State parks will dispose of some of their parcels

At least 13 parcels in Riverside and Mount Spokane state parks have been approved for auction by the Washington Parks and Recreation Commission.

The seven or eight parcels in Riverside State Park range from less than an acre to 2 acres for a total of about 4.5 acres. At Mount Spokane, six parcels range from 10 to 80 acres for a total of about 300 acres, officials said.

The parcels were identified as disposable by a citizen review process that started in 1999, said Rene Wiley, Riverside State Park manager. She noted that several other parcels up to 40 acres in Riverside also have been recommended for sale in order to consolidate park lands, she said.

“The commission is just in the first round of approving properties for disposal,” said Steve Hahn, state parks land manager in Olympia. “Several other rounds could follow.”

A public meeting on the recommendations is planned for late August or early September.

“The next step would be to schedule a public auction in late summer or fall,” Hahn said. “We’re doing the best we can to notify interested parties, a lot of them neighbors to the park. We’ll have a sealed bid form.”

The parcels being offered in the first round are small, but the parcels in the second would be larger and generate more interest, Hahn said.

“Those bigger properties have residential highest and best use qualities,” he said. “Some of them are pretty natural places and on an average they’re six miles outside the main park boundaries.”

Meanwhile, state parks continue to look for opportunities to acquire, he said. “We’d like to make the parks bigger and more consolidated,” he said.

The Washington Parks and Recreation Commission approved the first round of auctions during its June 9 meeting in Spokane.

“A lot of these (phase 1) parcels are not suitable for building, but some neighbors may want to pick them up,” Wiley said.

Phase-two properties still under consideration by the commission include a 40-acre parcel near Nine Mile and another 40-acre parcel at Hayford Road.

Riverside State Park covers about 10,000 acres and includes the 1,500-acre Little Spokane River Natural Area and the 37-mile-long Spokane River Centennial Trail and a 600-acre off-road vehicle area.

Mount Spokane State Park, which covers 13,643 acres, includes several large properties that have been identified for disposal and could be recommended for auction in the second phase, said Steve Christensen, park manager.

“We’ve heard some opposition from neighbors about selling what we call the Holcomb and Nelson properties,” he said. “A citizens committee has looked at those properties and determined they don’t fit our state parks mission. We can’t afford to keep everything if it’s not fulfilling our mission.”

The Holcomb property includes parcels of 40 and 80 acres while the Nelson property includes parcels of 10 and 160 acres, he said.

However, a parcel that is not connected to the main park isn’t automatically up for disposal, he said.

Crawford Cave, which is north of Metaline, is managed by Mount Spokane State Park even though it’s a two-hour drive away from Mount Spokane.

“It’s not a revenue producer, but it has significance as the largest limestone caves in Washington,” he said.