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Neighborhood rallies to save its community from crowding

A dozen residents of The Landing attend a council meeting to share concerns

Avani Nadkarni

The residents of the Sumner-area subdivision known as The Landing know that you must ask for change in order to make it happen.

A dozen neighbors of the sub-divison, located along Rivergrove Drive, attended the June 1 council meeting to express their concerns about the future development of the vacant field adjoining their property.

“Our concerns are many,” resident JoAnn Yates said after the meeting.

The residents know that future development of the property is inevitable, but they fear that if the property, which is registered to the Foster family residing in Kallispell, Mont., is developed into smaller, denser lots, the area could become overcrowded. Yates said she is concerned about the time it would take to evacuate the area during flooding or other disasters.

“We could likely not evacuate in the order that we are expected to (toward) the north,” Yates said, adding that if the maximum amount of homes come in, it could add 90 more cars to an already traffic-ridden area.

Other residents, such as Ian and Athena Robbins, are concerned that bringing in homes with smaller square-footage in such close proximity may devalue exisiting homes.

“I’m concerned it will bring down our home values,” Ian Robbins said to the council. “I’d like it to be thought out properly.”

While the Foster family could not be reached for comment, Sumner Community Development Director Paul Rogerson said that his office has not seen any applications to develop the site.

“We had a firm come in at least six months ago and discuss a possible scenario for developing the site,” Rogerson said. “They haven’t come back yet, so I’m not expecting them to. As of now, all we’ve had is someone make an inquiry.”

Still, the residents said they want to be proactive, because they know that someone will eventually develop the site. They don’t want to see their close-knit community become overrun with traffic.

“It’s both a matter of traffic and asthetics,” Yates said. “We have really taken pride in this neighborhood; it’s only about 25 homes. (Large developments of smaller, dense homes would) really affect the ambiance. We’re always anxious to be on top of things, so we came to the council beforehand.”

Councilmember Matt Richardson, who lives in the neighborhood, said he encouraged his neighbors to express their thoughts at a council meeting after many of them came to him with their concerns.

“He encouraged me to speak at a meeting, so I rounded up the neighbors,” Yates said. “We had a lot of interest.”

The residents present at the meeting, most of whom took a turn at the podium to address their specific concerns, asked council to conduct a full-impact study of all the areas that would be affected by suc a development, including traffic, property values and environmental issues.

For resident Gene Buckmeier, a Michigan native who has lived in his home at The Landing for seven years, overcrowding would reverse the very reason he moved to Sumner in the first place.

“I like the smaller community where ... you’re neighbors are not right next to you and you can stretch your arms without touching both houses,” Buckmeier said to the council. “We would lose that and lose the small-town feel.”