School District Negotiating For Property Site Would Be Suitable For Elementary In Indian Trail

Spokane School District is negotiating with developer Dave Black to buy property suitable for a future elementary school in the Indian Trail neighborhood.

The district may buy five or six acres. The land is adjacent to five acres owned by the Spokane Parks Department and could be developed as a school-park site, said district planning coordinator Ned Hammond.

The property is south of Lowell Road, west of Indian Trail Road and north of Pacific Park Drive.

Hammond told the Spokane School Board on Wednesday he hopes to bring the deal to them within two months.

Northwest Spokane residents have clamored for a new elementary school for years. The land deal is no guarantee that a school will be built soon, Hammond cautioned.

The site is the same as one identified for an elementary school in the Indian Trail Specific Plan being considered by the Spokane City Council.

“I’m glad they chose a site up here,” said Indian Trail resident and Spokane planning commissioner Cherie Rodgers. “It’s going to be great.”

Mike Page of Citizens for Responsible Development of Area 1 said his group wants the school district to think even further ahead.

“We’d like to see a high school out here. We’d like to see our own junior high school out here,” Page said.

Hammond also presented a summary of 21 development projects in the district to the board Wednesday.

The district is most concerned about the proposed Mission Springs apartment project in southwest Spokane. Two narrow tunnels on Thorpe Road cause safety concerns for busing students in the area.

Hammond said he was pleased by development in the Rogers High School attendance area, particularly plans for the 405-home Bluegrass subdivision at Crestline, Lincoln and Nevada.

“It’s an area that in recent development tended to be multifamily,” Hammond said. “To see a proposal like this rejuvenates and revitalizes an area.”

To improve internal communication on development, Hammond will prepare a monthly summary of development news and distribute it to school board members, principals and other staff members.

The district has begun putting all its concerns and comments in writing about specific development proposals. That way they become part of a permanent file on a development, Hammond said.

“Well-planned growth is beneficial to schools,” Hammond said.

, DataTimes