Council Meeting Moves To Community Center

Spokane City Council members will move their weekly meeting to the West Central Community Center tonight for a status report on that neighborhood.

West Central residents will talk about their community’s activities and progress in the past year.

The meeting will start at 6 p.m. at 1603 N. Belt. A briefing for residents will begin at 3 p.m., and the council briefing will start at 3:30 p.m.

“We’re going to review the community forum report on youth violence, updating the council on the progress we’ve made as a neighborhood on addressing youth problems,” said Don Higgins, the center’s director.

“I feel pretty good, pretty confident that we’re making pretty good progress.”

Council members also will hear results of a study that looked at the impact of a proposed apartment project on traffic on Thorpe Road, which has two narrow tunnels under railroad tracks.

The 790-unit Mission Springs complex, planned for southwest Spokane, would be the county’s largest.

Although the tunnels are “narrow, obviously undesirable and present a significant traffic constraint,” they shouldn’t delay plans for the project, the traffic study says.

The City Council blocked Mission Springs construction permits in June so the project’s effect on Thorpe Road and the narrow tunnels could be studied.

Thorpe-Westwood residents have complained for years about the dangers of adding traffic to the road.

Bruce Steele, city traffic engineer, said the city has lowered the speed limit to 20 mph and added warning signs about the narrow tunnels to make driving conditions safer.

, DataTimes