To our community members of Grand Coulee:

As many of you know, I had purchased Coulee Plaza last year. My intent for purchasing that piece of property was because I felt it was located in the heart of Grand Coulee and it would be a perfect location to bring our community together and to promote events. Like many of you, I see so much potential and opportunity with our town and the first step towards that is coming together and uniting. I wanted a beautifully, relaxing, open space for our community to use, and that was what I saw in Coulee Plaza. Prior to COVID, Coulee Plaza had supported multiple community functions and during a COVID, Coulee Plaza had supported local restaurants to be able to use the property for social distancing dine-outs.

The billboards had been up long before I bought the place. When I had purchased it,  it was calculated that the amount I receive from the lease was enough for me to up keep the place with a sprinkler system, utilities, maintenance, and repairs. I do not make money from it. Of course, it was never disclosed to me prior to purchase that these could have potentially violated any regulations. In addition, the City had permitted it for the many years before I purchased it so I didn’t really think twice about it.

I was pretty distraught when I got a call from The city that I needed to take down the billboards and that there was nothing they could do to accommodate. Even after trying to explain to the City of my support for local business and the community, they were adamant that they need to be removed. I believe I had their sympathy but it sounded like they had no intentions of changing it. I had reached out for legal advice as I wasn’t sure what to do. The attorney reviewed the ordinances and informed me that it does not apply to my my empty lot. However, I would still like to respectfully work with the City. If I can get support  from Chamber of Commerce and support from the Community, I could get the City to look at amending the ordinances and potentially making it an applicable permit.

If I am ultimately forced to take the billboards down, I would be unable to continue to donate the space to support local functions or events. In addition, by taking off the physical billboards, there are no fence behind it and will leave a gaping void which could be hazardous and visually displeasing. I am asking support from our community to allow me to continue having the billboards up which has been professionally and tastefully done so that I can continue to serve our small businesses and community.

Thank you very much for your support!

Respectfully,

Sam Hsieh