We must work to ensure we have enough parks
Spokane Valley wants to see how many people can be shoved into a phone booth with our parks.
The city thinks 1.9 acres of parkland will serve 1,000 people and that 1,000 people won’t show up at the park at the same time. Yet, if your luck’s like mine, they’ll all show up on the day of your picnic. By present mathematical projections, each person is allotted an 8-foot-by-5-foot room with a view.
At this level of park service, the city would only need to add 39 more acres by 2025. Yet, the National Recreation and Park Association recommend a city’s core systems of park lands should be between 6.5 and 10 acres per 1,000 people. By these standards, our city’s shortfall of park land is currently 389 acres.
Based on conclusions of what should be called the “I don’t want a park survey,” the city believes we don’t want parks. The survey didn’t explain the changes anticipated in our city. Property sizes are shrinking. State projections mandate that Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake must squeeze 40,000 more residents within the Urban Growth Boundary; the same land area we now inhabit. The city glibly defends the lack of parks by citing that people use school playgrounds and nearby state and county parks. “You can drive 15 minutes and be out in the woods,” stated a Spokane Valley planner.
“Near nature. Near perfect,” is Spokane’s motto and it has great parks. Are we going to become a low-budget knock-off of Spokane? Surely, Spokane Valley doesn’t want a tag line of “I’ve got plenty of nothin’ and nothin’s plenty for me.” How does that encourage economic development if our rallying cry is “Whooppee! Get out of town.”
Despite the “I don’t want a park survey,” people have come to public meetings resoundingly asking for parks. They want more trees, ambling paths and nature scenes with a few ducks, as in Manito Park.
State policies mandate that cities build walkable communities. We’re to stop our love affair with our cars, and people will work from home or be able to walk to their nearby jobs.
Just imagine: government issue floral scarves for the womenfolk and your own personal grocery cart to commute with. When you tire of looking at your neighbor’s lawn furniture five feet away, one could take a short stroll to the … uh, oh. No park? Without a park this Utopian dream fails; utilitarian but uninspiring.
Parks, like libraries, are something more valuable than what any of us individually possess. They are public, not private, to ensure they belong to all of us. Should the beauty of nature be reserved only for those who can travel? Spokane has beautiful parks because someone of vision sacrificed to keep great trees waving their kaleidoscope pattern of leafy sunlight upon the faces of young, old, weary or worn people who would need their comforting presence.
Community ingenuity and hard work will be needed. Funding is an issue but impact fees are part of the answer. Every day lost without impact fees, every development approved is a tax debt left to the community. Drawing the Urban Growth Boundary was like declaring a Gold Rush on land. Larger parcels of land have already disappeared.
It’s time for all of us to look beyond our own back yards, if you have one, and don’t wait for the next survey. Spokane Valley is writing a 20-year plan and wants to know what you think. You can officially comment on the City’s Comprehensive Plan Feb. 7, March 9 and March 21. If unable to attend, mail in your comments before these dates and label them as official comments for the record.
Remember, “You have not, because you ask not.”