Commissioners Delay Decision On Store

Spokane County commissioners voted to postpone a decision on allowing a convenience store in Pasadena Park, but not without the dissent of commissioner John Roskelley.

Spokane Valley developer Bill Lawson has proposed building a 7,450-square foot gas station and convenience store at the corner of Argonne and Wellesley.

Spokane County hearing examiner Mike Dempsey denied Lawson’s rezone application last fall, saying the proposal was too close to an existing business zone just to the north on Argonne.

Lawson appealed the decision saying the distance should be measured by driving Argonne rather than by drawing a straight line. Two neighborhood business zones must be more than a half-mile apart.

Lawson’s attorney, Craig Trueblood, said if the distance was measured by driving along Argonne, the two business zones would be more than a half-mile apart.

Commissioner Phil Harris said he wanted to review the case for two weeks before making any decision.

But Pasadena Park residents and commissioner Roskelley said the high-traffic intersection is already too dangerous.

“Putting a convenience store here would establish a traffic killing field,” Roskelley said.

He told Harris and fellow commissioner Kate McCaslin he was ready to deny the application and that he believed the hearing examiner was correct in measuring the distance.

“I’m going to call a spade a spade,” Roskelley told Lawson’s attorney. “Your argument is not sufficient in convincing me that you can make a curve out of a straight line.”

McCaslin agreed with Harris and voted to postpone a decision for two weeks.

Residents near the intersection said they don’t need nor want another gas station near them.

Josie Bucknell, who lives on the southwest corner of Wellesley and Argonne directly across from the proposed development, said there are plenty of stores in Millwood to patronize.

“He doesn’t understand that we don’t want a zone change. We don’t want a business in this area,” she said.

The Pasadena Park neighborhood adopted a community plan in 1994 that said the area should stay mostly residential and that no businesses be allowed. Although the site proposed for the gas station and convenience store is adjacent to the Pasadena Park neighborhood, planners said it essentially is part of the neighborhood.