An Oklahoma businessman who has represented home-improvement giant Home Depot Inc. in development projects elsewhere is seeking a zone change for 16 acres of undeveloped land on Spokanes South Hill to accommodate a major retailer, city records show.


The property is located east of Regal Street and north of the Palouse Highway, adjacent to a ShopKo Stores Inc. outlet there. The businessman, Arthur Richey, of Tulsa, Okla.-based Real Property Development Consultants, filed an application in October with the city of Spokane to change the land-use designation of the property to type two centers and corridors zone, from residential.


That type of zone would accommodate a large retail center, but has higher design standards for parking and landscaping than does a general commercial zone, says Leroy Eadie, the citys interim planning director.


The 16 acres are made up of five parcels, owned by four different landowners, and Richey made the land-use change application on their behalf, city records show.


The land is situated south and east of the ShopKo store, which fronts on Regal just south of 44th Avenue.


According to city records, the parcels there are owned by Foothills Properties LLC, The Little Maverick LLC, Summer Walking LLC, all of Spokane, and Joers Crews, of Federal Way, Wash. Gary Bernardo, of Spokane-based Bernardo Wills Architects PC, is listed as the agent for those property owners. D.J. Hume Co., of Spokane, is listed as the land-use consultant. Neither Bernardo nor Richey could be reached for comment for this story.


The application states, According to commercial Realtors, there is a pent-up demand for locating major retailers to this area and there is very little land of size and location suitable for these uses, hence this amendment request. The availability of this property for commercial use enables major retailer(s) to establish new service to this area, which heretofore is only available elsewhere.


Atlanta-based Home Depot doesnt appear on any of the public records related to the land-use proposal.


However, a Kitsap County Hearing Examiner agenda for April 12 listed Richey as the project applicant and representative for Home Depot USA Inc. in a site-plan review for a proposed roughly 103,000-square-foot Home Depot store south of a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. outlet in Port Orchard, Wash. In addition, minutes from a planning commission meeting in Richland, Wash., in December 2005 list Richey as the representative for Home Depot in that chains proposal to build a store just west of a Wal-Mart outlet there.


The property on the South Hill here where Richey is proposing the zone change is adjacent to a commercial district that includes the ShopKo store and a handful of businesses east of Regal, and the Southgate Shopping Center and other nearby commercial and retail buildings west of Regal.


Home Depot currently operates two home-improvement stores here, one about five miles northeast of the South Hill site, at 5617 E. Sprague, in Spokane Valley, and the other at 9116 N. Newport Highway, on Spokanes North Side.


A spokesperson at Home Depot couldnt be reached for comment.


Eadie says the South Hill site is large enough to accommodate a big-box retailer such as Home Depot, but he hadnt heard the name of any specific retailer mentioned in connection with the site. The citys planning department currently is waiting to receive a traffic impact analysis of the site that it requested in January from the applicant before it moves forward with the approval process, he says.


If the city receives and approves that traffic analysis, a 30-day comment period would follow before the citys planning commission would hold a hearing to review the proposal, Eadie says. If the planning commission approves the land-use change, the application would be reviewed by the City Council, which would give final approval. Eadie says the earliest the City Council would review the proposal would be July.


If the land-use designation change is approved, a developer then would have to apply for building permits to move forward with a construction project, he says.


The planning department hasnt identified any wetlands on the property, but the land would be inspected further for wetland and other water issues during a building permit approval process, Eadie says.


About a block north of the site, wetland issues have arisen on property owned by Spokane developer Harlan Douglass at the northeast corner of 44th and Regal. Early last year, a wetland on that property was discovered to have been illegally filled. Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart had proposed developing a 186,000-square-foot supercenter on that site, but nixed that plan in January, saying radio signals from nearby commercial broadcast towers would interfere with computer equipment the retailer relies on to operate efficiently.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at emilyb@spokanejournal.com.