Two land use changes in Cheney on tap for 2017

The Oct. 10 Cheney Planning Commission meeting might be characterized with one word: updates.

Cheney's senior planner, Brett Lucas, told commissioners during a discussion item there was a possibility they would see two proposals for changes in the city's comprehensive plan's land use chapter in 2017. The state's Growth Management Act allows these changes to comprehensive plans once a year.

Lucas said the city has been contacted by two parties regarding changes in land use. The first came from the Cheney School District, which submitted a request to change the land use around the Fisher Building, the district's surplused educational facility between Fourth and Fifth streets and College Avenue and D Street, from institutional to mixed use.

Lucas said the request came this past summer, and may not happen. The district made the request in the hopes of encouraging more parties to express interest in purchasing the property. Since then, Eastmark Capital Group from Seattle has entered into a contract to purchase the building, has begun the application process for renovating the historic building into student apartments and could close on the sale before the end of the year.

"At the time of the application, they were looking at getting more people to consider purchasing (the building)," Lucas said. "This may change as they will no longer be in ownership."

Most of the land around the Fisher Building is currently zoned R-3H, multi-family/high density.

The second land use change proposal comes from Cheney Real Estate Management for property at 1310 West First St. Lucas said the 5-acre parcel just west of Spokane County Fire District 3 headquarters was purchased by the company this past spring, and they are proposing to change the land use from light industrial to multi-family.

The commission began the evening with a public meeting on the city's annual grant application to the Community Development Block Grant program. The CDBG is essentially a federal program that awards grant money for specific projects and activities approved at the county level.

Cheney is part of a consortium of 11 small cities and towns, along with Spokane County and the city of Spokane Valley, that has banded together to pursue these grants, with management of the funding handled at the county level. Cheney projects have benefited from $2.7 million in CDBG funding since 1989, averaging between $95,000 - $100,000 a year.

Public Works Director Todd Ableman said the city has generally applied for funding for water and/or street projects, and are helped in getting the money because dedicated revenues in these areas help out with any required match. He said they would be applying in 2017 for funding for a water main project.

In the final update, commissioners received an information presentation from Lucas regarding ridership on Route 68, Spokane Transit Authority's Cheney-only loop route. Lucas said STA has indicated its comfortable with ridership levels on the route and intends to keep it, with perhaps some changes.

During citizen comments, Cheney resident Dr. Don Richter asked the commission why the city was continuing to approve building permits, particularly for apartment complexes, while at the same time asking residents to cut back on their water usage. Richter noted growth "is to help, not be a burden" and asked if developers were being charged for the added infrastructure necessary to support their projects.

Ableman replied that residents were being asked to conserve water for irrigation, not overall consumption, and that developers do pay a system charge to help pay for additional capacity. He noted Cheney uses only two of its six usable wells for year-round water consumption, bringing the other four online only during the irrigation season.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.