Commissioner faults planners
County Commissioner Mark Richard lashed out Tuesday at planners who failed to report that there was a solid argument in favor of allowing a young couple to build a home in an airport crash zone.
“Why is this new information?” Richard demanded after discovering that the land where Evan and Tabitha Babin want to build a house wouldn’t be in a crash zone under new federal and state airport guidelines.
Richard was angry to discover that county planners have been working for months to bring airport-area zoning regulations into compliance with the new standards that shrink fan-shaped crash zones into narrow rectangles.
“Why wasn’t this information presented in the last hearing?” Richard fumed, noting commissioners subsequently were subjected to criticism in letters, e-mails and telephone calls. “This should have been in the forefront of the discussion.”
In fact, he said, it should have come up several weeks ago when commissioners directed planners to devise a way to help the Babins.
Richard credited John Pederson, assistant director of the Building and Planning Department, and others with being helpful. However, Richard said he’s heard in a “roundabout way” that some planners and Planning Commission members have said county commissioners were responsible “to fix this mess they have gotten themselves into.”
When told to give commissioners “some solid options,” some planners objected that “we don’t think we can do that, we don’t think it’s defensible, we think it’s incompatible and so forth,” Richard said.
County Commissioner Todd Mielke agreed some planners said “absolutely no way,” and he was frustrated and finds it interesting that they failed to mention the federal guidelines – adopted by the state Aviation Division – which he called “a pretty compelling piece of evidence.”
Commissioner Bonnie Mager was more sympathetic to “overburdened” planners: “It’s way up on our list of priorities, but it might not have risen to the level of an emergency in their world.”
“Our world is their world,” Richard responded.
When commissioners say something is top priority and call for a solution, he said, staff members aren’t entitled to say they’re busy and will get to it when they can. “We’re the boss.”
Richard said Mager and Mielke seemed to agree when he asked planners about a month ago to find a way to let the Babins build.
Pederson said commissioners were briefed on the new airport guidelines months ago and again more recently. He said planners didn’t mention the guidelines as a solution to the Babins’ problem because commissioners wanted something fast, and the new regulations will take months.
Mielke said he was aware of the guidelines, but until Tuesday he hadn’t seen a map showing the Babins’ property would be outside the new crash zones.
The trouble began last summer when commissioners voted to allow most “regional commercial” zoning uses in West Plains land zoned for “light industrial” use. That decision by Richard, Mielke and former Commissioner Phil Harris opened the door – inadvertently, Richard says – to residential development near Spokane International Airport and Fairchild Air Force Base.
Commissioners passed an interim zoning ordinance in March, retaining a ban on new residences while allowing commercial construction to resume. They vowed at the time to try to find a way to accommodate the Babins.
The result was an amendment allowing one house per 3 acres in a band of rocky land north of U.S. Highway 2, between Russell Road and the top of the Sunset Hill.
Only a handful of parcels in the area – including the Babins’ – would be affected by the change. Other parcels in the area already have houses that were built before the area was zoned light industrial to protect Spokane International Airport. Mielke noted the niche to be carved out for the Babins would be more restrictive than the new federal guidelines, which would allow one home per 2 1/2 acres.
Commissioners continued the issue until 5 p.m. June 19 for a supplemental hearing on the new federal airport guidelines.