Groups Want Growth Plan Friendly To Businesses In/Around: West Plains

Business representatives on the West Plains have asked the Spokane Planning Commission to make sure its new growth-management plan accommodates commerce.

“We hope you can keep the door open for business in our area,” said Phil Snowden, superintendent of Cheney schools and a member of the West Plains Business Association and Cheney Chamber of Commerce.

Planning commissioners took testimony on a growth-management comprehensive plan during a hearing May 18 at the Medical Lake City Hall.

The planning commission is expected to send its proposal to county commissioners by the end of summer, said Paul Jensen, director of long-range planning.

During the hearing, Snowden said the people who live on the West Plains depend on businesses to boost property tax collections for schools and to bring jobs to the area.

Boeing, B.F. Goodrich Aerospace and R.A. Pearson Co. are among the big employers who contribute to the tax base of the area.

Pam Senske, a spokeswoman for R.A. Pearson Co., told the commissioners her company needs enough land designated for industrial use to allow future expansion.

“We’ve made a huge investment in our property,” she said. “We would like to stay in that area and expand.”

The company on U.S. Highway 2 has fabricated packaging machines for industry since 1978.

Under the current zoning code, the company is considered heavy industry because it ships its finished products.

Senske asked that the new comprehensive plan include provisions to allow for her company’s possible expansion.

Planning Commissioner Mike Britton said, “We don’t want to do anything to put any undue burdens on businesses.”

It appeared from testimony that details of the plan need tweaking.

Jim Watson, a commercial real estate broker with Kiemle-Hagood Co., said the business park southeast of the Medical Lake interchange on Interstate 90 should not be opened to heavy industry.

He said Sacred Heart Medical Center bought property in the business park and wants to build a testing laboratory but only if the area remains limited to light industry.

“This appears to have been a mistake,” Watson said of the heavy industrial designation given to the area.

Planning commissioners promised to investigate.

Rural landowners in southwest Spokane County said they are opposed to increasing minimum lot sizes to 20 acres in some areas now zoned for general agriculture on the West Plains.

Such large minimum lots would make it difficult for farmers to sell off parcels when they face financial pressure, they said.

Other residents said they support the larger lot sizes to protect the West Plains from suburban sprawl.

In an interview, Jensen said planners want to create a new land-use classification to be called rural conservation.

Outside of Cheney and Airway Heights, about half of the land now designated for general agriculture would be placed in the new rural conservation category.

The areas proposed for rural conservation have wetlands, lakes, hillsides and wildlife habitat. The idea is to protect those areas from overdevelopment.

Landowners could build on smaller lots if they cluster homes in places that could support the development and if they agree to set aside land for conservation, he said.

The proposed new comprehensive plan would provide incentives and mechanisms for clustered development, Jensen said.