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[00:00:02]
Yep. All right. Okay. Welcome, everybody, to Wednesday, may 27, 2026 Plan Commission workshop. Emily, will you take the roll, please? President bank? Here. Vice president patterson? Here. Commissioner lenhart? Here. Commissioner Madsen? Absent. Commissioner rasanen? Here. Commissioner Tamoush? Here. Commissioner williams? Absent. Commissioner yotz? Here. We do have a quorum, and then Council member mikulski is absent, and community assembly liaison Linda Carroll? Present. Good to go. Very good. Thank you. Okay, so I guess before we jump into the agenda, we will open the public comment for anyone who'd like to submit any comment for items that are not on today's agenda. Do we have anyone who would like to provide any comment? Seeing no one in the room, I don't believe we have anyone online, so we will go ahead and close the public comment, and we will move on to approving the may 13 meeting minutes. Can I hear a motion, please?
[00:01:05]
Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. Motion carries. We will move past the Council liaison report, as I don't see Council member mikulski here. So we'll move into a community assembly liaison report. Linda? Nothing to report because there hasn't been a community assembly meeting since the last time we met. Yeah. Very good. Thanks, linda. On to president's report. It'll be relatively light today. Commissioner yotz and I sat in on the transportation impact fee meeting a little bit ago. That's something that'll be coming to us later this year, which is an update to the fees that development projects are charged for road transportation, not utilities, which is gfcs, and we don't want to open that can of worms again.
[00:02:02]
So, we're going to focus just on transportation impact stuff. So, I think it was a pretty good discussion, and we'll look forward to the proposal evolving as we move forward, and to a good discussion in here. On to secretary report. I've got two things. The first is our new draft chapters for the comp plan are out on planspokane. Org, so go check that out. Our last release was October, so a lot has changed. We've incorporated feedback from subcommittees, from public comments that have come in, from the community assembly, from all of the outreach that we've done around the drafting of the chapters. So, there's probably a lot of change from if you were reviewing the version that was just there.
[00:02:57]
You'll see a lot of change there. And this is all the chapters, right? This is- but not the maps? Does this... Great. Yes. Thank you. That's what I thought. It's up to you. And yes- implementation... Implementation, which is also being renamed from implementation, but we're still figuring out what to call it. How do we do this? Yeah. So, yes, there are no maps. Yep. But the land use and transportation chapters and housing chapters are included. Good. Great. Okay, so that was the first thing. The second, we've had a couple of, permit applications come in that are in need of design review. So you may recall, several months ago, because of the lack of volume for the design review board to consider, the City decided to sunset the design review board and instead give that responsibility to the Plan Commission, which can convene a subcommittee to do the design review part of things. We now need to convene that subcommittee. So, we're expecting to have three members of Plan Commission participate on that.
[00:04:19]
At this time, we have one application that is in and ready to go. So probably within, I don't know if we have a timeframe, but I would guess maybe in a month or so, or within the next month, we'd probably be having a meeting. Each application only needs one meeting, so that's one change from previous process. But we also have, I think, two other projects that we expect to come in, so it could be potentially three meetings, one for each project. The meetings would occur separately, so we're not going to stack them all into one meeting or anything like that. And the process would involve the applicant providing renderings and information about the project. Staff would be developing a staff report that identifies the design guidelines and then provides, I guess, some discussion points for the subcommittee. And then the subcommittee has a presentation from the applicant, a presentation from staff, and then essentially deliberates on any gaps in the design and potential recommendations for conditions to be put on the application to address any design issues. That all happens in one meeting, so we're trying to be efficient here.
[00:05:36]
But we are looking for three people, so I don't know if we can maybe get volunteers here or how you want to- so a couple questions. First, do we need to do a vote of some kind to establish the subcommittee, or can we just say- no... It is so established? Yeah. The subcommittee's already identified in code. Okay. And that can be a rotating cast, so we'll probably have the same people work on these three applications because they're bunched together. But if we got another application in six months, we'd probablyfind new people and second question, is this a quasi-judicial hearing? That's the second time I've said that, like a half an hour and butchered it. Does that move to quasi-judicial or does the recommendation go to Council? How are those conditions handled? In the code, if a unanimous recommendation is made by the subcommittee, then either the building official or the planning director, depending on the nature of the application, is obligated to include it as a condition of approval.
[00:06:48]
Okay. The code does give some leeway for items that the subcommittee might recommend that conflict with other standards in the code or things like that. So just because the subcommittee says it doesn't make it a condition- okay... But that's how it has generally operated. Okay. Very good. Can you remind us what triggers a design review again? So there's a couple of different types of projects. The first is geographically based, and that's anything in the downtown area. Okay. And there's actually a map that shows that. And it's not anything in the downtown area, you have to meet certain thresholds. One of the applications that is likely to come forward would be renovations of a building that includes a complete change to the facade. And so once you hit a certain threshold of changes to the facade, then you trigger design review. And then, of course, any complete new construction in the downtown area would have design review over... I forget the threshold.
[00:07:46]
I think it's 20,000 square feet or something, but once you hit a certain size, then you're subject to design review. The other big one that is likely to come up, probably more frequently than any other, is public projects. So if you're funded through public dollars, then you come through for design review. So that would be like schools. Okay. Sometimes we have parks. Is there a size threshold of that? I don't think the code has a size threshold. I think typically, publicly funded projects are just assumed to be larger in nature. There are some- park toilets. Well. So there are some alternative means of engagement. So like parks, for example, if they are doing an alternative outreach process with the neighborhood that involves reviewing the designs, for example, then they're exempt from the design review process. So, there are ways to solicit that feedback without the design review process, and then you're exempted.
[00:08:48]
Okay. Okay. That's interesting. Yep. Okay. And of course, some of this might or is likely to change as we completely rewrite our code. Sure. All of that. We have this for now, so. Okay. Great. Anyway, if we can identify three people that would be willing to serve on that committee. Okay. We don't have specific times yet for meetings. I think we'll expect to work that out with people's schedules as we are ready to actually have an application meeting. Okay. Very good. Well, do we have any volunteers? I'm happy to, though it's likely at some point I will not be. Yes. If I have projects that- I will throw my hat in with the same proviso of just why I asked that question a moment ago. Sure. Yeah. I'd like to volunteer- okay... Or be an alternate if there's more- okay... People, more options for people. Yeah.
[00:09:42]
The value of the subcommittee format is that if we do have a conflict for some reason, it's easy to just pull somebody in- yeah. Yeah. As a replacement. Happy to stand in as an alternate too. Okay. Well, I will work on getting that scheduled. We may also have a pre-meeting, because there's also design professionals that we invite in to participate as well. I think it'd be good for us to do some training in advance of the meeting just so that you understand the guidelines and the process. So, we will probably schedule that first and then hold the actual design review meeting for the application that has come in. Great. May I be a part of that training for the committee? Yes. We thought about doing that training just in a planning commission meeting, and if we can find time, that might be a good forum for it. Yeah. I think it would.
[00:10:34]
Yeah. We're not that busy. In the interest of time so that we can process the application that's in there, we may do a more narrow training with just the committee. Sure. Yeah. But yes, I think the intent is that eventually we would come and do a training for the whole planning commission. Just as a suggestion, if there isn't time in the regular agenda, but there's a day we don't have a hearing, maybe it could be tacked on. Just because that time is somewhat flexible in case there is hearings anyway a lot of times. Yeah. Okay. Good. I think that's it. Very good. All right. Well, thank you, and thank you to those members that threw their hat in. I think this will be interesting. I'm certainly looking forward to it, so I think it'll be a pretty enjoyable process. On to transportation commission. At the last meeting last week, there were two people from WSDOT that came to do a presentation on the north-south corridor.
[00:11:34]
And they didn't get all the way through their presentation, so they'll be there again next month. But they shared specifically that there are story maps from the whole process available at nsplace. Com. So if people want more details about how it's been presented over the last few years. They also had a new rendering video of mostly the intersection at I-90 area. I don't know that's available on the website or yet. But it was really helpful to see, even though we've all been looking at 2d maps for a decade, showing the pedestrian bridges specifically and how the on-off ramps are going to be designed. They also showed that a lot of those pedestrian overpasses now have covers specifically to help reduce snow load.
[00:12:29]
Oh, wow. However, they also mentioned the new pedestrian overpasses are wide enough, and they now have a machine that can clear snow. Oh, nice. Although they did make sure to say it is the priority after the car places. Of course. Yeah. And they used a lot of neighborhood feedback as far as which direction the ramp should point, because if they've got to start somewhere, and they are a lot longer because they're all ada accessible now, as opposed to the spiral buddies we have currently. So, the one on carnahan, it kind of ends farther east because most of the destinations that people want to get to are there, like where the walmart and- right... Lowe's are. Also showed that the original modeling that they had 15-ish years ago for this had four lanes each direction meeting with I-90, and they have since scaled that down, both for right-sizing for what we really need and a different view on how it should be acting, that it maybe doesn't need to be as super free-flowing all the time.
[00:13:39]
Also for money reasons. So there is a reduced footprint, and that's part of the reason why there is that excess land that exists. Talked about landscaping, and really they're doing it for visual quality, but also native plants. No irrigation except for to establish is kind of their model, and more trees. So shared-use paths on both sides will be part of the plan along I-90 there. Mm-hmm. And all the part of that's in that excess land. Mm-hmm. And also shared the first rendering of the roundabout at altamont, which it's not technically a roundabout, it's like a three-way roundabout on each side because they are one-way streets that go either way. So it looks like the pin you drop for a map-... Drop shape.
[00:14:37]
So hopefully that will help reduce clumping of cars as they go onto the freeway, but also just help with the flow of traffic in those areas. They have more information on the enhanced pedestrian crossing land bridge, but that will be coming in the next months because they didn't quite get to that. They did show a quick shot. It's not quite a full lid land bridge, but it's wider than 16 feet and will probably include some plants, so. Okay. Oh, yeah. And there are no noise walls, because someone specifically asked about noise mitigation, except at 4th and havana, because there is an apartment building on that corner. 4th and havana, it's on the south side of the freeway there.
[00:15:36]
Any other apartment buildings that come in the future- they-... Just out of luck. They said that the modeling for what exists there did not necessitate it, so. It's because they tore it all down, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very true. I don't know if there's any planning or budget for what happens as development, especially in that excess land happens. But I think they're part of it. I know that's all kind of up in the air still right now. Right. Sta came and talked about their transit development plan. In summary, here's how it's been going with their six-year plan. It will be published, oh man, I totally wrote that down. Soon. Mm-hmm. Cool.
[00:16:27]
It's coming out. This was their first meeting to present it, really just talking about more timeline specific on how they're going to implement the improvements over time. Of note, I also noticed that in their capital improvement budget, 49% is going to high performance transit. Hmm. Wellesley and division are obviously the kind of main focuses of those high performance transit zones. And the wellesley high performance transit construction timeline is '27 to '29, with the full route being kind of a sfcc up to wellesley down to scc route. And, oh, also building an argonne station. We'll all see how that turns out. It looked real close to I-90. People were wondering how that was going to work, but yeah.
[00:17:24]
Okay. And a bus-only lane onto I-90 there, yeah. Beautiful. Oh, yeah. There's an open house June 9th at the library downtown, and it'll be adopted in July. There was a short presentation on school streets by staff, really just a what are school streets. School streets being an area in front of a school that can be closed off either permanently or just during school drop-off, pickup hours. Kind of a reduce the traffic that's not school buses right in front of the school. Some cities have them permanently closed and can use them as part of their programming, but those tend to be much more dense urban schools. Other cities just, they have barricades. They put them out in the morningthey take them down. So it's something that is being discussed.
