues, he said.

The grading permit has been the subject of angry debate among council members, city officials, proponents and opponents of the project.

The 300-member Thorpe-Westwood neighborhood association has tried for nearly two years to delay construction of the $45 million, 790-unit project on Thorpe Road just west of U.S. Highway 195.

They fear that hundreds of new cars will make two narrow tunnels on Thorpe Road leading to the project even more unsafe than they already are.

City Council members blocked Mission Springs’ grading permit in June, saying the project’s effect on the two tunnels needed to be studied.

Mission Springs developers sued the city in July for blocking the permit, claiming the council was unlawfully delaying the project.

A month later, the council accepted a new traffic report saying the tunnels weren’t a problem and clearing the way for the permit. But a legal dispute from a neighboring property owner kept the permit from being issued.

A couple living next to the development claimed that part of the land included in Mission Springs belonged to them.

A judge recently ruled in their favor - and the property line was redrawn.

Pat Dalton, an assistant city attorney, said in August that redrawing the line might invalidate the plat.

Dalton said Friday he’s discovered that’s not the case.

“It was a tenuous argument I was going on in the first place,” he said.

Despite the fact the permit soon will be issued, developer Lugli isn’t dropping the case, Conklin said.

“The suit is for damages caused by the delay,” he said.

Thorpe-Westwood residents are furious about the permit. They’re even angrier no one told their attorney Bob Kingsley - something they’d been promised by the city.

Eugene said Thursday that Kingsley was sent a letter about the pending permit.

Kingsley said that wasn’t the case.

“That’s amazing. I never got it,” he said.

The association’s Pete Powell said only one member received notice of the permit.

Eugene’s boss, City Manager Roger Crum, said Friday the letter never went to Kingsley.

“It does not appear to have gone to Mr. Kingsley,” Crum said. “It doesn’t really matter, because there’s nothing they can do about it anyway.”

Crum said the letter was sent to the association’s post office box.

, DataTimes