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

Rural gas mini-stores fail to win OK

Spokane County commissioners balked Tuesday at a unanimous Planning Commission recommendation against amending the county zoning code to allow gasoline convenience stores in rural areas.

Commissioner Bonnie Mager’s motion to adopt the Planning Commission recommendation failed to get a second. Instead, commissioners decided to conduct their own public hearing on the issue.

Tentatively, that hearing is set for 5:30 p.m. Oct. 23.

Commissioner Todd Mielke said he was concerned about possible “inaccuracies” in a staff report on the proposal. Mielke also said he thought the Planning Commission may have failed to consider a clarification submitted by the proponent, Chattaroy resident Steve Smart.

Smart wants to add a gasoline convenience store to his Smart Gardens nursery, florist and coffee shop businesses at the corner of Bigelow Gulch and Argonne roads but has been unable to get the necessary zone change. Both the zone change and the zoning-code amendment are opposed by Orchard Prairie residents organized as the Prairie Protection Association.

Planner Steve Davenport told commissioners he thought the Planning Commission had dealt with the issues Mielke cited.

Smart’s proposal calls for allowing 5,000-square-foot gasoline convenience stores in the “rural traditional” zone, subject to various limitations. Rural convenience stores currently are allowed only in hamlets zoned as “rural activity centers.”

A staff report indicated Smart’s initial proposal would have removed the 20,000-square-foot maximum size on stores in the “rural activity center” zone.

The intent of the proposal is to allow convenience stores at intersections in “rural traditional” areas where one of the roads carries at least 5,000 vehicles per day.

At today’s traffic levels, the amendment would allow as many as 10 stores on Bigelow Gulch Road, two on the Palouse Highway, one on Deer Park-Milan Road and one on Trent Avenue, at Harvard Road.