Road Widening Project Temporarily Halted By Lawsuit

Attorneys for developer Harlan Douglass filed two claims against the city of Spokane in August.

Properties in his claims are in the Calkins Addition and Indian Trail.

In the first suit, Douglass says he bought 46 acres in the Calkins Addition after being told by city planners that he would be allowed to rezone the land near Kaiser Aluminum for apartments.

The property was annexed into the city about four years ago.

In July, City Council members denied Douglass’ request to rezone the property at the northwest corner of Lincoln and Crestline from light industrial to low-density residential.

Douglass claims council members held private meetings and have a “secret” agreement with Kaiser Aluminum.

He alleges that Kaiser representatives told council members that if they didn’t deny the proposed zone change, the company “would see to it that City Council members would not be re-elected,” according to the claim.

The council members, Mike Brewer, Jeff Colliton and Mayor Jack Geraghty, all voted against the zone change.

The three councilwomen, Phyllis Holmes, Roberta Greene and Cherie Rodgers, sided with Douglass.

Councilman Orville Barnes abstained from the vote at Douglass’ request.

In the lawsuit, Douglass also claims Mike Brewer is a former Kaiser employee, has a financial interest in the company and should have also abstained from voting.

Douglass claims he was lured into purchasing the property, based on promises from the city.

The apartments are part of one of the largest development projects ever proposed in north Spokane.

He’s asking for $9.3 million in damages.

The other claim has put a temporary halt to plans to widen Indian Trail Road between Kathleen and Ridgecrest.

Douglass claims the project will block access to properties he owns on both sides of the road. He also claims the widening will flood his acreage.

Douglass says the plans include logical breaks in the median at other access points, but not at his property. He said he’s also commissioned studies that show the road design will significantly alter existing drainage patterns and flood his property.

Recently, his engineers met with city engineers and seem to have resolved some of the drainage concerns.

The documents were filed Aug. 20, soon after the council approved the road widening plan.

Douglass is also protesting the type of retaining wall that will be used.

Since the city can’t acquire the right-of-way, $2.4 million in federal funding for the entire project is in jeopardy. The city has until Sept. 30 to resolve the issues or lose the money.

“We’re somewhere between totally losing the project, to designing an abbreviated version, to going ahead with the full-blown version,” said Richard Raymond, the senior engineer working on designing the project since January 1994.

“I wish I could tell you which it is, but I can’t,” he said.

City Council members recently approved a five-lane version of the project.

“At the time, everything was in good shape north of Shawnee,” said Raymond. “We were going to do that this fall and the rest, from Kathleen to Shawnee, next year so we would have time to resolve the right-of-way issue.”

, DataTimes