Shopping Center Hearing Will Be Oct. 29

A hearing on a proposal to build a shopping center and more than 100 housing units at 57th and Regal has been postponed until Oct. 29.

Cedar Builders Inc. and Rich Naccarato are seeking zone changes to develop 25 acres at the southeast corner of the intersection.

The hearing had been scheduled for Sept. 3 but was postponed on a request by Naccarato, who said in a letter that he wanted more time to prepare answers to potential questions at the hearing.

The newly scheduled hearing will be at 9 a.m. in the commissioners’ assembly room of the Public Works Building on Broadway Avenue just east of the county Courthouse.

County officials said there is a question about whether Naccarato would have to comply with new regulations limiting the discharge of storm water into the ground.

New rules adopted by the county last spring require lined evaporation ponds instead of shallow grassy depressions that allow storm water to soak back into the ground.

Naccarato was planning to build the grassy depressions, known as “208 swales,” for the government code that requires them.

Members of the Moran Prairie Neighborhood Association have been pressuring city and county officials to take action to solve recurring flooding that’s occurring in southeast Spokane, caused in part by rapid development and a high water table.

The association is also concerned about commercial growth along the Regal Street corridor and its effects on the livability of the neighborhood.

Naccarato is proposing a 55,000-square-foot supermarket, two smaller retail outlets and 104 apartments and duplexes at the site.

, DataTimes