Hearing on Kendall Yards packed

One thing was clear during a Thursday night public hearing for an 80-acre residential and commercial development proposed to overlook the north bank of the Spokane River — people in Spokane love their river.

In a packed City Council chamber, about 200 people gathered to hear and deliver testimony on the Kendall Yards development, which could bring 2,600 residences and 1 million square feet of commercial space to land just north of downtown. They ranged from the vice president of Avista Corp. to low-income residents of the West Central neighborhood. Most supported the development, but many had concerns that focused largely on protecting the views and wilderness around the river.

“This is part of our urban viewscape that is absolutely precious,” said Bea Lackaff, a West Central resident who talked about hearing flocks of geese taking off from the river near her home at night. Like many who testified, Lackaff expressed excitement about the development, but urged Hearing Examiner Greg Smith to not allow buildings up to 12 stories high to be built overlooking the river gorge.

However, Chris Marr, a longtime business owner and Democratic candidate for the state Senate, said he couldn’t dream of a project that would have such a positive economic impact but also do so much to protect the river gorge. He said developer Marshall Chesrown has a track record of quality development.

“You can never totally mitigate the impact of growth,” he said, adding that this development needs to happen inside the city’s core, not outside it, as sprawl. In addition, he said the burden of addressing all the city’s problems, from affordable housing to transportation issues, should not fall on one developer.

Architect Jeffrey Warner said the project needs to have a certain amount of density to make it worthwhile for the developer to build. Many developers would line the riverbank with high-rise towers, but this development doesn’t propose that, he said. The buildings would be set back from the river and built in clusters, scattered about the site in order to protect as much of the view as possible, he said.

“You do need a certain level of density to make this project pencil out,” Warner said.

However, Smith also heard an appeal of the city’s approval of the environmental impact statement for the development by activists John and Rachael Pascal Osborn. The Osborns said the development plans fail to identify or study the impact on the river and on traffic and low-income housing in the West Central neighborhood.

“When you put 5,000 new people out above the river gorge, they will want to go down into the gorge,” said Rachael Pascal Osborn. For the city to determine that the development will have no impact on the river gorge is “curious,” she said. In addition, she said, Kendall Yards is going to be a “destination” shopping area, but weekend trips to the development were not studied, she said.

Smith has 10 days to issue a decision, which can be appealed to the City Council within 14 days. Smith also has 10 days to issue a decision on the appeal of the environmental impact approval, following any time that may be set aside for additional public comment, said Leroy Eadie, current planning manager for the city.