Valley future bright, except fiscally

If you sat through the first half of Spokane Valley’s council meeting Tuesday and didn’t get excited for the city’s future, you’d better check your pulse.

Or, if you sat through the second half without feeling a bit of despair. That’s when the discussion turned from creating a loveable downtown to the immediate reality of balancing the budget.

Based on a six-year financial forecast, “the gap continues to widen between revenues and expenses and it widens every … year you go,” City Manager Dave Mercier said.

It was the low point in an evening that started with great promise.

A team of consultants shared with the council ideas for revitalizing the Sprague Avenue corridor. They said there’s a great opportunity to develop a walkable downtown in the University City Shopping Center area and give Sprague a charming, boulevard feel.

As a first step in that direction, the council could write land-use laws that encourage the development of shops, perhaps with apartments or offices upstairs, and then invite the business community to propose projects to make it happen. With a commitment from developers to build attractive structures, the city could agree to make street improvements, and the transformation of Sprague Avenue could begin, the consultants said.

“I think it’s wonderful,” commercial property owner and real estate agent Sam Campbell said. “I think we have some astute landowners, and I think they will welcome this.”

There was a general sense that downtown transformations that cities like Portland; Ames, Iowa; and Phoenix have pulled off are possible in Spokane Valley. Economic, urban-design and transportation consultants Terry Moore, Michael Freedman and Tina Fueston told the council to make decisions on land use first and then come up with a transportation plan to complement those choices.

They suggested clustering retail businesses into smaller nodes, almost like small villages, so that shoppers could park their cars in one place and take care of their needs on foot.

The proposed city center wouldn’t compete with the Spokane Valley Mall, Freedman said, because it would offer unique local shops and restaurants – not the national chain stores that do well next to the interstate. There’s a trend today, especially among aging baby boomers, to frequent coffee shops, bookstores and other “lifestyle” businesses, Freedman said. If Spokane Valley provided a lively center with those offerings, people attracted to that – but not willing to live in downtown Seattle – might relocate here, he said.

Since the Sprague-Appleway couplet was built four years ago, citizens have debated its merits. Some say the two one-way roads have killed businesses on once-thriving Sprague. Others say converting Sprague back to two-way traffic would cause congestion, increase pollution and force people to avoid the roadway altogether.

The consultants said citizens told them they’re ready to put the couplet debate behind them and look at the bigger picture. If the downtown became a destination for people, the direction of the traffic might not matter.

“Whether it’s two one-ways, two two-ways or something in between, (the city center concept) works,” Fueston said.

But like many Washington cities, Spokane Valley expects to struggle to make ends meet during the next several years. The money collected from sales-tax receipts, the gas tax and other sources isn’t expected to keep up with the cost of providing services to citizens. Mercier said the street fund, the main source of money for repairing potholes and plowing and sweeping streets, looks particularly weak.

Some residents have questioned whether a revitalization project is possible when the city’s financial future is bleak. But a separate consultant told the council last winter that a public investment in the community could spur the economy. He predicted the city could see an 11-to-1 return on its investment.

Mayor Mike DeVleming said creating a city center is feasible, but he wasn’t ready Tuesday night to start laying bricks in a new community plaza.

“I would say yes, it could happen,” he said, “but it’s too early to say this is the council that’s going to do it.”