Subdivision Is Under Review

Sat., July 31, 1999

Angie Gaddy Staff Writer

The Spokane County hearing examiner is reviewing whether developers should be allowed to build a 21-home subdivision near the corner of Fourth and Mcdonald Avenue.

At a Wednesday hearing, owners Tony Higley and Delmer Castle asked county Hearing Examiner Mike Dempsey to approve rezoning 4.4 acres just west of McDonald Road to a higher density.

Dempsey won’t issue a written decision until about the end of August.

Developers said they want to build single-family homes that cost about $100,000 each.

“Our goal is to create an entry-level housing project,” said Higley, who also owns Keystone Villa Apartments just west of the proposed development.

Neighbors living near the property say they don’t want the subdivision.

They fear increases in traffic and adding more homes in such a small area.

“It’s too much density. There’s nothing wrong with putting five or six homes on it, but I’m opposed to these that are right next door to each other,” said Donna Evans, who lives cater-cornered to the proposal on Fourth Avenue.

Evans and her husband, Arthur, said they have lived at their home for 29 years and have seen increasing traffic and speeds. They worry the development would only exacerbate the problem.

“When I first moved here I had drawn a hopscotch out in the road for the kids,” Donna said. “But I’d be killing my grandkids if I did that now.”

On Monday, the couple borrowed a speed readerboard and set it up across from the proposed development.

They counted 171 cars speeding above the 25 mph speed limit.

Higley said he can’t control whether people speed down the road. He said the people who would be living in the development wouldn’t be speeding if they were turning into their driveways. He said traffic studies they have done show the project wouldn’t generate more traffic than the county allows.

“Our project isn’t going to affect traffic,” he said.“It would slow people down.”

Neighbors say that isn’t the case if there are plans to widen Fourth Avenue, taking out old firs and trees that have grown along the north side of the road for years.

“We don’t want that,” Arthur Evans said. “That’s all part of the Valley. That’s why we moved here. We enjoy it here. Once it’s gone. It’s gone.”

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