Sprague design standards urged

Sprague Avenue, where pole signs, massive parking lots and boxy storefronts dominate the horizon, could someday be the site of some of the strictest design standards in Spokane Valley if the city implements suggestions land-use consultants made Wednesday at a public workshop on revitalizing the commercial strip.

“The corridor is in trouble, and it needs to change,” Michael Freedman told the crowd of about 70. “This is the most visible part of the city, and it is also the most ugly,” he said

Following earlier meetings on what a new city center might look like in Spokane Valley, Freedman and the other consultant at the workshop concluded that most retail serving local neighborhoods should be concentrated at major intersections. Between them, the city’s zoning should allow more flexibility for things like offices and housing.

“The form is more important than the use and density,” Freedman said.

For Sprague and Appleway, he suggested that the city consider what is known as a form-based zoning code, one that is more relaxed regarding what can go on inside a building but more controlling of how new buildings are designed.

“We over-control and we control the wrong things (now),” he said.

Market forces would determine what lots are used for, while regulations on things like setbacks and the location of parking lots provide the kind of consistency investors need to be assured that the property next door doesn’t diminish the value of their building.

As in the first meeting, the crowd was mostly receptive to city plans to encourage redevelopment on Sprague. The strip malls that once flourished there have lost customers to shopping centers near the freeway and, for the most part, sales and rents on the street have been heading downward in recent years.

Along with questions on the ultimate design and direction of Sprague and Appleway, which will be addressed in the next two meetings, some people expressed concerns that the zoning changes might hurt businesses.

“If all businesses have to have the same style and design, they lose their identity,” said Dick Behm, a longtime advocate for Sprague business owners.

Others said that public investment in a city center and transportation improvements would create the kind of change the city hopes to achieve, but replacing existing zoning with rules that restrict landowners in different ways would be detrimental.

“The market is going to solve all this stuff,” said Pat Flynn.

Forcing new businesses to look a certain way could end up making the street look just as archaic in 20 years as it does now, he said.

One woman in the crowd disagreed, saying that the city should have the equivalent of a dress code to make sure it looks good.

“We would allow a huge range of variety while controlling only the things that make the city good,” Freedman said during the question-and-answer period. For example, the city would require new commercial centers to put parking behind the buildings. It would also control the direction the stores face, but not every detail of what they would look like.

Also included in the study area is the now-vacant right of way that would continue Appleway east from University. Wednesday’s presentation suggested it be turned into a grand residential boulevard akin to those lined with mansions in parts of cities built before the 1940s. Condos, other attached housing and small shops could be allowed under guidelines that would require large buildings and setbacks that match the size and character of the street in front of them.