Landowner Complains That Road Won’t Connect With His Property Road Serving Drug-Treatment Facility Should Be Extended, Ward Says

Developer Joe Ward says Spokane County officials have allowed the U.S. government to bully them and him.

On Tuesday, he demanded that county commissioners stand up and fight or they might see him in court.

Ward claims that his plans to build 20 homes on 11 acres he owns in the Carnahan neighborhood have been jeopardized by a federal project on some adjacent property.

The Inland Tribal Consortium, backed by the U.S. government, is constructing a drug and alcohol treatment facility for Native American youth on 38 acres near Eighth and Carnahan.

As part of that project, county engineers required that the consortium extend a public road about halfway through the treatment facility property.

Ward contends that the road should have been punched through all the way to his property line, which would have allowed him to connect his development to the road at minimal cost.

That decision makes it economically impossible for him to develop his land, he said.

Ward said he would have to spend nearly $200,000 more than he normally would to extend the road the rest of the way to his land.

It’s common practice in Spokane County for developers to extend public roads all the way through their land so the next landowner can easily connect, Ward told commissioners.

Ward said the federal government intimidated the engineers into allowing the consortium to build only half the road.

“I really feel I’ve been unfairly treated,” Ward said.

What’s more, the federal government’s land will be worth more once the road’s completed by Ward, said his attorney, Stan Schultz of Liberty Lake.

“What you’re asking Mr. Ward to do is take money from his own pocket, and by building this road, improve substantially property owned by the United States government,” Schultz said. “The federal government would have a windfall at Mr. Ward’s expense.”

Ward and Schultz also said the county staff bumbled its responsibilities and shirked its duties in the matter.

County engineers should have required that the road go all the way through, the two men said.

Ward implored the commissioners to do something about it at a dramatic, 2-1/2 hour public hearing that Commissioner Steve Hasson likened to the O.J. Simpson trial.

“I’ve patiently waited, because I knew my big brother, the county, was going to look out for me,” Ward said. “They didn’t. Something went awry.”

Ward asked that the county require the federal government to pay for completing the road. Otherwise, he said he might go to court to try to force the county to pay.

County staff members then marched to the podium to defend their decisions and their honors.

Pat Harper of the county engineer’s office said Ward and Schultz are just plain wrong.

It’s not unusual for engineers to allow a developer to extend a road only partially through his land, said Harper, who cited two recent examples.

If it wasn’t for the consortium, Harper added, Ward would have been required to build the entire road himself.

“Due process was served,” Harper said.

Commissioners are expected to render a decision on the matter Aug. 8.

, DataTimes