Hearing about Hayden Canyon neighborhood delayed

Local residents will have to wait another month to tell the Hayden City Council their thoughts on the proposed Hayden Canyon neighborhood, after developers asked for a postponement of Tuesday’s public hearing.

The developers asked for the extension late Friday afternoon after receiving the city staff report, which raised questions about traffic concerns and impacts to schools.

The report, written by Hayden Planner Lisa Key, said that the developer’s analysis of the costs and benefits of annexing the 618 acres of land off Lancaster Road was “substantively flawed.”

Key also wrote that traffic impact that would occur from the construction of the first 650 homes “appear to be un-mitigatable in the short-term.”

Glen Lanker of Artios, a Spokane-based architecture firm that is a partner in the development, said he is meeting with city staff Tuesday. He expects the hearing to be rescheduled in February.

“There are a number of loose ends that we need to have more time to address,” Lanker said, adding that he didn’t get the report until Thursday evening. “The city staff has been overwhelmed. We all need to have time together to make sure there are no confusions.”

Hayden TND hired the premier Northwest public relations firm Gallatin Group in November after the Hayden Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended denial of changing the city’s comprehensive plan or annexing property.

The developers recently met with hundreds of local business people in preparation for the hearing. Lanker said there’s now time to have more public presentations to help people understand the project’s “smart growth” principles that would create a community where people can live, work and play without dependency on cars or contributing to sprawl.

The neighborhood could eventually put 1,800 homes on the property off Lancaster Road and expand Hayden’s population by more than a third.