A North Idaho company plans to develop whats envisioned as a 275-unit, $60 million housing project, to be called Coyote Rock, along the Spokane River just west of Pines Road in Spokane Valley.


The company, Neighborhood Inc., already has begun site work on the first phase of the project, which will include 30 high-end homes on just over 3,000 feet of river frontage, located along a narrow swath of undeveloped land about three blocks north of Trent Avenue near Lockwood Road.


Those home lots, which will range in size from less than a half-acre to just over 2 acres, were platted nearly a century ago.


Additional phases of development would include a condominium project just south of the single-family homes, and other condo or apartment complexes in the eastern section of the 52-acre property, a short distance from the river, where a gravel pit once was operated, plans filed with the city of Spokane Valley show.


The planned condo and apartment structures, which would have a combined maximum of 245 units, would be located on property thats zoned for mining uses, and Neighborhood Inc. would need to get that land rezoned for multifamily residential use, says Micki Harnois, an associate planner with the city.


Cliff Mort, partner owner of Neighborhood Inc., says the company is in the process of applying for that rezone. He expects construction in that part of Coyote Rock to begin in late fall of 2007.


Its cleaning up an old industrial area, Mort says. Its an area in transition.


Neighborhood Inc. also currently is developing a 110-acre, mixed-use project, called Mill River, on the north shore of the Spokane River between Post Falls and Coeur dAlene, at the former Crown Pacific Ltd. sawmill site.


The city of Spokane Valley owns about 30 acres designated as a public park adjacent to the eastern portion of the property. Part of that public land sits between the Spokane River and where the Coyote Rock condos and apartments would be. A bridge carries the Centennial Trail across the river and onto that public land just east of where the homes will be built, and the Coyote Rock development will provide public access to that land, Mort says.


The city is pretty excited about that, he says.


Development plans filed with the city show that the main access to the overall development will be via Lockwood, which is located a few blocks west of Pines and runs north from Trent to the development site.


From there, a private road, to be called Coyote Rock Drive, will run east and west through the development and will loop to the south to connect with Empire Way near Pit Road.


The development is bordered on the south and east by a mix of industrial and residential properties, and is just east of the city of Millwood.


The shoreline lots for single-family homes will be offered for sale this spring, Mort says.


He anticipates the custom waterfront homes that will be built there will average in price between $750,000 and $1.2 million. He says a variety of home builders will erect the homes.


Because the shoreline lots were platted in 1908, some 95 years before Spokane Valley incorporated as a city, they are exempt from the citys critical habitat designation, which prohibits grading within a 200-foot buffer zone from the rivers high water-mark, the citys Harnois says. Grading for new homes on those lots will be at least 75 feet from the high-water mark.


The grading thats currently under way on 45 acres of the property is nearly complete, Mort says. Norms Utility Contractor Inc., of Coeur dAlene, submitted the grading permit for that work, which was valued at $456,000.


Adams & Clark Inc., of Spokane, is providing engineering services for the development.


Mort says Neighborhood Inc. hasnt selected an architect for the project.


Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at mikem@spokanejournal.com.