Hearing Examiner Andy Cockcamp heard staff and applicant testimony Wednesday on a proposal to subdivide two parcels into six lots at the Rivers Edge preliminary plat (PP2025‑001).

The subdivision application covers parcel numbers 119670021 and 119670022 and a site the planner said is about 0.94 acres. "The applicant wishes to subdivide two parcels into six individual lots," Ivan Baragon, Planner II for the City of Pasco, told the hearing. Baragon said the city issued a State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) determination of nonsignificance on March 9, 2025, and that hearing notice was mailed to owners within 300 feet on March 17 and published in the Tri‑City Herald on March 19, 2025.

The proposal would create six lots in property currently designated low‑density residential and zoned R‑1. Baragon noted the short‑plat and subdivision rules the staff reviewed, and said staff is "generally supportive of the proposed 6‑lot River's Edge Subdivision" while deferring the final decision to the hearing examiner.

The central technical issue discussed at the hearing concerned access for lots that would not front on a public street. "Lots noted as 2 through 5 in the preliminary plat are proposed to utilize PMC 21.2.060, lots without public street frontage," Baragon said, citing the Pasco Municipal Code provision. He said the applicants asked that each owner independently benefit from the provision because multiple owners are dividing property under a single application, and staff was "unclear whether this meets the intent of the provisions of PMC 21.2.060." He added that staff found an avenue for the proposal to comply with the code.

Applicant Elizabeth Duarte, who was sworn, told the examiner the owners plan to build single‑family homes that "conform to the neighborhood." Duarte's engineering representative, Christine Batayola, described design constraints that led the applicants to propose lots accessed by a private access easement rather than by two separate private roads or a public street. Batayola said a public road with a 60‑foot right‑of‑way would leave very limited buildable depth for the resulting lots and that the proposed layout was the best way to achieve roughly equivalent lot outcomes for the two property owners. She acknowledged the parcel could be developed with only three lots off a private road and said the applicants are requesting relief from that limit so the subdivision can proceed as proposed.

Batayola also said the layout would provide required emergency vehicle access and a turnaround the city requires for private access situations.

No members of the public testified for or against the Rivers Edge proposal. After staff indicated there was no further information, Hearing Examiner Cockcamp closed the public record. "I am going to close the public record portion of this hearing, and I will have a written decision made within the next 10 working days," Cockcamp said.

The examiner admitted the staff report, application materials, noticing documents, comments, maps, drawings and the planning staff file into the record. The decision on PP2025‑001 will be issued in writing; the transcript indicates no formal vote was taken at the hearing.