Commissioners allow contested development

A Liberty Lake family may add four houses to its 3.6-acre lakefront property, Spokane County commissioners ruled Tuesday.

The houses would have larger lots than other homes on the lake’s densely developed north shore, and the houses would be 10 feet shorter than zoning regulations allow for other new homes in the area.

That’s because the landowners, Esther Lancaster and her son, Gary Lancaster, agreed to limit their development rights in order to obtain a zone change.

Commissioners Todd Mielke and Mark Richard saw no need to wait for a state board to rule on an appeal of a comprehensive plan and zoning change for the Lancaster property.

The changes were approved simultaneously in December, against the recommendations of the county Planning Commission and the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District. The changes were subject to completion of Tuesday’s development-restricting agreement.

Commissioner Bonnie Mager, who opposed the comprehensive plan and zoning changes, also voted against the development agreement.

Mager thought it would be “only fair” to wait for the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board to rule on the plan and zone changes later this year. Otherwise, she said, “people will feel the law has been circumvented.”

Mielke countered that county officials have a duty to render timely decisions and no obligation to wait for the state hearings board.

The zone change, from “rural traditional” to “limited development area/residential,” ordinarily would have allowed 21 houses on the Lancasters’ property at 24024 E. Lakeridge Drive. Currently, their home is the only house on the site.

The old zoning would have required 10 acres for every new house, but the area was developed to urban density before that zoning was adopted.

Three neighbors testified against the development agreement. They said it would undercut their appeal and set a precedent for other largely undeveloped land in the area, including a church camp.

“Five houses in there wouldn’t be the end of all things,” Bruce Andre said. “It’s the precedent that scares me.”

Steve Shirley, president of Community Addressing Urban Sprawl Excess, said approving the zone change would be “an end run” around the regional growth management board.

Bill Edelblute objected to allowing the Lancasters to use the standard 35-foot height limit because houses that tall would be incompatible with surrounding houses.

Richard agreed, and Gary Lancaster offered to accept a deal-clinching 25-foot limit.