County Parks Acreage Way Under National Average; Short 580 Acres

The Spokane Valley needs another 248 acres of community parks to meet national standards, the county parks advisory board learned this week.

Using those same standards, the entire unincorporated area of Spokane County is short 580 acres, given today’s population of about 202,000, said parks planner Steve Horobiowski.

That means Spokane County provides about 2.2 acres of community park per 1,000 residents.

These figures do not include golf courses, regional parks, such as Liberty Lake, or conservation land, such as Dishman Hills.

They do include all school playgrounds and playing fields.

Using that formula, the Valley has 344 acres of community park land.

These figures were discussed at Thursday’s parks advisory committee meeting during an update on the county’s new parks plan. Wyn Birkenthal, parks and recreation manager, emphasized that the numbers are still rough. Horobiowski said he believes he’s about two-thirds through completing the plan.

Much has to be decided before completion, however.

“There’s nothing that says we have to follow those standards,” Birkenthal said.

The National Parks and Recreation Association has set a minimum standard of six acres per 1,000 residents. On the high end, the group’s standard is 10 acres per 1,000 residents.

“We don’t need that standard,” Birkenthal said. “We’re in the great outdoor Northwest.”

The parks committee and the community must decide what standards Spokane County should strive toward and what parts of the county should have highest priority for more park land.

The plan should also tackle how much land should be acquired now versus how much land should be acquired and developed now.

Birkenthal said it costs about $80,000 an acre to buy and develop community park land, complete with parking lot, tennis and/or basketball courts, playground and irrigation.

About $20,000 is land cost; about $60,000 is development cost. Park committee members discussed the wisdom of buying land for parks now with an eye toward holding off at least some development.

“My gut feeling,” said Craig Volosing, vice chairman of the committee, “is that given the nature of this county, how it spends its leisure dollars, is going to change as density hits us… We’re better off spending money for land acquisition now and developing it down the road.”

, DataTimes