[00:18:19]
Cycle 15 traffic calming projects, kind of just brought up again. They're just every month kind of checking in. The final selection will be in the fall, october-ish. There were 30 projects selected to be scoped by a consultant. 21 of those were from public comment, and so they haven't previously been scoped by any other staff. And the City Staff that is helping work on this are going out and visiting all of those locations on foot, to just kind of see what it's like when you're not, especially in a vehicle, at those proposed projects to see... The point being is there is a problem, but we don't know. The scoping will help determine what the best solutions are for the project. And, a quick discussion on parking environment improvement.
[00:19:15]
Just there is currently some money being spent, that is about to run out, helping clean up litter on the south side of I-90. And maybe we could use some parking meter money to help fund that. Mm. I don't think there's a lot of it. However, it was noted that the bond payments for the parking garage will be done in '28. Wow. When in '28, I'm not totally sure. But we're- yeah, that's- is that a 30 year bond we've been paying? And that's about $1.8 or $9 million a year. That's nothing. There will be money available from parking meters in about two years to do more substantial. So people talked a little bit about other possible projects, especially given those entryways into downtown and...
[00:20:15]
Another option that would be to spend the money is to develop an ada, I wrote transition plan, but really it's more of a self-evaluation of what our ada built environment is and, is it working? Does it need to change? Do we need to build more? And linwood had a similar plan that was brought up. Is that right? That's it. All right. Well, thank you. Go ahead, darren. Thanks for your thorough report. It's interesting stuff. The land bridge, is that funded? And secondly, where's it going to go? Oh, at least the design is funded. It was specifically noted that it will not be the same design as there was some obama-era design competition that happened.
[00:21:12]
It's not going to be that design. Spencer might have- I can share an update. Yeah. As far as we know, there is funding for- oh... Some percentage of design. Yeah. I think they're hoping to get to 30% design with it. Yeah. But there is no funding for construction of the- yeah... Of the bridge. Location would be by liberty park. So, like pittsburgh, medelia, around? I mean, somewhere between perry and lee, because lee is going to have another pedestrian bridge, so it would... Which is lee, stone, as you're on your way to altamont. So, yeah. I'm guessing it would, yeah, because you also probably wouldn't be right over perry because there is an underpass there. But the idea is to have it connect the park with the other side.
[00:22:09]
Okay. All right, well, thank you. So let's move on to approval of the current agenda. May I hear a motion, please? Motion to approve. Second. Okay, motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. All right, we have an approved current agenda, and with that we'll move to refive draft fifth avenue community plan with maren and della. So, we have our consultant online, radhika nair, who will actually go through the presentation. Hi, radhika. Hi. Welcome. So yeah, I'll just kick it off and then radhika can share her screen and go through it. But timely discussion, building off of what we all just talked about, I guess a few things to start, seeing that it's a compressed agenda.
[00:23:11]
We do want to get through our presentation and then have time for discussion. So, if there's not an absolute burning question, we'd hope to have you all write it down, and then we can come back. We are also going to assume that you all had a chance to look through the packet, so it's the same presentation there. So we won't be reading everything or going through, but we can certainly have discussions as you guys see things that you'd like to jump into. But we might stay a little bit high level on some of that, just assuming that there's been a little bit of awareness so far. So, with that, I will turn it over to radhika, let her introduce herself and take it away. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm radhika nair. I'm the principal planner and the project manager on the consultant side for the refive community plan. I'm excited to be here and to be talking with you. I'll share my screen so we can get the powerpoint up. Sorry, can you all see my screen?
[00:24:23]
Yes. Yeah. I'll try to put this in full screen mode. I wanted to start out by orienting you to the study area, talking a bit about the project arc, and the timeline, and some of the engagement efforts that have influenced the plan. And as maren mentioned, I can spend most of my time talking about the goals and strategies because I know you've had this in your packet and probably don't want to spend a lot of time on it. So the fifth avenue planning area is focused on the community south of I-90 in east central neighborhood, which goes between liberty park, or the study area goes between liberty park and francis scott elementary, and the City boundary at havana street. The planning process started in early 2025 and continued through visioning and baseline conditions analysis in the summer of 2025, and transitioned to draft plan development in the fall of 2025. And now early this year, we have a draft plan that we're preparing to release this week to the public.
[00:25:39]
And we'll be gathering feedback over the summer, revising it in early fall before the legislative process starts, and targeting adoption by the end of the year. Community ideas and input define the baseline conditions and the topics that were explored in more technical analysis. It became the framework for the vision and goals of the plan. And so the project team facilitated a breadth of events across every stage of the plan development process. We have some images from the activities that included visioning, workshops, interviews, conversations in parks, and community events.
[00:26:35]
And across all of these events, we heard a lot of interest in walkability and pedestrian infrastructure, and that was probably the strongest theme that we heard. People really linked the availability and quality of the pedestrian experience to a sense of community, to small business development, to safety. And closely linked to that was the idea of traffic calming. There was a lot of interest in making sure that the streets are easy to walk and for people of all ages and abilities. And there were also lots of comments appreciating improvements to the ben burr trail, but wanting to see further improvements to improve connectivity and just accessibility for bicyclists and walkers. As I mentioned, the baseline conditions work, instead of just looking at a comprehensive list of topics, really built on the community input and looked at topics, and that became the framework of the plan.
[00:27:39]
And before I walk through the plan, I wanted to share that this work to promote a thriving community in fifth avenue is not new. The plan is the result of a lot of ongoing community-led initiatives, including the fifth avenue initiative and other partnerships and advocacy work that the City and community have been working on for a long time. So this plan is just building on that sequence. The plan has some crosscutting themes. They are respect which is about balancing equity issues in east central through just economic opportunity and affordability and environmental justice. There's resilience. This is about thinking about climate adaptation in infrastructure and policy and programming. And then also resourcefulness, which is about, as I mentioned, just the ongoing partnership between the City and the community to make sure that a lot of the plan's goals and strategies can be achieved.
[00:28:47]
The plan goals are long-term outcomes that the community hopes to achieve. And there are five goals in the plan. They're around identity, connectivity, livability, prosperity, and stability. And I'll go through each of them and some of the linked strategies. Sorry. Identity is about cementing and honoring the neighborhood's history, filling the neighborhood with art and color, and celebrating today's community. So the linked strategies are about beautifying fifth avenue, organizing shared experiences, but also importantly, celebrating the neighborhood as the heart of Spokane's black community. Connectivity is about improving the experience of the neighborhood for those who are walking, biking, taking transit.
[00:29:42]
As I mentioned, this was a really strong priority that came through community engagement. So the strategies that go with this goal include making the neighborhood more accessible, more connected, complete sidewalk networks, better access to transit, and things like that. The livability goal is about making a welcoming and comfortable space for people of all ages and abilities. So we have things like more playful and safe community spaces, mitigating heat, building programs that increase active living, and things like that. The prosperity goal is the more traditional economic development one. It's about a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable local economy, really thinking about community assets like small businesses and nonprofits and cultural organizations that are already there. And the strategies think about how commercial activity can both be sustained and encouraged, and also the kinds of partnerships that would be necessary to achieve this future. The stability goal is around housing. We heard a lot about wanting to make sure that there's affordable housing that does not create any displacement of existing residents.
[00:30:59]
So the goal has strategies around housing affordability, about promoting homeownership, especially for first-time buyers, and other creative tools to acquire sites for housing. There's a vision plan in the document as well, and this plan lays out a series of coordinated investments at targeted locations which are intended to align with the goals and the strategies, but also kickstart some of the more programmatic and regulatory strategies that are envisioned in the plan. So just going from liberty park, there's the idea of starting with the perry street underpass, the idea of just making that underpass more lively with more color and a mural, and I know there's a separate process around that, so the plan just nods to that being an important connection and intervention.
[00:32:04]
The next one is a welcome mat or a raised intersection and some art at liberty park to just anchor and welcome people to all of the civic infrastructure that's there with the library and the pool and the park. Ideas for intersection improvements like sidewalks and bulb-outs and plantings and lighting that will make intersections safer for pedestrians and calm traffic. Ideas for temporary activation along that core of businesses and lots near the carl maxey center and fresh soul. And then I think one of the most exciting actions and strategies in the plan, thinking about francis scott elementary and a partnership with the trust for public lands to make the schoolyard green and more of a community public space. It's already a pretty successful one, but just enhancing it.
[00:33:09]
The plan also proposes some ideas to change or tweak the land use framework, and this map shows some of the categories that have been proposed. Some of the ideas are around just building more commercial activity around the existing-- the commercial activity or nodes are shown in blue. There's the idea of just north of mlk center having a commercial node, and then along 5th avenue, along near fresh soul and carl maxey, just continuing that, and then around fred meyer and going down on powers street, a more moderate intensity mixed use, and also north of francis scott elementary, having some more moderate mixed use that would have both commercial uses, more pedestrian-oriented commercial uses, but also support housing.
[00:34:18]
We also indicate some connectivity improvements. I won't go through all of this, but there are safety improvements and as I mentioned, sidewalk and infrastructure improvements. Some priority bus stops that the community has identified for interventions to improve the experience for transit users, and just priority locations for where these improvements can go. We've also indicated where the festival street would go to activate the street as more of a people space. I'll just click through some of the more targeted interventions that I walked through from the perry street underpass and the welcome mat. This is a visualization of what could potentially happen near liberty park and the library.
[00:35:13]
These are some of the traffic calming and intersection improvements. Things like shade structures and tree canopy, bump-outs and sidewalks on both sides, crosswalks, bike lanes, those kinds of things. Some of the early thinking around how the schoolyard could be reimagined to support both student recreation, but also add open space during non-school hours. The plan also has some early wins or what we call day one projects, and they're essentially projects that the working group identified as steps that can be taken immediately, either because there's available funding or existing relationships. The school-- some ideas are pursuing the designation of a cultural district for the neighborhood, which is something 5th avenue forward has already been exploring.
[00:36:12]
The greening schoolyard program, since we had the school principal on the working group, the conversation around that has already startedand then a lot of the transportation improvements that the City would lead that are also high priority and could potentially create the momentum for some of the more longer-term changes that the plan envisions. That's the summary of the draft plan. But as I mentioned earlier, we plan to release the plan this week for just more public review and comment. We do have a range of events and tools planned to gather feedback. We were already at the east central neighborhood Council on the 19th, and we're here today.
[00:37:05]
We'll be shortly releasing a draft plan survey that people can take to give us feedback. We've planned an online meeting on June 11th to just go through the plan and gather feedback. We will have, just like we did during wishling, we'll have an online discussion wall and an interactive map open if people want to give place-based input. We will be at several community events throughout the draft plan engagement phase. I know we plan to be at the juneteenth community events and several others that we're still looking at. And the idea is to offer a mix of tools and be at different locations so that we can get pretty robust feedback. We also plan to translate the survey, and have some small group discussions in potentially spanish, so that we can make sure to capture all of that feedback.
