Garage Plan Faces More Hurdles Opponents Of Council Vote On Downtown Project Say Referendum Petition, Lawsuit In Offing

A group opposing the city of Spokane’s support for a downtown redevelopment project is trying to force a public vote.

“The citizens have voiced their concerns over and over again to City Council members regarding this corporate welfare issue and they have refused to listen,” said Dick Adams, president of Priorities First, the opposition group.

Priorities First filed a referendum petition Thursday that targets an emergency ordinance passed by the City Council on Monday night. The ordinance pledges city parking meter money to help pay expenses for River Park Square’s planned parking garage if parking revenues fall short.

The parking garage will be part of the $100 million redevelopment project, which includes a new Nordstrom store, a 24-screen cinema and other shops and restaurants.

Steve Eugster, attorney for Priorities First, also said he would file a lawsuit against the city next week, challenging the ordinance’s emergency status. Eugster has sued the city on numerous issues, including the formation of downtown’s business improvement district and the plan to build the Lincoln Street bridge.

Duane Swinton, attorney for the River Park Square project, said any legal challenge would delay, and possibly endanger, the project. The project cannot move forward until the parking garage issue is resolved, he said.

“If he were to file a lawsuit, we’d need to get it resolved by the end of March to meet all the construction deadlines and the schedule of the retailers,” Swinton said.

Last Monday, the council voted unanimously to allow a non-profit corporation formed by River Park Square’s owners to issue revenue bonds for $30 million to buy the shopping center’s parking garage.

“Generally speaking,” Swinton said, “it will inhibit the issuance of the bonds until that issue is cleared. It would be incumbent on us to get (the lawsuit) resolved as quickly as possible.”

City Attorney James Sloane said that because the ordinance was passed as an emergency, it cannot be challenged by referendum.

“There is no question, in our view, that the emergency ordinance was valid,” Sloane said, adding that a December state Supreme Court decision gives cities broad discretion to determine what constitutes a municipal emergency.

Eugster said the city clerk assigned the referendum a file number, proving it to be a valid claim.

Sloane disagreed, saying all referendums are assigned file numbers. The referendum’s validity is determined only after the requisite number of signatures is gathered, he said. About 5,000 valid signatures, or 10 percent of the number of voters from the last municipal election, are required before the council will consider the petition.

Priorities First has until Feb. 26 - or 30 days after the council decision - to collect those signatures.

River Park Square is owned by Citizens Realty Co. and Lincoln Investment Co., affiliates of Cowles Publishing Co., owner of The Spokesman-Review.

, DataTimes