Not everyone will applaud Spokane City Council’s decision to exercise its eminent-domain powers to acquire the property across Spokane Falls Boulevard from the INDB Performing Arts Center. The idea that government can force private owners to sell property is a philosophical stretch some minds just can’t reach.

But it is a time-tested and justifiable method that enables states and municipalities to fulfill their responsibilities while protecting citizens’ financial interests. And in this case, it is overdue.

By a 6-1 vote on Monday, council gave the Spokane Public Facilities District, which operates the convention and entertainment facility, the go-ahead to condemn the property that is needed for parking now and, at some time in the future, for possible enhancements of the city’s prime tourism facility.

If condemnation had been pursued several years earlier, the 100,000-square-foot convention center expansion that now stretches eastward from the Opera House might have been constructed to the south, where many community leaders felt it belonged all along. Such a configuration would have offered convention-goers and other visitors a more convenient and inviting proximity to the city center with its restaurants, retailers and other businesses.

That opportunity was lost, but the site is still needed, just as it was in 1980 when a previous City Council first declared its intention to acquire the property. And in 1982, when a Minneapolis consultant urged the city to obtain the property as soon as possible.

For the ensuing quarter of a century, the city has been in on-again-off-again but ultimately fruitless negotiations with owners of the sprawling and unsightly expanse of asphalt. The problem (no surprise) comes down to radically different ideas about a fair price.

Indeed, the property – most of it owned solely or in partnerships by architect Glen Cloninger – has been on and off the market over the years. But the city has consistently considered Cloninger’s pricetag excessive. And not by just a little bit.

PFD board member Mick McDowell said last summer that the board’s idea of a fair price plus a “condemnation premium” equals about half of what Cloninger wanted for the 63,000 square feet he controls. Diamond Parking owns 20,000, and the PFD already owns 37,000.

The city of Spokane owns the convention facility, and the PFD operates it under an agreement that also provides for the eminent-domain arrangement. The agency won the role largely because of its success operating Veterans Memorial Arena ever since it replaced the city’s old Coliseum.

That success has been repeated with the convention center, to the benefit of the city and economy. And the prospects for an equally successful future rely in part on making sure the PFD’s capacity is up to the job.

Yes, parking – the immediate purpose behind the acquisition – already occurs on the targeted site. And yes, the PFD’s plans would involve reducing the number of spaces from the current 400.

But quality counts. To operate a convention and entertainment facility worthy of the city, the PDF needs to be in control of the parking – which, a quick glance at the current patchwork will confirm, needs a quality upgrade. Just as important, owning the space protects the PDF from being locked in and precluded from expansion when and if that opportunity arises.

Although Cloninger has made dismissive comments about condemnation in the past, he reportedly is eager now to let a court and jury referee the fair-price question.

After 27 years, it’s time to get it resolved.