Out of compliance

Spring has come and gone, but the number and spacing of trees surrounding the downtown parking lot where a cluster of historic buildings once stood, remain out of compliance with city design standards.

Last January, the city of Spokane issued developer Jim Reugh a certificate of occupancy for the lot even though a number of issues, including those trees, were yet to be resolved. To protect the public’s interests, officials required Reugh to provide a letter of credit to ensure funds would be available to cover the work if the developer failed to come through.

There were drainage issues. There was the matter of sealing a wall – in a weather-tight and aesthetically pleasing way – that was left exposed on the Fernwell Building by the controversial demolition of the Mohawk Building along with the Rookery and Merton buildings. A wrought iron railing was missing from atop a brick wall surrounding the lot.

And there were those trees.

Since 2001, Spokane city planning standards require that surface parking lots in the downtown area be screened by street trees placed 25 feet apart. City officials say Reugh filed a letter acknowledging he understood that, and the plans he submitted to the city showed trees at the proper intervals. The trees are closer to 40 feet apart. January was no time to be digging into sidewalks and transplanting trees, so the letter of credit seemed to be a pragmatic option that let the developer move ahead while relieving regulators’ anxiety.

Today, the wrought iron railing is in place. Work is near completion on the Fernwell Building wall, and city Building Director Joe Wizner calls it a good job. (Fernwell manager Tom Power has less charitable terms for the six-story gray mortared wall.) Talks are ongoing about the swales.

But what about the most conspicuous issue from the passing public’s point of view: the trees?

For those who have forgotten the prolonged history of this issue, saving the Rookery block was a major but unsuccessful cause for local historic preservationists. The office buildings there were reminders of an era of robust growth in Spokane a century earlier. Reugh’s father Wendell once intended to replace them with a towering modern structure, but that fell through, and when downtown Spokane history tumbled, it was for the sake of surface parking. For more than three years, the city put up with parking and pedestrian disruptions around that block.

The Reugh parking lot is an improvement on most of the surface parking that scars the east end of the city core. But that’s not much of a test. More important, the city established expectations seven years ago and Reugh knew what they were. Other developers follow them, but this project doesn’t.

Last January, wanting to demonstrate its customer friendliness, City Hall let the developer have his certificate of occupancy and accepted a letter of credit so, in the words of Planning Services Director Leroy Eadie, “in the spring he can make those street tree improvements or … if he decides not to, eventually we could pull the bond and have it done ourselves.”

Spring has come and gone.