At the Dec. 18 Airway Heights City Council meeting, the board looked over the recommendations from the Planning Commission on rezones around the town.
They had previously heard a handful of comments from citizens being affected by the proposed changes. This includes 20-acres of land located in the northwest quadrant of the city, which is comprised of two 10-acre parcels.
The properties are proposed to change from an R-1, single family residential to R-3, multi-family residential. This is to accommodate the alternative housing for residents located south of Highway 2 and within the Fairchild Air Force Base APZ (accident potential zone).
The plan is to build “cottage-style housing” and to make it affordable as an option for the residents inside the APZ. Although it is targeted for those citizens, it is not limited just to them. Anybody could try and live in the allotted area.
“We have heard a lot of feedback and we had discussed what we could do to mitigate the issues,” Derrick Braaten, development services director said.
Councilman Larry Bowman made sure to clarify that the some of the issues were addressed after hearing comments from the public hearing on Nov. 30.
In response, Braaten informed the council that it will be a limited rezone and conditions were put into place to help cover the issues, including traffic and noise studies. There will also be a cap of density to 10 units per acre for the land. Future specific plans on the property will be brought to the council as well.
The Planning Commission voted at the Dec. 13 meeting 3-1 in favor of the rezone. The City Council unanimously approved it.
“This is part of a broader history for this community,” City Manager Albert Tripp said. “It started as trying to help Fairchild. This is coming to a full circle to help provide affordable housing for people in the APZ.”
The council also approved two other rezones on the agenda. One includes 7.8 acres from residential manufactured to general commercial, located west of Aspen Grove Park and east of Craig Road. The property is intended for the development of a church and is bound by a restricted commercial zone to the north and a multi-family residential to the south.
The other item was is rezoning light industrial to open space at the recreation center off Deno Road.
Originally, there was another rezone on the agenda from the Kalispel Tribe, but after hearing the Planning Commission opposed it because it encompassed too much property with not enough of a plan. The Kalispel’s subsequently asked to pull their request so they could take a step back and put more detail into it.
“It is not an uncommon practice to pull it even though it does not happen very often,” Braaten said.
The council agreed to table the item and bring it back later when the Kalispel added more information.
In other items, the council had the first and final reading of Ordinance C-902. The background of this ordinance began with an election on Aug. 2, 2016 when the incurrence of debt in the amount of $13 million for the construction of construction of the recreation center was approved. On Dec. 6, 2016, the city issued $9.5 million of its unlimited tax general obligation bonds.
Since it was passed at the meeting, this ordinance now authorizes the city to sell the remaining authorized bonds to not exceed $3.2 million.
The council also approved of Jennifer Fassbender to be re-appointed as Municipal Court Judge for another four-year team.
Because of the next two Mondays being holidays, the City Council will not be meeting.
Grace Pohl can be reached at [email protected].
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