Converted or preserved: Vinegar Flats fate undecided

Aside from a house and a handful of farming structures, a 48-acre parcel of land near the meeting of U.S. Highway 195 and Cheney-Spokane Road sits vacant, as it has for years. Yet, the land referred to eponymously as the Pilcher property represents possibility to countless groups: historically farmed soil could be used as a teaching opportunity, a public park and alternate trail to High Drive Bluff Park. Hangman Creek could be a new channel for kayaks and canoes.

All of these natural resource possibilities could come to fruition if the city were to purchase the land, and John Pilcher, the owner since 2004, would be happy to see it utilized this way. At the same time, city of Spokane hearing examiner Brian McGinn gave Pilcher’s 94-home development a conditional approval, so he’s also taking meetings with the private sector.

“Now that we have our plat approved, we know what the property’s worth, we know what a buyer would pay for it,” Pilcher said. “We’re in a situation of finally offering it to the community and saying to the city, ‘Do you really want this or not? And can you make the funding systems work to not cost the city any direct dollars at the end of the day to buy it?’ ”

Pilcher, who served as Spokane’s chief operating officer under Mayor Dennis Hession, has had to fight for development approval on this property for years. In 2011, a shoreline buffer rule – which the council initially waived in his case – halted an earlier development plan.

In his approval, McGinn acknowledged that development of the land would run contrary to Spokane’s comprehensive plan for agricultural land, but said the zoning code overrules the city’s plan, which is “general purpose statements or expressions of intent, not regulations.”

But McGinn did not equivocate on what the development would mean for the land underneath it.

“Through this project, the agricultural land is converted, not preserved. Building craftsman-style houses or adding wagon wheels or other decorations does not change this reality,” McGinn said in his decision.

McGinn’s office said he cannot speak with The Spokesman-Review because he is an administrative law judge. The hearing examiner is appointed by City Council.

When McGinn gave the development his approval, then-City Council President Ben Stuckart said he was formulating plans to keep the property undeveloped, citing safety concerns on U.S. Highway 195, a proclamation local real estate agent Tom Hormel used against Stuckart in his run for mayor.

“He steps in at the last minute and tries to kill it,” Hormel said. “It’s a good example of a leader being above the rules.”

But the tug-of-war between public and private interest far preceded that moment. The county formalized its interest in the property on its 2016 Conservation Futures list, long before McGinn’s decision, at which point the city entered into a three-year agreement with Pilcher to give the city first pass. Even after an extension, this agreement expired on Dec. 31. Despite this, Pilcher said he is still negotiating in good faith with the city.

All the while, as the city acquired properties on its list, the Vinegar Flats farmland climbed, making it to the No. 2 spot. Spokane County voters approved the Conservation Futures – a statewide program dating back to 1971 – in 1994. A city- and county-level property tax provides money to acquire and conserve land identified as valuable public space.

Then along came mountain-biking area Beacon Hill.

“The way that the program is designed, there is some flexibility in the ranking of the list,” said Paul Knowles, Spokane County park planner. “When there are outside funding opportunities that may be available to help purchase property that’s on the list, the Board of County Commissioners has the ability to rearrange the list temporarily or permanently to pursue that outside funding source.”

The city and county are applying for grants totaling $1.5 million in an attempt to acquire four land parcels that make up Beacon Hill. This revision – the first one to be made to the 2016 list – bumped the Pilcher property to the No. 5 spot.

Chrys Ostrander, Spokane Farmland Preservation Working Group spokesman, is hoping the grant will be awarded, and Pilcher could be purchased with money leftover in Conservation Futures budget. His group is promoting the idea of the land being converted into a teaching farm.

“We have a continually shrinking nonrenewable resource which is our arable farmland,” Ostrander said. “As climate change, population pressures, possibilities of natural disasters become more prominent, we feel that the need to preserve arable farmland is getting more dire each day.”

Ostrander said he would like to see the Pilcher property purchased with a combination of public and private funds and have the city “operate it as as a working farm which would produce food for local consumption and also provide educational opportunities for people who want to learn small-scale agriculture, urban agriculture and other agrarian skills using the piece of land as a focal point.”

Kai Huschke, Latah Hangman neighborhood council chair, said the farming history is important to the community.

“We have a longstanding farming tradition down here, where there’s been the large garden operations of the Japanese-American community members that were down here over the years, to other vegetable farming operations that have gone on over the years, now with Urban Eden Farm and Vinegar Flats community garden,” Huschke said. “Traditionally, it’s been a big deal for us down here to preserve farmland and preserve the wildlife corridor associated to it.”

Another group invested in public acquisition of the land is Friends of the Bluff, a group dedicated to stewardship of High Drive Bluff. Pat Keegan, Friends of the Bluff board president, said initially the group tried to work with the development to have public access through the property to the trails on the bluff.

“There was not really a legal precedent that they could use that would force the developer to provide trail access,” Keegan said.

Since then, Keegan said Friends of the Bluff has been regularly meeting with the parks department.

Without ruling anything out, Knowles said moving pieces – namely time and money – would need to come together for Conservation Futures to acquire the property. The idea that an owner is simultaneously speaking with private development is not customary. In his 12 years of involvement with the Conservation Futures Program, he’s never seen anything like the case of the Pilcher property, Knowles said.

“Usually once we we get down that road, we’re really just working with the property owner, and the property owner is interested in and hopefully trying to make the deal go through,” Knowles said. “It’s interesting, but this is a unique property and it’s a very unique situation.”

Garret Jones, Spokane Parks and Recreation director, thinks there could be opportunity in the timing. Spokane County Parks, Recreation & Open Space Plan is due for an update, and members of the public will be able to voice their opinions on the direction of Spokane parks for the next six to 10 years.

“It’ll give another chance for just the community at large to really tell us what their priorities are,” Jones said. “We’re investing their dollars and we want to invest those wisely. So we want the community to help us prioritize.”