Culminating about 12 years of effort, Spokane County has enacted new regulations that will change how and where development is allowed in the countys expansive unincorporated area.


The new rules, which took effect at the beginning of this month, implement a comprehensive plan adopted in late 2001 and replace the countys former 500-plus page zoning code with one less than half as thick. The new, thinner document is touted as being easier to understand and more predictable, but also more flexible in the mix of land uses it allows, though some aspects of it have drawn criticism.


Im very excited about it, and I think its going to be good for the whole community. Its been a long effort, and its been very worthwhile, says Steve Davenport, the countys senior planner who shepherded the new regulations through the drafting, review, and approval process.


We got rid of as much legal jargon as we could, and greatly simplified formerly lengthy land-use matrix tables that caused huge frustration for developers and property owners, he says. The new zoning code also uses illustrations to provide visual examples of zoning concepts.


We tried to interject more common sense into the process, Davenport says.


Beyond that, the new zoning code allows for greater mixing of uses than the countys old development rules, relying in many cases on performance-based standards related to size, noise, and visual impacts, he says.


The new rules provide flexibility by allowing administrative exceptions and alternative methods of compliance when it can be demonstrated that an alternative provides equal or better compliance with county standards.


I think its going to give everybody a lot more certainty with whats going to happen. Zone changes will essentially go away, by design, Davenport says. Property owners and representatives who believe their cases warrant special consideration will have to demonstrate that through a more rigorous comprehensive plan amendment process, he says.


Its kind of a fundamental shift from how we did things in the past, Davenport says.


He says the regulations, the approval of which represents a milestone in achieving compliance with the Washington state Growth Management Act, were the subject of numerous public hearings and workshops. The county, he says, also sought input from organizations such as the Spokane Association of Realtors and Spokane Home Builders Association.


Not everyone is happy, though, with the new rules.


Pete Thompson, a commercial and industrial real estate specialist with Hawkins Edwards Inc., of Spokane, contends that the new zoning code and comprehensive plan ignore economic realities by sharply restricting the uses of land located in the light-industrial zone.


Industrial land surplus


He says the county has about 9,800 acres of light-industrial-zoned land, all but 600 acres of that on the still largely undeveloped West Plains, where Hawkins Edwards is involved heavily in marketing property.


We have this huge preponderance of light-industrial land that nobody wants because there simply are fewer prospective users of such property now than there once were, Thompson asserts. Thus, the land sits idle, he says.


For about a five-year period beginning in 1997, the county allowed a wide range of less-intensive businesses uses to be located in the light-industrial zone. The comprehensive plan adopted by the county three years ago, however, re-imposed heavier restrictions on that zone in an effort to preserve that inventory.


This has reduced growth and certainly put a constraint on the expansion of the tax base for Spokane County, Thompson wrote in a letter to Commissioner John Roskelley two months ago.


Thompson estimates the county has a 115-year supply of light industrial land if the absorption of such land by developers continues at the roughly 85-acre-per-year rate it has achieved over the last seven years, by his calculations. That projected supply stretches to more than 1,000 years, he says, if based on the much smaller amount of light-industrial land absorbed over that period for strictly manufacturing-related uses.


Roskelley says, though, that he thinks the new zoning code expands allowed uses in the light-industrial zone to a much greater extent that Thompson is acknowledging.


I think what is happening here is he wants the whole pie, the whole enchilada, Roskelley says, suggesting Thompson is taking a myopic view.


He and Davenport note that the light-industrial zone allows convenience stores, restaurants, motels, banks, fitness clubs, car washes, day-care centers, and building-supply stores, to name a few. The new zoning code says limited-industrial areas are comprised of industrial uses but may incorporate office and neighborhood-sized uses that support and compliment the industrial area.


Davenport says, The ones really prohibited are car lots, trailer sales more intensive uses that dont return a lot in terms of employment.


When the county commissioners approved the new regulations, they asked the planning commission to do more study on the West Plains to determine whether further zoning changes there are warranted, he says. Commercial development pressures are an issue partly because of the presence of sewer and water service there, he says.


He adds, however, One of the things about industrial land is that its a real driver for the community. It creates family-wage jobs, so I think we want to be real careful about how we treat our industrial lands, and to avoid depleting them. Davenport also notes that such users, if and when they do look at the Spokane area as a possible plant site, typically are interested in large parcels.


Under the countys new zoning map, the former Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. Mead smelter property is the only area outside city boundaries zoned for heavy-industrial use, which means that the West Plains currently is the only large unincorporated area zoned for industrial development of any type.


Thompson also took issue with the countys decision not to eliminate all past conditions of approval for still-dormant land rezoned under the former zoning code because when you go through a new rezone, every agency on earth looks at it. That amounts, he contends, to regulatory overkill and creates a competitive advantage for properties that arent burdened by such conditions.


As approved, the new zoning code does eliminate past planning conditions, but leaves in place conditions reached through agreements with neighborhood groups. Roskelley says neighborhood representatives urged him to support retaining those conditions to protect neighborhood interests, and he felt a responsibility to do so.


Mark Richard, government affairs director for the Spokane Home Builders Association, says that organization overall felt pretty comfortable with the new zoning code as approved.


He says he has some concerns about limited commercial property, and sides with some of Thompsons arguments regarding whether so much land should be preserved for light-industrial use, but says, I think that will kind of vet itself out.


Noting that property owners and developers no longer will be able to obtain a zone change as they did in the past, he says, That, in the long run, I think is going to be really healthy for Spokane by adding certainty to the land-use regulatory process.