Evergreen pit gets extension

Attempting to appease concerned neighbors, a developer has altered plans for a 115-lot east Vancouver subdivision that will be built atop the former Evergreen Quarry.

The property owner, Evergreen Quarry LLC (a division of Tapani Underground of Battle Ground), is filling in the 50-foot-deep, 20-acre gravel mine south of Northeast 18th Street between 155th and 152nd avenues. Construction by Greenland Development on the first phase of Evergreen Villas will begin this spring on the northern quarter of the site, which is residentially zoned. A stoplight will be installed at 155th Avenue and 18th Street.

On Monday, the Vancouver City Council agreed to extend the deadline to fill the quarry until Dec. 31, 2017. Filling the pit has taken longer than expected due to the construction slowdown of the recession, resulting in a lack of fill material. Roughly 350,000 cubic yards of additional fill is needed to fully reclaim the quarry for residential development. (If one truck holds 10 cubic yards, that amounts to 35,000 truckloads of fill.) The last time the area was mined was in September 2012.

Council members asked Kevin Tapani, vice president of Tapani Underground, whether the timeline could be sped up to reduce the impact on neighbors. Two residents who live near the quarry complained (one was a in letter) at Monday’s council meeting about the dirt, mess and disruption the pit reclamation project is causing.

“We live in a dust bowl. I can’t keep my windows clean. I can’t keep anything on my property clean,” said Stephanie Turlay, wife of Councilman Bill Turlay.

Tapani said he, too, wanted to see the pit filled quickly. Under the new agreement, work hours will be shortened, but they can’t be cut back too much or the project will be slowed, he said.

The subdivision plans have been altered, too, to be neighborly. When plans for Evergreen Villas were unveiled two years ago, nearby residents objected to the 5,000-square-foot lots, saying they were too small to fit with the character of surrounding neighborhoods. Neighbors also opposed plans to fill in the quarry to 15 feet below the surrounding grade rather than higher. Greenland Development made adjustments.

A few changes appear to benefit not only the neighbors, but the developers, too. Under the revised plan, lots along the western and southern edges of the quarry, which abuts existing neighborhoods, will be 6,000 to 7,400 square feet, according to Jamie Clark of SGA Engineering, the project’s design consultants. The remaining lots will be 5,000 to 6,000 square feet, he said Monday.

To make the increased lot size work, Evergreen Quarry LLC acquired another piece of property. With that addition, rather than 120 lots at 5,000 square feet each, the project will have 115 lots. Although fewer in number, many will be larger lots, which could command a higher price in the current market, Clark said, noting a shift away from the pre-recession trend of maximizing every square foot of ground during the housing boom.

Also, the developers raised the elevation of the pit to 5 feet below grade rather than 15. That will make neighbors feel less like they’re living beside a pit. But for the developers, the higher grade will make the homes more marketable, Clark said.

“All in all, I think it’s going to be a big improvement,” he said.