Retail Corner Hearing Examiner Approves Proposal For Store, Bank At 57Th Ave., Palouse

Thu., Dec. 21, 2000

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

The Spokane County hearing examiner has approved a three-part retail development at 57th Avenue and Palouse Highway, but neighbors said they might appeal the decision.

Hearing Examiner Mike Dempsey last week approved a zone change from residential to neighborhood business for a 1.7-acre site on the northeast corner of the intersection.

Property owners Pat Lacey Jr. and Jack Kestell of Spokane want to build a convenience store with gasoline pumps, a bank branch with drive-up windows and a compatible retail use in the project.

Each space would have about 2,400 square feet.

Dempsey turned aside objections of neighbors and neighborhood organizations that the project was unnecessary because commercial development along Regal Street already serves the area.

Neighbors also raised concerns about the project’s impact on an adjacent wetland and an increase in stormwater runoff from the buildings and parking lots.

“We are looking out for the neighborhood as a whole,” said Cheryl Gwinn of the Moran Prairie Neighborhood Association.

She said the association is considering an appeal of Dempsey’s decision and its related administrative determination that the project would not harm the environment.

An appeal would go to the county commissioners.

Moran Prairie has seen serious flooding problems during winters in recent years, and the county has been planning a stormwater disposal system at a cost of millions of dollars.

Neighbors said the project would aggravate those problems.

In his decision, Dempsey wrote, “The convenience store proposed in the current project can serve a different neighborhood and population than the two existing convenience stores and is accessed through a different arterial road network.”

Several paragraphs later, Dempsey said, “The project is located in an area where utilities, arterials, schools, etc., have already been established, and intense urban development has already been approved.”

Dempsey required the developer to install evaporative ponds for stormwater runoff and to maintain adequate buffers for adjacent wetlands.

“As conditioned, the project is reasonably compatible with neighboring property owners and will not be detrimental to the public interest,” he said in his decision.

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