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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Housing Densities Emerge As Key Issue In Indian Trail In/Around: Indian Trail

Bruce Krasnow Staff writer

Residents planning the future of the Indian Trail neighborhood started their work before the state Growth Management Act was imposed on Spokane County.

They started before mandates of the federal Clean Air Act and before the three newest members of the City Council took office.

Now after three years of work, the committee creating the Indian Trail Specific Plan may still be months away from a final document, which would have to be presented back to the neighborhood for public comment and hearings.

Discussion in the coming months will focus primarily on density and how many new housing units should be allowed on acreage yet to be platted - about 10 percent of the planning district.

The task force may recommend that new housing be developed at the current zoning, 4.5 units per acre, or perhaps as high as six units per acre.

Some residents who have watched the process say the neighborhood needs to ensure that future development is as it has been - a density closer to 2.7 units per acre.

Feeding that debate is a requirement that automobile emissions at North Side intersections - Indian Trail Road and Francis in particular - not violate levels prescribed in the Clean Air Act.

To determine that, the Spokane Regional Transportation Council has to feed the land-use information from the task force and planning department into a computer model and see what comes out.

At this time, no one knows if the designations studied by the task force will be approved. If they aren’t, the committee may have to come up with other solutions.

“The major concern right now is the density issue,” Tim Shelton, task force chair, told the city Plan Commission last week. “I personally would like to keep the area the way it is. That’s why I moved there - the openness.”

Though higher densities may not be good for Indian Trail, they would benefit the community at large, Shelton contends. He believes increasing the density for unplatted areas would encourage bus service, even if it’s limited to a park-and-ride operation.

But the connection is tenuous, because if there are more people living in Indian Trail, congestion is bound to get worse, even if some do ride STA buses downtown.

“There will be more trips. That’s a certainty,” said City Planning Director Charlie Dotson. “Nobody’s fooling anybody that transit will reduce the growth rate.”

Resident Glenn Landram said one problem is that the task force isn’t even looking at an option that includes building out future lots at current densities.

Only by looking at all options can the task-force serve not just the city as a whole but the neighborhood, he said.

“That option hasn’t even been fed through. This task force has just gone in one direction,” he said.

Landram is also convinced that putting more people 15 miles from downtown will make air quality worse, not better.

“We have trouble understanding this because we’re not getting real good information. The task force is being force-fed one option,” he said.

Dotson contends that part of the debate over density is unique to areas like Indian Trail, which was developed at less density than current zoning allows.

That was done because market forces created a demand for larger lots.

With rising interest rates and smaller families, that trend has already reversed itself.

Now, even if the final plan calls for building at the current zoning, there is likely to be conflict.

Landram and others say that’s the city’s line - and the city wants to increase its population to better compete with the unincorporated area and beef up its tax base.

He is bothered, too, that Dotson has acted as a policymaker for the task force and that its co-chair, Cheri Rodgers, has gained an appointment to the city Plan Commission, which requires close cooperation with Dotson.

The irony of all this is that when elected officials, including three from the city, drafted countywide policies for growth, they decided to let density be the decision of individual governments and communities rather than a higher-up mandate.

“Very specifically, there weren’t any references to density at all,” said Spokane Mayor Jack Geraghty, who helped draft the guidelines.

Despite the conflict at Indian Trail, Geraghty still agrees with that and said each neighborhood is different and has to come up with solutions based on individual circumstances.

Indian Trail is the first.

“In a way they’re pioneers,” Geraghty said. “They’re breaking new ground.”