Purple Sage Meadows receives land use permit

SOAP LAKE — The Soap Lake City Council voted Wednesday night to pass the land use permit for the Purple Sage Meadows planned development district.

“This city council is now faced with a historic decision that will shape Soap Lake’s future,” said Raymond Gravelle, a local real estate agent and representative for the developer.

Gravelle wasn’t alone in his support for the development. During the public comment portion of the meeting, a couple of people stood up to show support for the project while some others had concerns. Gravelle said the development will send a positive message that Soap Lake is a place for growth and will help solve the affordable housing crisis.

The council voted 4-3 in favor of approving the land use permit for the project. Council members Bratton, Kat Sanderson, Kayleen Bryson and JoAnn Rushton voted in favor. Against approving the permit were council members Allen DuPuy, Leslie Taylor and Karen Woodhouse.

The developer and owner of the property, Alain de Chantal of Port Angeles, was present at the meeting but did not speak.

“This community desperately needs housing,” said Kim Meaney, a Grant County real estate broker.

Meaney said she has been selling real estate in Grant County for 10 years and she sells more real estate in Soap Lake than anyone else.

“The lack of homes and the lack of inventory causes prices to rise,” she said.

While the price increase adds value to the owners of the homes, Meaney said, it then creates an issue when the owners try to buy another home after selling theirs because all the homes have gone up in cost.

“I think that this would be a great boon to our community,” said Meaney.

After Meaney, Susan Carson stood up to share her concern about Soap Lake’s infrastructure not being able to handle a project as big as the 236-lot planned development.

“Bringing in something that big is going to put us in a position that we don’t have money to fix,” Carson said. “I don’t want to be that town that’s known for the sewer and water not working and everything else because we overdid it, because we became too zealous of approving these permits.”

Last to comment was Soap Lake resident Judith Gorman. She said she has been a big supporter of affordable housing but has concerns with the project moving forward in Soap Lake under current circumstances.

“I am concerned, however, that the city council is being asked to vote on this development project with two very critical financial issues being out of compliance,” Gorman said.

She said the two issues were that the city does not have a 2023 budget and there were questions on the developer’s plans that Gray & Osborne – the city’s engineering consultant based out of Wenatchee – had, that Gorman believed had not been addressed yet.

“I would like to see the Purple Sage development application tabled until the city council has an audit-approved income revenue budget format in place,” Gorman said.

City rules were irregularly enforced during the public comments portion of the meeting. Gorman was told by Mayor Michelle Agliano that she had gone over the three minutes of allotted time and finished her comment just shy of four minutes, while Gravelle, who spoke for a total of five minutes, was not told at any point he had gone over and finished his speech uninterrupted.

As the council discussed the land use application, Nancy Wetch with Gray and Osborne, City Attorney Julie Norton and City Planner Alex Kovach were available to answer questions.

Councilmembers and members of the public had concerns about the impact the project would have on a city sewer system they said was already struggling to meet demands.

Councilmember Bill Bratton asked what the cost would be to bring the sewer system up to a level of operation that could withstand the impact the new development would have on the system.

Wetch said the Soap Lake sewer treatment needs a number of upgrades, some because of growth and some because of its age. She said the last large upgrade was done in 2002.

“I don’t know the exact number but treatment plants are expensive,” said Wetch. “It’s in the millions.”

She said if she had to take a guess it would be in the ballpark of $5-10 million.

Norton clarified that the council was voting on the land use permit, not the entire project.

Send your news tips to editor@columbiabasinherald.com.