Leaders try to defuse big-box debate

Two Spokane City Council members and Mayor Mary Verner are trying to head off a political collision involving a major expansion of the commercial area near ShopKo on South Regal Street.

On one side are developers and property owners who have spent years trying to amend the city’s land-use plan to allow a much greater commercial presence at Regal and Palouse Highway. Developers are seeking a district commercial center designation under three separate land-use changes by Home Depot and Black Development. Taken together, they would provide numerous new outlets for South Hill shoppers as well as a tax windfall to the city.

Council members are facing a possible vote later this year.

Southgate and Moran Prairie residents say they want a more orderly, pedestrian-friendly retail environment in their growing neighborhood, and they are organized to fight the proposals over concerns about heavy traffic, large blacktop parking lots, storm water drainage and environmental concerns. They have political clout because of their numbers, and they’re using it to gain the ear of their elected leaders.

New council members Richard Rush and Mike Allen invited key figures on both sides of the dispute to an unusual meeting at City Hall last week, in which they encouraged compromise. They hope to avoid what Verner called a potential “train wreck” over the prospect of big-box retail on the three undeveloped parcels. Rush, Allen and Verner mostly listened during the meeting.

Susan Brudnicki, who worked as neighborhood services director under former Mayor John Powers, summed up her view of the City Council’s role: “Isn’t it their job to represent the will of the people who elect them?”

City planning staff offered to help work out differences.

“I know it won’t necessarily be easy,” Allen told the packed conference room Friday.

Property owners and developers believe the law allows them to pursue their projects, although state law and the city’s comprehensive land-use plan require a careful community discussion of what kinds of land uses are best for any given area before land-use changes are approved. Part of the idea is to ensure that public services can meet the growth.

Longtime resident Ken Seiler, who holds one of the sites at the southeast corner of Regal and Palouse Highway, said he has tried unsuccessfully for 16 years to bring development to his land. “If you delay this, you are doing an injustice to me,” he said.

The neighbors say they don’t want another East Sprague Avenue, and because all of the land in question is undeveloped, the city has the chance to create a more workable urban environment. At least they hope to avoid the worst characteristics of big-box suburban growth.

But the neighbors aren’t putting up the money for the projects.

“We’re not anti-development,” said Brian Sheldon of the Southgate Neighborhood Council, “but we are having this center shoved down our throat without any input. We are coming to loggerheads.”

Suspicion runs deep.

Developers said they fear that the neighbors are seeking to kill their projects.

Neighbors believe the developers are not interested in any true compromises, but are only willing to throw in some pedestrian trails and such to buy them off. One resident said, “Candy is being thrown out on the table.”

Planning Director Leroy Eadie proposed a neighborhood planning effort limited to the proposed commercial area. That would take several months rather than the nearly two years of work required for a full neighborhood plan.