Spokane seeks study on infrastructure needs for anticipated growth in Latah Valley – and how to pay for it

Six months after putting a second stop to development in the Latah Valley citing strained infrastructure and safety concerns, the city of Spokane has contracted for a study of what needs to be built in the area and how best to pay for those improvements.

Growth in the Latah Valley has long outpaced investments into the area’s roads and other infrastructure, straining evacuation routes in the case of wildfires and creating a rift between current residents and developers hoping to build thousands more homes in one of the hottest areas in the city’s real estate market.

The Spokane City Council placed a six-month moratorium on development in the valley in 2022, adjusting the fees developers pay to mitigate their projects’ future impacts, but approved another yearlong moratorium in May in a bid to address decades of neglect.

On Monday, the council unanimously approved spending up to $200,000 for Seattle-based Berk Consulting to study projected growth in the Latah Valley, the infrastructure and facilities needed to address that growth, and whether a tax-increment financing program could be used to make up for lost time. Tax-increment financing sets aside a portion of property taxes boosted by development for local investment, typically in infrastructure. That concept has been used to pay for infrastructure in Kendall Yards.

Berk also has been tasked with studying the possibility of annexing additional land into the city. The contract runs through June 30, 2026.