Business groups to gather

Groups that fear a devil in details of Spokane Valley’s Sprague-Appleway Revitalization Plan have scheduled meetings this week.

On Tuesday, used-car dealers will talk about the part of the plan that would freeze them out of the Sprague-Appleway corridor.

They hope to toss a spike strip in front of the City Council as the council speeds toward adoption of the plan within two months.

Tuesday’s meeting, at 7 p.m. at the CenterPlace community center, 2426 N. Discovery Place, is sponsored by the Washington State Independent Automobile Dealers Association.

Then, on Wednesday, Friends of Spokane Valley will have an organizational meeting at 7 p.m. Two land-use professionals will address the group at the Chester Elementary School library, 3525 S. Pines Road.

Businesswoman Susan Scott said she and other Friends members are concerned that their businesses will become nonconforming uses and that their properties will be devalued by “down-zoning” to less-intense uses.

Both meetings will be open to anyone who’s interested.

Much of the public debate so far on the Sprague-Appleway plan has focused on its proposal to convert the Sprague-Appleway couplet from one-way to two-way traffic.

Commuters asserted early and often that they want city officials to leave the couplet alone. Now business and property owners in other parts of the corridor are taking a closer look at how the plan would affect them.

Used-car dealers discovered there would be no place at all for them in the six-mile corridor. No additional used-car lots could be opened by anyone except new-car dealers – and then only in the “gateway commercial avenue” zone, better known as Auto Row.

Originally, the plan would have allowed used-car lots in the “mixed use avenue” zone, but the Planning Commission removed that use. Commissioners did that after a discussion with the plan’s lead consultant, according to Scott Kuhta, the city planner in charge of plan.

The Planning Commission didn’t touch language allowing only new-car dealers to add used-car lots in Auto Row.

“If the council asked me today, I would recommend that we take that out,” Kuhta said.

However, he favors the ban on opening any used-car lots elsewhere in the Sprague-Appleway corridor. They wouldn’t be compatible with the new uses the plan encourages, Kuhta said.

Used-car dealers complained at a July 29 City Council hearing on the plan that the restrictions on their industry took them by surprise. Allowing only some people to open used-car lots in Auto Row would be unconstitutional, some suggested.

One new-car dealership also found an unpleasant surprise in the plan. An Appleway Toyota spokesman said the dealership would be prevented from having a building that fronts on both Sprague and Appleway.

Also at the July 29 hearing, the Spokane Valley Fire Department expressed concerns that some of its stations would be “zoned out.”

Others are discovering that businesses they have operated for decades would become “nonconforming uses,” allowed to continue only as long as buildings don’t need extensive renovation.

Currently, a grandfathered use can continue unless renovations cost 80 percent or more of property value, Scott said. The proposed zoning code would reduce the threshold to 20 percent, “so you’re giving up quite a bit,” she said.

Also, grandfather protection would be lost if a business was idle for a year.

Bankers are reluctant to lend to nonconforming businesses, land-use attorney Stacy Bjordal and others have told city officials.

That’s an issue for business owners throughout the plan area, but some are finding they’ve been singled out to provide new streets to improve traffic circulation.

If owners redevelop their property, they would be required to donate land for the streets and to pay for construction as though they were building a subdivision on raw land.

Dean Grafos found two such streets planned on his property at the southwest corner of Sprague Avenue and Conklin Road, where he operates a ministorage business.

Planners tried to place the proposed streets in areas where they would cause the fewest difficulties, Kuhta said. He acknowledged, though, that some of the new streets were penciled over buildings.

City officials are considering alternatives, such as alleys, in some cases, Kuhta said.

Grafos said the planned extension of Appleway Boulevard would require even more of his land, and he would be allowed to build only housing along Appleway. Currently, his land is zoned for commercial and light industrial uses.

The boulevard would be built on an abandoned railroad right of way that belongs to Spokane County.

Spokane Valley has failed in two court actions to force the county to hand over the right of way without strings. County commissioners want the city to help pay for extra land to accommodate a light rail line.

The right of way is only 75 feet wide where it abuts Grafos’ land, and it needs to be 100 feet wide to include light rail.

Grafos said he can’t make full use of his land until he knows how much of it the city wants.

“They’re proposing all these changes based on them owning Appleway, and they don’t even have the right of way,” said neighboring property owner Bill Berry. “Meanwhile, all of our properties are held in abeyance.”

Kuhta acknowledged the problem as well as the unresolved question of whether it is appropriate to force owners to provide new streets in already developed areas.

“We know there’re some issues on it,” Kuhta said. “There are some things we’re still working on with that.”

Given the loose ends, is the City Council’s goal of adopting the plan within two months realistic?

“I think so, yeah,” Kuhta said. “We’ve got to work hard.”