Developer Objects To Road Mandate Commissioners Unanimous In Decision To Require That New Road Be Constructed

Spokane County commissioners will require developer Larry Guthrie to construct a new road into the Ponderosa neighborhood if he wants to build 25 more homes there.

They made the decision Tuesday on a 3-0 vote.

Guthrie isn’t happy about it. He said he doesn’t think a new road is needed.

“I think they’re totally wrong,” Guthrie said of commissioners. “It’s strictly political as far as I’m concerned. These guys are professional politicians, and they’re counting heads.”

Many residents of Ponderosa complained to commissioners that Guthrie’s 120-acre development would add traffic to already crowded streets in the neighborhood.

They also raised the specter of the 1991 wildfires that ravaged the area, destroying 15 houses.

Firetrucks had a hard time getting into the neighborhood to fight those fires because the roads were jammed with people fleeing the disaster.

“Having more homes … without their own access could be disastrous in the event of another firestorm,” one neighbor wrote to county officials.

Guthrie had agreed to build a private road leading into the back side of his property, which is at the south end of Ponderosa Drive.

That access would be used only by firefighters in the case of an emergency, though. The rest of the time it would be blocked by a gate.

That was unacceptable to Commissioner Steve Hasson.

While firefighters need more ways into the neighborhood, people living there need more ways out, too, Hasson said.

Some winding fire access road wouldn’t serve that purpose, he said.

Hasson insisted that Guthrie provide a street to his property that would be built to county standards and be available for daily public use.

“I think the onus is, in fact, on the developer in this case,” Hasson said.

Commissioner Skip Chilberg agreed.

“There has to be an additional access, in addition to Bates Road and Schaefer Road,” Chilberg said.

Bates and Schaefer empty onto Dishman-Mica Road, the main arterial in the area.

Neighbors who attended Tuesday’s meeting thanked commissioners for requiring the new road.

“That’s what we wanted,” one man said.

Guthrie hasn’t decided if he will try to have the decision overturned, build the road or just abandon the project.

“I hate lawsuits,” he said. “I really don’t know where we’re at, as far as where we go from here. I just know they’re way beyond what they should be requiring.”