Judge Reconsiders, Rejects Flora Project

The on-again off-again Flora Meadows development is off again after a Superior Court judge reversed himself.

Judge Marcus Kelly decided this month he was wrong when he granted developer Wes Crosby permission to build the 31-home development earlier this year.

Kelly withdrew a ruling he made in February that would have allowed Crosby to move forward with the subdivision. The reversal lets stand a county commissioners’ decision to deny the development.

It was the second time Crosby won approval for the project only to see it revoked.

The county’s hearing examiner committee gave him permission to develop the nine acres along Flora Road south of the Spokane River in June 1993.

Several neighbors opposed the project, saying it would be an island of urban development in the lightly developed area in north Greenacres.

They appealed the decision to county commissioners.

Commissioners overturned the hearing examiner on a 2-1 vote in November 1993.

Crosby sued the county and appeared to have won when Kelly sided with him this February, saying county commissioners had overstepped their authority when they denied the project.

But in his most recent decision, Kelly ruled Crosby’s lawyers committed several errors in the case, including failing to notify in a timely fashion all the pertinent parties in the dispute.

Because neighbors Allen Osborne, Robert and Patricia Loweree and James and Mary Pollard were not notified of the lawsuit, they had no chance to make arguments before the court, Kelly decided.

He ordered “that action be dismissed for failure to (notify) indispensable parties within the time allowed by law.”

Crosby didn’t have much to say about the decision.

“I won, then I lost,” he said Monday. He declined further comment.

County civil attorney Mike Dempsey said the decision was good news but refrained from expressing too much optimism.

“It can still be appealed,” Dempsey said.

Osborne’s attorney called the decision a big win for his client. Steve Eugster said it would be very difficult and expensive for Crosby to gain approval for the subdivision now.

“The fact of the matter is Mr. Crosby is going to have to go to a court of appeals to have this overturned,” Eugster said. “That’s not easy.”

, DataTimes