West Plains homeowner caught in the middle of land fight involving airport, Fairchild
Kitty Archer feels trapped in the 110-year-old West Plains farmhouse where she raised her five children after moving with her husband in 1966.
“I’m an island,” Archer said Thursday, her land cloistered by willow and pine trees from a pair of apartment complexes near Spokane International Airport. “I was here when there was nothing but huge farms.”
Appellate judges, swayed by the arguments of the city of Spokane, Spokane County, the airport and Fairchild Air Force Base, once again this month blocked zoning changes that would have allowed developers to buy Archer’s 19-acre plot and expand existing housing. The decision means the 78-year-old widow of a Fairchild pilot will continue to seek an elusive buyer for land designated for commercial use, but situated between two housing developements and away from the business corridor along Highway 2.
“All I can think is, maybe I’m a political football,” Archer said.
A 124-unit expansion to the Deer Creek apartments east of Archer’s farmhouse would solve Airway Heights’ shortage of affordable housing for young professionals, city officials say. But the project has been opposed by the airport, Spokane County, the city of Spokane and regional business interests, all of whom argued successfully that state law prevents the addition because of concerns about noise and the future plans of both the airport and Fairchild Air Force Base.
In a joint statement released Thursday praising the appellate decision, the city of Spokane, Spokane County and the Spokane Airport Board said it affirmed “the importance of ensuring compatible development around Fairchild Air Force Base,” which lies eight miles up the road from Archer’s home. The statement also said the court’s decision ensures future expansion at the airport, which has been securing land northwest of the existing runways for a third approach that wouldn’t be needed for at least another 20 years, according to planning documents.
‘I was in a triangle’
Legal wrangling over the property around Archer’s home began when Spokane County began allowing residential development in areas zoned for light industrial businesses in 2005, the year the first phase of the Deer Creek project was built. Commissioners Todd Mielke, Phil Harris and Mark Richard had believed, in error, that an overlay zone around the airport would prevent new residential building in the area. Realizing their mistake, county laws were changed in October 2006 to prevent residential properties from being built in light industrial zones near the airport. But the Bentley apartments to the west also were built before that loophole was closed.
In July 2008, the county denied a request by developer Dick Vandervert to build the second phase of his Deer Creek apartments.
“I was in a triangle, being pulled in three different directions,” said Vandervert earlier this week in an interview. His property originally was located in unincorporated Spokane County, bordering land acquired by the city of Spokane as a buffer to the airport and the city limits of Airway Heights.
The unanimous ruling April 12 scrapping the apartment expansion is the second time the courts have ruled against the project. When the state court of appeals first denied the apartments in 2010, Vandervert sought annexation into Airway Heights, which was looking for more housing geared toward younger professionals.
Airway Heights granted the annexation, and at the same time crafted a zoning ordinance that allowed Vandervert to build on the land if he followed conditions that included building the units in a way that deadened the noise from passing aircraft. Spokane County, the city of Spokane and the airport argued that passing the ordinance would not comply with a joint land-use study the governments collaborated on to determine how real estate acquisition and development would affect operations at Fairchild, which they argued was a driving economic force in the region and susceptible to Air Force belt-tightening.
The Airway Heights City Council, acting on a lengthy memorandum filed in July 2013 by Derrick Braaten, the city’s building services director, passed its zoning ordinance changes in August 2013. Those changes once again opened the door for apartments on Archer’s property.
Braaten said the city and county’s opposition to the zoning laws were based on their interpretation of the land-use study, “not ours,” in that memo.
“Throughout the process, these properties have always been proposed by Airway Heights to be included for limited, multifamily residential use,” Braaten said in 2013, citing the city’s need for additional housing and the fact that apartments already existed to the east and west of the proposed complex expansion.
Braaten said in an interview this week the position of the city had not substantially changed since he wrote the 2013 memo, and that housing was still an issue in Airway Heights.
Around this time, Archer said she received some interest from the airport to buy her property. This included an appraisal of her acreage, but no offer was made after the airport decided to legally challenge the Airway Heights ordinances.
Concerns about Fairchild
The city, county and airport appealed first to the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board, a body that hears arguments about land-use decisions and whether they comply with state laws.
The board ruled in favor of the city and county, after testimony from the governments, the airport and a letter from then-Fairchild Commander Col. Brian Newberry.
“While sound mitigation techniques can be used during construction, we strongly do not recommend increasing residential development in that area,” Newberry wrote.
Kitty Archer is being represented in court by her daughter, Margaret, a Tacoma lawyer specializing in land use law. Margaret Archer said she couldn’t believe the limited scope of the apartment expansion, adding 124 units to an area with already around 400, would affect Fairchild operations.
“How that’s going to impact this Air Force base is beyond me,” Archer said.
Spokane County and Greater Spokane Inc. have been quick to oppose any potential development on the West Plains that could affect Fairchild’s operations. Spokane County Commissioners have actively campaigned against a proposed $400 million, 145-acre casino on trust land belonging to the Spokane Tribe of Indians.
The Spokane City Council had originally voted to oppose the casino project, but reversed course in February 2014 after City Council President Ben Stuckart asked to revisit the issue. The City Council voted to take a neutral stance on the project.
Stuckart, a member of the Spokane airport board who has individuallly supported the STEP project, referred comment on the apartment ruling to airport leadership. In response to a request for comment, the airport board provided the written statement praising the decision.
“The City of Spokane, Spokane County and the Airport, as members of the Joint Land Use Steering Committee, will continue to work cooperatively with the City of Airway Heights and other communities who have obligations to develop in ways that protect both Fairchild Air Force Base and Spokane International Airport,” the statement reads. “Compatible land use planning and development is not just the law of the Growth Management Act and JLUS, it is also a fundamental value of what it means to be a military community.”
Spokane Superior Court Judge Michael Price, in December 2014, ruled in favor of Airway Heights and its ordinance. But the appellate court ruling reverses that decision, and once again puts Kitty Archer and Vandervert in a holding pattern on their real estate.
For Archer, that means continuing to live in the sprawling home she said was perfect to raise children, but which now sits mostly vacant as a “maintenance nightmare” following the death of her husband more than a decade ago. The only one sharing her longtime home is a black poodle named Simon. Both she and Airway Heights are considering their next legal steps.
Archer said she was most disappointed by the position of Fairchild, given her husband’s service there for years.
“That’s just a kick in the teeth,” she said.