[00:38:08]
I think the more complete schedule is on the website, and mymanda can share any updates to the schedule that we might have. That's all I have. I'll stop sharing and welcome any questions that commissioners might have. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks, radhika. We might jump to a map or a slide, so just be ready for that. Oh, sure. Yeah. Do you want me to keep the presentation up? Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you. Questions? I'll kick it off. Please. Just so I have some context here, once the plan is adopted, what happens to it? So once the plan's adopted, then we integrate it into our own processes. The priorities get reflected through and integrate into capital improvement or looking for grants, give us a foundation to pursue those opportunities.
[00:39:13]
The land use discussions are kind of aligned with the comp plan. So, this happening in tandem with it will inform what changes would be made in that area, depending on the final growth strategy that is identified. So that would be a separate process able to make those changes. So kind of a lot of additional steps to go forward, similar to south logan, where it provides the framework to get us moving. But really consolidating all those ideas, working with partners through this work, or in parallel with that, the fifth half forward group has formed a coalition, and they have their 501 [c] [3] status. So there's some other sort of community things that have come along that can help keep the attention on the plan and keep the energy moving as well.
[00:40:13]
So I guess on that note, are the land use recommendations generally tracking with what's being discussed in the comprehensive plan? And if they're not, how is a conflict between the two resolved? Yeah. Do you want to, radhika, go to the land use framework? Sure. Yeah. We've been working closely with the team on the land use. You can see we're more talking about the kind of qualities or the values that we would want to maintain. So, lower intensity, moderate intensity, residential, mixed use. So trying to use similar terminology without identifying the exact category right now, knowing that is still in flux. So that was kind of where we landed. And from my knowledge, it's still aligned. But there's still looking towards the comp plan to provide the ultimate decision point on how many categories we have or what that looks like. And then using the land use framework as the concept to guide how that would be applied locally.
[00:41:19]
Yeah, because obviously it strikes me that there's a big subject of discussion around there. Yeah. And if does growth get pushed here, does growth not get pushed here? Who decides where that growth goes? It seems like this study should guide that, but I was curious about- yeah... How those two are relating to one another. We provided this work for the EIS, and so it was part of those modeling. But yeah, it's been kind of going together at the same time. Good. Right. Okay. Kind of more specifically on that, one of the areas is listed as lower intensity mixed use, and I'm just kind of wondering how that might differ from neighborhood business. I was going to say neighborhood mixed use. Business, retail use, and does the study maybe have more details that could help identify more specifically what it is.
[00:42:14]
Is it another in between zone? No. Yeah. Again, this is why we're trying to- yeah... Follow what that discussion is. So understanding that there was different levels of mixed use, and how that might relate tothe nodes or the hubs concept. I don't know where we landed on that. But yeah. So trying to identify the values that we want to see. Some of that is similar intensity to what you see now around fresh soul. Maybe allowing one or two more stories. Mm. Although you can have three stories there, it's just hasn't seen a lot of redevelopment. Yeah. And then some slight intensification north of there towards the freeway. And then over in the thor freya area, trying to build on the mixed use concepts that are really promoting pedestrian connectivity.
[00:43:18]
It is a very busy north-south corridor. Not seeing that change in the future necessarily, but as we can contribute to east-west connectivity, trying to highlight the values that we see there and hope that as the land use or the growth strategy is formalized, we're able to align with those that are promoting pedestrian connectivity, transit, biking, and really see that improvement applied throughout. And then as far as the lower intensity residential, so right now part of it is... Well, yeah. So it is lower intensity right now, and trying to maintain that home ownership and the ability to move through the housing opportunities was a really big focus.
[00:44:19]
People want to be able to stay in the neighborhood and not have to leave to find other opportunities, whether it is buying a house or accessing apartments or not. So looking at that balance within here. But knowing that we are talking about slight intensification overall in that category as well city-wide, so just monitoring that and hoping that... Or making sure that we're aligning with those conversations. Let me just zoom in on this. My eyes are apparently not good enough. Oh, no, I'm really good at guessing what those words are. Yeah, I'm referring some numbers. Thank you so much. Oh. Ah. So some of this is a response to some of the visioning things. So you saw on the vision map, we are reflecting what WSDOT has proposing as far as the land bridge and the infrastructure they're working on around the pedestrian crossings, the roundabout.
[00:45:23]
So knowing that's coming, we're at least reflecting that and thinking how that might relate within the community. So we have proactively identifying additional open space where the land bridge might be. And that still has to be determined, but trying to reflect some there. And then the b area is looking at changes that would come along altamont from the roundabout there, and anticipating more traffic volumes and people accessing the freeway. So a shift from residential to more mixed use. And then there will be a pedestrian plaza, so that's why it's going up there to maybe try to help activate the pedestrian with some mixed use as well there. And then the c is looking at-- there is some potential right-of-way surplus land in there.
[00:46:22]
And so between the current lower intensity neighborhood commercial that we have now, and then the more moderate intensity around freya and thor, it leaves a little pocket behind freya and thor. So looking at some maybe more moderate residential opportunities there, and as potential surplus lands might be available, considering that there's some larger parcels there that could allow for redevelopment. And then similar on the other side of francis scott, as svata convention, there is a community vision already underway through take up the cause and maji rising to do mixed use, residential, commercial, kind of a healthcare focus there. So wanting to reflect the intensity to match what they would hope to see as well. But some of that is still dependent on the surplus lands too.
[00:47:30]
Tim. I really like the making fifth avenue the focus. A lot of the proposed increase in development is along third avenue, and I'm just kind of wondering with the freeway, the traffic, what kinds of... There's a couple of thoughts. One is to just plant a row of pine trees along there to help buffer the neighborhood from the freeway, which is up above. Sound wall. And then the other is to think about what kinds of businesses, since there's so much traffic, the kinds where people pull in and need to drive to maybe a commercial strip versus having a residential development right next to the freeway there. So I was just wondering what the thoughts have been about what kinds of development would see along third avenue, and how can we help mitigate the impact on the rest of the neighborhood from the heavy- yeah... Amount of traffic that's going to go both on third and the freeway.
[00:48:28]
Yeah. The City has been engaging with WSDOT and the community on how to address that. So there are some efforts underway to look at visual and sound mitigation in this area. Sort of above and beyond what WSDOT has initially proposed. So that's kind of a separate process through the legislature that is directing WSDOT to do some of that work. And then the balance between residential and mixed use, a lot of what was there was residential. So not saying that we need people to live directly by the freeway, but the community feels strongly that replacing what was lost and allowing whatever form they see as restorative is a really important part of the conversation. So it is a balance, and we looked at some examples of how to shift some of that sort of environmental health to tree plantings or other sort of external features, as well as kind of internal building structure as well. So there's some examples over in Seattle with building close to freeways and whatnot.
[00:49:47]
But yeah, we're working with WSDOT to ensure that those considerations are at the forefront of the development and the infrastructure and try to reflect that as well. How was WSDOT included in this process? Well, we've mostly been working through the community as the main focal point. So we've been sharing updates throughout on kind of mutual meetings, but the focus really has been with the community to drive that voice forward and capture what they want to see primarily. And a lot of this is-- WSDOT discussions make up a small portion of the plan. The majority is focusing on livability, connectivity, shifting the focus to fifth avenue, looking at different ways that the City can support the momentum that's already there.
[00:50:49]
So this is definitely not a WSDOT plan. It's a community plan and driven by the community voice. Yeah, I just wanted to add on to that, just to illustrate one example of where I think we're trying to focus more on the needs that are coming from the community. Maren pointed out the land bridge portion. As I mentioned earlier, the land bridge has no funding. There's no definite timeline for construction. One of the questions I think we're trying to answer with this plan is the land bridge sounds like a great idea. I think we're happy to see that make progress, but we also want to talk about what's happening in the meantime. And so that particular area is a place where we're asking, well, what is the interim condition? Because we don't want that to sit fallow for 50 years for a land bridge that has an uncertain timeline. And so that is, again, that conversation with the community.
[00:51:45]
So yes, WSDOT, we're aware of what they're doing, and we try to coordinate with them on those things. But at the end of the day, we're really working with the community there to understand what their needs are and see how we can meet those, regardless of what may happen in the future from other agencies. Okay. And we do have to cut it off there because we are over time on this one. So thank you all. Will we have another touch point with this? Yeah. So we'll be back in September after engagement and kind of reflect what we've heard and what changes we've made. So looking at a workshop and then public hearing, going through the process in September, October. But if you're interested in engagement and coming to any of the events, please do. We are getting the website updated right now, so it's not live. All the information is not quite there yet, but hopefully by the end of the week is our goal.
[00:52:41]
Great. Yeah. Thank you. Well, thank you all. This is really exciting. Okay, moving on to plan Spokane 2046 chapter review release, incorporating climate and environmental justice review. A real mouthful with kaycee. You want to get some terms in the agenda. You got them. So we met with you all at your last workshop, providing an update on the chapter review. This is kind of just added onto that with some good information or news that the chapters are out. Spencer stole my thunder with that, but really want to emphasize that the chapters are out and ready for folks to take a look at. So as a reminder, we are working on the chapter review process in addition to all the preferred alternative and land use. These are the goals and policies that are part of the comprehensive plan, focusing on streamlining and updating policies based on legislative requirements, but also what we're hearing from the community, and to make the document more usable, easier for folks to understand.
[00:53:40]
And so we do have the publication. They went live this morning. A big shout-out to our web team, spent a lot of time uploading a lot of documents. So appreciate them for getting this available. So this is all of the chapters with an asterisk that the implementation chapter, chapter two, is not yet out. We are considering a different name for this chapter because it's just not descriptive. It's more monitoring and reporting. Implementation comes outside of the document. So we're working on that, but we're also working on getting State direction because this chapter will also include the five-year check-in that we need to do with commerce. So that's why that chapter is delayed, kind of working through that. But all the other chapters are out and available from the introduction, all the chapters. A glossary is available as well that has updated terminology and definitions, so we can all have a shared understanding of the terms that are being used in the document.
[00:54:39]
This version does not have maps. It also doesn't have a lot of graphics. We have kind of filler languagethe intent is to have this focus on the goals and policies for community members to really read through. And then the next release, which is tentatively mid-july, will have all of that other information. So chapter review page is up. We have all of the chapters on there. Once you hit the drop-down for folks, there is a description of what the chapters are to give folks a little bit of context before they dive in, and then the links to all of the chapters. And we encourage folks to take a look, all of you, all members of the public, to read through and see what has been done. At the top of all the chapters is a kind of how to read the drafts page. These versions have icons. All the versions that we've been working on lately have icons, but this is a little bit explaining what they are, to try and explain why changes were made, what changes were made to bring folks along with the process.
[00:55:43]
So, as people read through, they'll see icons. For instance, the globe, that's policies that came through the climate resilience and sustainability board. We have notes saying policies were removed, or these new policies were created, trying to just explain the process to make it a little bit easier for people to follow along. And we want to flag in two of the big components that have been integrated into this process. Climate planning, you all have heard a lot about that, but we just wanted to do a refresher for any members of the public watching, because globes are probably one of the most frequently persistent icon aside from just, like, oh, explanation point, this changed. So yes, climate was integrated. It was integrated throughout all of the chapters, not a separate chapter, which is why we have the icon throughout all of the chapters as you review. And this was in order to meet house bill 1181, the requirement of incorporating climate and resiliency, and we opted to integrate to show that climate and resiliency affects really all the topics that are captured in the comprehensive plan. There were policies recommended by the climate resilience and sustainability board.
