Group says revitalization bad for business

Mark Henderson spoke for 45 property owners and business people affected by the Sprague-Appleway Revitalization Plan: “How do we stop it.”

The answer he and others got from two land-use professionals Wednesday night at Chester Elementary School wasn’t encouraging.

The meeting was called by a group that planned to incorporate as Friends of Spokane Valley to fight detrimental aspects of the revitalization plan.

They object to provisions that would down-zone their properties from commercial to residential uses and turn many of their businesses into nonconforming uses. Some also object to requirements for them to give land and pay for new streets.

With up to $700,000 invested in the plan, the Spokane Valley City Council is “not going to just take this lightly and throw it away,” planning consultant Dwight Hume said.

“At the end of the day, it’s very, very hard to have an entire zoning code thrown out,” land-use attorney Stacy Bjordahl said of a court challenge.

However, she planned to research the city’s referendum ordinance, which could allow voters to overturn the new zoning code the council is poised to approve within two months.

Joe Jovanovich, general manager of Walt’s Mailing Service, called for volunteers to collect signatures for a referendum petition, if necessary.

Meanwhile, Bjordahl and Hume counseled their audience to pack a City Council public hearing Tuesday.

“We’d like to create a sweat box out of the hearing from all of the people who are there,” Hume said.

“They need to see numbers,” Bjordahl said.

“It can be done,” said Tim Hattenburg, recalling a hearing at which residents told the council to leave library service in the hands of the Spokane County Library District.

Call your friends, urged Steve Wineinger, owner of ProSign Inc.

Tuesday’s hearing, at 7 p.m. at CenterPlace Great Room, 2426 N. Discovery Place, is the last one the City Council has scheduled. It will be part of the regular council meeting that starts at 6 p.m.

Officially, the hearing will be limited to transportation aspects of the plan, but Bjordahl said she thought the council would allow people to say they oppose the plan in general.

Robert Franklin, manager of the Americana Mobile Home Park, noted that commuters have overwhelmingly opposed conversion of the Sprague-Appleway couplet from one-way to two-way traffic.

“That’s the No. 1 issue with the public, and we can’t forget that,” Franklin said.

The possibility of an alliance with motorists didn’t sit well with Opportunity Shopping Center Manager Carlos Landa.

“Don’t confuse the zoning issues and the one-ways,” said Landa, who supports the revitalization plan’s call for two-way traffic on Sprague Avenue.

But Nick Damascus said patronage increased about 30 percent at the tavern he operated at Sprague Avenue and Dishman Road when the one-way couplet was created.

The revitalization plan’s “form-based zoning” – long on goals, short on details – was another major concern at Wednesday’s meeting.

“It will be a nightmare,” placing property owners at the mercy of “a potpourri of bureaucrats” who will interpret the plan’s vague guidelines, Hume said.

Even with traditional black-and-white zoning codes, Hume said, bureaucrats find ways to say, “I don’t care what that says, you will do this.”

He called the proposed code “very, very dangerous” for its ambiguity.

“I’ve been in the business 40 years and I had trouble reading it,” Hume said. “It’s a very difficult thing to read because you have to jump around all over the place.”

Bjordahl said the proposed zoning code is the most complicated document she’s seen in 15 years of practicing land-use law.

Hume recommended pushing the City Council to pare the plan down to the city center district that was its genesis.

He said the proposed restrictions elsewhere along Sprague Avenue are intended to force upscale restaurants and other desirable businesses into the city center officials want to build at the site of the defunct University City Shopping Center.

Used-car dealers, who tentatively wouldn’t be allowed to open any new lots on Sprague Avenue or Appleway Boulevard, conducted a similar meeting Tuesday night.

Political activist Sally Jackson was pessimistic about persuading the City Council to slow down or trim down the plan.

“You can talk all you want,” Jackson said. “You’re talking to deaf ears.”

For those who want to try, Friends of Spokane Valley is circulating a petition.

The group – not to be confused with a 2001 pro-incorporation group called Friends of the Spokane Valley – may be contacted at: Friends of Spokane Valley, P.O. Box 1882, Spokane Valley, WA 99037.