Greenacres Residential Development Ok’D

Thu., Nov. 26, 1998

By Pat Sciuchetti pats@spokesman.com

Spokane county hearing examiner Mike Dempsey has approved a 236-lot residential development in Greenacres.

The decision, when combined with a handful of other recently approved subdivisions, means that more than 500 new homes could pop up near the once-rural intersection of Eighth Avenue and Barker Road.

The Turtle Creek and Turtle Creek South developments could bring up to 259 new homes. Meadowview Ranch Estates could bring 34 more.

Developer Clara Hepton’s Meadowview Terrace proposal, which received preliminary plat approval Monday, originally called for 309 homes. Dempsey rejected that plan last year.

He approved Hepton’s scaled-back proposal immediately following Monday’s afternoon hearing, saying that while he respected neighbors’ concerns about traffic, runoff, sewer plans and fire access, he had to give more weight to the conclusions of experts from various county agencies.

“The public agencies and engineers are saying these situations can be dealt with,” Dempsey said.

Although the proposal might have negative impacts on area schools and parks, he said it met the appropriate requirements, laws and goals of the county’s comprehensive plan.

“This is one of those projects that’s on the periphery,” he said. Meadowview Terrace will sit on 130 acres east of Barker Road and just south of Eighth Avenue. Lots will range from 10,000 square feet to one acre. The subdivision will have a density of 2.3 homes per acre.

The land sits outside the county’s interim urban growth boundaries, where new development proposals are now limited to just one house per five acres.

Hepton won’t be held to the density restrictions because she submitted her proposal before the boundaries were set.

Opponents of the proposal - mostly neighbors concerned that their neighborhood doesn’t have the infrastructure to support an additional 236 families - admitted that Hepton’s revised plan was an improvement.

“My main objections are not to Clara Hepton,” said Rosemarie Bisiar, a neighbor who testified at Monday’s hearing. “I think she really has the community at heart.”

Hepton will have to meet numerous stormwater, engineering and transportation requirements to move forward with the project.

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