[00:56:50]
A number of them have been reviewed by the planning commission subcommittee. A lot of them were in the growth strategy chapter and the transportation chapter, so they were discussed during those subcommittee meetings. We had sixty-six primary policies recommended by the climate board. Primary means they directly related to house bill 1181. Overall, we had seventy-five. The additional ones were based off community engagement, what we heard during the climate planning process. I was going through all of our updated language. Seventy-three policies are incorporated. Two were not added just because they were redundant to policies that were already there. A number of them did replace existing policies, so they weren't just adding that many new policies. There's a little bit of give and take. But, those were the policies that were added based off of the crsb recommendations. And again, folks can look for the globe icon to really see what those policies are and what they look like.
[00:57:52]
A bit of a new conversation, but related to climate planning, is the environmental justice review. So the environmental justice review memo was in the briefing paper. This was an effort to look at land use and transportation policies through an equity lens to see how these policies can support environmental justice. This didn't go through the climate planning policy process. This is more of the consultants taking an eye at policies that were already in the chapters that were being updated to let us know, did they identify anything that was a concern with the language? Or suggestions for how the policies can ultimately be implemented to support environmental justice in the community. That full memo is on the climate planning page now and is linked in the briefing paper.
[00:58:45]
But overall, there were three policies that were rated as potentially negative. These ones related to money costs. So we did work on finding language to allow for considerations that costs can negatively impact certain communities, particularly low-income communities. So maybe costs should be evaluated. So we did add language to kind of move that away from the negative, to have that recognition in the policy language itself to support the ultimate implementation, to have a little bit more of an equity lens. Sixteen of the policies were neutral, just means they didn't directly call out equity or supporting specific communities, but didn't have a negative effect. It was going to be dependent on how we implement. And then thirty-nine of the policies were rated as positive, meaning they directly supported environmental justice in the community. So we thought this was really great.
[00:59:38]
We didn't have a lot of x's on the policies that we were proposing, and we were able to update language on some of those policies. In the drafts that are currently online, we have notes when any of the language was adjusted. Believe we still use the climate icon because it is under the climate planning general effort, but it will say environmental justice review memo. Again, just so people can follow along why changes were made. In addition to text suggestions and reviewing the policies, there were also implementation considerations. So all of that is in the memo. But the main five implementation considerations were really focusing on embedding those anti-displacement protections. We've worked on a lot of policies. So again, this is the implementation. So taking those policies and finding how to implement those anti-displacement protections. Prioritizing infrastructure investments to support environmental justice, so that's looking at areas that maybe have historic disinvestment or maybe need the extra infrastructure supportlooking to reduce disproportionate cost burdens, that ties to those three policies that we updated language on. Strengthening inclusive and ongoing community engagement, we have a lot of policies about that, but then it's the implementation, making sure that continues. And then finally, coordinating land use and transportation planning.
[01:00:54]
We're doing that. It's just a recognition to continue to do that. So this memo, um, is helpful in just kind of the initial next steps post, um, the comp plan adoption, um, with an eye on, um, environmental justice. So for next steps, um, sorry, I should have brought my water, but I'm almost done, so I'm good. So next steps is we are accepting public comments for the chapters that are currently out. Um, we encourage folks to take a look, give us feedback, be as specific as possible. Um, we will take any of that feedback and work on integrating, um, any changes into the next round of edits. We're anticipating the next round of edits to be mid-july, and this will, again, include all of the dra- um, the maps and the graphics. We're also going to kick off a formal public comment period. It's part of the process. Again, we accept public comments throughout the entire process, um, but the next issue will be the formal noticed public comment period. But we'll continue taking comments and making edits throughout the process.
[01:01:57]
And with that, um, just really want to encourage any members of the public watching to read through the chapters, reach out with questions or feedback, and hopefully they'll see a lot of changes since the initial, especially the non-technical chapters. There's been a lot of iterations, a lot of changes incorporating feedback, and this is the first time that housing, transportation, growth strategy, and capital facilities is being seen by the public. So we're excited to have folks take a look. Well, thank you. That was incredibly- yeah... Efficient. Good job. Um, congratulations to staff-... For getting this out. That's massive lift. Um, so I, I, yeah, really, really huge commendations to staff for getting that out. And so you can all, all should take a breath- mm-hmm... Now, just for a moment before July, because it'll get wild again. But, um, so any questions? Yeah. Uh, I just want to reiterate something kaycee said earlier, and also congratulate staff. The system they have of the icons and the descriptions of what's changed is really helpful.
[01:02:56]
Yeah. So especially for members of the public that might be watching, I think that's, um, gold standard for transparency and working with a document of this nature and, uh, you know, tracking changes and things. So yeah, it certainly has been as we've been reviewing things, it's made it a lot easier to, to highlight what's going on. I guess on that note, is there a way that, like, a version of that can stay alive after the new, uh, plan is adopted so that people who are, you know, new to the new plan could still access and be able to see like, how it changed? So we do anticipate having the, these icon versions for the July release. However, once we start transitioning to the hearing version, we're gonna be having a template. Um, so the icon versions will still kind of be archived and accessible on the page, but we won't be actively updating them.
[01:03:50]
Oh, sure. Yeah. Um, with the template, um, actually I had a meeting today, we're gonna try and figure out an icon version that isn't necessarily like, "this is a new policy," because that's not relevant after so many years, but maybe, uh, this is a policy related to climate, or this is policy... Like, thematic icons to continue that through the template version, so folks can still follow along, at least with themes that they're interested in. Um, but the, this icon version, we update in July, and we'll keep archiving. So yeah, there'll be an archive version. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for your presentation. It's nice to see all the chapters out. I feel like I'm a day late and a dollar short on what environmental justice means. What, what, in your words, what would be a, a good definition of, of what environmental justice means? Yeah, so environmental justice is just recognizing that different communities, either because of geographic location or income or other socioeconomic, um, situations, are more negatively harmed by infrastructure, climate hazards, weather, natural disasters, that entire list.
[01:04:58]
So recognizing that because folks are more impacted, taking efforts to kind of mitigate and provide support for those communities. We have a lot of definitions throughout that is in the glossary. I just don't have the full definition-... Off the top of my mind, but, um-... It's generally- no, I haven't done my homework either, so... That's generally the direction that- yeah... Um, we're considering, recognizing that just some folks are more, uh, negatively impacted. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else? All right, well, thanks so much, kaycee. Um, and yeah, we'll look forward to next updates. And with that, we are gonna move on to sta wellesley corridor development plan with mike tressider. Hi, mike. Hello, hello. Schedule. Thank you. Uh, I'm mike tressider. I'm a senior transit planner with Spokane transit. Um, and I'm just here to talk to you today briefly about the wellesley corridor development plan. I did hear, uh, ryan talk briefly about it. Um, I wanna thank spencer for inviting us.
[01:05:56]
I think this is a good timing, um, as we talk about plan Spokane as well. Um, so first of all, what is a corridor development plan? It's in our comprehensive plan, and it is a plan that we develop, um, to formally acknowledge a route as an hbt line. Um, so we write the plan, it gets adopted by our board of directors. Um, what are hbt lines? Those are their major corridors where we justify significant investment in passenger amenities. Corridor development plan helps us determine how best to in, um, invest in that corridor, helps us engage stakeholders, um, and it says it may identify, generally identifies locations of stations and stops as wellso what is hbt? High performance transit is our term for our core lines serving local and regional corridors all day, two-way, frequent, easy to use.
[01:06:54]
Currently, that means the City line, the 4 monroe/regal, the 6 cheney, the 7, which is our regional liberty lake route, and the 9 sprague. Currently, we're studying the 33, which will end up being the 3 wellesley, and then the 25, the division, which will become BRT. The two. Two? Five? I should know, and I don't. We have several principles in our comp plan. I've highlighted appropriate scale and permanence because when we think about those routes, as I mentioned, this is a map from our comprehensive plan that looks at our future hbt developments. And you can see all of those lines that I just mentioned with the next two, as I said, the 33 wellesley and the 25 division.
[01:07:54]
As I mentioned, those current hbt routes, not all stops, but certainly more stops will have stations, and stations have quite a bit of amenities at them. So including the lighting, the marker, which has real-time information, post and flag, which is at every single bus stop, a shelter with bench, which if you've been along the wellesley corridor, is lacking throughout the corridor. Trash cans, leaning pads. This is quite a significant investment. This will not certainly be appropriate for many places in the corridor or possible at many places in the wellesley corridor. So why route 33? From our perspective and from our guiding documents both in connect Spokane, which is our comprehensive plan, that map that you just saw is policy 4.0, our hbt map, and then within connect 2035, our strategic plan, under goal 1, we identified upgrading route 33 wellesley to a high-performance transit line.
[01:09:03]
From our partner's point of view, from the City's point of view, the recently adopted growth alternative 4 plan Spokane puts an emphasis on transit corridors, including wellesley. So route 33 wellesley, as ryan was mentioning, it goes from sfcc, travels north, then along the entire wellesley corridor, and then down through hillyard to scc. This is our busiest east-west route in the City. It also crosses, as you can see, any number of existing sta routes. The ones in blue are frequent, so the 4, 25, 28 have 15-minute service. Regular routes have 30-minute service. So wellesley by the numbers had over 600,000 riders in 2025. This is our fifth busiest route in the system.
[01:10:05]
So it worked out to over 22 boardings a year, 2,000 average weekday riders. And if you'll notice, the peaks on the ridership, it has a morning peak, which corresponds generally with the a. M. Peak for both work commute and school commute. You'll see the afternoon peak comes a little earlier because of those schools along the corridor. Serving both rogers and shadle, this is quite a bit of high school ridership in this corridor. With that said, it can be difficult to wait for transit. These are just a couple of pictures from along the corridor. So belt, westbound 68 ons, 90 offs per day average. It's a narrow sidewalk with just the post and sign. Monroe.
[01:10:59]
I was lucky enough to be standing there when the bus came by. Same thing. And you see this little retaining wall that's also pretty common along the corridor. There's a lot of residential along this corridor. They have little retaining walls by their lawns, so you don't have very much space there. And then pittsburgh, this is directly across from rogers high school. 67 ons, 52 offs. And there is that building that seems under always construction. And so it has a fence there to prevent high school kids from getting into the property, but it also squeezes them onto the sidewalk. So the corridor itself transitions through a lot of different types of zoning. There's a lot of single-family zoning. There's an excuse. There's the schools. There's also quite a bit of traffic volume as we look at this corridor, and that has come up as I've been talking to communities, even just the ability to cross wellesley at times can be difficult.
[01:12:04]
And then as far as active transportation goes, there is an existing sidewalk pretty much the entire length. It is that narrow sidewalk that you saw that's curb tight with no buffer. Does connect to trails on both ends once you can get to either of the community colleges. And there are multiple north-south bike connections across wellesley. But as I said, it's that curb-type sidewalk. Crossings between signalized intersections can be lengthy. And then typically, the roadway is four lanes, sometimes five, as it broadens out at some of these wider intersections. So I met with students at rogers high school. I went to five or six neighborhood meetings and talked about just experiences in the community... Of the corridor of using route 33. As you saw from the pictures, and these up here, there's minimal room to wait, and minimal protection from the elements, as well as lack of protected crossings at some of these stop locations.
