Letters

Revitalization plan benefits a select few

The Spokane Valley Business Association and the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce have endorsed the Sprague-Appleway Revitalization Plan, but how many members will be damaged as a result? Numerous business owners are feeling sold out as they read the fine print in the grand scheme of revitalization.

The plan’s corridorwide rezone is an undercover redistribution of retail entitlements. It will come at the expense of unsuspecting businesses and landowners to line the pockets of a select few in the city center; a form of legalized bureaucratic robbery.

Doing it to underwrite the investment of the city center developer, who let the University City Mall go to ruin, is even more egregious. Why would the city even consider placing their precious crown jewel of a city hall in those hands, much less at the expense of existing businesses?

The dirty little secret in the SARP is the rezoning of over 1,000 parcels of land and the resulting burden of nonconformity, along with the restrictive regulations and unfunded mandates for hundreds of existing businesses and buildings on the Sprague-Appleway corridor.

If this plan is adopted, the direction of traffic will be the least of the worries for corridor businesses.

Susan Scott

Spokane Valley