County Commissioners settle lawsuit brought by McGlades restaurant’s former owners.
Spokane County’s decisions to run roughshod over the state’s Growth Management Act (GMA) and its own comprehensive will now cost county taxpayers $700,000. That’s the amount the county, in a December 15th settlement agreement, has agreed to pay Shawn and Theresa Gabel, the former owners of McGlades restaurant on Highway 2. The Center recently obtained the agreement via a public records request.
According to the Spokesman-Review, the couple alleged they were forced out of business after county officials reversed themselves after first granting the Gabel’s a construction permit to expand a former produce stand into a full-service restaurant. The business, according to the newspaper, was sold sometime after the Gabel’s filed their lawsuit against the county last year.
The Center for Justice represents north Spokane citizens and the Neighborhood Alliance in land use challenges opposing the expanded restaurant at the site. In early September, the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board handed down a blistering decision criticizing the county’s actions to allow the expanded use of the site. Because the Hearings Board found the county’s decisions “would substantially interfere” with goals set forth in state law, it issued a formal ruling of “invalidity,” along with a detailed order and timeline for the county to comply with the GMA.
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