Valley Landowners Rushed To Beat Deadline For New Plats Applications Triple In Months Before Growth Boundary Decision
More than half of the last-minute requests for land divisions and zone changes to dodge new, tougher Spokane County development restrictions were filed by Spokane Valley landowners.
Several of the 44 Valley subdivision requests the county Planning Department received during the three months leading up to the establishment of urban growth boundaries are clustered near Liberty Lake, where landowners have applied to form 760 lots.
Other applications for significant-sized subdivisions were submitted by owners of property near 32nd Avenue and Saltese Road, Belle Terre Avenue and Sullivan Road, and south of Eighth Avenue and Barker Road.
The number of Valley subdivision applications filed with county planners between Nov. 27 and Feb. 11 was more than triple the number submitted countywide during the same period a year earlier.
County planners also received 11 zoning change requests from Valley landowners as part of the surge.
Across the Valley, landowners submitted applications to divide 1,605 acres into 1,340 lots during that three-month period, according to county land-use application logs.
Those landowners ducked the state Growth Management Act’s strict zoning restrictions by hustling to submit a plan to subdivide or re-zone their land before county commissioners excluded it from urban areas.
After years of debate, county commissioners earlier this month set urban growth boundaries. Under the Growth Management Act, dense development is required inside the boundaries where local government must provide sewers and other urban services. Outside, interim rules ban new lots smaller than 5 acres.
Applications submitted while the old, more developer-friendly rules still were in effect will be exempt from the new rules, said John Mercer, the county planner assigned to implement the Growth Management Act. Instead, they will be governed by the “regulations that were in place when the application was submitted,” Mercer said.
That exemption will end if the landowner doesn’t get final approval within five years.
Land-use applications began steadily pouring into the county planning department in December, said planner Stacy Bjordahl. The last four applications were accepted Feb. 11, the day county commissioners set the boundaries.
Of the nearly four dozen subdivision applications the county planning department received, 25 were for short plats, which divide land into four or fewer lots.
Liberty Lake landowners led the list of those seeking larger plat applications outside the area designated for urban growth.
Land-use attorney Jim Cravens is sponsoring Liberty Lake Meadows, a 302-acre, 570-lot subdivision near Simpson Road and Mission Avenue.
The subdivision is east of the urban growth boundary that stops along Simpson Road.
Liberty Lake resident Rex Harder submitted two applications for separate subdivisions southeast of the urban growth boundaries. Harder’s The Orchards at Liberty Lake would divide 109 acres into 37 lots, while MacKenzie Bay Beach would make 48 lots out of 24.5 acres near the north end of the lake.
Johnny Humphreys, a Chester area resident, proposed Humphrey’s Hills on 87 acres near Sullivan and Belle Terre. The 87-lot subdivision also is outside the area designated for urban development.
Three other landowners who ended up outside the urban growth area applied for subdivisions with 20 or more lots.
Seven property owners who submitted applications to subdivide their land into 20 or more lots wound up inside the urban area. An application for a 158-lot subdivision on 62.95 acres in Greenacres, known as Turtle Creek South, was the largest.
, DataTimes