[01:13:08]
What we heard was, if we can highlight where the shelters and stops are a benefit to the neighborhood, to the community, the drivers pay a little more attention. Our sda facilities will pay more attention to those stops. One of the students mentioned, can we identify interim steps the community or student groups could take to provide benches or just to provide eyes onto stops, which I really liked. And then as you saw from the map, there's a lot of intersecting routes. Are there ways for sta to look at co-locating shelters if we can't get shelters directly along the wellesley corridor? I thought those were all interesting ideas from the community. And then just making sure that we are tagging and touching those key destinations. So this, again, from the map as you saw, there's transfers to nine different routes along wellesley, so there's an opportunity to really travel through the system, travel through Spokane.
[01:14:19]
And then making sure that we're touching upon key destinations. So hillyard, particularly there. Market and haven, where wellesley comes in. The high schools. The shopping, shadle park center, northtown mall, the library. And then garland avenue, which has access to the community center, to ontrack, to northeast community center, to shopping. And then as well as the two key anchors on either end, the community colleges. So we're taking all of this information. So our existing policy that's in connect Spokane, there's at least seven different policies that help us assess bus stops, including when we want to identify benches, which would be 10 or more daily boardings, we'd like to have a bench at that stop.
[01:15:14]
When we'd like to have a shelter, which would be 25 or more daily boardings. Community input, where has the community seen either safety issues or kids or other riders just waiting in the inclement weather? And then site assessment, both driving the corridor, riding the corridor, looking at scout, what is the current available right of way? What are the surrounding land uses? As I mentioned, there's quite a bit of residential on there, and so you have a five-foot sidewalk, a little retaining wall, and then a front yard. And that makes it quite difficult for any type of shelter, let alone an hbt-type shelter.
[01:16:12]
And so we put this into a matrix that we've been starting to review with internal and external stakeholders. I'll be going out to neighborhood meetings in June to talk through this more with them. Been meeting with City Staff, looking at plan Spokane synergies, and this is still going to be refined, but what it does, so the blue is what are the boardings? Average daily boardings at the site. What are the transit connections? What are the destinations, regional, local? The site assessment, does it seem like there might be enough right away based on visual analysis, based on map analysis? And then just a general overall sort of matrix score for each stop. And so just preliminary. If you look at tier one, those light blue ones, those are the stops that scored the highest.
[01:17:09]
And you'll see that, from just looking at it at first glance, it makes a lot of sense. Several there by shadle. Several there by the division. Then you have nevada. You have rogers. You have the heart of hillyard. So that makes a lot of sense from that perspective. Tier two, they scored pretty well. Ideally, those might get a shelter. But we're going to take this out, talk more with the community, refine this, and then ultimately, in the final document, we'll have an assessment of each of these stops about what improvement we want to have for that stop, if any. You can look at there on the west side, you see a lot of purple.
[01:18:06]
It has generally low ridership, consistent ridership, but it's in the eight, seven daily ons. So we also want to be prudent with our investments through this corridor. So next steps, as I mentioned, I'll be going out in June to the community to look at the evaluation matrix results, talk more about what that might look like in the community. We're also applying for a regional mobility grant from WSDOT for this project. And then we'll be updating our planning and development committee, which is a subset of our board, on the progress. Developing a draft plan for September, going back out to the community, have a public meeting at our board of directorsin October, with adoption slated for November. And then, as ryan was mentioning from our tdp, that then this will get transferred to our capital developments team, which will start looking at planning construction for '27 through '29.
[01:19:12]
So I think that is what I had at a high level. Good. Well, thanks, mike. Questions? Just one. One of the challenges I imagine with transportation is you want a lot of access and a lot of stops, but you also want it to have some speed- yes... So it's worthwhile to commute on. Are you analyzing how to consolidate any stops, or how are you thinking about that? That is a excellent question because, yes, we are also looking at some of these for stop consolidation. If you look at both the lacey and cook, they're pretty close together. They both have similar ridership. I think lacey has a little bit more, so it's like, "do we need both of those?" and at times, we had both of those because they were the best connection down to shaw.
[01:20:09]
Mm. And now there's other routes that are closer as well. So yes, we are looking at stop consolidation because part of hbt is the speed and reliability, and so we want to ensure that. And if we're looking at stops too frequently, it- yeah... It impacts it. So yeah, great question. Linda? I use 33 a lot, so I think this is really great. I might suggest that a couple of other constituencies that would be- yes, please... Helpful to consult. My dad taught at rogers for decades, so the first thing that popped into my mind... Students, great. That's wonderful because the kids take the bus- yeah... And they know a lot. But the teachers know a lot, too, about how the kids take the bus and that. Yeah. So teachers, and possibly, this may sound kind of 19... I don't even know if ptas still exist anymore. They do.
[01:21:02]
But one of the things that we've found, because I'm on the cac, one of the things we found through the cac was talking to parents, because the parents are going to work and, "my kid can take the bus to school," so the parents can give you a lot of good information, too. No, I think that's excellent. Thanks, mike, for this. There was an earlier map, this is just a comment and a question, I guess, that showed it looked like shaw was closer down south of empire, but that shaw campus and the northeast community center are between empire and wellesley. Yes. And I know that a lot of students use the cook crossing to get to school. Yes. Like, a way earlier slide that was just a bubble that said, "shaw campus." so I would say, the northeast community center, shaw, on track, all of that would be just...
[01:21:57]
I'm sure you're already thinking of them and including them, but the one map made it look like they were less significant. Oh, that was not the intention. No. So I appreciate that. Yeah. That sidewalk along wellesley is scary, especially- yes... If it's trash day and everybody's trash cans are out there. Wow. And I just- I didn't even think about that. Yeah. I was not out there that time. You have to go out into the street to get around them. It's scary. And snow berms. Yeah. Yes. Where I just put shaw campus, and it slid too far. Right away to cover. Yeah. It's got to go north. Yeah. No, and it slid when I inserted the map. I guess one question that I have about this is, does this study include recommendations to the City of Spokane for streetscape improvements or crossings that would improve the performance and safety of this corridor? We have not included those in past corridor development plans. I think we can take it under consideration, and I think as we consult more with the City...
[01:22:55]
Obviously, the City does their own analysis of this stuff too, but- yes. It is also, as we mentioned, a constrained corridor because... Yeah. I'll just add, I think this is part of why I think we wanted to include this in the EIS and identify it as a place for potential growth. I think we see from the City side that there is value in making those investments in areas where we expect also for more growth to occur. So, we're on the same wavelength- yes... Here on that aspect. I did have a quick question. You've shown on the map here, and you have a list elsewhere, all the connecting north-south routes. Mm-hmm. Maybe it's obvious to people, or maybe it isn't. I'm just wondering if you can talk about why it's important to have those connections, as opposed to if I'm at scc, I can also take the 1 and connect to all those routes downtown.
[01:23:53]
Yes. So what, I guess for the layperson maybe watching online, why is it valuable to have those connections on the 33 as well? Excellent point, because like you said, if you're at one of the ends, connecting the 1 will get you downtown really quickly. If you're further into the system on the 33, either it's just easier to get off at division, grab the 25, and head south. But also, there's still quite a bit of City to the north, access points to the north. And particularly as you noticed, or what we noticed, high school students, even outside of school, this is one of our busiest corridors, and kids are coming from all over the City. And so, coming from north down, coming from south up, so you get a lot of east-west traffic along there. Plus, it really just increases your mobility and your access to wherever you're trying to get. Right?
[01:24:53]
And whether that's shaw or somewhere-emerson, garfield, there's opportunities to transfer without having to come downtown, which is still a core function of our system, that we are a hub and spoke. But this is one of those routes where you don't necessarily have to travel downtown to get to a destination. And maybe I can just follow up quickly on why I think that is important for us as we're doing the comprehensive plan work. Because there is immense value in exactly what you just said. I think that's why we identified it as a priority corridor for increased growth, because that transit service, and not just in the east/west direction, but the fact that you can connect north/south so easily, opens up access to a much wider area.
[01:25:46]
And so, that just makes the usefulness of, specifically of the route 33, so much more than another route that maybe doesn't have as many intersections with other routes. Yes. So. Okay. Well, anything... Go ahead. Kind of a general question here. I'm a new guy. Yeah. How do you evaluate different areas for additional or brand-new transit lines? So- and I know that's a broad question. No, it's a very broad question. Obviously, we want what we think would be a sufficient amount of ridership, and ideally, that's generated in multiple ways. It's both residential, but then it's also business. It's other commercial developments. Because when you look at the weekly ridership, this isn't dropping down to zero.
[01:26:46]
We like to see and go through locations where people may work there, or there's doctor's offices and people have appointments, and so we're seeing a flow of ridership throughout the day. Also, we like to be able to connect from... This touches upon so many different... This is a unique one, almost, because it touches upon so many destinations. But most of these locations have multiple reasons for people to be there. If we're just going and, say, there's just a residential development. That'll generate good ridership in the morning and probably in the evening as people leave or come, but then sending a bus there throughout the rest of the day is less efficient.
[01:27:40]
So we're also trying to look at efficiencies about maximizing the dollar that we have. And then it's also, does it connect well into the system? Again, this is a very good example. It connects well into the rest of the system. Something like Latah is difficult because it doesn't connect. That is out there and still primarily residential, so you don't see a lot of trips there throughout other parts of the day, and then it's just back. Which is why we are also now looking at mobility-on-demand pilot projects, because we recognize that there are areas in the system, especially areas in our ptba that would like service, but maybe fixed-route service isn't the answer. So mobility on demand is going to have small shuttles that residents in that area can just book, basically, to get them back into the transit system.
[01:28:42]
As we're developing more of these more high-performance transit routes, and they have the enhanced stations, I was thinking especially about the connecting routes. You're on the bus, there is a little announcement that says, "this is the stop that connects to some other route." but when you get off at the stop, there's no way-finding. And this is especially when you're on the one-way streets. It could be down there and around the corner kind of situation. And I was just like, especially on those kind of streets, but some sort of way-finding at the stations, literally like, "go left." mm-hmm. "connects that direction." mm-hmm. Yeah. Just because I think the transfers could be really helpful, but for people who aren't... You're going to have to pull out a map and click through and zoom in and try and figure out where you're going.
[01:29:35]
I think that could be really helpful to help people feel more familiar. Yeah. So way-finding was part of connect 2035, and I think you're absolutely correct. Navigating the system, there's a level of difficulty involved, and- especially as we have more kids. Yeah. And it changes, and so- yeah... Yes. Great point. Well, there's where the sta website is terrific. The maps on the sta website, the stops, the number of stops, and all the rest of it. I call it bus surfing. And the kids are very good about it. They're very familiar with the websites. I don't know if you could use qr codes or something like that, that would take people to the sta website. I just had a curiosity question because of my history with that neighborhood. What are you seeing in your statistics about market street with all the businesses along there as being part of the route that gets more use, say, more in the middle of the day than in the beginning and the end?
[01:30:37]
I don't have the numbers on me, but I'm happy to share those with you. But you can see that's... Ridership was a driver of the entire matrix. And you definitely saw blue and green up there at the top. Mm-hmm. And then definitely at garlandso through there, we're definitely seeing more ridership. Yeah, and I'm just thinking market on the east end, because many years ago, that was a very busy commercial corridor. It's a little bit less now, but still, there's a fair amount of- yes... Businesses along the market street end. I'm just curious, one of the challenges you mentioned early on was where you have the little cement walls- mm-hmm... And you just have a sidewalk and then a street.
