PC360_William_Lyman_11-15-2018“Gonzaga Law students pursuing justice. Finding solutions.”
Co-Directors GAIL HAMMER GENEVIEVE MANN
Office Manager
JULIE CLAAR
Legal Assistant KATHRYN NGUYEN Paralegals DANIELLE PALM VICKI L. YOUNT
Receptionist
DEBBIE ORTEGA
UNIVERSITY LEGAL ASSISTANCE
721 North Cincinnati Street
P.O. Box 3528
Spokane, Washington 99220-3528
Phone (509) 313-5791
Facsimile (509) 313-5805
TTY (509) 313-3796
Supervising Attorneys
SARAH CUELLAR
RICHARD K. EICHSTAEDT
STEPHEN F. FAUST
GAIL HAMMER
DIANE KIEPE GENEVIEVE MANN GEORGE A. CRITCHLOW
LARRY A. WEISER
MARK E. WILSON
Emeritus
November 15, 2018
SENT VIA EMAIL TO:
Lbarlow@spokanevalley.org
Lori Barlow
Spokane Valley Community and Public Works Department
10210 E. Sprague Avenue
Spokane Valley, WA 99206
RE: Scoping Comments or the Painted Hills Planned Residential Development Project
Dear Ms. Barlow:
This letter is submitted on behalf of Carmel of the Holy Trinity (“Carmel”) by its legal representative,
University Legal Assistance, regarding scoping comments for the proposed Painted Hills Planned
Residential Development (“RSD”).
The Carmel is an adjoining landowner to the proposed development. The Carmel is a small community
of contemplative, cloistered nuns. Members of the community at Carmel live inside its walls, only
leaving the enclosure for necessities such as medical care. The Carmel and its members live by a
monastic rule that prescribes silence and privacy. The Carmel selected their location in Spokane Valley
because of its rural setting and the privacy afforded by the site. In the past, they have been harassed by
neighbors who were able to see over their fence from a second-story balcony, so the Carmel’s concern
for a new development is that it would threaten the privacy, silence, and the very nature of the Carmel.
Because of the Carmel’s special need for peace and quiet, the Carmel is especially concerned with the
influx of noise, traffic, and other disturbances that are likely to arise both during construction of the
project and upon its completion. We ask that the City of Spokane Valley take these concerns into
account when contemplating the impact of the RSD upon the surrounding community, including the
cloistered nuns living at the Carmel.
In addition to those concerns, the Carmel and Black Realty, the proponent of the project, reached an
agreement regarding certain conditions regarding construction of the RSD that would protect the
interests of the Carmel should the RSD project move forward. These jointly agreed to conditions are
Lori Barlow
November 15, 2018
Page 2
attached hereto, and we request that these conditions be included as identified mitigation measures to be
included in the Environmental Impact Statement.1
Sincerely,
UNIVERSITY LEGAL ASSISTANCE
William B. Lyman
Law Clerk
Rick Eichstaedt
Attorney for Carmel of the Holy Trinity
Enclosures
WBL/rke/vly
1 Please note that there is a typographical error in condition number 1; the end of the first sentence describing “the 87-foot
buffer described in #7 below,” should read as “the 87-foot buffer described in #8 below.”
Lori Barlow
November 15, 2018
Page 3
The specific requested conditions agreed to by the developer for approval are as follows:
1. During initial development of the RSD site, the owner shall plant, at his/her own expense,
western red cedars or other mutually agreed upon evergreen trees of sufficient size, number, and
spacing (as mutually agreed) to provide a visual and sound buffer on the southern and eastern
sides of the Carmel’s wall and on the western edge of the 87-foot buffer described in #7 below.
Number and spacing of trees shall consider the goal of providing visual and sound buffering
while allowing the growth of trees to full maturity (for example, a western red cedar requires an
area of approximately 12-20 feet in diameter). All trees will be located on the RSD property.
Consideration shall be given to preservation of existing vegetation. Trees shall be watered,
maintained, and replaced as needed to provide a vegetated screen between the project and the
Carmel. No vegetation shall be permitted to touch or hang over the Carmel’s wall, except for the
hedges mentioned in # 3 below.
2. Public use of the vegetated buffer will be restricted and may not contain trails or other public
amenities.
3. Fences shall not touch or be connected to the Carmel wall. In order to limit public use of the
space along the Carmel wall without using fences, hedges shall be maintained in lieu of fences to
join the property owner’s fence to the Carmel wall at the extremities of the buffer zones
(perpendicular to the Carmel wall on the northern end of its eastern wall (near the proposed
cottages), on the eastern end of its southern wall (near the single family units), and toward the
western end of its southern wall (western end of the multi-family units)). These hedges will be
chosen so as to be of a nature to inhibit passage as well as to prohibit the facility to climb over
the wall.
4. Single family and cottage homes along the southern and eastern side of the Carmel’s wall shall
be limited to single story.
5. Single family and cottage homes will be subject to no less than the back property boundary set
back, as prescribed by the requirements of the Spokane Valley Code 19.40.020.
6. The trail between cottage homes and the eastern Carmel wall will be limited to tenant-use only
and not be open for public use.
7. Windows on multi-family buildings will be configured away from viewing into the Carmel. No
windows or balconies will be on the north facing sides of the multi-family buildings.
8. The initial 87 feet along the Carmel’s southern wall on the site of the proposed multi-story
buildings shall be restricted to the following activities: parking, garage placement, landscaping.
9. All the identified conditions shall be memorialized as CC&Rs for the applicable properties and
shall apply to subsequent owners of the property.