Council to discuss zone change
Developer plans retirement center in residential neighborhood
A controversial zone change to allow an assisted-living center in a single-family residential area will go before the Spokane Valley City Council Tuesday for action.
The issue was delayed a week so Councilman Bill Gothmann, who has opposed the change, could participate in the decision.
The proposed change would affect three acres at the southeast corner of Marguerite and Alki roads. It would convert R3 and R4 zones in the area to “garden office” use.
“This would indeed destroy our neighborhood,” Greg Mott said June 24, during a preliminary City Council discussion.
Bobbie Beese said the proposed change “kind of orphans six homes,” including her parents’ home.
A group of homes at the northeast corner of Marguerite and Alki would be surrounded on three sides by office zones associated with nearby Argonne Road.
Beese predicted the rezoned land would be used for offices instead of retirement housing, and city planner Mike Basinger acknowledged there was no guarantee that wouldn’t happen.
But Joe Stoy, speaking for developer Dennis Raugust, said a quality retirement center was planned. Raugust’s Boulder Creek Inc. intends to leave a group of “huge cedar trees,” Stoy said.
Also, he said, the assisted-living apartments would have only emergency access to Marguerite, which serves existing homes and adjoins the West Valley School District’s City School at 8920 E. Valleyway Ave.
If a retirement home is planned, Raugust should have applied for a multifamily zoning, Gothmann said. Using the garden office zone sets a bad precedent, he said.
But Basinger said city planners recommended the garden office zone because it, unlike multifamily zoning, could preclude vehicular access to Marguerite.
Gothmann tried to kill the zone change with an unsuccessful motion to remove it from a group of other Planning Commission recommendations.
Mayor Rich Munson said he feared the motion would prevent Raugust from switching to multifamily zoning.
Councilwoman Rose Dempsey wanted to study the ramifications of using multifamily zoning, but Councilman Steve Taylor said the council shouldn’t “monkey around with it to satisfy a couple of comments that we have heard.”