Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Mischelle R. Fulgham, Spokane attorney representing Harmon and Jan Smith of Dusty, suggests that the McCoy Land Co./PNW is receiving “inside help” on their effort to gain approval to build their proposed grain pad facility at Dusty.
Citing letters and e-mails obtained in a public records request, Fulgham contends the process is not what it should be.
“The county’s really bending over backwards to help this guy,” Fulgham said of Keith Becker, PNW operations manager. “It just doesn’t look fair.”
Fulgham has represented the Smiths since August.
As part of her assertion, she cites an e-mail Sept. 6 to Katrin Kunz, assistant county planner, the day after the crowded and contentious public hearing on the zone change.
“I am curious if you have had a chance to think about what information I should be putting together for the next meeting?” wrote Keith Becker from his PNW e-mail account. “Do we start talking to someone about a traffic study?”
Alan Thomson, Whitman County planner, received the message from Becker.
“I’m doing my job,” Thomson told the Gazette Tuesday. “My job is to help the applicants get through the application process. Period.”
Legal memorandum
Fulgham filed a legal memorandum Sept. 5 in opposition to the McCoy zone change application. It included a groundwater/surface water report by GeoEngineers of Spokane and a traffic review by Sunburst Engineering of Spokane Valley.
The memorandum is part of the record for the zone change application.
“Both of these issues, traffic and water quality harm, warrant a denial of the application,” Fulgham said.
In the memorandum she charges that grounds for denial of the zone change are “including but not limited to” incomplete and deficient (State Environmental Policy Act) SEPA application, due process violations “caused by inadequate public notification and a stated predetermined outcome,” an “unlawful spot zone,” failing to comply with the Whitman County Comprehensive Plan, traffic safety violations due to the number of trucks going in and out of the site daily, generation of “harmful dust and grain chaff” and “unreasonable risks of environmental harm” to surface and ground water.
Harmon and Jan Smith, Fulgham’s clients, own 700 acres across Highway 127 from the proposed facility.
Fulgham asserts that the zone change would create an “improper spot zone,” meaning a zone that is not contiguous to other (limited) heavy or light industrial zones.
“In this case, they want an island of heavy industrial surrounded by agricultural,” Fulgham said. “(Washington) courts hold that it’s improper and not allowed.”
On the matter of a conditional use permit, Fulgham suggested this may run afoul of the law too.
“This approach may or may not be a proper land use procedure under state law or county code,” she said. “We will be looking into that process as well as the inside help being provided by the county directly to Keith Becker.”
Gazette attempts to reach Becker for comment were unsuccessful.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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