Dante Jester - Gonzaga Climate Institute
Feb 18, 2026
Community Advocate
[PDF page 1 of 1]
Hi Plan Spokane team, I just finished doing a review of the draft EIS. Thank you for your excellent work towards such a massive undertaking! Though I would have liked to have time to really dig into each of the 600+ pages, for the sake of time I focused on trying to find sections related to my work keeping Spokane community members safe from the impacts of extreme heat and wildfire smoke. I also kept an eye out for any possible alignment/compliments with the Spokane Community Resilience Action Plan that the resilience collaborative is working on right now (it will be finished and publicly available right around the same time as this EIS).
Overall, I don't have much in the way of feedback, though please do know that if you have any particular areas you would like me to focus on and provide input on as it relates to my area of work, I would be happy to. Our specialty is collecting community-engaged research, and I am happy to utilize the data we have to answer any questions. I was excited to see mention of resilience hubs as a mitigation measure in 1.4.4. Other mitigation measures that we're exploring in the resilience plan include the integration of ventilation corridors for both cooling and improved air quality, updating SMC to require cool roofing on new construction, and a preference for preserving/installing green infrastructure whenever possible. Mostly, I just wanted to thank you for taking on this important work. I know it's a requirement that we do the comprehensive plan update, but I think the focus on gathering community feedback throughout the process has been well done on your part. Thank you!
Dante Jester - Gonzaga Climate Institute
Feb 18, 2026
Community Advocate
[PDF page 1 of 1]
Hi Plan Spokane team, I just finished doing a review of the draft EIS. Thank you for your excellent work towards such a massive undertaking! Though I would have liked to have time to really dig into each of the 600+ pages, for the sake of time I focused on trying to find sections related to my work keeping Spokane community members safe from the impacts of extreme heat and wildfire smoke. I also kept an eye out for any possible alignment/compliments with the Spokane Community Resilience Action Plan that the resilience collaborative is working on right now (it will be finished and publicly available right around the same time as this EIS).
Overall, I don't have much in the way of feedback, though please do know that if you have any particular areas you would like me to focus on and provide input on as it relates to my area of work, I would be happy to. Our specialty is collecting community-engaged research, and I am happy to utilize the data we have to answer any questions. I was excited to see mention of resilience hubs as a mitigation measure in 1.4.4. Other mitigation measures that we're exploring in the resilience plan include the integration of ventilation corridors for both cooling and improved air quality, updating SMC to require cool roofing on new construction, and a preference for preserving/installing green infrastructure whenever possible. Mostly, I just wanted to thank you for taking on this important work. I know it's a requirement that we do the comprehensive plan update, but I think the focus on gathering community feedback throughout the process has been well done on your part. Thank you!
Dante Jester, MSc
Climate Resilience Program Manager
Institute for Climate, Water, & the Environment