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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Neighbors Fighting Subdivision Say Post Falls Has Broken Promises To Protect Them

For decades, Corbin Road’s quiet cluster of ranchettes has been a refuge for people who want to raise horses and get away from the chaos and clutter of city life.

But now, it’s the best place to find a fight pitting an invading subdivision against a threatened rural lifestyle.

Angry neighbors blame broken promises and bad zoning.

They also say a key vote approving the housing development was cast by a Post Falls Planning and Zoning commissioner who didn’t disclose her ties to the real estate company that sold the land.

Nineteen homes are planned for five acres along North Corbin Road. That would more than double the number of homes on the dead-end road and boost the number of cars traveling it daily from 240 to more than 500.

“I would think the newness and freshness of the subdivision would add to the neighborhood, not detract,” said Craig Sternberg, the Hayden Lake developer who purchased the land. He said he feels like the hapless guy caught in the middle.

“When I went into this, I had no idea of the degree of animosity,” Sternberg said. “When I first purchased the property, I went out and knocked on doors and I was relatively well-received.”

“Oh fiddle-faddle!” shot back Agnes Luchini, who has lived here for 40 years in a tan house on a spread of green grass so neat it seems each blade has been individually cultivated. “He was told we don’t need any more houses here.”

Residents love the flavor here, blended from equal parts country life and neighborliness. They plow one another’s driveways in winter, feed one another’s animals during vacation season, mow one another’s hay and spray one another’s weeds.

From any yard, it’s hard to hear traffic on Interstate 90 or feel the press of a nearby truck stop.

Hard feelings go back way before the subdivision was proposed last May. They began in 1988 when Post Falls forcibly annexed the neighborhood over vigorous objections of the people on Corbin Road.

The annexation was accomplished when the city limits were extended to include Coeur d’Alene Greyhound Park and the neighboring Factory Outlets.

Post Falls Administrator Jim Hammond, who was on the City Council at the time, voted against including the residential area. “I felt we could provide very little in additional services,” he said. His side lost.

Taxes went up for folks along Corbin Road, but their city services didn’t improve. They still aren’t on the promised sewer system.

At the time of the annexation, residents said they were mollified with assurances that the city would develop a new zoning designation protecting ranchettes and their right to keep their farm animals.

The protective zoning never was delivered. “They failed on their promises,” said Diane Wahl, who lives in a rambling pink house with gingerbread trim.

Wahl and her neighbors were under the impression that the residential zoning they were left with after annexation would prevent anything more dense than one house per acre until the city delivered better. This spring, they discovered otherwise when Sternberg proposed his 19-home subdivision, named Casey’s Place, after his 10-year-old daughter.

The Post Falls Planning and Zoning Commission voted 3-2 to approve the project. Corbin Road residents are appealing to the City Council, alleging a conflict of interest.

Diane Duncan, who cast the commission’s tie-breaking vote, works for Jordan Real Estate, the company that sold the property.

Duncan denies the alleged conflict.

“The question is whether or not I had a financial interest in the property,” she said. “I had just moved to the office. I’m not the listing agent, not the sales agent, and I don’t own the company.

“It doesn’t benefit Diane Duncan to have the property subdivided, nor anybody at Jordan.”

That doesn’t wash with the Corbin Road residents, who now worry that the planned homes will create a troubling surge of traffic. They worry their children will no longer be able to play safely along the tree-lined corridor.

They also figure their property values will suffer when tract houses replace a pasture and weathered barn. Will the new neighbors complain about animal smells and crowing roosters?

“I can’t imagine anyone wanting to sit in their back yard barbecuing with horses plopping on the other side,” said Kathy Pierce, an 18-year resident who lives next door to the planned development.

Her husband, John Pierce, said nobody would have objected if Sternberg kept the development at a more rural one house per acre.

Pierce pointed across his back fence to apartments built last fall. Before they materialized, he said he filed one police report in 18 years - for a garage burglary. After the units went in, eight cars in the apartment parking lot were burglarized in a single weekend.

City officials say they never promised the neighborhood specific zoning protections. They question why the Corbin Road folks didn’t step forward when the comprehensive plan was being rewritten to ask for more protection.

“People living in that neighborhood obviously weren’t paying attention to the process,” said Gary Young, Post Falls’ planning and building director. “It’s incumbent on the property owners to request (new zoning).”

Sternberg said he is sensitive to the neighbors’ concerns and doesn’t want to ruin their way of life. He can’t imagine people moving to Casey’s Place, where homes will be priced between $75,000 and $105,000, if they don’t like animals.

“All I’m trying to do is what the city told me I could do,” Sternberg said. Contrary to rumors, he will not build homes with wooden foundations.

“I think when it’s all said and done, they won’t hate it as much as they think,” he said.

Steve Crawford, who rents the existing house on Sternberg’s property agreed.

“I think it will be a nice improvement for the neighborhood,” Crawford said. “I think it will improve … neighborhood property values.”

Yet even former mayor and councilman Hammond has said there are more prudent places to build the subdivision. “Why do I want to fight with all of my neighbors when there are plenty of other places to develop?” he said earlier.

As the City Council prepares to hear the appeal later this month, most Corbin Road residents are pessimistic.

“Post Falls will do however they darn well please,” Luchini said. “I think we should secede.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo Map of area