Two-way Sprague? Sooner the better

A couple of business owners had just one question this week about a plan to restore two-way traffic on Sprague Avenue: How fast can it be done?

That aspect of Spokane Valley’s Sprague-Appleway corridor revitalization plan has been criticized by motorists. But there was only support at Tuesday’s meeting when some 75 people packed a joint session of the Spokane Valley City Council and Planning Commission.

“I need Sprague Avenue to be a two-way street in order to make my center viable,” said Carlos Landa, manager of the Opportunity Shopping Center at the corner of Sprague Avenue and Pines Road. Landa asked City Council and Planning Commission members not to consider an alternative that would extend Appleway to Evergreen Road and convert Sprague to one-way traffic in front of his center.

Major retailers shunned Sprague Avenue after it was converted to a one-way couplet with Appleway Boulevard, but that started to change a year ago when city officials began talking about restoring two-way traffic, Landa said.

Rusty Barnes said the couplet system confuses customers and makes it hard to find businesses. He thinks restoration of two-way traffic will help him restore full occupancy to his building at 9612 E. Sprague Ave.

“Hopefully, we can move forward with this rapidly,” Barnes said.

Troy Russ, an Orlando, Fla., transportation consultant, said traffic efficiency wouldn’t suffer much under his proposal to extend Appleway Boulevard to Evergreen Road and restore two-way traffic on both Sprague and Appleway. The $37.1 million project would be done in four phases.

It would take only 3.2 minutes longer to drive from the Sprague interchange on Interstate 90 to Evergreen Road with two-way instead of one-way traffic on Sprague and Appleway, Russ said. And two-way traffic would be only 30 seconds slower for westbound motorists.

A key reason, Russ said, is his proposal to shrink much of Appleway to one lane in each direction, with a center turn lane. He said that’s the most efficient kind of street because additional lanes encourage motorists to meander and they require signals with protected turns.

However, Russ’ plan calls for two eastbound lanes between I-90 and Dishman-Mica Road because most of Appleway’s eastbound traffic exits onto Dishman-Mica.

Extending Appleway and improving its efficiency would allow the city to “put Sprague on a diet,” reducing it from seven lanes to five, including a center turn lane, Russ said.

Another means of improving Appleway Boulevard’s efficiency would be to cut speeds to 30 mph and reduce the space between vehicles, Russ told city officials.

He said slower speeds and fewer lanes would make walking, bicycling and mass transit viable on Appleway.

Dentist Philip L. Rudy, who has an office at 720 N. Argonne Road, said he thinks taller buildings also would encourage mass transit.

He objected to the plan’s six-story height limit on buildings in the proposed city center – in what is now the University City Shopping Center at Sprague and University Road.

Taller buildings would increase the number of people in the city center and improve chances for better mass transit, Rudy said.

Richard Bryant agreed. He’s on the board of the new Inland Empire Rail Transit Association, whose 30 or so members want a light rail system between Spokane Valley and Spokane International Airport.

Michael Freedman, head of the consulting firm in charge of the overall corridor revitalization plan, said he doesn’t think there’s a market for six-story buildings in Spokane Valley.

Even so, he said allowing such tall buildings would be a bad idea precisely because they would concentrate people and resources. Spokane Valley can accommodate only so much commercial activity and has “miles and miles” to revitalize, Freedman said.

He called on city officials to point out any parts of the plan they don’t like before the Planning Commission conducts its first formal public hearing at 6 p.m. March 13.

The hearing will be two days after voters decide whether to form a special taxing district and approve a $33.4 million bond measure for library projects, including construction of a new Spokane Valley library in the proposed city center.

Fred Beaulac, vice chairman of the Planning Commission, asked how important the library is to the city center project, and Freedman called it “absolutely crucial.”

Civic buildings, particularly post offices and libraries, strengthen efforts to establish city centers in communities that grew up without them, Freedman said.

“There is almost nothing as wonderful as having a library as one of the puzzle pieces” because libraries generate so much “family traffic,” he said.