County to fix zoning error

Spokane County commissioners plan a two-step repair of a zoning mistake that jeopardized Spokane International Airport and Fairchild Air Force Base.

They tentatively agreed Tuesday to apply the county Planning Commission’s recommended solution to the West Plains right away while taking more time to see how it would affect other parts of the county.

A decision on that approach, suggested by Commissioner Todd Mielke, could come at a 5:30 p.m. public hearing Dec. 18. County commissioners must conduct hearings on zoning code recommendations from the Planning Commission if the changes aren’t adopted exactly as presented.

The recommendation reflects county commissioners’ desire to repeal part of a zoning code change in May 2005 that inadvertently allowed residential construction near the airport and air base, including a 207-unit subdivision in a crash zone.

The fiasco sprang from an effort to accommodate developers who wanted additional uses for slow-selling light industrial land. Commissioners agreed to allow most “regional commercial zone” uses – excluding X-rated businesses – in light industrial zones.

Problem is, every kind of residential construction is allowed in regional commercial zones.

At the time, Mielke and Mark Richard were new to the board, and Commissioner Bonnie Mager hadn’t yet replaced Phil Harris.

Commissioners’ “findings of facts” document in the decision indicates they at least knew they were allowing more multifamily residential development in light industrial zones.

Multifamily housing was already allowed as part of a “master-planned” industrial project, but land-use attorney Meg Arpin sought a zoning code amendment for clients who wanted more flexibility. The Planning Commission opposed the change, but county commissioners agreed to consider it.

County commissioners noted in their findings that Arpin dropped her request because her clients’ desires were satisfied by an alternate plan to allow regional commercial uses in light industrial zones.

However, Building and Planning Director Jim Manson said, “Nobody intended to go to the board with a proposal that would allow single-family residential in the light industrial zone. I will swear to that.”

Indeed, an electronic newsletter Manson distributed 12 days before the change was adopted said the proposal involved “allowing multifamily residential use in the light industrial zone.”

Mielke said he was focused on allowing new uses for arguably surplus light industrial land in his district, in the vicinity of Kaiser Aluminum’s abandoned Mead smelter. He said he wasn’t thinking about possible effects on airfields, which he supposed were protected by the county’s “airport overlay zone.”

The overlay zone adds protections to underlying zones, which are either rural or light industrial in the areas around Spokane International Airport and Fairchild Air Force Base. The overlay zone didn’t anticipate changes in the underlying zones.

To prevent future mistakes, Mielke wants to create a new stand-alone airport protection zone that would spell out clearly what’s allowed and prohibited.

“I will continue to pound on that until it gets done,” he said.

Meanwhile, the only solution on the table is the Planning Commission’s recommendation to prohibit all residential uses in light industrial zones and airport crash zones. Day care centers also would be banned in all crash zones, addressing an unrelated problem that surfaced last year.

Mielke said he is committed to implementing the Planning Commission recommendation throughout the county but wants time to consider how it would affect developers who have proposed residential projects in light industrial zones outside the airport-sensitive West Plains “urban growth area.”

Assistant Building and Planning Director John Pederson told commissioners he knew of only three such projects.

He described two of them, in the Morgan Acres area near Hillyard, as “speculative.” But Pederson said developer Lancze Douglass has undertaken a traffic study for an approximately 80-acre residential project northeast of the corner of Nevada Street and Magnesium Road.

Douglass’ project is not yet “vested” with legal rights that would survive the proposed zoning code change.

Richard said he wants to “do a better job” of managing conflicts between residential and industrial uses, and called for a “menu of options” from planners.

Pederson said the pending projects may not create problems, but continuing to allow residential development in light industrial zones eventually will hamper the county’s ability to accommodate industrial businesses that want protection from complaints about noise or dust.

Mager supported a review to determine whether the county has too much light industrial land. She backed Mielke’s motion for a two-pronged approach, but called for closing the door to mixed industrial and residential uses throughout the county as soon as possible.

A temporary ordinance is blocking new residential projects in light industrial zones on the West Plains, where developers rushed to exploit the opening created last May. Developers are free to proceed elsewhere in the county, but so far have shown little interest, Pederson said.