City Defers Ruling On Crestview

Spokane City Council heard two appeals Monday regarding projects on Five Mile Prairie.

For both, council members deferred their decision for two weeks. No public testimony will be heard at that time.

In the first hearing, developer Robert Frisch appealed the city hearing examiner’s decision to deny his request for a rezoning of the second phase of Crestview Estates.

Frisch wants the area to be rezoned as R1 (single-family residential), which would allow for smaller lot sizes. It is currently zoned RS (residential suburban).

Pat Riskin, the attorney for Frisch, argued that the rezone is a “narrow issue.”

The area was already approved for 28 lots in 1994, he said, and Frisch simply wants to be able to develop that number of lots.

However, Frisch has allowed room in his new plan for a drainage pond. That means, to keep the same number of lots, they have to be smaller.

In his original decision, the hearing examiner said that an approval of the zone change would set a precedent.

Riskin questioned whether setting a precedent is a “sufficient reason to deny a rezone when all the criteria have been met.”

On behalf of the Five Mile Prairie Association, Steve Mumm answered with an unequivocal “Yes.”

“This is not a narrow issue. It is a broad, sweeping issue of precedent,” he said, adding that most of the criteria for a rezone had not been met.

Riskin said Frisch has “been playing by the rules.” Mumm said he has not, and listed a number of conditions for phase one of Crestview Estates that have not been met. Things like safety striping and landscaping for the drainage swales were supposed to have been completed before any homes were occupied. Now nine are inhabited.

Councilwoman Phyllis Holmes noted the importance of following up on developers to make sure such conditions are met.

“And if they’re not,” she said, “we should do something appropriate. I’ll think about what that is.”

The second hearing concerned a neighboring property called Kosta’s Addition. Five Mile resident Scott Thompson, backed by the Five Mile Prairie Association, appealed the hearing examiner’s decision to approve the preliminary plat.

Thompson, who lives next to the proposed project, said that according to the hearing examiner’s decision, he would be responsible for creating the sidewalks and curbs, and for paving the road.

“I didn’t expect to be responsible to pay for a road I’ll never use,” he said.

Candace Dahlstrom, of the Five Mile Prairie Association, said the hearing examiner went outside his jurisdiction to release the developer from paving the street.

“Except in unusual cases,” she quoted from the Spokane Municipal Code, “a plat must dedicate the full width of the street.”

Todd Whipple, representing the developer, said the Five Mile Prairie Association failed to pass the burden of proof test and basically disagreed with most of the appellants’ arguments.