By JAMES EIK
Staff Reporter
A series of three open houses Feb. 21-23 aim to inform West Plains residents about the impact of the county's Joint Land Use Study, which will be implemented by local jurisdictions in the coming months.
The study, funded through a grant from the Department of Defense and carried out by Spokane County, aims to set standards across the region in order to protect Fairchild Air Force Base from encroachment and land uses that would conflict with its current or future missions.
With the document's finalization by the JLUS Implementation Steering Committee, it now goes out to the public for questions and comments. Should any major issues arise, they will be directed to the county before jurisdictions receive their copy of the study for approval.
From there, cities will need to hold public hearings and then ratify their own individual documents. While the documents may contain some wording differences, the important content will remain unchanged. Adopting the document will most likely add another chapter to each city's comprehensive plan.
In addition, the document will be sent to the Department of Defense for a 60-day review.
Protection of the base is divided into three sections, or Military Influence areas, two of which impact Medical Lake and Airway Heights.
MIA Two extends in a five mile radius around the base's runway.
According to the latest draft of the JLUS document, homeowners in the area, according to Airway Heights' city planner Derrick Braaten, will be sent notices that they're living in range of Fairchild. They will also need to sign off on an avigation easement, which Braaten compares to having an electrical company worker perform maintenance and checks on a residence. Instead, the notice will be directed at planes flying overhead, and prevent landowners from suing an entity related to aircraft travel.
“It's something to help residents and people moving into these facilities know. It helps protect them, so that they're aware and it also helps protect the aviation facilities,” he said.
New home developments in MIA Three, which follows along the 65 Day-Night (LdN) sound levels, will need to include sound dampening materials in order to lessen the ambient level down to 45 LdN. This can be done through insulation and windows that reduce sound.
Also, the base will have 15 days to comment on a building project's application, with the possibility to request an extension of 30 days.
“The big part of what JLUS is for is to make sure that we do not create incompatible developments,” Braaten said. “Airway Heights has always coordinated with the base.”
The JLUS document also touches on nonconforming building uses and damages that occur.
Nonconforming buildings and structures damaged through an act of nature, such as a flood or fire, will have one year to reconstruct and repair any damages.
While Medical Lake's northern Urban Growth Area falls inside MIA Three, Airway Heights is almost entirely encompassed by it, with the exception of what is being called the “donut hole.”
Planes, when on approach to the base, either fly straight in or bank right. When the planes bank right, it creates a pocket of space, which contains most of the single-family residences of Airway Heights. Draft revisions saw the pocket decrease in size, which ultimately left Airway Heights' UGA inside MIA Three, like Medical Lake.
Braaten said the city is pursuing other locations for its UGA, including some land to the northeast, where some residential zones could be created. At last month's Medical Lake planning commission meeting, city planner Glenn Scholten said some options were being considered, but much of the land surrounding the city has difficult terrain to work with.
As Airway Heights has operated under the Air Installation Compatible Use Zones program since 2004 very little will be changing for the city, Braaten said. The AICUZ program is one element the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission considered in its decisions.
Braaten said members of the public can learn about the process behind the JLUS program and hear from its officials at the open houses. While the program won't affect the lives of regular homeowners, he said it would impact specific properties in the MIA Three zone.
“People will be able to learn what the specific impact is to their specific property,” Braaten said.
A final copy of the JLUS draft can be seen on the Spokane County website, at spokanecounty.org/bp.
James Eik can be reached at [email protected].
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