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Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Major Latah Valley development clears another hurdle, but more await
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.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Last ditch effort to halt Thorpe Road land sale falters
Apr. 1—Another last-ditch effort to halt the sale of undeveloped land on Thorpe Road in the U.S. Highway 195 corridor through Latah Valley appears to have failed after the state Board of Natural Resources declined Tuesday to hear the appeal of conservationists. The board voted on Jan. 7 to transfer 200 acres of forested land to Redmond-based developer Blue Fern, which plans to build roughly 1,000 homes there. Activists, who opposed the transfer and argued the board failed to adequately consider the ecological and cultural value of the property, had discovered a clause in the agreement that allowed it to be terminated no later than April 6. Tuesday was the last regularly scheduled board meeting prior to that termination date, and conservationists including Tom Uniack, executive director for state conservation group Washington Wild, had hoped to persuade the board to reconsider. The board did not add the item to its agenda, however. "We're disappointed that the board did not take the opportunity at this very timely board meeting to step back to consider what is the best decision here for trust beneficiaries, the city of Spokane and community residents," Uniack said Tuesday afternoon. If there is no action prior to the April 6 deadline, Uniack said he and others who want the land conserved will continue to lobby the city, state and Blue Fern for "opportunities to keep this land in public hands," noting the actual transfer will not be complete until July 13. The land in question is a small part of the Department of Natural Resources' Common Schools Trust Fund, 3 million acres of land managed by the agency to produce nontax revenue that pays for, among other things, building schools. This revenue is typically generated through leases, including leasing woodlands to logging companies. The Thorpe Road property is relatively unproductive, however, and currently costs the Department of Natural Resources more than it brings in due to dumping, trespassing and encampments, according to agency analysis provided to the board during the Jan. 7 meeting. The city of Spokane's parks department applied last year to a competitive program in which DNR considers transferring ownership of its trust land and is compensated by the state, not the recipient — meaning Spokane, if it had been successful, could have received the land at no cost to the city. The city had proposed folding the land into its parks portfolio, conserving much of it as wildland. But among the 30 properties considered last year through DNR's trust land transfer program, there was only enough funding from the state Legislature for eight. Spokane's application ranked 18th, a ranking local conservationists and City Councilman Paul Dillon have argued was flawed due to an inadequate consideration of the land's natural resources and a lack of tribal input. Instead, DNR, under the leadership of then-Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz, moved to quickly exchange the land to Redmond-based developer Blue Fern Management, which proposed building around 1,000 homes there in what it calls the Latah Park development. In exchange for the Thorpe Road land, which was valued at around $8 million, as well as another $7 million of agency funds, Blue Fern agreed to trade them a 4-acre commercial property in Whatcom County with a Haggen grocery store. Conservation activists attempted to slow or stop the transfer, arguing the wooded area contains geological, ecological and cultural features that are increasingly rare in city limits and would be lost under the construction. Uniack and local activists had hoped to convince the board Tuesday that the body was not provided enough information about the value of the land when it approved the transfer on Jan. 7. They had hoped to find an ally in new Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove, who signaled on the campaign trail that he would be a stronger defender of forest land. One of his first acts in office was to pause the sale of older forests that didn't meet the requirements for old growth forest protections. Upthegrove and the board are under pressure both by groups hoping to expand what lands are protected from timber harvest and lobbyists for the timber industry expressing "alarm" at any slowdown, as evidenced by an hour of public testimony at the start of Tuesday's meeting. Compared with activists trying and failing to prevent timber harvests that were up for consideration on Tuesday's docket, such as the "Sizzler" timber sale in Thurston County, conservationists appear to have faced an even more uphill battle to get the board to reconsider the sale of Thorpe Road land that had been approved months before and was not scheduled for a hearing Tuesday.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
WSDOT again warns it may close local access to U.S. 195 without Latah Valley improvements
