District 81 In Talks With City To Buy Land Near New School More Room Is Needed Near Browne Site For Parking

Thu., Jan. 28, 1999

By Kevin Blocker kevinb@spokesman.com

Spokane School District 81 is trying to make a deal with the city that would give it more room for improvements at the new Browne Elementary School.

The district wants to buy property between Upper and Lower Driscoll, northwest of Queen Place, for required school parking.

It also wants to clear out Queen Place between Upper and Lower Driscoll for parking and student drop-off.

The district hopes to provide on-street diagonal parking improvements and landscaping adjacent to Upper Driscoll southeast of Olympic Place, said projects director Ned Hammond.

Negotiations are still in the early phases.

“We’re talking cooperatively, but we still need more information,” said Dennis Beringer, manager of the city’s real estate division.

Beringer would not give specific details, saying he didn’t want to jeopardize negotiations.

Hammond said getting the property between Upper and Lower Driscoll Boulevards on both sides of the school site “is critical to the success of this project.”

The district sent a “street vacation application” to the city last month, asking it to close Queen Place between Upper and Lower Driscoll for school parking.

Hammond said the district thinks such a move would reduce traffic next to the Browne playground, eliminate the need for kids to cross Queen Place, reduce traffic between Rowan and Driscoll Boulevard, provide adjacent off-street parking for parents and staff and provide better separation of bus, parent and student drop-off areas.

The new Browne will be built on the playfield in front of the current school. Students will move into the new school at its completion in the fall of 2000. The old one then would be demolished.

District officials have abandoned their 1970s prototype school that has been the blue print for the last 19 elementary schools built.

They hope to reflect much of the character of Browne in the new building, which will be a two-story brick building.

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