Expansion Of Housing Program Opposed Peaceful Valley Residents Not Happy With Proposal To Add To Their Neighborhood

A proposal to expand a program encouraging multifamily housing through property tax exemptions is drawing strong opposition from Peaceful Valley residents.

The issue was pushed to tonight’s Spokane City Council meeting agenda when the council adjourned last Monday night before hearing all the people who signed up to speak on the issue.

More than 50 people showed up last week to oppose adding parts of Peaceful Valley and Browne’s Addition to the areas already affected by the tax incentive plan, including the West Central and Riverside neighborhoods. Just five people signed up to speak in favor of the change.

Jordan McCabe lives just below the area proposed to be added. After falling in love with Peaceful Valley’s sleepy, friendly atmosphere, she bought a home there in January. Now she fears that atmosphere will be ruined by a proliferation of condominiums and apartments.

“We welcome development, or are resigned to it,” said McCabe of her neighbors. “Our opposition lies in weighting it so far in favor of multifamily housing and away from single-family homes. The character of the neighborhood is going to be completely changed.”

Other residents worry that adding upscale homes will push out low-income and fixed-income residents.

When Ellen King-Cooper bought her Peaceful Valley home 21 years ago, her property taxes were $34 a year. Over the years, she said, they grew to $200. Then four townhouses went in next door and in one year King-Cooper’s property taxes doubled to $400.

She didn’t get a chance to speak at last week’s council meeting, but said she plans to attend tonight’s meeting.

“I don’t see any reason for the developers to make themselves richer by getting tax exemptions and hurting the people in Peaceful Valley because their taxes go higher,” she said.

The area under consideration is bounded by Riverside on the south and Main on the north, between Monroe and Elm.

Developers building new housing with four or more units are exempted from property taxes on the housing for 10 years. In renovation projects, the tax credits apply only to the increased value of the property.

The goal of the program is to encourage more housing in urban portions of Spokane, thus adding to the vitality of the city’s core and reducing the need to expand services at Spokane’s fringes.

Developer Bob Cooke of R.H. Cooke & Associates said he isn’t surprised by the level of opposition coming from Peaceful Valley.

“They view me as an evil developer,” he said.

Cooke would like to use the property tax exemption to build a 12-unit condominium project in a portion of Browne’s Addition bordering Peaceful Valley that would be included in the new area. Without the exemption, he said, the project isn’t economically feasible.

“Because of the economic and social benefits, there’s no reason to oppose this change,” he said. “This is not a land-use issue, this is a tax issue.”

That’s a key point, said city planner Chris Hugo, who added that many of the Peaceful Valley residents opposed to the program may not understand that multi-family housing developments would still only be able to be built in areas zoned for them.

“The only thing that this does is stimulate multifamily development to occur in areas where the neighborhood has already decided such development should occur,” he said.

Those neighborhood plans were drawn up 15-20 years ago.

Hugo said that it may have made more sense to complete the city’s comprehensive plan before talking about the tools that can be used to achieve certain types of development, like tax exemptions for multifamily housing.

Browne’s Addition resident Bob Irish favors adding the proposed area to the multifamily housing tax exemption program.

“I think we need to encourage development of the downtown area,” he said. “We’ve already put a lot of emphasis on business development. Now we need the people down here to make it viable.”

Irish owns a lot that he would consider developing if the ordinance passes.

Other development also is likely to come to the neighborhoods more quickly if the council approves expanding the tax exemption program.

“We realize it has to be developed and that this open space so close to downtown can’t last forever,” said McCabe, “but it should be done with care so we don’t lose what we have.”

Amy Cannata can be reached at (509) 459-5497 or by e-mail at amyc@spokesman.com.

This sidebar appeared with the story:

MEETING

The Spokane City Council will hold its regular meeting at 6 p.m. today in the council chambers at City Hall. It will be shown live on CityCable 5.