Indoor soccer center wins approval in Spokane Valley

The Spokane Valley hearing examiner has cleared the way for an indoor soccer business to set up shop in the old Itron building in the Spokane Valley Industrial Park.

It’s a Soccer Life Inc. is owned by Greg and Heather Moore. The business plans to provide field space for soccer games, camps, tournaments and clinics. The building is located near the northeast corner of Sullivan Road and Marietta Avenue.

The city recently amended its codes to allow indoor sporting facilities on land zoned industrial if the business owners receive a conditional use permit. The permit can require mitigation if the proposed use is expected to have an impact on neighbors. Hearing examiner Mike Dempsey has granted that permit, provided the owners follow a proposed site plan that was filed with the city in August.

No one testified against the proposal during a hearing before Dempsey in November.

“The proposed use is a beneficial use of the site that may serve as an interim use, pending the recovery of the local economy and a stronger demand for industrial uses,” Dempsey wrote in his decision.

The site is also located near bus stops and will put less of a strain on sewer and water systems than Itron did, Dempsey wrote. “Because the use will be enclosed within an existing industrial building, the adverse impacts from neighboring industrial uses on the users of the indoor soccer center are minimized,” he wrote.

The proposed hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends.

The building is about 25,000 square feet and has a large parking lot.