A developer hoping for more land on which to build is challenging Spokane County’s plan for controlling urban sprawl.

“We don’t have a problem with limitations. What we have a problem with is the strangulation of the local economy and local developers,” said Michael Murphy, an attorney for developer Harley Douglass.

Douglass, who did not return a telephone message Monday afternoon, is appealing the county’s urban growth boundaries. He filed paperwork late last week with the regional hearings board, a state panel that settles disputes involving the Growth Management Act.

In February, as required by the GMA, county commissioners drew boundaries separating areas of the county where urban growth will be encouraged from areas where it will be prohibited.

Developers complained the boundaries aren’t large enough to provide homes for all the people expected to come to Spokane in the next 20 years. Nearly everybody involved in the decision expected appeals, and many predict Douglass’ will not be the last.

Murphy argues that much of the vacant land in Spokane is too steep or has other environmental problems that preclude development. Yet planners counted much of that land as developable when commissioners set the urban boundaries, the attorney said.

If that city land really isn’t available to developers, then more suitable land outside the city limits should be designated for urban growth, Murphy said.

The appeal doesn’t specify how much more land should be opened to development. Murphy said the addition should include portions of North Side neighborhoods that are outside the city limits, where the Douglass family does much of its work.

Charlie Dotson, city of Spokane planning director, said steep slopes and other limiting factors were taken into account when planners decided how much city land is available for development.

City neighborhoods typically are developed at seven houses per acre, Dotson said. Planners figured an average of six houses per acre to accommodate for undevelopable land.

Douglass’ appeal also challenges the process the county used for setting the boundaries.

An environmental impact statement conducted for the county was “speculative and not grounded in substantiated facts,” the appeal claims. It also contends that opponents had too little time to prepare comments before commissioners set the boundaries.

No hearing date has been set.

Douglass’ appeal is the third involving Spokane County to be filed with the hearings board.

The three-member board last week ruled in favor of environmentalists, who argued the county has not done enough to protect rivers, wetlands and other “critical areas.”

A second appeal, filed by Lila Howe, a former Republican candidate for county commissioner, argues that the city and county held illegal meetings while deciding where to place the urban growth boundaries. The board has not yet held a hearing on Howe’s appeal.

, DataTimes