Residents Upset Over Paving Assessments

Residents living along 57th Avenue east of Glenrose Road aren’t happy with their assessments for paving in the neighborhood.

They are asking Spokane County commissioners to take a closer look at the way their road improvement district was managed by county staff.

Verril Smale, engineer administrator for the county, said the property owners are paying less than half the total costs of paving, sidewalks and curbs.

“Everybody believes somebody else should pay their assessment,” Smale said.

The commissioners are expected to consider the neighborhood concerns during their Feb. 3 meeting.

Kathleen Chapman, who owns the former Guy Browne mansion on 57th Avenue, said she and her husband are facing a $12,000 assessment because their lot has a large frontage along two streets included in the project.

One of the streets runs behind the home, and the Chapmans do not use it.

“I don’t see why we are being charged for that,” Chapman said.

The couple spent a large sum of money restoring the American foursquare mansion, and now the unexpected cost from the road improvements is placing a financial burden on them, Chapman said.

She said a developer who built homes just to the east on a portion of the old Browne estate had promised to pay for the paving, but the county never collected.

“Everyone was under the belief he would pay for it,” she said.

Smale said that is not correct.

He said the developer, Craig Jacobs, in 1992 agreed to pay an extra portion of the road costs because of the increase in traffic caused by the development, known as Highland Hills.

The county used grant money to pay for the installation of sidewalks to help children get to and from Moran Prairie School. The county also subsidized about 15 percent of the curbs and paving from road funds.

As a result, the costs to homeowners was dropped from about $40 a linear foot to about $20, Smale said.

The district was formed in a unanimous vote of property owners in 1992, and the paving was completed three years ago, Smale said.

Homeowners who recently purchased in the neighborhood should have learned of the assessments on title reports when they closed their deals, he said.

, DataTimes