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

Woodland School Proposes Building At 35th, Havana

Patricia Manz believes she’s found the right place on the South Hill to relocate her Woodland Montessori School.

Now she needs the approval of City Hall.

Manz has filed for a special permit to build and operate the preschool at the southeast corner of 35th and Havana.

Woodland Montessori has operated by lease for 17 years at Finch Arboretum. The surrounding park offered an ideal outdoor setting for the children to study nature.

The school has been popular among parents. For years, Woodland Montessori has operated with a waiting list.

The Parks Department last year decided to discontinue the preschool’s lease. Parks officials said they want to make the publicly owned building available for other uses.

That forced Manz to search the city for another site. She looked at some older homes on large lots, but remodeling costs were too expensive, she said.

The acre she purchased at 35th and Havana offers some of the same virtues as the arboretum. It has open space and room for children to collect bugs and study plants.

“I want to create a building that isn’t institutional,” Manz said. “I want the kids to have what they have here.”

Her plans call for a school house of just under 4,000 square feet on the triangular-shaped property.

She said she will leave part of the property as natural open space and use another portion for a garden so the children can learn about botany and other natural sciences.

The site is close to large tracts of undeveloped land that attract a variety of birds and mammals, she said.

But some residents of the neighborhood may object to having a preschool nearby, she said.

The school would bring about 80 cars a day to the site for dropoffs and pickups of the 60 children.

She operates on the same schedule as Spokane District 81 schools. However, she could initiate short summer programs in the future, she said.

Manz said 35th Avenue is a tree-lined boulevard that will provide a safe route for motorists and pedestrians using the neighborhood.

Anyone with concerns or comments on the project can express their views at a neighborhood meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Lincoln Heights Congregational Church at 29th and Freya.

City land-use policy requires neighborhood meetings prior to consideration of a special permit application by the city hearing examiner.

The meeting is being held in conjunction with the regular meeting of the Lincoln Heights community development neighborhood steering committee.

Manz, who is a newcomer to building and zoning issues, said she hopes to get her project in front of the hearing examiner this spring. She wants to have the new building erected and opened by the start of school in September.

Her plans call for the possibility of expanding the school with the addition of a third classroom in coming years. That would increase the enrollment to 80 children.

Manz said she hopes to keep her development costs low so she won’t have to raise tuition.

, DataTimes