Members of the Northwest Neighborhood Council in Spokane are talking about splitting up.

The council area is the largest in Spokane, taking in 11,000 households and 23,000 residents.

Leaders of the group said they think two smaller council areas would offer residents greater opportunity to work effectively on community concerns, projects and planning.

The proposal is to divide the Northwest area at Wellesley Avenue and rename two neighborhoods – one for the north and one for the south.

Victor Frazier, chairman of the existing council, said the change is not going to occur quickly. “We want to do this right,” he said.

Neighborhood leaders first want to identify core groups of future council officers to take over each of the two new neighborhoods before asking the City Council to make the change official.

The change could take a year to accomplish, he said.

Frazier said the size of the neighborhood now makes it difficult for council leaders to stay in touch with each sub-area for which they are responsible.

Also, the name Northwest Neighborhood does not resonate with residents who see their neighborhoods as having more local names.

In reality, the Northwest area has five neighborhoods – Shadle Park, Loma Vista, West Terrace, Audubon and Downriver, Frazier said.

The council years ago formed a nonprofit organization known as the Northwest Neighborhood Association.

Frazier said that the association would stay intact to provide a sounding board for issues and projects that cross the boundaries of all five sub-areas.

He said he also thinks that the West Terrace area could form a separate neighborhood council of its own.

The current neighborhood boundaries are state Highway 291 and Francis Avenue on the north, Ash and Belt streets on the east, the Spokane River and Indiana Avenue on the south and the Spokane River on the west.