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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Developers’ Suit Against City Dismissed Mission Springs Owners Sought $1 Million Damages For Delays

Gita Sitaramiah Staff writer

A Superior Court judge threw out a $1 million lawsuit Friday by Mission Springs developers against Spokane and the City Council.

The Mission Springs developers filed the suit last July, claiming the city unlawfully blocked their controversial apartment project.

Judge Michael Donohue granted a motion to dismiss by city officials named in the suit. The developers may appeal the judge’s decision.

“I am heartened that the judge so clearly recognized that we had a clear basis for the action we took,” Councilman Chris Anderson said in a written statement.

Developers won approval to begin earth-moving work late last year after obtaining a grading permit in November, but continued their lawsuit for damages because of the initial delay.

The lawsuit listed as defendants the city, City Manager Roger Crum and the council as a group, including Mayor Jack Geraghty and council members Mike Brewer, Phyllis Holmes and Chris Anderson who were listed individually.

Efforts to reach an attorney representing the Mission Springs project were unsuccessful Friday.

The grading permit was the subject of angry debate among council members, city officials, proponents and opponents of the project.

The 300-member Thorpe-Westwood neighborhood association had tried to delay construction of the $45 million project.

They feared that hundreds of new cars would make two narrow tunnels on Thorpe Road leading to the project even more unsafe than they already were.

City Council members blocked Mission Springs’ grading permit last June, saying the project’s effect on the two tunnels needed to be studied.

Less than two weeks later, the Mission Springs developers filed their lawsuit in Spokane County Superior Court.

A month later, the council accepted a new traffic report saying the tunnels weren’t a problem and cleared the way for the permit. But a legal dispute from a neighboring property owner kept the permit from being issued.

A couple living next to the development claimed that part of the land included in Mission Springs belonged to them.

A judge ruled in their favor - and the property line was redrawn.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Mission Springs At 790 units, the Mission Springs apartment complex proposed for Thorpe Road in southwest Spokane would be the largest in the city’s history.

This sidebar appeared with the story: Mission Springs At 790 units, the Mission Springs apartment complex proposed for Thorpe Road in southwest Spokane would be the largest in the city’s history.