City strikes deal for downtown parking at new police precinct

The new downtown police precinct on Riverside Avenue, announced earlier this year, was the culmination of clear consensus between Mayor Nadine Woodward and the Spokane City Council.

What was less clear, until Monday, is where the new precinct’s officers would actually park.

The city of Spokane finalized a deal to use up to nine parking spaces at the Spokane Transit Authority plaza across the street.

The parking spaces were formalized under an amendment to an existing agreement between STA and the city. That contract requires the police department to assign one of its officers to the STA plaza eight hours a day, Monday through Friday. The Spokane Police Department also must provide training to STA security officers.

Councilwoman Kate Burke was the only member to vote against the contract, lamenting the loss of potential revenue to STA. The STA would normally charge $140 per month for those parking spots, amounting to an annual value of about $15,000, according to Burke, who sits on the transit authority’s board of directors.

“We need to be really wise about what kind of services we invest in and what kind of services we aren’t investing in,” Burke said.

An STA spokesperson did not return a request for comment on Monday.

The precinct is expected to open in the coming weeks following extensive renovations to the former Umpqua Bank building at the corner of Wall Street and Riverside Avenue.

“The public will likely start to see officers come and go a little bit while that is being completed to start providing additional visibility in the neighborhood,” said city spokesman Brian Coddington.

Throughout her campaign for mayor last year, Woodward promised to address lingering concerns about public safety downtown, in part by relocating the downtown police precinct from the intermodal center on First Avenue into the city’s core.

The Spokane City Council agreed and called for a community-oriented policing model at the downtown precinct, with more officers on foot patrols and bicycles.

The city signed a 10-year lease on the precinct and committed $295,000 for renovations upfront. The city will pay $12,979 in monthly rent, with a 3% annual increase, and an option to dissolve the agreement after year seven.

The new precinct was lauded by the Downtown Spokane Partnership, among others.

It success will be measured by the downtown crime rate, but also by the public’s perception of their safety downtown, according to Spokane Police.

Crime already is dipping downtown without the precinct in operation.

From Jan. 1 through July 18, the number of reported violent and property crimes was 13% lower in 2020 than the same period in 2019. And though much of daily life ground to a halt during the coronavirus shutdown this spring, the declining crime rate is not a fluke – downtown crime also fell by about 13% in 2019.