Developers Want To Bury Pipe Under Qualchan Storm Water From Qualchan Hills Would Drain Into Hangman Creek

Developers of the Qualchan Hills subdivision in the Latah Valley have no place to put the storm water expected to run down from new pavement and planned homes.

Their engineers have devised an elaborate strategy to slow the water and let it run into Hangman Creek.

There’s one problem: They need to dig a hole across The Creek at Qualchan Golf Course and bury a discharge pipe.

The developer has asked the Spokane Park Board to approve an easement for the pipe.

“We’re willing to listen,” said Mark Casey, chairman of the park board golf committee.

However, committee members so far are not satisfied with the plan submitted last week, he said. The golf committee has asked for an independent engineering review of the plan.

The question of storm water drainage is just the latest in a saga of problems confronting the development at Qualchan Hills.

Residents of the South Side will recognize the property as the deforested hillside that can be seen from the High Drive overlook to the south.

Last year, the group of developers that owns the property agreed to a plan to build streets and install a second water reservoir higher up on the hillside.

Now, they are back at City Hall asking for final plats for five additions and a revised preliminary plat for a sixth addition for a total of more than 100 homes.

Two of the additions in the southeast section of the development need the stormwater pipe to handle runoff before any homes can be built.

“We cannot use drywells,” said Randy LaBeff, a consulting engineer for Adams & Clark Inc., the firm hired to plan the development.

“Storm sewers have to flow somewhere,” he said.

Water flowing from Qualchan Hills’ third and fifth additions historically went into a shallow depression to the east of U.S. Highway 195. If enough water collected in the depression, it would flow into the creek.

LaBeff said the development of the golf course removed that feature.

His plan would channel storm water into two retention ponds on the Qualchan Hills property. Water would be held and metered slowly into a discharge pipe to the creek.

The maximum rate of flow would be less than a cubic foot per second.

The owners and developers are Inland Asphalt Co. and Gene Brazington of Spokane.

Not only do they need the easement from the Park Board, they also need an easement from the state Department of Transportation so they can put water through pipes under U.S. Highway 195.

They also need a shoreline permit, permits from two state agencies and approval of city engineers.

Neighbors are against the plan.

“We are talking serious problems here,” said Gail Howard, a leader in the Latah Valley Neighborhood Council.

She said the hillside is dotted with natural springs because of the clay and rock layers beneath the surface. Work on the hillside has aggravated problems of erosion and water in basements of existing homes in the lower portions of Qualchan Hills.

“Some places just shouldn’t be built on,” she said.

The long range plan has been to connect Qualchan Hills with the Eagle Ridge development via an extension of Lincoln Boulevard.

The city of Spokane has extended water and sewer lines to serve the large developments.

In 1996, the original developer, Lamont Glines, filed bankruptcy and creditors took control of the property.

Glines sued the city of Spokane over an alleged breach of contract because, his suit argued, the city refused to allow an expanded development without a second water reservoir.

Glines said the city at one point gave him approval for more homes without a second water tank.

U.S. District Court Judge Edward Shea recently reduced the scope of Glines’ claim to a single addition in the larger Qualchan Hills development.

Assistant City Attorney Bob Beaumier said he expects an appeal of Shea’s decision to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court.