Activist’s Passion Is Sensible Planning For Neighborhoods

Sharon Page isn’t one to talk off the cuff.

When the Indian Trail resident stood up last week to speak to the city council about her neighborhood’s land-use plan, she came with hand-drawn multi-colored transparencies and a list of specific suggestions.

“All we want is some logical planning,” she said. “The Indian Trail neighborhood is a prime example of what has gone wrong with planning in Spokane.”

For years, that has been the message from Page and her neighbors in Indian Trail who’ve urged the city to incorporate better roads and public services with new growth.

Page, president of Citizens for Responsible Development, one neighborhood group, and her husband Mike have been at the forefront of that effort in attending meetings and urging the city along.

For her work she was named citizen of the year by the Indian Trail Times, a neighborhood newspaper.

And by speaking even occasionally at Spokane’s televised city council meetings, she’s gained a certain level of notoriety. “A lot of people come up to me at work, ‘Oh, how’s the TV star?”’

But when the plan that took more than three years to draft passed the Spokane City Council on Monday night, Page had just returned home from a 10-hour day at the Five Mile Plaza Rosauers store, where she works as a pharmacist.

She was greeted by three hungry cats and her trusty wiener dog, Bart.

Her husband was dutifully at City Hall and she, without cable TV, was in the dark about city council action until a neighbor called with the news: the plan that Page had opposed was approved unanimously.

The news didn’t make her bitter or cynical, just sad that the city lost an opportunity to make Indian Trail a better place to live.

A Spokane native, Page bought her home on West Shawnee while she was still single.

“My parents would have liked me to be on the South Hill,” she said.

But Indian Trail offered more home for her money, was closer to work and downright peaceful.

“It was so serene, the winding road and the trees, there were not a lot of people living north of Francis,” she said.

She met Mike, then a customer service manager at a packaging plant, through friends. The couple dated for two years before marrying in 1989.

After the wedding she worked while her husband went back to college to get a teaching degree. She knew he wouldn’t be happy until he could teach. Mike Page now runs the alternative-school program at the Nine Mile Falls School District.

“You really are blessed when you do something you want to do,” said Page.

Pharmacy, a profession that deals directly with people in need, has been an anchor in Page’s life.

The couple would like to build their own home and have children.

Her experiences trying to make Spokane officials more aware of neighborhoods and the need for better planning will always be with her.

She’s one of the few lay people who can talk passionately about stormwater. She understands road standards. She can name city hall department heads - and calls them directly about problems.

Page wants to continue working with both the city and developers to solve problems before they become divisive.

“There needs to be some continuity of design in a neighborhood,” she said. “It’s pretty much been lost in Spokane.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo