The Beacon Hill development got a preliminary plat/PUD hearing before the city of Spokane hearings examiner Thursday morning. About 20 people were there to testify in support of the development, which has been widely embraced by Hillyard business people and residents.

The project presented at last week's hearing, is the first phase of the Beacon Hill Home development and this part is located on the northern face of Beacon Hill, with access from Wellesley Avenue. It proposes the construction of 304 single and multi-family homes on 40.31 acres of a site that covers a total of 182 acres.

Owners Pete Rayner and David Baker have been working on the project for more than a decade, and at Thursday’s hearing Rayner said it has cost the developers close to $900,000 to get to this point because the city has delayed responses to various applications.

Rayner presented a document from 2006, signed by then head of the city water department Brad Blegen, which outlined an agreement in which the city, Beacon Hill and another entity known as Vista Homes, would each take care of part of the water infrastructure improvements needed.

Vista Homes was not represented at the hearing and no one in the room knew if that development is moving ahead or not.

Rayner wants the city to move ahead and make the promised water infrastructure improvements so he can get on with his development.

He said it would cost him as much as $800,000 to bring the water access up to par, a job that may include the construction of a new water tank, water mains and a booster station.

Representatives from the city’s water department at this point are reluctant to foot the entire bill, and the city also has some concerns about the access road to the development (too steep, blind curves) as well as the sewer capacity at the site.

At the conclusion of Thursday’s hearing the city and Beacon Hill were both asked to submit a document outlining a satisfactory solution to the current stalemate.

Look for a full story in Thursday's Voice section.