Neighbors battle housing plan

Linde Hackett projected a photo on a screen in the Spokane County hearings room Wednesday morning.

In the picture, a peaceful, lakelike body of water was surrounded by foliage. Tall trees were reflected in the water, resembling a Thomas Kinkade painting.

Only problem is, that water ain’t a lake. The photo, taken last spring, showed Havana Street covered with floodwater after heavy rainfall.

Lanzce Douglass Inc., a Spokane development company, wants to build 163 new homes and 99 apartments near that land. About 60 people attended a hearing Wednesday, many to fight Douglass’ proposal. For more than three hours, they shared environmental, traffic-safety and other concerns.

“Every vacant parcel of land is not meant to be developed,” said Chris Moore, who lives in the Glenrose neighborhood, near the proposed development. “This property is not appropriate for this type of dense development.”

The 52-acre site is located south of 29th Avenue and east of Havana Street, just northwest of Chase Middle School. Home prices would start at $175,000, said Cliff Cameron, Douglass’ project consultant. The apartment buildings would be on either side of 29th.

In addition to getting the plans approved for the project, Douglass is seeking a zoning change that would let him fit about 5.6 homes onto each acre.

But neighbors said the project will disrupt the wetland on the property. They testified that there are drainage problems that need to be resolved before that many more homes can be built. And 29th Avenue, the southern border of the proposed development, dangerously curves downhill in such a way that neighbors there call it Monkey Tail Road.

“I don’t think you have to be an engineer to see that this is a death trap,” Hackett said.

The neighbors are so concerned about the development they hired an attorney and specialists in ecology and traffic engineering to investigate. Those individuals gave bleak reports Wednesday.

The northwest portion of the site is a wetland. Douglass doesn’t want to build atop the sensitive area, but some of the apartments planned would butt up against the 75-foot buffer that’s required between the edge of the pond area and the apartment buildings.

Hugh Lefcort, a Gonzaga University professor and wetlands specialist, said birds living in the trees outside the wetland area now eat insects over the pond. If the birds leave after the trees are knocked down to build houses, the insect population will be out of balance and the pond area’s ecosystem will change, he said.

Lefcort also said the developer’s team created the wetland map in August, when the area is at its driest.

Cameron said Douglass’ team also visited the site in the spring, though, and that the wetland mapping is accurate.

For more than three hours, opponents criticized the project. Neighbor Tina Flint has plumbing problems because the natural drainage in the area changed when another housing project was done. The issue is so bad, she must use an outhouse sometimes.

“I’ll be using that Honey Bucket again this spring because the problem has not been resolved,” Flint said

Flint also directs traffic on 29th during the winter, when there often are accidents on the curve.

“I buy flares on sale. I have my safety vest,” she said.

Through a letter, Spokane School District weighed in on the development, too. Among its concerns, the district asked for wider streets so that buses can pick up children and turn around. Cameron said Douglass is complying with that request.

Cameron said the project’s location is part of its appeal, and its design respects the natural surroundings.

“This is one of the few larger sites left on the South Hill for a development like this,” he said. “It has been designed to the features of the land.”

Cameron said the flooding issues will be managed, and that they’re part of “a normal day of business” for developers.

Hearing Examiner Michael Dempsey has 10 business days to decide whether to approve the project, but can ask for an extension if he needs more time.

Like on the South Hill, residents in other parts of the Spokane area are fighting development’s encroachment over the environment, infrastructure and their way of life. In Spokane Valley, Greenacres neighbors raised $1,800 to apply for a zoning change. Residents of the Rotchford Acres and Ponderosa areas successfully fought for a temporary stipulation allowing only one house to be built per acre.

“We shouldn’t let the property rights of an individual supercede the interests of the community,” Hackett said. “What kind of legacy are we leaving?”