Commission sends comp plan to council

’s June 12 meeting, during which concerns were raised about being able to address residents’ complaints surrounding problems with parking on city streets, especially around Eastern Washington University, and the over abundance of multifamily complexes being built. Since changes to the comp plan are only allowed periodically, commissioners worried they wouldn’t be able to address these concerns until the next cycle.

City senior planner Brett Lucas told the commission and the council during the workshop that parking issues can be addressed via the zoning code. Parking near EWU could be solved through discussions with the university about the possibility of creating “residential parking zones” around campus, while the solution to off-street parking concerns with multifamily complexes could be achieved through code modifications.

The code modifications could also be used to address issues raised regarding appropriate density of multifamily zones.

Commission chair Vince Barthels said he was satisfied that parking issues could be addressed using the proposals Lucas submitted during the workshop.

“Adding the additional language gives me comfort that we can move forward to approve the plan and still address these issues, what the people of Cheney really want us to do,” Commissioner Rick Mount added.

During the workshop, city attorney Stanley Schwartz told the council in an overview of planning and zoning that while closely related, planning takes a more systemic approach while zoning is about actual land use. Schwartz said when doing planning and zoning, it’s important to look at the land use map first, and the code text second.

“You live in this city, you know what works and doesn’t work,” he added.

In considering zoning, Schwartz listed three purposes, two of which were paramount: ensuring adjacent land uses were compatible with one another and providing certainty and predictability of land use to the community and property owners.

“Zoning should remain static,” he said, adding another consideration is investors.

“They want to be assured when they buy a piece of property, that if it’s multifamily it will be that way and not change arbitrarily some Tuesday night,” Schwartz said.

The comprehensive plan updates now head to the City Council for final approval.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].