Council will address proposed land-use changes on North Side

Updated land-use plans for the commercial areas along North Monroe Street, West Garland Avenue and North Indian Trail Road – all intended to improve their neighborhood business climate or make the commercial areas blend better with their neighborhood settings – are up for approval by the Spokane City Council on Monday.

The meeting convenes at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers.

Changes being proposed came through grass-roots efforts to gauge neighborhood needs and incorporate them into land-use and zoning regulations. Business and property owners, neighborhood organizations and residents were involved in the planning through City Hall. All three areas underwent an expedited process allowed by state law.

The Monroe Street proposal being sent to the council involves the area between Courtland and Carlisle avenues.

Business owners along the North Monroe corridor have been seeking additional land for parking to help energize commercial trade along the older strip south of the North Hill. The proposal would widen commercial uses to 150 feet east and west of Monroe – or the equivalent of a half block – with a handful of locations allowed to have an even wider commercial zone because the land at those locations is already owned by adjacent businesses.

Marla French, city planner, said the changes would increase opportunities for parking behind businesses with the hope that the land could be part of future redevelopments or new investments. Any new parking lots would have to meet city standards for landscaping and buffering, she said.

In the Garland Neighborhood Center, business owners are pushing for mixed-use designations at a handful of spots that won’t allow more drive-up windows or light-industrial uses. It is part of a wider effort to create a vibrant arts and entertainment presence in an area that plays off the attractiveness of its older storefront shops.

Small areas of land would go from residential or office to mixed-use commercial corridor designations. The Plan Commission backed off on a proposal to add a multifamily designation along Providence Avenue west of Monroe to Madison Street, French said.

In the North Indian Trail Neighborhood Center, proposed changes would reflect existing land uses or land uses that were approved prior to adoption of the city’s growth-management plan six years ago. Also, the general commercial area at the heart of the center would be changed to a centers and corridors designation to increase the design standards for any new commercial development in the area.