Parks land sale opposed

A Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission proposal to auction surplus land has sparked outrage among neighbors, boaters and others concerned about losing about 100 acres of public access along the Spokane River’s north bank.

Neighborhood groups are protesting any loss and say if that land is auctioned, developers will gobble it up and build high-density housing. Members of the Spokane Canoe and Kayak Club are worried about the loss of existing boat launches and of sites they could use in the future.

“I don’t think they should get rid of any of it,” said Mary Pollard, chairwoman of the North Greenacres Neighborhood Association. “The developers will buy it, every single piece of it. It is taking of public property and depriving us of its rightful use.”

State parks officials, however, say they have no intention of selling any riverfront land and are only trying to dispose of excess land not used for recreation or wildlife habitat.

Despite a newspaper notice that said large pieces of riverfront land were being considered for auction, parks officials say the parcels are actually much smaller and none includes river frontage. A meeting will be held Thursday to gather public input.

“I know it’s the commission’s intent to provide recreational access to that riverbank,” said Bill Koss, state parks planning manager. “This is the beginning of the process. We’re going to listen to what the public says. We’re going to talk more (with local governments). If we end up auctioning, it could well look different.”

Parks officials say they plan to retain at least a 50- to 100-foot riparian corridor along the riverbank. While the tax parcels advertised in the newspaper add up to more than 100 acres of riverfront, the portions state parks officials say are for sale amount to less than 50 acres, with no river frontage. However, Koss also said he’s uncertain whether Spokane County regulations permit the subdivision and sale of only pieces of state park land.

“What we put on the list are the areas that we thought we could dispose of without impacting public use,” said Rene Wiley, Riverside State Park manager. She said parks officials and commission members toured all the property to ensure the land selected for auction wouldn’t prevent public access to the river.

All the concerns could become moot if other municipalities step up and say they’d like to acquire and maintain the land for public use. If so, state parks would simply deed the land to those entities, free of charge, parks officials said.

“Government agencies always have first priority,” said Angela Miller, property and acquisitions specialist for state parks. Miller said both Spokane Valley and Spokane County have contacted state parks with interest in different parcels.

Spokane Valley Parks Director Mike Jackson said his city is interested in acquiring all the parcels that lie within the city’s boundaries, which he said totals 107 acres. Spokane Valley wants to maintain it as parks, picnic areas and boat launches, Jackson said.

Spokane County Parks Director Gary Chase said the county is interested in at least the parcel that abuts the southern tip of Plante’s Ferry Park and possibly another that stretches along Euclid Avenue in Otis Orchards. The county’s parks advisory committee will discuss it at a May 10 meeting, he said. Any recommendation would be forwarded to the county commissioners.

“I would certainly hate to see any of those properties fall outside of public ownership,” Chase said. “I think they’re very valuable as public open space.”

Riverside State Park is the guinea pig for the state parks commission to examine its inventory of excess land statewide, Wiley said. Any money earned from surplus land sales would go into state parks’ Parkland Acquisition Account and would be used to purchase property somewhere in the state. When surplus land was sold near Mt. Spokane recently, the money was used to buy property around Pearrygin Lake, near Winthrop, said Steve Hahn, Lands Program manager for state parks. The agency has not determined what property it might buy with proceeds from this sale.

“It might be in Spokane, it might be in Eastern Washington, it might be in the San Juans,” Hahn said. “I don’t know at this time.”

Meanwhile, the Spokane Neighborhood Alliance is encouraging members to attend next week’s meeting to ensure parks officials understand how important that land is to the public.

“This is public property,” said Pollard, of the Greenacres association. “It’s a sacred trust. State park land has been held onto to satisfy a legacy for future generations.”