Duplexes might be constructed in the Orchards

A proposed development of 28 duplexes on 9 acres is on hold after Lewiston’s city council tabled a request for a zone change this week until April 24.

City councilors cited worries about the higher density of the residences diminishing the ambience in part of the Lewiston Orchards that has single family homes on 5-acre lots with animal rights.

The land is east of 18th Street, north of Airway Avenue and south of an unimproved section of Bryden Avenue.

Its zone would need to change from suburban residential (R-1) to medium density residential (R-3) for the development to proceed. The change was approved unanimously by the city’s planning and zoning commission before going to the city council.

The 52 dwellings in the proposed Lewiston Orchards development are part of a preliminary plan that could be modified as the project moves through the city’s process, said the city’s Assistant Planner Katie Hollingshead.

The developer and property owner is Dan Yonge. His company, Quality Design Homes, was founded in 2006. Its subdivisions include Northeast Crossing at 15th Street and Warner Avenue, near Lewiston’s high school.

Yonge is seeking to build homes at a time when the Northwest and much of the nation is facing a housing crisis because demand has drastically outpaced supply. The average price of a home in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley reached $358,032 in February.

Even so, developers in many areas frequently face opposition when they want to build more residences, said Steve Peterson, a clinical associate professor of economics at the University of Idaho.

Peterson spoke this week in Post Falls at the spring meeting of Inland Northwest Partners.

Avista Corporation is the founding investor of the group that promotes economic development in north and north central Idaho and southeastern Washington.

Peterson and several other speakers at the meeting pointed to loosening zoning rules in ways that preserve the integrity of neighborhoods as one approach to begin to alleviate the pressure on the market and bring down prices.

“It comes back to neighbors working together,” Peterson said.

“If somebody’s trying to build a duplex next to your place, it means you don’t sign a petition opposing it. Right? I mean sometimes it’s as simple as that. You support the development of your community.”

The Lewiston City Council’s unanimous decision with Councilor Rick Tousley absent followed a one-hour discussion where elected officials asked Hollingshead numerous questions.

Council President Hannah Liedkie and councilors Jim Kleeburg and Kassee Forsmann acknowledged the need for housing, but wondered how the proposal fits with the city’s comprehensive plan.

Councilor Kathy Schroeder voted with the other councilors for the delay even though she said she supports the development.

“Are we going to designate a neighborhood that we keep with that Orchards appeal, animal rights, things like that?” Liedkie said. “Or are we intermingling? What’s the overall plan?”

The amount of land zoned as R-3 or R-4 for high density residential is “very, very, very limited” compared with the lower density residential zones of R-1 and R-2, Hollingshead said.

The city just started rewriting its comprehensive plan that was most recently revised in the late 1990s in work that is anticipated to take about 18 months, Hollingshead said.

Housing is already in the pipeline for Lewiston, Liedkie said, noting that about 425 more homes are slated to join 150 homes in the nearby Canyon Crest subdivision.

The impact of the duplexes on property taxes, traffic and the ability of the city to provide services like sewer are among the questions she has, Liedkie said.

“I feel like we should be doing our due diligence plus some to make sure that we are utilizing our power to make sure that we are moving in the direction of the entire city, not just here’s a bell and a whistle that says we’re going to improve our housing,” she said.

Schroeder had a different perspective even though she said she enjoyed being raised in the Lewiston Orchards where she often rode her horse in her free time with neighborhood children.

Some people are abandoning the 5-acre lots because they don’t want them anymore, Schroeder said.

Allowing Yonge’s development wouldn’t prevent anyone from keeping those types of properties with horses and cows, she said.

“Those people that are moving in next to those 5-acre lots know that those were there first,” Schroeder said. “So it should be a good, good attitude going forward.”

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.