Valley’s city core remains uncertain

Facing reams of state guidelines for Spokane Valley growth, city leaders turn enthusiastic when discussing the plans for a new city center

New public buildings, mixed-use developments and high-end condos in a walkable area are envisioned in the urban center of an area that has been characterized by uncoordinated suburban sprawl.

But while the concept enjoys broad political and public support in recent surveys, the city has yet to enlist the landowners crucial to making it happen.

The company that manages University City Mall – at the center of half a square mile proposed for a city center – has other plans for the property.

Orville Barnes of Barnes Consulting said he doesn’t think City Hall will be at the mall because it doesn’t fit what the owners want to do.

“We probably will add about three buildings there for small tenant uses that will be, more or less, on the perimeter of the property,” he said.

Beyond that, the company’s plans diverge significantly from the tight new street grid and high-density redevelopment pictured by city planners. Another hurdle: The buildings and activities already permitted there at U-City will be grandfathered in.

“What they’re doing will not impede what we’re doing,” Barnes said.

The city’s community development director said it’s too early to address how individual properties will be developed under the 20-year comprehensive plan.

In other cities, Community Development Director Marina Sukup said, developers came on board only after the cities had detailed plans showing them how the project would make their property worth more.

If the large block of decaying department stores and vacant parking lots on Sprague Avenue doesn’t change much in coming years, it could force the City Council to reconsider where it wants to build a Spokane Valley downtown.

“We want to do this in partnership with developers,” Councilman Steve Taylor said.

Tonight the council will discuss the comprehensive plan’s land-use map, which forms the foundation for new zoning across the city.

The city center’s location isn’t set in stone, Taylor and others said. The intersection of Pines and Sprague could be a good place to test the mixed-use concept, Taylor said. So could Mirabeau Point, he said, although Interstate 90 cuts it off from most of the city’s population.

“It’s a little too early to talk about specifically how to implement the plan,” said Councilman Bill Gothmann. He was on the Planning Commission that selected the city-center concept from three comprehensive-plan options for land use.

“You don’t bet your money on an ethereal concept,” he said.

Gothmann pointed out a study the city will commission this year on revitalizing Sprague.

“We’ll wait and see what the designer comes up with,” he said. Whatever is proposed, Gothmann said it should benefit landowners, too, giving them an incentive to participate.

A more immediate concern is the location of a new library.

Spokane County Library District officials are eager to work with the city on plans for a building to replace the crowded Spokane Valley Library.

“We’re all set to begin to plan,” district Director Mike Wirt said. “Planning depends, in large part, on having a site to build on.”

Wirt met with Barnes recently to talk about building the library on University City property.

“There really aren’t too many options right now,” Wirt said.

Only a couple of locations available in the proposed city center area are big enough for the 4- to 5-acre site, and the possibility that downtown could end up somewhere else complicates the library district’s decision.

“It would be a wonderful place for the library and other public kinds of buildings, but if the owner of all the land isn’t interested in that, I’m not sure what you can do,” Wirt said.