Builder Seeks Lower Height Limits Lancze Douglass Plans Multi-Story Apartments Along Palouse Highway

Thu., May 6, 1999

By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com (509) 459-5454

A developer of open land along the Palouse Highway on Moran Prairie is asking Spokane County officials to lift height restrictions imposed in 1991.

Builder Lancze Douglass wants to erect multi-story apartments on property fronting the northeast side of the Palouse Highway between Freya Street and 57th Avenue.

The apartments are part of a 28.8-acre development known as Palouse Plaza Estates. It includes more than 20 acres of single-family homes. The apartments are named Hilby Station on plat maps included in the Douglass application file.

The developer is scheduled to appear before the Spokane County hearing examiner on May 12 at 10:30 a.m. in the commissioner’s assembly room in the lower level of the Public Works Building.

The hearing involves Douglass’ request for a change of conditions on phase two of the 120-unit apartment complex to be built on seven acres.

The property is 1,250 feet southeast of the intersection of Palouse Highway and Freya.

In 1991, the former county hearing examiner committee limited the apartment buildings at Palouse Plaza Estates to 1.5 stories in height.

In 1997, Douglass asked the county to rescind the height restrictions on phase one of the apartment project, and the county approved the change.

Now, Douglass is returning to the hearing examiner with a similar request to rescind the height restrictions on phase two. Both phases are zoned urban residential-22, allowing 22 units per acre.

Countywide zoning standards allow apartment buildings as tall as 2.5 stories and 35 feet in height in the UR-22 zone.

So far, no opposition to the proposal has emerged, said Tammy Jones, county planner working on the proposal.

The preliminary plat was approved prior to emergency stormwater regulations enacted by county commissioners in 1997 because of flooding problems caused by shallow soils and slow drainage on Moran Prairie.

The county now requires lined evaporation ponds for new developments in the Moran Prairie watershed.

Brenda Sims, stormwater utility manager for the county, cautioned Douglass to consider installation of a lined pond.

“Because of significant ground water issues in this area, the applicant should be aware that if storm water is discharged into the ground there could be downstream impacts and the owner may be subject to future potential liability,” Sims wrote in a memo.

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