89-Unit Housing Development Gets Hearing Examiner’S Ok

Thu., May 20, 1999

By Angie Gaddy angieg@spokesman.com

The Spokane County hearing examiner has approved an 89-unit development on the corner of Dishman-Mica and 16th Avenue.

Neighbors who fought the development are meeting this week to decide whether to appeal the decision.

“Personally, I’m very pleased with the decision,” said Debbi Lester, a leader of the Chester Hills Community Group, which opposed the project.

Lester said she was happy with county hearing examiner Mike Dempsey’s decision because it added protection and conditions - eight pages of them - that assuaged some of the neighborhood’s concerns.

“It addressed the concerns we had,” she said. “I think he came up with a good solution.”

In a written decision issued last Friday, Dempsey said the project, planned jointly by developer Jim Frank and Northwest Regional Facilitators, a nonprofit organization active in housing, conformed to the county’s comprehensive plan.

Dempsey said the project would fill-in where existing utilities, schools and roads have already been built. Developers wanted to build 26 duplexes, 39 multi-family units and one single-family home on about 10 acres. The developers agreed to scale back the plan by three units at a March public hearing.

Neighbors expressed concern about high density and said they didn’t want condominiums towering over their back yard fences.

Dempsey limited the height of those along the southern boundary of the project that abut neighbors’ back yards to 30 feet. He also said as many trees as possible should be kept and a 6-foot-high fence should be constructed.

Developers will also have to widen and improve 16th Avenue and Felts Road near the project, put in curbs and sidewalks and a center turn lane on 16th Avenue.

Developers expressed concern about the height limitations, which are less than those of their surrounding neighbors.

There’s worry that those people who buy the condos or homes will have that restriction on their land, said Linda Hugo, with Northwest Regional Facilitators.

“It’s a very strange ruling, because he’s imposed greater restrictions on us than others before,” she said.

In practical terms, they’ll be able to build the project. They weren’t planning to go over that height anyway, she said.

“We’ll be able to do what we need to do,” she said. “But as a matter of principle I greatly disagree.”

Developers will now begin work on the technical design and probably won’t begin construction until sometime next year, she said.

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