April 8, 2010 in Washington Voices

Examiner upholds decision barring boat display

Elephant Boys owner plans to appeal decision

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Spokane Valley Hearing Examiner Mike Dempsey has upheld the decision by the city of Spokane Valley community development department that Elephant Boys may not display boats in front of its East Sprague store. The decision settles the first challenge of the Sprague/Appleway Revitalization Plan passed last year even though the complaints and zoning enforcement date back to before the SARP took effect.

The store at 12606 E. Sprague Ave. is located in a Mixed Use Avenue Zone that specifically prohibits used vehicle sales. In his decision Dempsey discounted the argument by attorneys representing store owner Ed Conley and land owner Harlan Douglass that new boat sales were not specifically listed as prohibited and should be allowed.

Dempsey wrote that the prohibition of used vehicle sales and outdoor storage rules “do not create an ambiguity in the SARP that must be construed as allowing new vehicle sales” and that such an interpretation would “lead to an unlikely, absurd or strained consequence, and is not a reasonable interpretation of the SARP.”

Dempsey also said that the type of business Elephant Boys does, including boat sales and service, is more suited to the type of businesses now located along Sprague west of Argonne. The written decision states that boat sales and service businesses, along with automobile sales and service businesses, are allowed only in the Gateway Commercial Avenue and Gateway Commercial Centers zones in the SARP.

Conley said his attorneys plan to file an appeal of the hearing examiner’s decision this week in Spokane County Superior Court. He said if the court does not reverse the hearing examiner’s decision he will be forced out of business because he can’t move to a different location. “It would kill us,” he said. “I am the expert on that. This is the location where people find us. If you move six blocks away, it’s hard for people to find you.”

Conley said the boat sales business was originally part of White Elephant until he broke out that portion into a separate business in 2006. Elephant Boys was first located in a warehouse behind White Elephant and Conley displayed his boats in front of White Elephant. “I would drag them around front during the day and there were some we left out there,” he said. “Now we’ve got twice as many boats.”

Last summer Conley moved his business to a small neighboring storefront between Liquidation World and a strip mall. The boat storage was moved in front of the new location. “Before last summer we did not display boats in this parking lot,” he said.

But the new boat display generated complaints. One complaint was filed by Kristine Schmunk of Baskin-Robbins store in the neighboring strip mall and Conley said he thinks she is upset because she was using the parking where his boats now sit. “If I’m gone she gets that free parking back,” he said.

Schmunk’s complaint stated that a large houseboat on display along Sprague blocked her store from the view of westbound traffic. She said this week that parking has never been an issue. “We have no complaint about losing any parking,” she said. “None of our employees park over there.”

Conley said moving back to his old location is not an option.

“We grew so much there’s no way to move back into the small business,” he said.

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