By RYAN LANCASTER
Staff Reporter
Medical Lake's planning commission had a busy meeting May 27, where they continued reviewing the city's zoning ordinance and had detailed discussions of the city's future and the school district's tenuous building plans.
While additions to Hallett Elementary were nearly last on the agenda, they were at the forefront of the commission's interest last Thursday. City Planner Glen Scholten outlined the Medical Lake School District's desire to bypass a city ordinance that prohibits building within 200 feet of certain wetlands areas. The city had no critical areas ordinance when the school was built under a special permit in 1995, and Medical Lake has since amended its code to conform to state law on wetlands conservation. This means that Hallett now sits within the buffer zone and the district's preferred plan for an addition there would bring the school to within eight feet of the wetlands themselves. The city has presented the district with other building options but district administrators have so far been hesitant to comply, citing the extra cost.
“The very first meeting we told them, if you're planning on doing anything in the wetlands you're going to have a hard time because we are restricted by state law from infringing and degrading the wetlands and we have to obey the law,” Scholten said. “There's no legal mechanism in our ordinance that allows the school district to build their six additional classrooms where they want to build them.”
Commissioners then stated their support of the latest installment of zoning ordinance updates, including stricter language in a chapter concerning adult entertainment establishments. “You can't ban (adult businesses) completely because that's unconstitutional, but you have to have some form of regulation so that you can control it if somebody decides they want to move in that direction,” Commissioner Bob Albright said in summary.
Scholten said it's unlikely the city will ever field interest by an adult establishment but the ordinance now makes it more difficult for businesses of this kind to gain a foothold in Medical Lake. The ordinance will now be re-written according to the commission's suggestions and forwarded to city council for approval and codification.
The commission is also in the process of reviewing and editing the city's comprehensive plan for the first time in more than a decade. Thursday's meeting centered mainly on chapter three: Community Issues and Visioning, which deals with current issues and future conditions in the city.
A lively discussion was held with viewpoints swinging between acceptance of the city's economic lot and a desire to transform Medical Lake into a city that will stand on its own. “I don't see us expanding very far beyond what we have already,” Albright said. “The only thing we can do is enhance what we've got and maintain our rural community setting.”
“I'll take the contrary view,” Commissioner Mark Hudson said. “I am really uncomfortable with being called a bedroom community of Spokane. I wish we had a sense of identity… I wish we had a way to draw businesses that fit who we are as the people of Medical Lake without becoming a large city.”
Commissioners were joined in the debate by citizens in the gallery who put forward suggestions on how the city might overhaul its image and stimulate its economy through such methods as developing a motor home park, “sprucing up” the downtown core or by reestablishing Medical Lake as a regional center for healing, as in the town's heyday.
“You have to have the data and you have to have what people think and why they live here – the demographics I guess you could call it – in order to make any projections as to what Medical Lake should strive to be,” Scholten told the commission. “You can't plan for the community, you have to plan with them.”
Following more discussion commissioners agreed to have Scholten research the best options of gathering public input, including putting together a community visioning team and drafting a public survey. Their next meeting will be at 5 p.m., June 24 at City Hall.
Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].
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