Letters To The Editor

Thu., Nov. 6, 1997

Infrastructure needed in Five Mile Prairie

Please add my voice to Claire Elston Sentenns’ letter (Oct. 30, 1997, North Voice).

I did not grow up on Five Mile Prairie, but have lived there the past 25 years and have been in the struggle to save the prairie as Forsgreens have fought even longer.

With the concentration any lower than one-acre lots on the prairie, there is little possibility for garden plots.

It is still reported that more food is grown in home garden plots in the United States than on farms. The USDA reported during our struggles that the land where the airport is and Five Mile Prairie were a part of the last 10 percent of prime farmland left in Washington.

Will any be saved?

High density is a threat. Drainage, ponding and water rising from underground all affected the prairie in the past year.

As near to this planned development as Velview Drive is, more homes were flooded.

Ponding has continued all spring and summer.

With the County Commissioners dragging their heels in getting into the Growth Management Act, there now seems to be pride in how many developments got grandfathered in by the delay.

A hundred-thirty-eight lot subdivision for 238 manufactured homes planned by Forsgreens on the west side of Five Mile Road, which will also have the logical 29-acre lots being added when across Five Mile Road 213 houses are planned on small lots?

Only developers call this wise development.

Infrastructure first must precede all of this or the mess will be even worse.

Lately with talk of changing the name of Spokane, someone should suggest “After the Fact, Washington!” Ora Mae Orton Spokane

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