Mattawa annexes roughly 40 acres

MATTAWA — A new housing development could begin construction this spring on 40 acres annexed into the city of Mattawa. Members of the Mattawa City Council approved the annexation application and a development agreement between the city and CAD Homes of Moses Lake.

“We need housing,” Council Member Brian Berghout said. “We need the housing, we need the city to grow, we need to increase the tax base. And I don’t see any of that happening without having more housing stock.”

The vote was 6-0 during the council’s Feb. 2 regular meeting; council member Wendy Lopez did not attend the meeting.

The land, known as the Brodero property – and the proposal to build houses – has been the subject of workshops, extensive conversation and debate by council members since October.

Drew Scott, CAD Homes owner, said at previous meetings that the plan is to build up to 100 homes in five phases. After extensive discussion at the Feb. 2 meeting, the two sides agreed on a six-year timeline for the five phases.

Both single-family housing and duplexes will be allowed, according to the development plan approved by the council. Owners of single-family homes will be required to provide at least two parking spaces, and duplexes will require three parking spaces per unit. William and Ellice avenues will be extended to provide the roads in and out of the property. The development agreement requires sidewalks and, if it’s necessary, a pedestrian pathway.

The project will include about two acres set aside for a park and recreation amenities.

About 13 acres of the property will be left undeveloped after the first five phases are completed. That 13 acres will be zoned for single-family, medium-density homes (zoning category R-1), and CAD Homes will submit a separate plan for it. The city is in the process of updating its development standards, and the development plan for that property will have to meet the standards in place at the time it’s submitted.

Sara Prather, the land development manager for CAD Homes, wrote in an email to the Herald that there’s still some preparation to do before a date can be set for breaking ground.

“Specifically, the project will need to receive both preliminary plat approval for all five phases and final plat approval for phase one prior to initiating dirt work,” Prather wrote. “As many planning details have been outlined in the development agreement, we are hoping to submit a preliminary plat to the city in an expedited manner.”

The council held a public hearing prior to the discussion and the vote, and Mattawa resident Jesse Chiprez said some homes in Desert Aire, about six miles from Mattawa, are no longer used as primary residences or summer homes. They’re now vacation rentals, he said. He asked what the developers would be doing to keep the houses in the Brodero development from becoming either short or long-term rentals.

“We’re a for-sale builder,” Scott said. “We’re not a home-for-rent company - we’re built for sale. At the end of the day, we want to come in, we want to build houses, we want to sell houses.”

“Our number one goal is to provide housing stock for the city of Mattawa,” Prather said during the meeting. “We have some verbiage in our development agreement that reiterates that, in two different places.”

Scott said Mattawa, like every town, needs some rental housing too.

“It is important for the health of Mattawa’s housing market to have some of those investors,” he said. “We wouldn’t go out and sell 50 to them, because that would disrupt your (housing) portfolio. But it is important to have some of those within your community because it creates transitional housing. Some people aren’t ready to purchase - they need somewhere to rent. You don’t have either right now.”

In her email, Prather said CAD Homeowners are planning one or more community meetings to discuss the development and sale process.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.