Council OKs changes to SARP text

The Spokane Valley City Council agreed to move ahead with several proposed text amendments for the Community Boulevard zone of the Sprague/Appleway Revitalization Plan even though they are moving forward with plans to scrap the entire SARP.

Councilman Dean Grafos reaffirmed his desire to do away with the plan. “I think the situation has changed with the economy,” he said.

About two dozen property owners and business representatives attended a community meeting in September to criticize the Community Boulevard zone and suggest changes. The zone is on both sides of Appleway and was designed to offer office uses paired with residential units and corner store retail shops. One of the main complaints was that corner stores would be limited to 2,500 square feet in size, said associate planner Lori Barlow. That restriction is a core element of the plan and can only be changed with a comprehensive plan amendment, said Barlow. That option takes longer than a text amendment.

The other main complaint was split zoning. On the north side of Appleway a 60-foot-wide strip is zoned community boulevard while the rest of each parcel is zoned differently. “It’s bisecting those properties,” Barlow said. Some properties on the south side of Appleway also have split zoning. Changing that would also require a comprehensive plan amendment.

Business owners also complained about having a minimum height requirement of two stories in the zone, saying it would force them to become landlords to fill the space. That was done to avoid a situation where a three-story office building would tower over an adjacent single-story triplex, Barlow said. “You don’t want to create those incompatible forms,” she said.

The things the council can change more quickly with a text amendment are adding some permitted uses and making changes to allow limited flexibility with the 2,500-square-foot limitation on corner store retail with a conditional use permit.

Grafos said he agreed with all the complaints and wanted to do away with the 2,500-square-foot maximum, the height requirements, setbacks and frontage requirements. “I’d like to return to the pre-SARP zoning,” he said.

In other business, the council heard a report on changing the city’s special events permit code. As it is now, groups applying for an annual permit for a charitable fundraiser on street corners must have training before entering the roadway. The code specified training through the Spokane County Incident Traffic Control Program or its equivalent.

“We have subsequently learned that it is not available to the public,” said acting City Attorney Cary Driskell. That training program is designed for SCOPE volunteers.

The proposed new language would instead require people to complete the Washington State Department of Transportation flagger certification.

“How many of these permits do we issue on an annual basis?” asked Councilman Gary Schimmels.

Only one permit was granted last year, Driskell said. “There was at least one other event we found out about after the fact,” he said.

Police Chief Rick Van Leuven gave the council a report on the success of the city’s new panhandling ordinance. The law took effect on Aug. 25 and Van Leuven instituted a two-week warning period to give officers time to educate panhandlers on the new law. That warning period was “probably one of the best things we’ve done,” Van Leuven said. “We’ve had great compliance.”

Police have given out more than 50 warnings but only one citation, he said. The panhandlers have moved on and Van Leuven said he has heard they have set up shop in other locations outside the city limits. “I believe this ordinance has been extremely effective,” he said.

Councilwoman Rose Dempsey said she was pleased with the results. “I think the compliance with this has been astonishing,” she said.