[01:31:33]
I had a situation with a rental house where the City said, "well, we own 50 feet from the middle of the street into your yard," and they plopped the new water meter, because we needed to repair the line, kind of in the middle of the yard. And I was kind of surprised, but I figured they knew what he was doing. Is there any legal rights that sta has or the City has to encroach on a few properties or compensate the people possibly, but to create the ideal bus stop? Because that seems like that's part of the issue is creating these nice stops. So I was just wondering legally what's allowed and then is there any strategies for trying to carve out a little more space? So legally- mission did that- yes... In the right of way. We are a governmental agency with rights associated with that, which means that we could legally do that, what you were just talking about.
[01:32:34]
But at heart, we're a more conservative organization, and we like to be patient. And so we would first negotiate. It would be a choice of last resort. Mm-hmm. And we might even just hold off at one point. Right now, the analysis is really leaning towards city-owned properties, which is nice. School properties, library properties. My department, community development, is also in charge of our tod. We have become more of buying property than we had in the past, so that is always an option. But we also try and get site licenses and site agreements where we'll pay for an easement or pay for a right of way, whether that's five feet or 10 feet.
[01:33:35]
So those are always our first steps is making appropriate offers. So legally you can, but you don't want- we've never done it... You don't want to- as far as I know... Create the ill will that would go with- yes... Those kind of decisions, but you might provide incentives to people in a couple specific cases- yes... If that's the right spot. Yes. Okay. Okay. Anything else for mike? Okay. Well, thanks a lot, mike. Yeah. Obviously, for me, this is very exciting, but- yes.... I imagine for everyone else as well. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moving on to the flume development introduction with someone who does not look like kevin. I am not kevin. I'm brandon whitmarsh, and I am filling in for kevin today, so give me a second. He's probably really disappointed he's not here to introduce the flume, though.
[01:34:43]
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. You know him well. So yeah. I am brandon whitmarsh, and on behalf of kevin today, I will be talking about the future land use map and how we work from the conversations that we've had so far into an actual map, with the details that you all have been wanting from the beginning. It's really not wanting to be helpful today. Just wanted to highlight that the preferred alternative was adopted by City Council last week, with a few modifications from when you guys recommended it, including the removal of the property in north indian trail, and then a small extension at the north end of the four line and along francis on the east side. So it originally was just at that intersection of francis and nevada, and now it's across francis as well.
[01:35:43]
Can I ask, because I was trying to dig up what these changes were- yes... Looking at minutes and agenda packets and all that the other day. Is that indian trail that was just that little node up further on indian trail? Yeah. Just northwest of that 23. Okay. That's what I thought. Okay. Yeah. Cool. And those were the only changes at Council? Correct. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. Those were the three changes. Just wanted to let you all know so that when we get to actually having changed maps, it's not a surprise where things are changing. In general, the future land use map is the main way we implement the direction of growth in the City. And speaking of the preferred alternative, that will also be the main driver of change across the map. So first off, we've discussed the land use designations quite a bit, including your last meeting. But we're talking about nine land use designations from the previous 19, looking at streamlining those designations, looking at future-focused designations that are general in nature, and may not match what's existing on the ground today, but really what we want to see as the future of that area over time.
[01:36:56]
And also, as previously discussed, we're looking at a range of zones being allowed within each land use. So, overall, to get to that final land use map, we're talking about the conversion of the existing map from the 19 land uses to the nine land uses that we've all discussed. That'll be that first shift just to get a clean baseline for everything, and then working from there, we'll work to do amendments within those preferred alternative areas, doing targeted amendments based on that preferred alternative, followed by engagement with the planning commission, with the public. I'll talk a little bit about what that looks like in the future. And then after that engagement, we'll bring it back for the planning commission hearing along with the entirety of the comp plan. So, the main things as we convert the existing land use map to the future land use map, removing areas outside the City. We are allowed to plan for areas outside of the City under GMA. However, there's not any regulatory effect on the areas that we're planning for, even if we do anticipate future annexation.
[01:38:08]
So just to prevent any confusion, we're looking at removing those areas from the land use map and just focusing on what we do have direct control over right now. Like I said, converting those 19 land uses down to nine land uses to really clean up the map, streamline general allowances, and then finally, over the last 20 or 30 years of technological changes we have a lot of minor mapping errors all over the City. So this is honestly taking more time than anything else to try to clean all of this up and really align the lines. You can see that open space and how that aligns with the parcel lines. Neither one of those two designations have ever changed, but that is indicative of what is all over the City. And so trying to clean that up and have something that is really clear, that we don't have to keep making those minor amendments every time we do a comp plan, like comp plan amendment piecemealing these just extra little five-foot strips all over the City, which has been the practice for a very long time.
[01:39:14]
And then working to amend that base land use map based on the preferred alternative. So that guidance will come from the preferred alternative, as well as some strategic guiding principles that we'll talk about on the next slide. Areas inside the preferred alternative boundaries are the only areas we're looking at intensity changes. Outside of that, when we're talking about the conversion of land uses from 19 to nine, there's obviously going to be changes in what the land use will be, but our intention is not to change the intensity. So, we might be talking about what exists as the residential two family of the duplex type land use exists as a land use, but isn't inclusive of middle housing and anything we would be talking about in residential low as a whole. And so that is like a one for one conversion.
[01:40:07]
That is a change in name, but not necessarily a change in intensity when we're talking about these things. And then finally, as we're going along, we're also identifying areas for future study and improvement. There are areas, this is the example out in the west plains around the airport, where when we annexed that area, we adopted the County's land use. These lines do not align with anything built on the ground today, but this is not within our preferred alternative area, and we are not intending to change anything in this particular location at this time. But it's a future conversation of finding these areas that may not be addressable through the preferred alternative changes now, but are areas that we do want to identify to resolve these mapping conflicts in the future. And then overall, I think this speaks to every presentation we've seen so far today, working to integrate the preferred alternative and the feedback we've heard from the planning commission, the community, through the drafting of the chapters, and then as well as integrating all of the ongoing studies and work that have been existing. So fifth avenue planning, that portion of fifth avenue is included in the preferred alternative area and is anticipating growth. That growth will be guided by the fifth avenue plan generally.
[01:41:27]
And then division tod, even wellesley at this point, we're talking about where are these additional future improvements we know are going to occur? Where can we accommodate and/or incentivize development based on those things? And then finally, a list of guiding principles that help us determine as we're adding these new places within the preferred alternative area, what are some of the changes we want to focus on? They're written out more extensively in your packet, and they're in priority order of when we come to a particular parcel or designation, what are our priorities and how do we weight balancing things that we've been talking about for a long time? So we have talked about, in the past, intensity near transit. That's a huge priority. Obviously, where the preferred alternative areas are is inherently linking those two things together, but really focusing new intensity around transit, maximizing the depth in the street, so we have a lot of designations that might just be one or two parcels, might only be half parcels or one parcel off of a main street, but when we're talking about certain designations, that isn't necessarily enough depth to develop at a scale that's reasonable for that designation. And so thinking about those kinds of things, filling out blocks, designating more than a single parcel, those kinds of things, so we don't have all of this kind of patchwork stuff around the City.
[01:42:59]
Again, this is generally limited to the preferred alternative areas, unless there's no change in intensity in doing so outside of that areaand then once we have integrated the preferred alternative into a draft land use map, then we will release that with the July release of the comprehensive plan as a whole. Then we are working on developing an online tool in which people will be able to do the thing everyone wants to do, which is zoom into particular properties and see what the changes are going to be, or the proposed changes are. And so this is the opportunity for both the public and the planning commission to really do that deep dive. Also, a time for us to have potentially targeted conversations about particular areas that either we have drafted something but we want your direct feedback on this particular area, or having larger conversations of things that maybe didn't fit into that general framework of guiding principles we just talked about, highlighting where we might make some changes that might not align with those as a whole.
[01:44:11]
And then taking all of that community feedback, like I said, we're really working on an online interactive option where people can literally place pins on the map and provide public comments that we can then integrate into the land use map. So the final aspect will be integrating public feedback, planning commission feedback into a clean land use map that will then be brought to you for your hearing later this year. Like I said, July draft is the tentative release of the land use plan map and all of the other maps and graphics along with the plan. And we'll continue to do engagement up to and through that hearing, all the way to Council. Community comments are always welcome, and I've put up the usual planspokane. Org and planspokane@spokanecity. Org for email.
[01:45:07]
We're happy to take comments. Are there any questions? It's going to be a busy June. So they're like, "oh, it's like a calm time." no. Yeah, but you won't hear from us during June because we're going to be busy doing that work. Yeah. It might get a little bit quiet in planning commission. We're putting our heads down so that we truly can bring a fully fleshed out map for conversation. Okay. I was going to say, that was going to be my next question, is when do we next touch this? As far as just timelines, as we've continued to discuss, I think that guiding framework that we put out as the general tools and principles we're going to use to develop or to implement the preferred alternative, that draft will be in that July release. And I don't know that there will be a conversation before that time with planning commission. But the time between that and the draft that will be the planning commission hearing version is the time that both the public and the planning commission can have discussions on those and really provide feedback.
[01:46:11]
I guess from my perspective, and maybe this is just a deeply, deeply nerdy perspective, but I think everyone else is probably on the same wavelength. I'd love to see the iterations. Like you walked us through the process. I'm really curious to see new land uses mapped onto existing map- yeah... And then see how that sort of morphs with the preferred alternative. If not for my own edification, if for no other reason than for my own edification, I would love to see that. So like, can we get a draft in gis, not just a pdf kind of deal, or? I mean, pdf is fine for me, but... Thinking in stages. Yeah. So what you're talking about is we're doing the, I forget what you called it in the presentation, brandon, the convert- yeah... Part. Yes.
[01:47:02]
Yeah. And then we're doing the amend- right... Part. Right. And you wanna see the convert part- and then-... Separate from the amend part. Yeah. Is that what you're saying? I'd like to just sort of look at them and see how they lay out and see how the pieces translate, because I think that's where the devil's gonna be in those details. Yeah. I mean, the- you wanna see where this- the map version of that. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Further you're not busy enough. Well, if you're creating it. If you're making it. Please don't do anything extra because of that, but if you're going to create it anyway. No. As the presenter of the topic, but not necessarily the decision maker of the topic- the viewer... I will bring back your feedback. I made that note. Presentation or- absolutely. I was like, no, just the nicest way. Just in the package, I think for me, helping me digest the changes and how things have moved around- mm-hmm... Would be helpful. But again, please don't.
[01:48:03]
It also helps us then see what the intensification is, if we know what it was before it was intensified. And how some of those decisions are made. Just because the names are all different. Yeah. Based on conversation so far, I can say I know that we internally intended to create a usable option that showed the base, meaning the converted base, with what the changes are on top of that, not necessarily something that shows what exists to the converted. No, no. That's not what I'm talking about. Oh, perfect. That makes things a lot easier. Yeah, base. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Not what it is now. Yes. No. The intention, which again, was conversation internally, but potentially could be a larger conversation, was to have something that was interactive, that had the base clean map that did not have the preferred alternative changes, simply had the conversion, and then the preferred alternative changes being able to see.
