Douglass Requests Rezone Developer Wants 100 Acres For Plan In/Around: Colbert

More than a few Colbert residents snickered when Cliff Cameron - Harley Douglass’ agent - told the Spokane County hearing examiner that he wanted to provide a “global picture” of his client’s desire to rezone 100 acres for single-family residences.

In their minds, there’s nothing global about Douglass’ desires to build what they believe would result in local congestion and a decrease in their quality of life.

Douglass wants Hearing Examiner Mike Dempsey to rezone 98 acres of general agricultural land to semirural residential.

Douglass owns the property just east of Highway 2, east of and adjacent to Yale Road and north of and adjacent to Woolard Road. Preliminary plans call for the creation of 38 single-family lots.

Cameron brought in a hydrogeologist who said the plot, currently being leased to a grower, is not “prime farmland.”

Then a real estate agent told Dempsey that the homes planned to be built would be priced in the $130,000 to $170,000 range.

“We’re trying to establish a lower density development,” said Robert Johnson of John L. Scott Real Estate. He said new homes in that price range in Spokane are hard to find.

But neighbors don’t like it.

Linda Kirk lives roughly a mile from the proposed development. A Colbert resident since 1972, she owns 80 acres where she and her family have raised quarter horses, hay and grain.

She said she’s concerned about the impact of a more residential neighborhood on surrounding farms.

“We live off septic tanks and private wells. My concern is the possibility of contamination to those systems,” Kirk said.

“As a farmer, I fertilize once in the spring,” she said. “A homeowner is going to do that maybe three times a year. There could be a detriment to the environment for farmers.”

Kirk said neighbors have already had three public meetings and will most likely appeal zone change approval.

Judy Van Houton, who moved to Colbert just a little more than a year ago from Western Washington with her husband, Dalton, said they aren’t opposed to one residence per every 10 acres.

Their property borders the north side of the proposed Meadow Glen development.

“This will affect our roads and the school system,” Van Houton said. “It’s urban sprawl where a rural community exists,” she said.

But Dalton Van Houton said he may have one trick up his sleeve to keep potential homebuyers away from the couple’s property.

“We may have to become pig farmers. And believe me, nobody’s going to want to live downwind from us,” Van Houton said.

Dempsey said he may make a decision in two to three weeks at the earliest.

COMMENTS Written comments about the proposed Meadow Glen development can be mailed to Spokane County Division of Building and Planning: 1026 W. Broadway, Spokane, WA 99260, Attention Louis Webster, PN-1835-97.