Two envisioned West Plains developments, one just proposed and the other just getting under way, would add 843 residences there, further stoking activity in a once-stagnant area where new housing starts have been heating up recently.


Foursquare Properties Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., last week submitted plans to Spokane County for a proposed 555-unit development called Aspen Park that would be located on 137 acres south of Interstate 90 and west of Spotted Road. Foursquare is the company that late last year announced plans to develop a shopping center in Post Falls named The Pointe at Post Falls, where sporting goods giant Cabelas Inc. will be the anchor tenant.


Separately, Rudeen Development LLC, of Spokane, has begun site work just east of Airway Heights on the first phase of a subdivision called Pillar Rock Estates thats expected to include 288 homes, according to a site plan filed with the county. That subdivision will be located on a 64-acre site on the east side of Flint Road about 1,200 feet north of U.S. 2. Rudeen Development also is developing a 200-unit apartment complex, called Hayford Heights, nearby along Hayford Road just south of U.S. 2, where the company has obtained building permits for a $6.6 million, 98-unit first phase.


In addition, plans were announced last fall for another large West Plains subdivision, to be called Blue Grouse Estates, which would include 207 lots just southeast of the I-90-Geiger Boulevard interchange. Spokane attorney Brian Balch, one of the owners of Blue Grouse Development LLC, said the company expected to begin paving streets within the 46.5-acre development site this spring.


County commissioners called a temporary halt to residential development in some areas of the West Plains last fall due to concerns about potential encroachment on operations at Spokane International Airport and Fairchild Air Force Base, but land south of I-90 isnt affected by that moratorium. Pillar Rock Estates also isnt affected by it.


Inland Power & Light Co., of Spokane, which provides services mostly to rural areas in 13 counties, says it added a record 1,200 new customers last year, and some its strongest growth was on the West Plains.


A Foursquare Properties executive familiar with the proposed Aspen Park project couldnt be reached for comment. However, a preliminary plat application submitted to the countys building and planning department shows that the development would include 395 single-family lots and 160 townhouse apartments on a mostly rectangular-shaped piece of land between I-90 and Hallett Road.


A site plan shows a number of the single-family lots arranged in a circle around an envisioned community park near the center of the development. It also shows two large wetland-preservation areas separating the single-family homes from the 28 four-unit and eight-unit apartment buildings, which would be located on the east side of the property near Spotted Road.


A department spokesman says a review of the proposal is just getting under way and could take six months or longer to complete because of the size of the project, the need for a traffic-impact analysis, and wetlands-related implications.


Meanwhile, the project manager for Rudeen Development LLC declined to comment about the Pillar Rock Estates project.


However, Robert Brock, a planner with the county building and planning department, says the first phase of that development will include 64 single-family homes on 15 acres, along an interior road, tentatively called Campus Drive, which will be the spine of the development. A site plan for the project shows that its expected to have 17 cul-de-sacs.


Rudeen Development is proposing to improve access to the subdivision with an extension of 12th Avenue from the west along the southern edge of the subdivision, and an extension of Campus Road from U.S. 2 to meet 12th Avenue at the southeast corner of Pillar Rock Estates.


The subdivision lies within the sewer and water service areas of the city of Spokane.


Rudeen Development also has been involved in developing other large apartment complexes in the Spokane area, including the Beau-Rivage and Woodruff 108 complexes, both of which are in Spokane Valley.


Contact Kim Crompton at (509) 344-1263 or via e-mail at [email protected]. Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at [email protected].