Parker Howell

Gated golf community The Club at Black Rock overlooking Lake Coeur d’Alene provides an exclusive playground for wealthy adults. Now it also offers something distinctive to occupy the young ones while dad plays a round or mom relaxes at the spa.

Fairchild Air Force Base is out of the family-housing business. Balfour Beatty Communities, based in Newtown Square, Pa., last month finalized an agreement with the government to own and manage the 1,053 family homes on the base as part of a congressionally authorized privatization of housing at Fairchild and two other air bases.

Utility metering company Itron Inc. reported record quarterly revenue of $514 million for the three months ending in June, even as it announced a separate large contract with a San Diego utility for its next-generation technology. Executives of the Liberty Lake-based corporation attributed the strong quarter, and increased year-to-date revenue of $992.4 million, partly to better-than-expected demand and accelerated orders.

Panhandle Avista customers would pay more on their monthly electricity bills – about $3.43 for the average household – starting later this year under a surcharge increase the utility requested Monday. Avista asked the Idaho Public Utilities Commission for permission to more than double its power surcharge, which would raise overall rates about 5.9 percent and generate $12.2 million to recoup costs of generating power for the year ending June 30.

A development company proposing a 14-story, 78-unit condominium tower on the banks of the Spokane River near downtown Spokane envisions a wedge-shaped glass, metal and pre-cast panel structure promoting “visual access and view corridors,” design documents submitted to the city say. Plans from Spokane-based SRM Development LLC for the first phase of the mixed-use Broadway Towers, slated for the site of the current YWCA on the north side of the river, depict the shiny edifice rising above 2 ½ levels of parking and featuring a pool and spa with a view of a new public river overlook. Spokane’s Design Review Committee will consider the proposal – and whether it meets a variety of rules and guidelines meant to protect aesthetics and public access along the river – at a meeting next week.

A wildfire that destroyed 11 Spokane Valley homes last week grew out of an illegal recreational fire that a local surgeon supervised three days earlier on her neighbor’s vacant lot, a fire official said. The “unapproved, unextinguished recreational fire” was set July 7 on a wooded parcel next to the home of Tracy Berg, who lives at 1915 S. Eastern Lane, according to Bill Clifford, deputy fire marshal for the Spokane Valley Fire Department. The fire was made in an old stump that had been repeatedly burned, which made it a fire pit, he said.

Local leaders are hailing an intensive series of talks between neighbors and developers that led the Spokane City Council last week to approve a cluster of major retail developments on the South Hill. But some neighbors involved in the process dispute that the meetings – some lasting hours or days – created true compromise.

What some Logan Neighborhood residents thought were post-Independence Day fireworks Saturday afternoon were in fact gunshots that sent a man to the hospital. Spokane police were investigating the incident, which happened in a parking lot along East Illinois Avenue near North Hamilton Street shortly after 4:30 p.m. The unidentified victim's injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, said police Cpl. Jordan Ferguson.

Developers and neighbors may be closer to an 11th-hour compromise on design concepts for three contentious major commercial developments proposed for about 45 acres in southeast Spokane. Reaching consensus could influence a City Council vote expected Monday night on three changes to the city's comprehensive plan that would help clear the way for the projects at South Regal Street and the Palouse Highway, including a proposed Home Depot and possibly other big-box retail stores.

To help inform a Spokane City Council decision on proposed traffic impact fees that some businesspeople say would deter development and drive growth outside the city, officials will take a closer look at the potential economic effects of the fees. The council plans a third study session on the fees and could begin holding public hearings next month, Council President Joe Shogan said. Council members want to know how the proposed fees compare to those in nearby cities, Shogan said.

Ironman and Hoopfest don't just draw hundreds of thousands of athletes and spectators to the Inland Northwest each June. The back-to-back weekend events lure visitors' dollars, filling hotels and restaurants – and helping buffer the area from a national tourism downturn, observers say.

The punch line of the last act at the Brickwall Comedy Club is no laughing matter. The club, Spokane's sole year-round standup venue, closed its doors last week after succumbing to financial woes. "We knew we'd been having problems for a long time," said owner Chris Warren, 50. "Revenue has been down and costs have been skyrocketing."

Thousands of homeowners looking to sell need to sign new paperwork asserting they're not "distressed homeowners" under a new Washington state law that takes effect today. As foreclosure rates climb, the new law is aimed at protecting people from scammers who offer to bail them out but end up taking the property or charging excessive fees for unnecessary services. The law mandates that companies dealing with distressed owners – people behind on their taxes or mortgage, or think they're in danger of falling behind – use written contracts spelling out terms, including a disclaimer that they cannot guarantee to save homes.

Wal-Mart has cleared another legal roadblock to building a controversial superstore in south Pullman. A Washington state appeals court has dismissed a challenge to the proposed 223,000-square-foot store by a citizens group concerned about its affects on traffic and businesses.