Community Input Might Benefit Plan

Time is running short for the group working to improve the Spokane area’s public convention facilities. Work must commence in 2002 or available state funding will be lost. Just as important as the time crunch is the need to attract public support. Voters must approve or nothing will get built.

So far, the “Facilities 2000 Working Group” has kept the community informed about its discussions. Numerous stories about its meetings have appeared in The Spokesman-Review. And the group itself represents a diversity of area interests, including city and county elected officials and volunteers with ties to the Valley, downtown, the hospitality business and existing convention facilities.

One more step would help. Before it settles on a recommendation to the community, the group as well as its proposal might benefit from a formal opportunity for the community to offer suggestions. A public hearing or two could prove illuminating. So could an invitation for people to submit written comments.

The working group has to make some difficult choices.

It needs to choose where an expansion of the current Spokane convention center should go. Several proposals have been made. One suggested by developer John Stone would build a facility on the southwest corner of Riverfront Park. Another would use parking lots south of the current convention center. Another, recently revived, would extend the current convention center to the east, wrapping it around the DoubleTree Hotel.

It has been assumed, wisely, that the proposal submitted to voters will be a package - featuring improvements to public facilities in the Valley, as well as in downtown Spokane. Four options are under consideration for the Valley’s piece: a complex of basketball courts; expansion of the grandstand and exhibition space at the Spokane County Fairgrounds; additions to Mirabeau Point, a complex now taking shape on the site of the former Walk in the Wild zoo; and an “Inland Northwest Technology Education Center.”

The attractiveness of the choices will make a decision difficult.

The voters’ fiscal frugality, the readiness of each concept for the ballot and the limitations contained in state law may help sort out the options. Public input would help as well.

As discussion proceeds, let’s all keep in mind that the work of civic improvement never ends; ideas not included in one package can return in the future. Spokane has a long record of supporting enhancements to its sports, convention and education facilities.