Sports Complex Near Liberty Lake Rejected As Inappropriate For Area In/Around: Liberty Lake, Pasadena Park, Shelley Lake
Development
The Spokane County Hearing Examiner Committee on Thursday rejected a plan for a sports complex that would help ease crowding on baseball diamonds and soccer fields in the Valley.
The committee also postponed a hearing on the most controversial item on its agenda, a 179-home development in Pasadena Park.
Backers of the 32-acre sports complex near Liberty Lake say they will appeal the 1-1 decision to county commissioners.
The decision needed approval from two of the three board members for approval. Committee member Harry Gibbons abstained, citing his acquaintance with applicant Howard Herman as a conflict of interest.
Called Sports World, the proposed center, north of Interstate 90 at Harvard Road, would include four outdoor soccer fields, four softball fields, an indoor soccer arena, health club, restaurant and sports bar.
Teams would pay to play in the park.
Noting that her own children play organized sports, committee chairwoman Brenda Bodenstein said, “I am the first to admit there is a dramatic need.”
But, she said, the sports bar and the fields’ outdoor lights would be inappropriate for the neighborhood, which is vacant land now but could be developed into suburban lots.
“Maybe a zone change for the area is more appropriate,” so houses wouldn’t be built next to the complex, Bodenstein said.
Although it didn’t come up at the hearing, Post Falls residents have fought lights and extended hours at a similar facility, saying the park already intrudes too much on their neighborhood.
Committee member Jane Myers voted in favor of Sports World, saying “the proposed use could be very compatible with the future uses of surrounding land.”
Valley resident Manny Faridnia urged the committee to approve the complex. Faridnia, a Spokane Valley Junior Soccer Association organizer, said the number of players in the club has grown from 904 to 2,800 in seven years.
“We definitely need more fields in the Valley,” he said.
In other action, the committee:
Postponed until May 18 its hearing on the 58-acre Pasadena Park subdivision, called Fraser Estates.
Planning staff said developer Mike Kinney requested the delay so he’d have more time to study the subdivision’s impact on traffic and consider changing the density of the proposal. Both likely will be contentious issues for the proposal, north of Wellesley Avenue.
Approved a 13-lot subdivision on 15 acres near Shelley Lake. The land is east of the intersection of Shamrock Street and 12th Avenue.