The Douglas County Hearing Examiner will be reviewing an application for a multi-family apartment complex, adding 116 units in a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom dwellings. The project also includes a pool, club house, dog park, among other amenities. The project's site plan is preliminary and under review with the county.
The Douglas County Hearing Examiner will be reviewing an application for a multi-family apartment complex, adding 116 units in a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom dwellings. The project also includes a pool, club house, dog park, among other amenities. The project's site plan is preliminary and under review with the county.
Provided image/Douglas County
EAST WENATCHEE — A proposal for a 116-unit, multi-family apartment complex will be considered Friday by the Douglas County Hearing Examiner.
The project is located on the corner of Grant Road and South Nile Avenue outside East Wenatchee on a 13.9-acre parcel of land. The proposed apartment complex would consist of a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom dwellings, according to the environmental checklist.
About a half-mile northwest of the Gateway project, Douglas County commissioners approved a 290-unit apartment complex project in May 2022. The county received hundreds of comments from the public, citing concerns about the project’s traffic impacts.
The new complex would also include a pool, club house and dog park, along with other amenities, according to the environmental checklist. The project would also extend First Street N.E. from South Nile Avenue and will also serve as access to the apartment complex.
The applicant, Gateway Opportunity Zone Operating Business LLC, filed for a Conditional Use Permit back in July 2022. Gateway purchased the property for $2.5 million in March 2022 from Gateway Properties LLC, a seattle-based real estate developer.
The property is located within an Opportunity Zone — an area designated by the state as low-income and underserved. The Opportunity Zone Program is part of a 2017 federal law that incentivizes investors to fund businesses in underserved communities.
Gateway is looking into creating separate parcels for the apartment complex and other commercial development, potentially further dividing the commercial side of the parcel for individual businesses, according to the project’s narrative submitted July 2022.
The traffic impact analysis prepared for the application identified that the Grant Road and South Nile Avenue intersection operating in 2025 “below the level of service thresholds,” according to the project’s staff report.
The proposal could produce approximately over 3,600 daily car trips, according to the environmental checklist.
“An intersection improvement is required to improve the level of service to meet the minimum adopted standards,” according to the staff report. “Douglas County is currently in the design phase for an intersection improvement to construct a roundabout at this intersection.”
Douglas County plans to build the roundabout in 2023 or 2024.
Gateway would contribute funds to the county to improve several intersections along Grant Road, including South Nile Avenue, South Nevada Avenue and South Mary Avenue, per the conditions of the staff report.
The public is able to attend the public hearing and provide public comment. The hearing starts 1:30 p.m. Friday in the Douglas County Public Services Building hearing room, located 140 19th St. in East Wenatchee.
At Friday’s hearing examiner hearing, county staff and Gateway will be able to discuss any potential changes to the conditions of approval in the staff report.
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