[01:48:55]
Because the preferred alternative changes are where we really have the most potential for conversation. Yeah. Right. And so it wouldn't make any sense for us to only show, to combine those two things as to one thing for- right... Consideration about what that change is. That's exactly the point that I was trying- yeah... Fumbling through making there. Otherwise, then we're all using different language and words and- sorry, I misunderstood the request. No, it's okay. It's late in the day, and I'm far from my best at this hour. So linda, please. I was very impressed with the procedure used for the refi project and the whole concept of putting the community first and finding out what the community wanted. I would like to suggest that as much of that as possible be brought into this process. And for example, that could involve putting, instead of convert, amend, engage, put engage, convert, amend, because people who live in the community are the ones who have the most information to give you and have the most at stake. And in addition, I very strongly recommend that there be engagement with neighborhood councils as these things are being worked out. That there, unfortunately, is not the same kind of time available for the refi project.
[01:50:17]
I was very impressed by the neighborhood institutions that were involved and the monthly regular meetings for real engagement. I don't see the time for that kind of thing being here, but I think engaging at a minimum with neighborhood councils is really important. Yeah. So, the basis of a lot of the changes, like I said, are based on the preferred alternative, which is general in nature, I will acknowledge, but is fully based in the community engagement that we've had up until this point. And then, completely agree with engaging with neighborhood councils. I know that was directly called out in the slides for when we're talking to other agencies as well, just recognizing that is the time to do that direct communication. And I think with the understanding that we'll convert, amend, engage, and then there will be revisions based on that engage.
[01:51:12]
Absolutely. Right? Yeah. Well, I think perhaps more useful conversions could take place if engagement occurred first, or at least contemporaneously. Well, I can say that kaycee presented to the central neighborhood Council, and they learned about this map, even though that wasn't part of the preferred alternative map that she was trying to talk about. They were like, "when is the map coming out? We're ready for the map. We have lots of comments for this map." so they are chomping at the bit. And we anticipate there being many. Yeah. I think based on just that one session even, I think the map is really going to help people engage. Don't forget, we also have the zoning map. Whoo. Which did come up when you were asking some of the questions about central. In my mind, the land use plan map will capture those broad categories, but some of the nuanced stuff about this block or that block may be- yeah, a lot of that conversation will get pushed into zoning, yeah.
[01:52:16]
Yeah, zoning. We can only handle so much excitement here. Yeah. We still have a goal of December for this work, so we'll be having public comment period then. But remember when it seemed like we could meet the original June deadline of the-... Like four years ago? No, you're like, "no, we never thought we could." never. Thanks for letting me know. That's like the old joke, what you mean we, white eyes? Okay, anything else? Great. Thank you, brandon. Appreciate it. Looking forward to this. Is there anything else for the good of the order? Hearing none, we're adjourned. You alive? Yeah. Thank you. I'm happy to be alive. It's funny, just the scope of change in this version-
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[00:00:02]
Yep. All right. Okay. Welcome, everybody, to Wednesday, may 27, 2026 Plan Commission workshop. Emily, will you take the roll, please? President bank? Here. Vice president patterson? Here. Commissioner lenhart? Here. Commissioner Madsen? Absent. Commissioner rasanen? Here. Commissioner Tamoush? Here. Commissioner williams? Absent. Commissioner yotz? Here. We do have a quorum, and then Council member mikulski is absent, and community assembly liaison Linda Carroll? Present. Good to go. Very good. Thank you. Okay, so I guess before we jump into the agenda, we will open the public comment for anyone who'd like to submit any comment for items that are not on today's agenda. Do we have anyone who would like to provide any comment? Seeing no one in the room, I don't believe we have anyone online, so we will go ahead and close the public comment, and we will move on to approving the may 13 meeting minutes. Can I hear a motion, please?
[00:01:05]
Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. Motion carries. We will move past the Council liaison report, as I don't see Council member mikulski here. So we'll move into a community assembly liaison report. Linda? Nothing to report because there hasn't been a community assembly meeting since the last time we met. Yeah. Very good. Thanks, linda. On to president's report. It'll be relatively light today. Commissioner yotz and I sat in on the transportation impact fee meeting a little bit ago. That's something that'll be coming to us later this year, which is an update to the fees that development projects are charged for road transportation, not utilities, which is gfcs, and we don't want to open that can of worms again.
[00:02:02]
So, we're going to focus just on transportation impact stuff. So, I think it was a pretty good discussion, and we'll look forward to the proposal evolving as we move forward, and to a good discussion in here. On to secretary report. I've got two things. The first is our new draft chapters for the comp plan are out on planspokane. Org, so go check that out. Our last release was October, so a lot has changed. We've incorporated feedback from subcommittees, from public comments that have come in, from the community assembly, from all of the outreach that we've done around the drafting of the chapters. So, there's probably a lot of change from if you were reviewing the version that was just there.
[00:02:57]
You'll see a lot of change there. And this is all the chapters, right? This is- but not the maps? Does this... Great. Yes. Thank you. That's what I thought. It's up to you. And yes- implementation... Implementation, which is also being renamed from implementation, but we're still figuring out what to call it. How do we do this? Yeah. So, yes, there are no maps. Yep. But the land use and transportation chapters and housing chapters are included. Good. Great. Okay, so that was the first thing. The second, we've had a couple of, permit applications come in that are in need of design review. So you may recall, several months ago, because of the lack of volume for the design review board to consider, the City decided to sunset the design review board and instead give that responsibility to the Plan Commission, which can convene a subcommittee to do the design review part of things. We now need to convene that subcommittee. So, we're expecting to have three members of Plan Commission participate on that.
[00:04:19]
At this time, we have one application that is in and ready to go. So probably within, I don't know if we have a timeframe, but I would guess maybe in a month or so, or within the next month, we'd probably be having a meeting. Each application only needs one meeting, so that's one change from previous process. But we also have, I think, two other projects that we expect to come in, so it could be potentially three meetings, one for each project. The meetings would occur separately, so we're not going to stack them all into one meeting or anything like that. And the process would involve the applicant providing renderings and information about the project. Staff would be developing a staff report that identifies the design guidelines and then provides, I guess, some discussion points for the subcommittee. And then the subcommittee has a presentation from the applicant, a presentation from staff, and then essentially deliberates on any gaps in the design and potential recommendations for conditions to be put on the application to address any design issues. That all happens in one meeting, so we're trying to be efficient here.
[00:05:36]
But we are looking for three people, so I don't know if we can maybe get volunteers here or how you want to- so a couple questions. First, do we need to do a vote of some kind to establish the subcommittee, or can we just say- no... It is so established? Yeah. The subcommittee's already identified in code. Okay. And that can be a rotating cast, so we'll probably have the same people work on these three applications because they're bunched together. But if we got another application in six months, we'd probablyfind new people and second question, is this a quasi-judicial hearing? That's the second time I've said that, like a half an hour and butchered it. Does that move to quasi-judicial or does the recommendation go to Council? How are those conditions handled? In the code, if a unanimous recommendation is made by the subcommittee, then either the building official or the planning director, depending on the nature of the application, is obligated to include it as a condition of approval.
[00:06:48]
Okay. The code does give some leeway for items that the subcommittee might recommend that conflict with other standards in the code or things like that. So just because the subcommittee says it doesn't make it a condition- okay... But that's how it has generally operated. Okay. Very good. Can you remind us what triggers a design review again? So there's a couple of different types of projects. The first is geographically based, and that's anything in the downtown area. Okay. And there's actually a map that shows that. And it's not anything in the downtown area, you have to meet certain thresholds. One of the applications that is likely to come forward would be renovations of a building that includes a complete change to the facade. And so once you hit a certain threshold of changes to the facade, then you trigger design review. And then, of course, any complete new construction in the downtown area would have design review over... I forget the threshold.
[00:07:46]
I think it's 20,000 square feet or something, but once you hit a certain size, then you're subject to design review. The other big one that is likely to come up, probably more frequently than any other, is public projects. So if you're funded through public dollars, then you come through for design review. So that would be like schools. Okay. Sometimes we have parks. Is there a size threshold of that? I don't think the code has a size threshold. I think typically, publicly funded projects are just assumed to be larger in nature. There are some- park toilets. Well. So there are some alternative means of engagement. So like parks, for example, if they are doing an alternative outreach process with the neighborhood that involves reviewing the designs, for example, then they're exempt from the design review process. So, there are ways to solicit that feedback without the design review process, and then you're exempted.
[00:08:48]
Okay. Okay. That's interesting. Yep. Okay. And of course, some of this might or is likely to change as we completely rewrite our code. Sure. All of that. We have this for now, so. Okay. Great. Anyway, if we can identify three people that would be willing to serve on that committee. Okay. We don't have specific times yet for meetings. I think we'll expect to work that out with people's schedules as we are ready to actually have an application meeting. Okay. Very good. Well, do we have any volunteers? I'm happy to, though it's likely at some point I will not be. Yes. If I have projects that- I will throw my hat in with the same proviso of just why I asked that question a moment ago. Sure. Yeah. I'd like to volunteer- okay... Or be an alternate if there's more- okay... People, more options for people. Yeah.
[00:09:42]
The value of the subcommittee format is that if we do have a conflict for some reason, it's easy to just pull somebody in- yeah. Yeah. As a replacement. Happy to stand in as an alternate too. Okay. Well, I will work on getting that scheduled. We may also have a pre-meeting, because there's also design professionals that we invite in to participate as well. I think it'd be good for us to do some training in advance of the meeting just so that you understand the guidelines and the process. So, we will probably schedule that first and then hold the actual design review meeting for the application that has come in. Great. May I be a part of that training for the committee? Yes. We thought about doing that training just in a planning commission meeting, and if we can find time, that might be a good forum for it. Yeah. I think it would.
[00:10:34]
Yeah. We're not that busy. In the interest of time so that we can process the application that's in there, we may do a more narrow training with just the committee. Sure. Yeah. But yes, I think the intent is that eventually we would come and do a training for the whole planning commission. Just as a suggestion, if there isn't time in the regular agenda, but there's a day we don't have a hearing, maybe it could be tacked on. Just because that time is somewhat flexible in case there is hearings anyway a lot of times. Yeah. Okay. Good. I think that's it. Very good. All right. Well, thank you, and thank you to those members that threw their hat in. I think this will be interesting. I'm certainly looking forward to it, so I think it'll be a pretty enjoyable process. On to transportation commission. At the last meeting last week, there were two people from WSDOT that came to do a presentation on the north-south corridor.
[00:11:34]
And they didn't get all the way through their presentation, so they'll be there again next month. But they shared specifically that there are story maps from the whole process available at nsplace. Com. So if people want more details about how it's been presented over the last few years. They also had a new rendering video of mostly the intersection at I-90 area. I don't know that's available on the website or yet. But it was really helpful to see, even though we've all been looking at 2d maps for a decade, showing the pedestrian bridges specifically and how the on-off ramps are going to be designed. They also showed that a lot of those pedestrian overpasses now have covers specifically to help reduce snow load.
[00:12:29]
Oh, wow. However, they also mentioned the new pedestrian overpasses are wide enough, and they now have a machine that can clear snow. Oh, nice. Although they did make sure to say it is the priority after the car places. Of course. Yeah. And they used a lot of neighborhood feedback as far as which direction the ramp should point, because if they've got to start somewhere, and they are a lot longer because they're all ada accessible now, as opposed to the spiral buddies we have currently. So, the one on carnahan, it kind of ends farther east because most of the destinations that people want to get to are there, like where the walmart and- right... Lowe's are. Also showed that the original modeling that they had 15-ish years ago for this had four lanes each direction meeting with I-90, and they have since scaled that down, both for right-sizing for what we really need and a different view on how it should be acting, that it maybe doesn't need to be as super free-flowing all the time.
