Major Latah Valley development clears another hurdle, but more await

Yahoo

25-05-2025

May 24—One of two 1,000-home developments in the infrastructure-strained Latah Valley has cleared one regulatory hurdle, but it certainly won't be the last.
The Victory Heights project by Redmond, Washington-based Blue Fern Management, just south of Thorpe Road and west of U.S. Highway 195, has survived an appeal to the hearing examiner by the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Under the terms of an agreement between WSDOT and the city, the developer will build a roundabout at the easternmost access point for Victory Heights, a right turn slip lane northbound at Grove Road to eastbound Interstate 90, and conduct further traffic analysis in the area as development continues, addressing further issues along what likely will be a multiyear development timeline.
"We are excited to make progress along the U.S. 195 corridor, and this is a step in that direction," said Ryan Overton, spokesman for WSDOT. "And we are excited to continue to diligently monitor and respond to the safety and mobility of the U.S. 195 corridor in the future."
City officials declined to comment, as the project faces another appeal.
Blue Fern has been in the news recently for its controversial acquisition of a neighboring property where it intends to eventually build another 1,000 homes in the "Latah Park" development.
Neighbors for years have raised concerns that the Latah Valley's roads were approaching collapse, unable to handle the amount of traffic on U.S. 195 or on cross streets into neighborhoods, and particularly worry about the possibility of a catastrophic evacuation in the event of a wildfire. These concerns, which some advocates argue would be greatly worsened by Blue Fern's developments, prompted the city in early May to conduct an evacuation drill for the area.
City leaders and WSDOT agree with neighbors that the area needs attention to its infrastructure. The state transportation agency has gone so far as to threaten previously to close off local access to U.S. 195, warning that unchecked growth could cause intersections with the highway to otherwise fail.
There is a moratorium on development in the Latah/Hangman and Grandview/Thorpe neighborhoods, the second such pause placed in the past three years, requested by residents and WSDOT and put in place while the city came up with plans for fixing the area's longstanding problems.
The Victory Heights project, however, was already in the development pipeline when the moratorium was put in place and not affected.
In March, with that development's final preconstruction approval pending, WSDOT filed an appeal with the city hearing examiner and threatened again to take action if something wasn't done to relieve pressure on the neighborhood's roads.
Officials from WSDOT argued the city had reneged on agreements to share costs with the developer to sufficiently and safely manage traffic in the area when the Victory Heights homes begin to be built and occupied, which the agency warns could cause system-wide failure in Latah Valley. If the city moved forward without addressing these issues to the agency's satisfaction, WSDOT has said it may make good on its threat to close off local access to U.S. 195 from Thorpe Road to prevent unsafe conditions elsewhere, especially where U.S. 195 merges onto Interstate 90.
Now that the city and WSDOT have come to an agreement, however, WSDOT has withdrawn its appeal.
But the development isn't out of the woods. The project will need to continue to be monitored, and other expensive roadwork will almost certainly be required as hundreds more homes start to be built and the project's impacts to traffic are re-evaluated. The city and WSDOT have agreed that, if these processes fail, access to U.S. 195 could still be jeopardized and the Thorpe Road tunnels could be closed, though city officials emphasize that this is more of a warning to keep on top of things than an expected step in the future.
And the project still has one last appeal to overcome before anything can be built.
On May 14, two residents of the area, Stefen Harvey and Steve Barrett, filed their own appeal, arguing the city had failed to follow proper procedure in approving the project. That appeal will be heard in the coming weeks by the Spokane City Council.