New concerns surfaced and old ones were repeated by Spokane Valley residents at the latest hearing on the city's contentious new development code. A few in the crowd of about 60 reiterated earlier testimony on the minimum size for residential lots being debated by the council. Homeowners in some areas again said higher densities would fundamentally change their neighborhoods, while residents near Felts Field expressed frustration Tuesday that rules passed last year restrict their ability to develop their land.
Easily accessible 24 hours a day to anyone who wants to enjoy them, parks have always played host to a few people intent on having a little too much fun. Noisy after-hours use, vandalism, drinking and drug abuse can keep a park's neighbors and caretakers awake at night. But in response to recent complaints, police and parks officials in Spokane Valley have been taking extra measures to cut back on nuisances where people go to play.
Emergency personnel at the Spokane Valley Fire Department handled 197 emergencies reported between Aug. 16 and Wednesday. Six were reports of structure fires, department spokesman Bill Clifford said. At 7:30 p.m., Aug. 16, firefighters woke a resident whose home had filled with smoke from an unattended pot of beans, Clifford said.
Local school, business and political leaders who say that a Depression-era tax restriction is hurting education are hoping voters remove that hurdle with a constitutional amendment this fall. "It's just leveling the playing field," said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, speaking at a campaign kickoff event at the Spokane Education Association office Thursday.
Spokane Valley won't be required to stop development if it overloads schools, police or fire districts under the latest draft of the city's new rules on building. On Tuesday, the City Council reversed an earlier split decision by the Planning Commission that would have obligated the city to deny building permits for projects if those services could not adequately be provided.
Even though they only exist on paper at this point, Spokane Valley's plans to revitalize Sprague Avenue and build a city center are getting more expensive. On Tuesday, the City Council approved up to $139,500 for additional work from consultants hired to create the Sprague-Appleway Revitalization Plan and a public-private partnership that could result in a development akin to a downtown for the sprawling suburb.
Between Aug. 7 and Monday, emergency personnel at Spokane Valley fire handled 208 calls, including a kitchen fire at A & W, a manufactured home fire and a rescue from the side of a cliff in Mirabeau Park. Five reports of structure fires that week included a kitchen fire at 8:30 p.m., Aug. 10, in the A & W Restaurant near Sprague and Sullivan.
Following a flurry of opposition to draft zoning that would allow more houses built closer together in Spokane Valley neighborhoods, the City Council has tentatively moved to preserve larger lot sizes. "People were saying you need to have something mid-range. I thought about it, and several others of the council members thought about it and said 'That sounds like something we need to do,' " Mayor Diana Wilhite said Friday.
In the near future, pet owners across Spokane County may have a single place to look for a lost dog, report a stray or inquire about pet registration. Negotiations on a countywide animal control system are moving closer to an agreement that could go before elected leaders in Spokane, Spokane Valley and Spokane County. If enacted, the result could be more coordinated laws and adoption efforts across city boundaries – which animals tend to ignore when they get loose.
Spokane Valley is preparing to apply for grants to upgrade three roads in Greenacres where new development has greatly increased the amount of traffic on local roads. Improvements to Flora Road and Broadway Avenue, as well as a proposed connection between Greenacers and Indiana near the Valley Mall, will make up the city's applications for road funds awarded by the state in 2009.
The realities of retail development engrossed the City Council on Tuesday at its latest meeting with consultants hired to help develop a city center for Spokane Valley. Shopping-center expert Bob Gibbs gave Spokane Valley leaders a sense of what it would take to attract businesses to the city's proposed mixed-use center near the University City Mall.
Otis Orchards homeowners, who usually pride themselves on a lifestyle of rural self-reliance, are now banding together to face what they see as an encroaching threat from development in Liberty Lake and Spokane Valley. "If we don't have our ducks in a row, they're going to roll over us," Cindy Marshall told a crowd of nearly 100 drawn to the Four Corners Country Bakery on Wednesday by a flurry of fliers and phone calls.
The first draft of the map that will decide what can be built where in Spokane Valley drew a crowd of about 40 to the Planning Commission's meeting Thursday, with some testifying that new zoning will restrict their business prospects and others condemning proposals to reduce the size of residential lots. While the public hearing addressed where the city's new zones will apply, the rules surrounding how development occurs in those zones is now before the City Council.
Leaders at the Spokane Valley Fire Department decided Monday to ask voters for an increase in its property tax rate, casting the move as an alternative to interest-bearing bonds to finance new fire stations. Voter approval of the ballot item known as a levy lid lift would allow the fire district to collect more money from its existing property tax levy than the nominal increase allowed each year by state tax law.
When a group of North Central neighbors first decided to throw a party for National Night Out Against Crime, Emerson Park was known more for its illegal activity than as a friendly place to gather. "We decided to do it right here, right where the crime was," Dave Gunstrom said Tuesday night.
Two more stretches of Spokane River bank will be covered over and replanted as part of ongoing efforts to clean up heavy metals that worked their way downstream from mining in Idaho's Silver Valley. Last year, the federal Environmental Protection Agency covered an area near Starr Road to limit river users' potential exposure to lead and arsenic. In the coming weeks the state Department of Ecology will undertake similar projects just upstream on the other side of the river and at a site near the intersection of River and Murray roads.
Between filling in at Spokane Fire stations during the Whitley Fuel fire and the routine calls across the Valley, it's been an eventful two weeks for emergency personnel at the Spokane Valley Fire Department. On July 23, Valley crews helped man stations in Spokane under a mutual-aid agreement while much of the Spokane Fire Department was battling a fire at the Whitley Fuel storage facility in North Spokane.
Spokane Valley is preparing to enter its fifth full year as a city with a balanced budget totaling $94 million. City Manager Dave Mercier on Tuesday gave the City Council a quick overview of the preliminary 2008 budget.
Nearly two months after announcing his candidacy for a spot on the Spokane Valley City Council, David Crosby has yet to report the details of his fundraising or campaign spending, as required by law. The Spokane Homebuilders and the Realtors PAC each gave him $1,000 in July according to reports filed by those organizations, but the Crosby campaign hasn't reported receiving either of them to the Public Disclosure Commission.
Dozens took the microphone Tuesday night, demanding that the City Council reconsider its proposal to increase the number of houses that can be built on the vacant lots that dot Spokane Valley. Before a vocal crowd that packed the council chambers and spilled into the hallway, 45 people spoke on the zoning chapter of the city's new development code.
Spokane Valley's spacious backyards appear to be headed the way of the fields and orchards they were built on. City Council members removed a provision in the city's new zoning code, added by the Planning Commission, that would have preserved 10,000-square-foot lots in many neighborhoods.
Revenues are up from both sales and property taxes in Spokane Valley, and budget experts are predicting another year in the black for the city in 2008. "I think we're still in pretty good shape," said City Finance Director Ken Thompson.
Development in Spokane Valley would have to pay more for its burden on schools, police and fire service under a recent proposal by the Planning Commission. "We needed to send a message to the City Council that this needs to be dealt with somehow," said Commissioner Marcia Sands.
The City Council got its first look at a crucial dollar figure in Spokane Valley's quest for a city center at its meeting Tuesday. A rough calculation places the cost to build a City Hall at $18.4 million.
Narrow and quiet, Conklin Road was never a thoroughfare homeowners pictured would lead directly into the parking lot of a big-box store. Next year it will be connected to two.
