G.C. commission looking into zoning issues

Grand Coulee’s zoning commission is trying to unlock some restrictions in an effort to work with groups that have come before the council asking for help.

Last April, two women, Andrea Marconi and Angela Feeley, went before the council with an interest in putting in a daycare center on the city’s Main Street, only to run into zoning issues.

Later last year a senior citizen representative, Larry Curtis, came before the council to ask if the seniors could put in a bus garage to house two transit buses. It was his third appearance before the council. That met with a negative zoning response from the council

A third issue, how much of a residential lot can you build on, has also met with a zoning restriction response.

Mayor Chris Christopherson, Councilmember Tammara Byers, citizens Solveig Chaffee and James O’Hara, along with the city’s zoning professional, Vivian Ramsey with SCJ Alliance, met last Thursday night to see if they could come up with solutions.

The women advancing the daycare issue argued that the area was in serious need of a licensed daycare operation and that they wanted to establish one in a vacant storefront on the city’s Main Street. They noted that workers at the Bureau of Reclamation, schools and hospital needed a local daycare.

O’Hara said it was ironic that the city allows a daycare center along the highway but not on Main Street.

Chaffee said that people should be able to pursue the idea of a daycare. “Maybe it wouldn’t work,” she said. But she added that citizens should have more autonomy.

The zoning group noted that maybe the restriction was more of a language problem that Ramsey could solve by how it was written.

The senior bus garage also raised a possible language problem. The seniors want to put up a pole building to house two transit buses, providing a place where they can be worked on and provide shelter in the winter.

There again it was pointed out that maybe the zoning issue could be handled by placing the right language in the code.

O’Hara brought up the problem of a lot owner only able to build on 35 percent of the space in the lot after setbacks. He explained that there were many lots in the city that you couldn’t build on with the 35 percent restriction. Discussion followed that maybe the 35-percent restriction might be relaxed. After any decision is made the recommendation would then go to city council for approval.

The zoning group will meet again March 24 to continue discussions on the issues.