Weighing in on cost of SARP

Sat., April 30, 2011

After reading the Valley Voice (April 28) on the demise of the Sprague/Appleway Revitalization Plan (SARP), I felt there needed to be additional clarification.

First, I saw no mention of cost. SARP was estimated to cost in the neighborhood of at least 35-plus million dollars of taxpayer money.

SARP relied on the re-allocation and restrictions of property rights of property owners over almost 6 miles to benefit the University City area. The plan was to cripple and redistribute the investment of hundreds outside this area to remove competition to a new city center.

SARP contained traffic revisions to the one-way streets (Sprague Avenue, the couplet) again costing millions, and an extension of Appleway which has not been purchased from the county.

Is it the proper role of government to use scarce and/or nonexistent taxpayer dollars to re-incentivize and enrich property owners up and down Sprague, some of whom failed to reinvent and improve buildings and their business plan in a booming economy? Should taxpayers reward obsolescence or poor business practice?

The Growth Management Steering Committee, on which I serve, projects thousands of excess available commercial properties in Spokane County over the next 20 years. How can we compete in this new economy with massive government restrictions choking our development? Economic activity and business do not recognize city borders. What it does is locate within a business-friendly environment with good infrastructure like sewers, water, roads, etc. The Fortune 500 company Carmax agrees that the restrictions of SARP would cause them to move to another Spokane area or North Idaho. Sales tax revenues and all economic benefits of this construction and employment would be lost to us including the 100 to 120 jobs.

My East Sprague properties were removed from SARP long before its implementation.

The elimination of this costly, massive government over-reach affecting over 1,000 acres will restore private property rights back to the people of the Valley – those who not only dreamed the dream, but “walked the walk” and used their own money.

Thank you.

Dean Grafos

Spokane Valley city councilman

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