By CARA LORELLO
Staff Reporter
Last Thursday, the Medical Lake Planning Commission was joined by a handful of local developers attending a public hearing for the first reading of the city's 2007-2025 comprehensive plan, which members approved with a developer's request to have land located northeast of the city limits be reincorporated into the city's revised urban growth area (UGA).
The hearing was last of several comp plan reviews before the plan gets presented to the City Council on June 19 for approval to meet the county assessor's deadline of June 30.
The area requested runs east along SR-902 between First Street and Keene Road in Medical Lake, according to developer Rusty Hallen who currently owns and operates two city apartment complexes.
Hallen said at one point he'd been informed by the city that the current Spokane County land was supposed to be annexed into Medical Lake, but that never happened.
“We actually a have a map that shows this…What our desire is, is to put some affordable housing out there,” Hallen here.
Hallen said he could name several reasons why the area ought to be included within the UGA, including feedback from local police who've indicated the need to patrol its roads.
“I think it's the city's responsibility to preserve the (SR-902) corridor,” Hallen said.
City planner Glenn Scholten explained it was a mutual decision by the commission to remove the land from the UGA earlier this year due to its close approximation to a “contentious area” within the eastern periphery of town where residents expressed strong opposition to their being included in the UGA. The area remains excluded.
The commission's decision was also influenced by the city's choice to concentrate both new and future developments to the north of town.
Planning Commissioner Bob Albright said the city's recent placement of a moratorium on all future developments was reason enough to caution any further alternations to the UGA.
“At the present time I feel this is something we as a planning commission need to discuss some more amongst ourselves in view of the moratorium situation before we incorporate any more ground,” Albright said.
Amendments may be proposed to city comprehensive plans once every year, Scholten said. A request to the planning commission is usually the first step to a yearlong wait for changes to process.
“There's still a process you'll need to go through to ask the City Council if you want to be incorporated into the city,” Scholten said.
Planning Commission members closed the two-hour public hearing by approving the comp plan draft as written with Hallen's request to reincorporate land northeast of SR-902 to as far as Bartholomew Road into the UGA for review by the City Council.
Cara Lorello can be reached at [email protected]
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