Development code undergoing overhaul in Valley

Ever wonder if that vacant lot down the street could turn into a row of duplexes?

What about the potential odor of the factory being built down the road or the backed-up traffic coming from a new subdivision?

Questions frequently arise about the way people develop and use their land, and the answers to most of them in Spokane Valley come from a document known as the Uniform Development Code.

After incorporation, the city adopted a set of development regulations from the county that have been extensively amended and, officials say, can be confusing or even contradictory.

“It’s absolutely unwieldy,” Community Development Director Marina Sukup said of the code that currently guides new building in Spokane Valley.

Since the city adopted a 20-year comprehensive plan earlier this year, the next step in defining what Spokane Valley values in land use will be a new Uniform Development Code that puts the concepts from the plan into law.

“The idea is to make it readable,” Sukup said.

Part of that, city lawyers have said, will be accomplished by consolidating the tangle of complex laws and regulations that govern land use into one document.

The Spokane Valley Planning Commission recently began reviewing portions of that new code, which will affect countless aspects of life and business in Spokane Valley.

“We’ll attack a chapter at a time and then there will be public hearings on every chapter,” said Commissioner Fred Beaulac.

City planning experts will go through each section at the meetings, and explain what the regulations do and why they are needed. Commissioners will ask questions and suggest changes after each hearing.

The first hearing, on sections 17, 18 and 20, will take place on Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. Section 17 contains many of the general rules surrounding permits and how the public is notified of a project. Section 18 covers the planning commission, as well as the duties of the city’s hearing examiner, community development director, building official and public works director. Section 20 governs subdivisions.

Many parts of the code are governed by state law and can be changed little. Some sections deal with technical standards and legal language that aren’t likely to generate much public debate. But other topics go straight to the root of what neighborhoods and other areas of the city will look like in the years to come.

At Thursday’s commission meeting, for example, Commissioner Marcia Sands asked a city planner to explain why new subdivisions with one-acre lots or larger may require layouts that allow them to be easily redivided later.

“We’ve had a design problem with a lot of these lots that are long and skinny,” Sukup said.

All over the Valley, large, narrow lots that used to have one house on them are being subdivided, and often the only way to do it is by building a short, dead-end road and putting houses on one side of it.

That prompted a discussion among the commissioners about the long-term viability of those projects, and how city regulations could avoid the problem in the future.

The tentative schedule for the commission’s deliberation on the Uniform Development Code extends into next March, and discussions on everything from design standards to zoning regulations should raise similar discussions throughout the process.

Guidelines for new mixed-use zones, a district for new car lots and a city center will likely come from a study under way on the redevelopment of Sprague Avenue.

A public workshop on the study and a proposed city center will take place 6 p.m. Sept. 13 at Decades Meeting Place and Banquet Room, next to Rosauers at University and Sprague.

The following night, the City Council and the Planning Commission will hold a joint meeting on the study at 6 p.m. in City Hall.