Water tower poorly sited

I want to reiterate my concerns and the neighborhood’s opposition to the Hamblen Park Water Tower. The Utilities Department site selection process does not take into account the amount of people that use this park daily or acknowledge the value of natural areas in our communities. The public survey results overwhelmingly oppose a tower in Hamblen Park.

While there is always a need for city infrastructure maintenance, improvement and development to keep up with our growing needs, this seems to be a complete overreach by the group responsible for selecting the location. I appreciate the desire to have a site that provides for ease of construction and cost savings, but our City’s founders had the foresight to protect parks from the rest of the city operations as a way to protect against this type of encroachment. The Comstock neighborhood has taken measures to head off any new development on the High Drive Bluff and Comstock Park. The Hamblen Park location should be given that consideration as well.

The value of natural areas or undeveloped parks in our communities is something we can not take for granted. The city did a site selection in 2018, and rejected Hamblen Park at that time. Hamblen Park was not the best option for the location of a water tank in 2018, and it is not the best option today!

I implore the city and key decision makers involved in selecting this new tank location to choose another site.

Yan Densmore

Spokane