Commissioners ignored public outcry, the law

The city of Liberty Lake came out against it. So did both the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District and the Central Valley School District. The majority of the citizens who took the time to give input were opposed to it. Even Spokane County’s own Planning Commission recommended they not do it. So why did commissioners Todd Mielke and Mark Richard ignore the will of the people and these public agencies and proceed with the approval of the Lancaster Enterprises development?

First, it is important to understand the issue. The Lancasters own a 3.6-acre parcel that they want to develop with four new houses on Liberty Lake. While this is not an unusual density for development in the area, it does lie outside the Urban Growth boundary and is therefore prohibited. This boundary establishes where and where not, new development such as the Lancasters’, will occur.

Generally development of this density is prohibited in a rural traditional zone, but the Lancasters requested, and these two commisisoners approved, an exception via what’s called a Limited Development Area Residential. Unfortunately for the county, by our legal interpretation this property doesn’t meet the legal criteria for being an LDAR and thus should never have been approved.

So why does this matter? Anyone familiar with land-use zoning and development realizes that anytime an exception is made, it establishes a precedent for future development. In fact the Growth Management Act was written specifically to avoid this, to reduce urban sprawl and the Californication of our state.

Richard thinks otherwise and states that somehow this is a unique case. However, a review of the current parcel map of Liberty Lake identifies 10 other parcels that may very well meet the criteria used for approving this supposedly “unique” development. In other words, now that they have approved the Lancaster development, these other landowners can ask for a similar LDAR which could dramatically impact the density of development on the lake. And as many people who weighed in on this noted, this will affect issues such as storm water drainage and have a deleterious effect on the water quality of this fragile lake.

It also matters because as the Planning Commission spelled out in its recommendation to deny this application it would “set a negative precedent for rural areas that would be inconsistent with the goals and plans for rural areas per the Comprehensive Plan (of Spokane County).” In other words, this can affect development outside an Urban Growth Area throughout the county and allow previously prohibited landowners outside the UGA throughout the county to apply for exemptions.

Our organization hired one of the top land-use attorneys in the state who submitted a four-page letter to the commissioners detailing the legal rationale for denying this development. We were hoping they would pay attention.

Surprisingly, there was little discussion by Mielke and Richard addressing these legal concerns at the public hearing – all they wanted to do was figure out how to justify the development. Apparently Mielke and Richards learned nothing from their racetrack debacle (or was it a boondoggle?).

It is a sad day when our government officials ignore the state law and the wishes of the community to pursue their own pro-development agenda. A number of Liberty Lake citizens have pitched in financially to fight these commissioners who are thumbing their noses at us. We have appealed their decision to the Growth Management Hearing Board, who hopefully will issue a decision revealing the charade that Mielke and Richard play.