Cheney planning picks up moratorium work

City of Cheney officials outlined an aggressive work schedule for the Planning Commission at its Jan. 14 meeting for one item only — addressing a moratorium placed by the City Council on development in the area of Alki Street commonly referred to as Terra Vista.

The council enacted the moratorium in late November over concerns about public safety access and other transportation issues in the residential area located east of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific railroad tracks. The land in the area is mostly owned by Cheney resident Steve Emtman’s Defender Developments — who is seeking to build a 224-unit apartment complex next to the existing multifamily residences along Alki Street and Blackhawk Lane.

Public Works Director Todd Ableman presented the work plan as an information item only to the commission — which is short one member from its normal complement of seven after former Commissioner Kristine Williams elected not to renew her term that expired Dec. 31, 2018. Ableman said dealing with issues at Terra Vista had been pushed to the forefront of the commission’s schedule due to the moratorium, and outlined elements of the plan that included scope, data to be used, cost estimates, how any mitigations would be paid for and schedule for its adoption.

The city has six months to come up with solutions to the issues behind adoption of the moratorium, a process that includes a public hearing. A public hearing had been scheduled for the Jan. 22 City Council meeting, but was postponed to a future date on Thursday, Jan. 17, at the recommendation of the city’s attorney, City Administrator Mark Schuller said in an email.

Ableman said the commission would look at not only vehicular traffic but also pedestrian traffic and public safety access issues in the area — which is bordered on the north by Cheney-Spangle Road and on the south by Cheney-Plaza Road. Cheney Police Chief John Hensley and Fire Chief Tom Jenkins have both said their personnel have experienced problems accessing the area due to the high volume of train traffic.

Ableman said a 2016 transportation circulation plan done for the city to determine levels of service would be utilized by the commission as well as additional data such as a review of police and fire calls over the past 15 years. Ableman said this would be used to establish a “baseline” from which to look at mitigation measures.

“We can’t go back and charge for pre-existing conditions,” he said. “We can only project for any improvements that need to be done.”

Commissioner Dan Turbeville asked how far the area of study would extend. Ableman said it would only go to the city limits.

“City limits, which is not very much,” Turbeville said.

Commissioner Rick Mount asked if there were any plans for new development in the area that had been approved, to which Ableman said the moratorium didn’t apply to anything currently existing. At this point Emtman, who was in attendance, tried to ask the commission if they had seen any of the notes from pre-development meetings for the Alki Apartments he had with police and fire, but was cut off by Ableman.

“This is not the place for a public hearing,” Ableman added.

Part of the Planning Commission’s charter is to operate as an advisory body on planning issues to the City Council. Mount seemed to question why this didn’t happen in the case of the Alki Street moratorium.

“So the City Council did this without our input?” Mount asked, to which Ableman replied “Yes.”

“I was not notified either,” Emtman said from the audience. “Not that that matters. At all.”

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected] while a plan to mitigate the impacts is developed.