Colbert Homeowners Lose Appeal Over Wetland In/Around: Colbert

A group of Colbert area residents has lost its fight to keep a proposed housing development from encroaching on some wetland in its community.

About a dozen homeowners from the area of Perry and Half Moon roads left last week’s hearing examiner committee meeting disappointed after the board rejected their appeal to postpone construction of the 99-acre subdivision.

Members of the group wanted the panel to require developer Lowell McKee to further study the impact his project would have on a nine-acre wetland on the northern part of his property.

But the board, which makes decisions on land-use proposals in unincorporated areas, refused after county planners, McKee and his representative said everything necessary was being done to protect the wetland.

McKee wants to subdivide his property into 19 five-acre lots. Preliminary plans for the subdivision show several lots surrounding the wetland.

The Planning Department had approved the subdivision in October 1994. The neighbors appealed that decision to the hearing examiner committee.

Neighbors told the hearing examiner panel last Thursday that they feared some of the homes McKee proposes would be too close to the wetland.

They also expressed misgivings about a proposed emergency exit from the development that crosses the wetland.

The exit, an old farm road, would be used by residents of the subdivision in the event of a wildfire or some other catastrophe.

“We’re concerned, frankly, that he’s not going to be able to do this in a manner that will be safe for the community and sensitive to the environment,” said Thomas Schaaf, a physician who lives near the project.

Kristy Stime, who also lives nearby, agreed. Stime said the wetland provides important wildlife habitat and requested that several studies be performed before McKee is allowed to start building homes.

If homes are built too close to the wetland, the habitat could be harmed, she said.

“This wetland is not just three cattails growing in mud,” Stime said. “It is an epicenter of wildlife and human interaction.”

A state biologist agreed and told hearing examiner committee members Harry Gibbons, Jane Myers and Verona Southern that the wetland provides unique habitat in northern Spokane County.

“It’s an important wildlife habitat complex,” said John Whalen of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Great blue herons, waterfowl and other animals use the area for food and shelter, Whalen said.

Reducing the number of homes in the subdivision and keeping the houses as far away from the wetland as possible would help protect the habitat, he said.

County planners said current provisions that call for houses to be built 75 feet from the wetland are adequate to protect them.

“We’re confident in our assessment,” said John Pederson, a county planner.

Attorney Dwight Hume, who represented McKee at the hearing, said he was confident homeowners would protect the wetland because it is an important asset.

“The individual homeowner is not going to abuse the amenity he has purchased,” Hume said.

The committee seemed to agree. The vote was 3-0 to deny the appeal.

Committee members did make one concession, requiring any livestock kept in the new development to be fenced off from the wetland.

If neighbors want to push the fight, the next step would be to appeal to county commissioners.

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