Our View: City leadership needed on Kendall Yards

“We’ll get it done, however long it takes.”

Those less-than-prophetic words came from Paul Sandifur, CEO of Metropolitan Mortgage Co., talking in 1997 about an 80-acre, new-urban vision stretching from Monroe Street west toward the sunset. In those days it was known as the Summit property.

A development plan, approved in 1994, had already bogged down – and things would get worse. Notwithstanding his assurances, Sandifur and Metropolitan never got it done.

Metropolitan went bankrupt, a lot of investors got burned, Sandifur left town, and the property, a ribbon of potential overlooking the north bank of the Spokane River, changed hands. Today it’s been scraped and in some places hydroseeded, and it’s undergone an award-winning environmental cleanup, but it’s still waiting for the long-awaited mixed-use development to take shape.

Once the necessary permits are in hand, that could change quickly and dramatically, according to developer Marshall Chesrown, who bought the land last January for $12.8 million and came up with a better, more attractive plan than the one he could have pursued under existing permits. The first phase of what’s now called Kendall Yards, from Monroe to Maple, could be ready for occupancy in a couple of years, Chesrown says, but a public hearing that begins at 6 this evening in the Spokane City Council Chambers will have a lot to say about how soon he can start rolling, and under what conditions.

As always with a plan of this magnitude – 2,600 residences and a million square feet of commercial space eventually – city government has an important role to play. The trick, if community interests are to be served, is to be sure that regulatory oversight is diligent without being obstructionist.

Issues like this present a clash of myths: one that City Hall rolls over for any developer with a plump wallet, the other that developers face a phalanx of bureaucrats who worship arbitrary rules at the expense of common sense.

It will be unfortunate if the dueling theories divert attention from – or, worse, undermine – what ought to be universal excitement over a project that means renewed vitality for downtown Spokane.

Citizens are right to insist on protection of the Spokane River that flows past the property and on mitigation of whatever traffic impacts can realistically be expected on surrounding neighborhoods. They should be able to expect aesthetic design that complements rather than obliterates cherished views.

But they should not be able to extort the developer for add-ons that aren’t his responsibility. Inevitably, a development like Kendall Yards will increase surrounding property values. Only a cynic would call that a bad thing. Yes, housing affordability will be affected under such circumstances, but it is the function of local government agencies and nonprofit organizations to work on behalf of the community to address those concerns – as they regularly do in a dynamic world where the distribution of resources is subject to ongoing change.

Indeed, it is healthy to have $300 million worth of private investment taking place in the heart of the city. If it fuels economic prosperity, it increases the community’s capacity for addressing affordable housing and other socioeconomic needs.

To put it briefly, city officials need to assure that Chesrown does it right, but they need to help make it happen. It”s been stalled too long.