Cheney City Council approves 28-lot View Acres plat

The Cheney City Council gave the go ahead at its Oct. 11 meeting for residential development to take place on a 14.2-acre parcel of land in southwest Cheney.

The council approved a hearing examiner recommendation for a plat of land known as View Acres, located north of Salnave Street near Ridgeview and Scenic Heights drives. The development includes an extension of Ridgeview to the north.

In passing the resolution, council also gave its approval to a requested variance in standard single-family residential lot sizes on the parcel. Public Works Director Todd Ableman told the council that the city’s zoning code restricts R-1 lot sizes to no more than 9,000 square feet, with six units allowed per acre.

Because the terrain at View Acres is hilly, with 30 percent grades taking place on some slopes, owner Gary Geschke requested a variance to allow for sizes greater than 9,000 square feet on 12 of the 28 proposed lots. Lots at View Acres will now range from 6,690 square feet to 15,734 square feet.

Ableman said Geschke indicated in conversations that development of the plat would take place in two phases. During discussion, Councilman Dan Hilton asked if the owner of one of the lots over 10,000 square feet could subsequently cut that lot in two and build residential on both.

“It’s only set for 28 lots,” Ableman said. “If you cut one up, you would have to go through another approval process.”

During voting on the plat, Councilman Doug Nixon abstained, noting he had already made an agreement with Geschke for two of the View Acre lots.

Council also approved four resolutions regarding water. Three of those resolutions enable the Public Works Department to apply for funding, including one from the Stormwater Financial Assistance program for either a grant, loans or both to help purchase a high-efficiency street sweeper.

Another funding request will be made to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund for a loan to help pay for beginning design work on the city’s proposed water reclamation project. The city has received a reclaimed water and engineering report from its engineering consultant, Esvelt Engineering, on overview of which Ableman provided the council on Oct. 11, on aspects of treating and utilizing water from the wastewater treatment plant as irrigation water for city and Cheney School District green spaces.

The council also approved a grant application to the Stormwater Financial Assistance program for financial assistance to help with engineering and construction work to help reduce or eliminate stormwater point sources into state bodies of water. The proposed plan is to explore routing of stormwater point sources to city-owned property near the wastewater treatment plant.

Ableman said the city has applied for this funding in the past, and even though funding for the program was reduced, Cheney’s project remained on the list. The state Department of Ecology reviewed the application and gave the city some suggestions on how to enhance the proposal, Ableman added.

“This is just a redo to see if we can work our way up the funding (ladder),” Ableman said, adding that some projects didn’t get funded last year due to a lack of tax revenue to the program.

Council also approved awarding a contract to Sandry Construction Company for the city’s North Eighth Street water system improvement project. Sandry was one of nine contractors bidding for the work, coming in lowest at just over $81,381, including sales tax.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].