Mar. 17—Long-simmering tension between the city of Spokane and the state Department of Transportation over the strained road network of the Latah Valley may be boiling over amid sharp disagreement about how to manage an upcoming 1,000-home development. The development in question is the Victory Heights project by Redmond-based Blue Fern Management just south of Thorpe Road and west of U.S. Highway 195. That company has been in the news recently for its controversial acquisition of a property surrounded on two sides by the Victory Heights development, where it intends to eventually build another 1,000 homes in the Latah Park development. The comparably sized Victory Heights development is significantly closer to breaking ground. There is currently a moratorium on development in the Latah/Hangman and Grandview/Thorpe neighborhoods, the second in three years, which were requested by WSDOT and put in place while the city came up with plans for fixing the area's longstanding problems. However, the Victory Heights project already was in the development pipeline when the moratorium was put in place, and not affected. While both parties agree that many key roads and intersections would fail without expansive infrastructure improvements, they disagree on the appropriate path forward. Both sides accuse the other of misrepresenting the situation and not doing enough to prepare the Latah Valley for its explosive growth. The state agency has appealed the city's agreement with Blue Fern and the issue will be argued before the city hearing examiner in April. The hearing examiner will also hold a hearing Wednesday on mostly technical aspects of the plat. Regardless of the examiner's conclusion, WSDOT will have the final say on what to do with the highways it manages. Officials from WSDOT argue the city has 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 systemwide failure in Latah Valley. If the city moves 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. "They've completely changed course," said Ryan Overton, a spokesman for WSDOT. "We had agreements with them for mitigation. We thought we were on track." City officials, meanwhile, argue their agreement with Blue Fern will be sufficient to prevent key roads, including Thorpe and the highways, from receiving failing grades. Where fixes to major, expensive problems have not been immediately identified in their plan, officials say it is unfair to put decades of neglect on the backs of a single development. "We think (WSDOT is) laying at the feet of this one development the whole regional transportation issues that have been developing for decades," said Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown. "We want safety, we want infrastructure, we want the corridor to work, and we have ideas about how to get there." The city is working on plans to spread the costs of eventual solutions more evenly across the area's development and note Victory Heights will be built in phases through 2035, giving them some breathing room for more difficult fixes. But WSDOT believes problems have gone on long enough. The region's issues by no means start with Victory Heights. WSDOT has been warning it may close off local access to U.S. 195 since at least 2020. The agency pointed to unmanaged growth since the 1990s, when WSDOT allowed the city to extend sewer infrastructure in the department's right of way, successfully spurring growth in the Latah Valley. The agency also has warned since at least 1995 that local infrastructure needed to be addressed to manage growth, pointing to the Thorpe Road tunnels under the BNSF railroad and Fish Lake Trail as a likely failure point. Thirty years later, that warning could come true if something isn't done. "The current tunnel conditions show the existing system cannot accommodate the forecasted growth from background pipeline developments, regardless of additional traffic from the Victory Heights development," wrote Kirkland-based consultant Transpo Group in a report prepared for Blue Fern. In a Dec. 12 draft memo by Inga Note, a city senior traffic planning engineer, wrote that the tunnels would fail to meet legal standards if they weren't widened. Because the city did not have the funding available to widen the tunnels, "the proceed forward in its current form," Note wrote. City Planning Director Spencer Gardner noted that this draft memo was not representative of the city's final position, as new strategies and conclusions were considered in the interim. The city is, in fact, requiring the issues at the tunnels be resolved during development, as well as issues at the intersection of Thorpe and U.S. 195. "The form of that requirement looks a little different than what WSDOT wanted, and this is also true of the Thorpe intersection at U.S. 195," Gardner said. "We modified things, because with all of the challenges with infrastructure there, and with the developer committing to a significant amount of infrastructure investment, we decided to collaborate with the developer as the development takes shape." The city has built-in points during development where the effectiveness of those strategies will be re-evaluated and development can be paused prior to any road in the system failing, Gardner added. Further studies and conversations with stakeholders will determine what exactly should be done. Overton stressed that the City Council already approved a Spokane Regional Transportation Council study on U.S. 195 and Interstate 90 in 2022. "We can't continue to plan, there is nothing more to study," Overton said in an email. "It is purely time for action." Another major point of disagreement: whether Inland Empire Way needs to be reconnected to U.S. 195 during construction of the Victory Heights project, which would relieve some of the pressure off that highway and I-90 from traffic headed to downtown Spokane. WSDOT believes it is a necessary solution and should be a condition for Victory Heights' approval; city officials argue this infrastructure improvement will be studied but cannot be put on the back of this development. "It didn't seem fair to the project," Gardner said. "This Inland Empire Way connection is 1.5 miles away from the project, and the further you get, the harder it is to tie a specific improvement to the impact of a project." Both sides also sent The Spokesman-Review several examples of the work their own agency had done to improve conditions in the corridor and argued that the other party needed to take more responsibility. Editor's note: This story has been updated to accurately reflect the purpose of Wednesday's hearing examiner meeting. The hearing examiner will oversee an appeal of the development agreement, including WSDOT's concerns, in April.
