Planners Withdraw Proposed Shoreline Limits Director Says Ordinance Needs More Work, Plans To Try Again This Year
Concern over proposed building restrictions along the Spokane River and Hangman Creek has led the Planning Department to withdraw an ordinance that was before the City Council.
The proposed ordinance, designed to protect the city’s fish and wildlife habitat, would have prohibited almost all new construction within 250 feet of the two streams.
Introduced to the City Council on Aug. 7, the measure provoked strong criticism from council members, builders and even the city Plan Commission, which approved the same ordinance last year.
As a result, Planning Director John Mercer withdrew the proposal, saying it needs more work. He said he’ll try to bring it back before the end of the year.
The Plan Commission’s objection “was sort of a red flag for us,” Mercer said. “There were parts of it they didn’t have complete understanding of.”
The ordinance is required by the 1990 state Growth Management Act, which mandates all cities to take steps to protect their critical areas. The GMA requires that local ordinances be based on the “best available science,” which is what produced the 250-foot building limit.
Mercer said that while his department used the research provided by the state Fish and Wildlife Department, the city will now look elsewhere.
“I’m not going to put it in front of the council until we feel we’ve found some new information or until we feel we have exhausted the sources,” Mercer said.
Mercer also noted that whatever ordinance is adopted will be interim in nature, and will have to be looked at again in several years.
Plan Commissioner David Bray applauded Mercer’s willingness to re-examine the ordinance.
“The 250 feet is just too much,” Bray said. “We have to strike a balance here. There should be an opportunity for other developments within 250 feet. That’s darn near a football field.”
Although the Plan Commission approved the ordinance last year, not everyone on the board was aware of its contents when Mercer took it before the council, Bray said.
“We were surprised,” Bray said. “There’s an awful lot of new faces on the Plan Commission, and I’m one of them. And a lot of them who were there didn’t agree with the footage.”
But while Plan Commission members may not agree with 250 feet, they’ll have to come up with some standard that the city can defend in a court challenge, Mercer said.
Spokane County lost a similar challenge, and as a result now has 250-foot limits, he said.
If the city does not pass the ordinance, it will remain out of compliance with the Growth Management Act and is therefore ineligible for low-interest state loans.
“We have to adopt something, and that something needs to be based on science that’s out there and has to be good enough to withstand the test of an appeal,” Mercer said.