Fruit Flap Green Bluff Festivals May Face Changes After Complaint About Commercial Activities

Forty Japanese tourists recently soaked up sun, apple pie and ice cream at Walter’s Fruit Farm at Green Bluff. The apples were grown on the farm and baked in a kitchen. The ice cream was brought in and sold to the tourists.

But pending a ruling by the Spokane County Hearing Examiner, that ice cream might melt away and the apples would be the lone attraction.

Events such as the recently held Cherry Festival and upcoming fall Harvest Festival may be scaled back or eliminated altogether.

With orchards expanding to include such things as tours and craft sales, the county’s hearing examiner is trying to determine what auxiliary activities are legal for growers and Green Bluff, and which are off limits.

Growers say just selling their crops isn’t enough to pay the bills.

“If you want to sell just fruit you better have a job in town,” said Gordon Beck, owner of the Green Bluff Harvest House and 29 acres of farmland.

A dispute between Beck and Spokane County over the matter has growers nervous.

The controversy erupted when Myrna Thompson - a nongrower who formerly owned the Trading Post - filed a complaint with the county, which is now investigating.

She contends that several of the growers are involved in commercial food activities without legal permits, which took business from her. The Trading Post used to be a general store.

“I was forced into competition with the Harvest House,” Thompson said. “It was unfair competition.”

So Beck applied for and received a Temporary Use Permit from the county in 1996, which allowed him to participate in “accessory activities” associated with the sale of annual harvest crops.

Since the county established the TUPs, growers have applied for permits and most have been granted by the county. The permits are issued for a maximum of eight months a year.

But for the Becks, subsequent applications were tied up with the county because of issues like appropriate signage, and building and restaurant licensing.

Beck, his wife Marilyn, and grower Karene Simchuk, have hired attorney Stephen Eugster to represent them in their dispute with the county.

They are hoping county hearing examiner Mike Dempsey will allow them to sell nonagricultural goods without having to apply for the temporary permits.

“I’m not convinced that what happened here was genuine,” Eugster said. “I believe there has been a concerted effort to destroy the business of the Harvest House.”

But county officials say it is important for growers to abide by the terms of the permits.

“Spokane County is committed to working with the growers in the Green Bluff area to help keep Green Bluff a viable farming community, while at the same time preserving the rural and agricultural atmosphere enjoyed by its residents,” said Stacy Bjordahl of the Spokane County Division of building and planning.

Nonfarming revenue has been generated through hay rides, tours, food service, pony rides and retail sales of crafts and antiques.

But not all the growers want their community marketed like a carnival.

Green Bluff grower Chris Schettle said she is concerned that Green Bluff could one day become Knott’s Berry Farm or Nut Tree, one-time California fruit stands that turned into all-out amusement parks.

Growers say they don’t want that either. They just want to be able to make enough money to maintain a business. They say anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of total revenue comes from the sale of nonagricultural goods.

Eugster and roughly a dozen or so growers tried to persuade Dempsey at a hearing earlier this month that without nonfarming activities, survival on the bluff would be difficult.

Hartley Krueger of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce said the chamber is in full support of the growers being allowed to earn income from nonfarming activities.

When the chamber touts Spokane, Green Bluff is mentioned with downtown renovation, first-rate public golf courses and extensive parks system.

“We consider Green Bluff a very unique attraction,” Krueger said. “We’re in support of their position.”

Simchuk said the face of agriculture has changed dramatically and county officials need to recognize those changes.

She has attended conventions around the country designed to help farmers “market” their products and the agricultural lifestyle in ways that extend far beyond traditional farming.

Eugster argued that the need to participate in nonfarming activities is as old as farming on Green Bluff. He said that for growers to have to obtain temporary use permits is “totally unnecessary.

“It’s like the county saying you can have a hardware store but you can only sell pipe,” he said.