On June 14, 2010, local landowner Steve Emtman signed and submitted a letter to the City of Cheney regarding his proposed "Terra Vista" development on lands within the City’s current Urban Growth Area (UGA).

Here’s a copy of that correspondence, including a map filed by Mr. Emtman with Spokane County in 2006.

Questions regarding the letter and its relation to the Choices for Cheney process may be directed to Community Development Director at the City. 

Between March 17 and March 19, the City of Cheney received five letters regarding growth patterns proposed in the draft land use concept presented at the last workshop, at various locations in the City, and linked below. All reference concerns about growth patterns to the southeast, potentially abutting the Turnbull Refuge.

Thanks to these and any additional written replies about the plan - they’re important and helpful to ensuring the plan achieves community needs. Check out each letter by following the links below, and be sure to get us your thoughts!

In Washington State, many private and public agency actions require completion of a SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) checklist, helping cities determine whether a more exhaustive EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) will be necessary or not.

With Choices for Cheney, the City has elected to automatically include an EIS in the process - but in addition to its own list of issues to evaluate, needs public input on what’s termed “scoping,” i.e., ideas on what types of environmental considerations the plan may affect.

The link below provides a copy of the City’s EIS scoping questionnaire, which explains the process, offers lists of environmental elements and issues already identified, and asks the basic question: What should the comprehensive plan’s environmental impact statement cover?

Click to download and view, then print and return it, or add your comments using the “comments” link near the listing footer. We’ll also have copies of the document at the February 18 workshop. Thanks!

For the record and for community review, the following links provide Acrobat® copies of the various slideshows presented during the November 20-21 Community Character Workshop.

The five files below are those presented by Bill Grimes of lead consulting firm Studio Cascade, and Troy Russ of transportation consultant Glatting-Jackson. The link titles indicate the presenter and day of presentation.

Many of the slides contained in the Grimes files are Cheney and plan-process specific, introducing local issues and the workshop exercises intended to explore them. The Troy Russ presentations cover traffic and transportation topics in a more generalized fashion, and are valuable in showing how quality transportation decisions lead to quality land use and community design.

At the recent Community Character Workshop, one of the activities asked residents to compare four hypothetical approaches to Cheney’s future with overall community objectives.

These approaches - illustrated and characterized as "Suburban Cheney," "Collegiate Cheney," "Hometown Cheney," and "Economic Cheney," were presented on color posters featuring maps, text descriptions, charts and photographs.

Linked below are reduced-size versions of each of the concept scenarios. Click to view each one, and give thought to which of the four - or more likely, which combination of them - suits Cheney best. Note that the pages include our estimation of how each scenario serves the draft vision for the plan. How would you rate each? If the future plan needs to incorporate a combination of these concepts, what’s the proper balance?

Look for a summary of feedback received at the workshop to be posted here, but in the meantime, offer your own ideas and thoughts to City project lead , or post your comments using the comment links below.

Most importantly, be sure to attend the next community workshop, scheduled for the second week of February 2010!