The City of Richland hearing examiner took testimony and kept the record open on a site plan application for a proposed Best Western hotel at the Keene Road and Interstate 182 intersection (file PLND-T2-2024-0007), with staff and the applicant asked to provide supplemental documentation by close of business Friday.

City planning staff member Mr. Nelson explained the application is for a Best Western hotel on a commercially zoned C-2 (retail business) parcel. The staff presentation included a site plan showing the hotel footprint, about 140 parking stalls, and proposed landscaping areas; staff noted the applicant did not submit a detailed landscaping plan for review. The file was assigned PLND-T2-2024-0007.

The project is subject to the city’s critical areas regulations because the site was identified as shrub-steppe fish and wildlife habitat. Mr. Stevens, a staff member administering critical-areas matters, said the applicant’s consultant provided an analysis the city accepted that would allow the project to satisfy requirements by making a fee-in-lieu payment under the City of Richland’s agreement with the conservation district. Stevens said the payment would satisfy the compensatory mitigation at the 2:1 replacement ratio for shrub-steppe habitat.

Applicant representative Paul Knutson of Knutson Engineering (for client Eternal Hotels/Parn Singh) said he did not object to adding a condition requiring documentation of the conservation-district agreement and asked staff to clarify other conditions, including one referencing a sewer main described in the staff report as an “8-inch pressurized sewer main” that he said was gravity, not pressurized.

Knudson also raised a wording and logistics question about a staff stormwater condition that requires that “access to the city's existing storm pond shall be provided.” He said the gravel access the city currently uses appears to cross the undeveloped western half of the larger parcel and that no recorded easement for the pond access appears on the survey. Knutson asked staff or public works to clarify how the city currently accesses the pond or whether a new access easement would be required; the examiner and staff agreed the parties would confer and include clarifying language as an exhibit if appropriate.

On timing, Knutson asked whether site-plan approval would expire; the examiner noted it is typical to include a timeline and said the decision usually requires that complete permit applications needed to build the project be filed within 24 months of decision issuance, with an extension of up to 12 months by the planning manager for demonstrated progress. Staff had no objection to a condition along those lines.

No members of the public spoke at the hearing. The examiner closed the hearing for the evening but left the record open to accept supplemental materials — including the conservation-district agreement or correspondence documenting the fee-in-lieu mitigation, and clarifying public-works/stormwater language — to be submitted to staff and transmitted to the examiner by close of business Friday.

The hearing produced no final approval or denial; the record remains open to receive the requested exhibits and proposed conditions.