Proposal worries Liberty Lake residents

Some Liberty Lake residents are arguing against a proposed 1,600-home development, saying it could permanently change the landscape surrounding the lake.

The development proposed by Marshall Chesrown and his company, Black Rock Development, could boost the population west of the lake by 4,500. Black Rock is already working on a 600-home development called Legacy Ridge in the old Holiday Hills area. The project up for debate is immediately south of Legacy Ridge in an unincorporated area currently not zoned for housing.

More than 50 people attended an informational meeting last week in which a Spokane County planner described the lengthy process of turning the land – currently zoned for rural use – into an urban area. If the zoning can be changed, Black Rock and the city of Liberty Lake want the land annexed.

Citizens, mostly living in unincorporated areas around the lake, spoke out about the proposed development, fearing high housing densities that could damage the lake’s watershed.

A smaller contingent of citizens also attended a Liberty Lake Planning Commission meeting this week, hoping to find out more about the urban zoning process. Some said they felt left behind in the process, others said they didn’t know why the city is looking to allow development in rural areas.

“This is a tragedy, it represents urban sprawl at its absolute worst,” said Beth Cocchiarella, a member of the ad hoc Green Space Committee concerned about growth. She said lake residents specifically declined to join the city of Liberty Lake when it formed in 2001 because they wanted to preserve rural lands south of Sprague Avenue at the lake.

“I feel a bit betrayed because we had this decision on the line of Sprague Avenue,” she said during the Planning Commission’s comment period. “Development can only happen north of that line, but below was supposed to be rural conservation land. This is not rural conservation.”

In meetings before the city’s incorporation, lake and city residents came to an agreement that the land surrounding the lake would be excluded from the city’s Urban Growth Areas and zoned rural conservation, a designation the county has said should not be open to development.

“We just want to remember that plan and remember the work that went into that plan from throughout the community,” Cocchiarella said.

Roger Nelson, president of Black Rock, said the request to bring 1,100 acres of rural land into an Urban Growth Area would precede the construction of about 1,600 homes and an 18-hole golf course, a second phase of the Legacy Ridge plan. Beyond a basic number of homes, Nelson had no other specifics about the project, including requirements for essential services like water, sewer, schooling and public safety.

“We haven’t done any greater planning than that,” Nelson said. “We’re giving a 10,000-foot view to give the city enough to know with a broad brush what we might consider doing.”

The rezoning request must be approved by Spokane County commissioners after it moves through four different committees and councils, two of them with the county and two with Liberty Lake.

Liberty Lake planning director Doug Smith sat down with the group of residents after the Planning Commission meeting Wednesday night and tried to explain some of the upcoming steps involved with the process.

Smith has been getting e-mails from people that suggest the city simply refuse to accept any attempts to expand the Urban Growth Area.

“It’s not that black and white,” Smith said. “It’s not a matter of telling them no. It’s a position of making the developer do the best development possible. It’s really about a degree of quality.”

Smith said that Chesrown has as much right to try to change the zoning on his land as any individual has to get a building permit for their own land.

“As much as it is my job to look out for people who are already here, it’s also to look out for those that will be here in the future,” he said.

Cocchiarella is learning for the first time the rules and regulations of land zoning changes while she helps to set up the Green Space Committee. She said the task of deciphering the complicated jumble of meetings and regulations can be daunting.

“We’re all trying to learn this process,” she said. “We’re all citizens.”

Lake resident Tom Brattebo said that since the people living outside the city of Liberty Lake don’t have a formal government, it can be difficult to have a voice in the discussion.

“We don’t have a formal way of taking any action,” he said. “The city has that. They have the formal structure. I’m somewhat skeptical that the city will listen to the other voices or want to share with the other folks until it’s all said and done.”

Brattebo said he wants to avoid a situation like the Northwood development by North Argonne.

“People take a look at the neighborhood that used to be trees and then became houses,” he said. “It doesn’t look very conducive to lake quality.”