Ponderosa PUD developer sues city

Developer Lanzce Douglass is suing Spokane Valley over a required environmental study he says amounts to confiscation of his property.

Douglass seeks unspecified damages, attorney fees and reversal of city hearing examiner Michael Dempsey’s decision to require a full environmental impact statement on fire-related traffic issues in an 81-home planned-unit development southwest of 44th Avenue and Farr Road.

Dempsey’s Nov. 30 decision, in an appeal by the Ponderosa Neighborhood Association, overturned a Planning Department declaration that Douglass’ proposed 16.9-acre Ponderosa PUD would have no environmental significance.

Meanwhile developer Bryan Walker, who does business as Landworks Development Inc., has filed a similar Superior Court appeal.

Walker objects to the Spokane Valley City Council’s recent affirmation of Dempsey’s denial of a preliminary plat for Walker’s 45-unit Ponderosa Estates North subdivision northeast of Ridgeview Drive and Dishman-Mica Road.

Dempsey concluded that Ponderosa Estates North and Ponderosa PUD couldn’t be evacuated quickly enough in the event of another major wildfire like the one that destroyed 15 Ponderosa neighborhood homes in 1991. The projects are among four proposed in an area with only two exits: the intersections of Schafer and Bowdish roads with Dishman-Mica Road.

The projects are among four that would add more than 250 homes to an area where 1,281 homes already have been built or approved.

The largest of the four is Douglass’ 100-home Ponderosa Ridge subdivision, which Dempsey approved in 2005. In that case, Dempsey ruled there were adequate fire exits for the 27.7-acre development at the southeast corner of 44th Avenue and Schafer Branch Road.

The Washington Court of Appeals ruled in November that a Superior Court judge properly upheld Dempsey’s ruling on appeal.

The hearing examiner said he based his Ponderosa Ridge decision on oral testimony, but lacked the proprietary computer software necessary to review traffic engineering data on a compact disc submitted by Douglass’ consultant.

When the same compact disc was presented for the Ponderosa Estates North and Ponderosa PUD projects, Dempsey obtained a printout and concluded the study was faulty. Also, he heard new testimony from Spokane Valley Fire Chief Mike Thompson asking a moratorium on new construction in the Ponderosa area until there is a third access road.

Dempsey rejected neighbors’ environmental appeal of Walker’s Ponderosa Estates North. He noted the appellants didn’t raise fire-safety issues, but the Ponderosa Neighborhood Association did in its appeal of a Spokane Valley Planning Department ruling that the project presented no significant environmental issues.

Unable to address the fire-safety issue in the Ponderosa Estates North environmental appeal, Dempsey instead denied a necessary zone change and preliminary plat approval. Requiring a full environmental study for Ponderosa PUD allowed Dempsey to stop short of rejecting the project.

Douglass argues in his recently filed lawsuit that Dempsey, having found no fire-related traffic problem when he approved Ponderosa Ridge, was legally barred from doing so in Ponderosa PUD.

Also, Douglass contends, Dempsey erroneously assumed it should be possible to evacuate the entire Ponderosa area in 30 minutes. No law requires that, Douglass says.

Dempsey’s written decision assigns weight to the testimony of University of Utah Professor Thomas Cova that 30 minutes is the maximum time for a safe evacuation.

Testifying on behalf of the Ponderosa Neighborhood Association, Cova testified that in years of studying fire-prone communities, he had never seen one with so many houses and so few exits. Most have about 200 homes per exit, but Ponderosa already had about 600 per exit, Cova said.

Even if fire safety is a legitimate issue for an environmental review, Spokane County or Spokane Valley should bear the burden because the project is in a designated “urban growth area,” Douglass contends.

He also objects to Dempsey’s conclusion that Ponderosa PUD lacks adequate provisions for storm water disposal.