[00:13:39]
Also for money reasons. So there is a reduced footprint, and that's part of the reason why there is that excess land that exists. Talked about landscaping, and really they're doing it for visual quality, but also native plants. No irrigation except for to establish is kind of their model, and more trees. So shared-use paths on both sides will be part of the plan along I-90 there. Mm-hmm. And all the part of that's in that excess land. Mm-hmm. And also shared the first rendering of the roundabout at altamont, which it's not technically a roundabout, it's like a three-way roundabout on each side because they are one-way streets that go either way. So it looks like the pin you drop for a map-... Drop shape.
[00:14:37]
So hopefully that will help reduce clumping of cars as they go onto the freeway, but also just help with the flow of traffic in those areas. They have more information on the enhanced pedestrian crossing land bridge, but that will be coming in the next months because they didn't quite get to that. They did show a quick shot. It's not quite a full lid land bridge, but it's wider than 16 feet and will probably include some plants, so. Okay. Oh, yeah. And there are no noise walls, because someone specifically asked about noise mitigation, except at 4th and havana, because there is an apartment building on that corner. 4th and havana, it's on the south side of the freeway there.
[00:15:36]
Any other apartment buildings that come in the future- they-... Just out of luck. They said that the modeling for what exists there did not necessitate it, so. It's because they tore it all down, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very true. I don't know if there's any planning or budget for what happens as development, especially in that excess land happens. But I think they're part of it. I know that's all kind of up in the air still right now. Right. Sta came and talked about their transit development plan. In summary, here's how it's been going with their six-year plan. It will be published, oh man, I totally wrote that down. Soon. Mm-hmm. Cool.
[00:16:27]
It's coming out. This was their first meeting to present it, really just talking about more timeline specific on how they're going to implement the improvements over time. Of note, I also noticed that in their capital improvement budget, 49% is going to high performance transit. Hmm. Wellesley and division are obviously the kind of main focuses of those high performance transit zones. And the wellesley high performance transit construction timeline is '27 to '29, with the full route being kind of a sfcc up to wellesley down to scc route. And, oh, also building an argonne station. We'll all see how that turns out. It looked real close to I-90. People were wondering how that was going to work, but yeah.
[00:17:24]
Okay. And a bus-only lane onto I-90 there, yeah. Beautiful. Oh, yeah. There's an open house June 9th at the library downtown, and it'll be adopted in July. There was a short presentation on school streets by staff, really just a what are school streets. School streets being an area in front of a school that can be closed off either permanently or just during school drop-off, pickup hours. Kind of a reduce the traffic that's not school buses right in front of the school. Some cities have them permanently closed and can use them as part of their programming, but those tend to be much more dense urban schools. Other cities just, they have barricades. They put them out in the morningthey take them down. So it's something that is being discussed.
[00:18:19]
Cycle 15 traffic calming projects, kind of just brought up again. They're just every month kind of checking in. The final selection will be in the fall, october-ish. There were 30 projects selected to be scoped by a consultant. 21 of those were from public comment, and so they haven't previously been scoped by any other staff. And the City Staff that is helping work on this are going out and visiting all of those locations on foot, to just kind of see what it's like when you're not, especially in a vehicle, at those proposed projects to see... The point being is there is a problem, but we don't know. The scoping will help determine what the best solutions are for the project. And, a quick discussion on parking environment improvement.
[00:19:15]
Just there is currently some money being spent, that is about to run out, helping clean up litter on the south side of I-90. And maybe we could use some parking meter money to help fund that. Mm. I don't think there's a lot of it. However, it was noted that the bond payments for the parking garage will be done in '28. Wow. When in '28, I'm not totally sure. But we're- yeah, that's- is that a 30 year bond we've been paying? And that's about $1.8 or $9 million a year. That's nothing. There will be money available from parking meters in about two years to do more substantial. So people talked a little bit about other possible projects, especially given those entryways into downtown and...
[00:20:15]
Another option that would be to spend the money is to develop an ada, I wrote transition plan, but really it's more of a self-evaluation of what our ada built environment is and, is it working? Does it need to change? Do we need to build more? And linwood had a similar plan that was brought up. Is that right? That's it. All right. Well, thank you. Go ahead, darren. Thanks for your thorough report. It's interesting stuff. The land bridge, is that funded? And secondly, where's it going to go? Oh, at least the design is funded. It was specifically noted that it will not be the same design as there was some obama-era design competition that happened.
[00:21:12]
It's not going to be that design. Spencer might have- I can share an update. Yeah. As far as we know, there is funding for- oh... Some percentage of design. Yeah. I think they're hoping to get to 30% design with it. Yeah. But there is no funding for construction of the- yeah... Of the bridge. Location would be by liberty park. So, like pittsburgh, medelia, around? I mean, somewhere between perry and lee, because lee is going to have another pedestrian bridge, so it would... Which is lee, stone, as you're on your way to altamont. So, yeah. I'm guessing it would, yeah, because you also probably wouldn't be right over perry because there is an underpass there. But the idea is to have it connect the park with the other side.
[00:22:09]
Okay. All right, well, thank you. So let's move on to approval of the current agenda. May I hear a motion, please? Motion to approve. Second. Okay, motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. All right, we have an approved current agenda, and with that we'll move to refive draft fifth avenue community plan with maren and della. So, we have our consultant online, radhika nair, who will actually go through the presentation. Hi, radhika. Hi. Welcome. So yeah, I'll just kick it off and then radhika can share her screen and go through it. But timely discussion, building off of what we all just talked about, I guess a few things to start, seeing that it's a compressed agenda.
[00:23:11]
We do want to get through our presentation and then have time for discussion. So, if there's not an absolute burning question, we'd hope to have you all write it down, and then we can come back. We are also going to assume that you all had a chance to look through the packet, so it's the same presentation there. So we won't be reading everything or going through, but we can certainly have discussions as you guys see things that you'd like to jump into. But we might stay a little bit high level on some of that, just assuming that there's been a little bit of awareness so far. So, with that, I will turn it over to radhika, let her introduce herself and take it away. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm radhika nair. I'm the principal planner and the project manager on the consultant side for the refive community plan. I'm excited to be here and to be talking with you. I'll share my screen so we can get the powerpoint up. Sorry, can you all see my screen?
[00:24:23]
Yes. Yeah. I'll try to put this in full screen mode. I wanted to start out by orienting you to the study area, talking a bit about the project arc, and the timeline, and some of the engagement efforts that have influenced the plan. And as maren mentioned, I can spend most of my time talking about the goals and strategies because I know you've had this in your packet and probably don't want to spend a lot of time on it. So the fifth avenue planning area is focused on the community south of I-90 in east central neighborhood, which goes between liberty park, or the study area goes between liberty park and francis scott elementary, and the City boundary at havana street. The planning process started in early 2025 and continued through visioning and baseline conditions analysis in the summer of 2025, and transitioned to draft plan development in the fall of 2025. And now early this year, we have a draft plan that we're preparing to release this week to the public.
[00:25:39]
And we'll be gathering feedback over the summer, revising it in early fall before the legislative process starts, and targeting adoption by the end of the year. Community ideas and input define the baseline conditions and the topics that were explored in more technical analysis. It became the framework for the vision and goals of the plan. And so the project team facilitated a breadth of events across every stage of the plan development process. We have some images from the activities that included visioning, workshops, interviews, conversations in parks, and community events.
[00:26:35]
And across all of these events, we heard a lot of interest in walkability and pedestrian infrastructure, and that was probably the strongest theme that we heard. People really linked the availability and quality of the pedestrian experience to a sense of community, to small business development, to safety. And closely linked to that was the idea of traffic calming. There was a lot of interest in making sure that the streets are easy to walk and for people of all ages and abilities. And there were also lots of comments appreciating improvements to the ben burr trail, but wanting to see further improvements to improve connectivity and just accessibility for bicyclists and walkers. As I mentioned, the baseline conditions work, instead of just looking at a comprehensive list of topics, really built on the community input and looked at topics, and that became the framework of the plan.
[00:27:39]
And before I walk through the plan, I wanted to share that this work to promote a thriving community in fifth avenue is not new. The plan is the result of a lot of ongoing community-led initiatives, including the fifth avenue initiative and other partnerships and advocacy work that the City and community have been working on for a long time. So this plan is just building on that sequence. The plan has some crosscutting themes. They are respect which is about balancing equity issues in east central through just economic opportunity and affordability and environmental justice. There's resilience. This is about thinking about climate adaptation in infrastructure and policy and programming. And then also resourcefulness, which is about, as I mentioned, just the ongoing partnership between the City and the community to make sure that a lot of the plan's goals and strategies can be achieved.
[00:28:47]
The plan goals are long-term outcomes that the community hopes to achieve. And there are five goals in the plan. They're around identity, connectivity, livability, prosperity, and stability. And I'll go through each of them and some of the linked strategies. Sorry. Identity is about cementing and honoring the neighborhood's history, filling the neighborhood with art and color, and celebrating today's community. So the linked strategies are about beautifying fifth avenue, organizing shared experiences, but also importantly, celebrating the neighborhood as the heart of Spokane's black community. Connectivity is about improving the experience of the neighborhood for those who are walking, biking, taking transit.
[00:29:42]
As I mentioned, this was a really strong priority that came through community engagement. So the strategies that go with this goal include making the neighborhood more accessible, more connected, complete sidewalk networks, better access to transit, and things like that. The livability goal is about making a welcoming and comfortable space for people of all ages and abilities. So we have things like more playful and safe community spaces, mitigating heat, building programs that increase active living, and things like that. The prosperity goal is the more traditional economic development one. It's about a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable local economy, really thinking about community assets like small businesses and nonprofits and cultural organizations that are already there. And the strategies think about how commercial activity can both be sustained and encouraged, and also the kinds of partnerships that would be necessary to achieve this future. The stability goal is around housing. We heard a lot about wanting to make sure that there's affordable housing that does not create any displacement of existing residents.
[00:30:59]
So the goal has strategies around housing affordability, about promoting homeownership, especially for first-time buyers, and other creative tools to acquire sites for housing. There's a vision plan in the document as well, and this plan lays out a series of coordinated investments at targeted locations which are intended to align with the goals and the strategies, but also kickstart some of the more programmatic and regulatory strategies that are envisioned in the plan. So just going from liberty park, there's the idea of starting with the perry street underpass, the idea of just making that underpass more lively with more color and a mural, and I know there's a separate process around that, so the plan just nods to that being an important connection and intervention.
[00:32:04]
The next one is a welcome mat or a raised intersection and some art at liberty park to just anchor and welcome people to all of the civic infrastructure that's there with the library and the pool and the park. Ideas for intersection improvements like sidewalks and bulb-outs and plantings and lighting that will make intersections safer for pedestrians and calm traffic. Ideas for temporary activation along that core of businesses and lots near the carl maxey center and fresh soul. And then I think one of the most exciting actions and strategies in the plan, thinking about francis scott elementary and a partnership with the trust for public lands to make the schoolyard green and more of a community public space. It's already a pretty successful one, but just enhancing it.
[00:33:09]
The plan also proposes some ideas to change or tweak the land use framework, and this map shows some of the categories that have been proposed. Some of the ideas are around just building more commercial activity around the existing-- the commercial activity or nodes are shown in blue. There's the idea of just north of mlk center having a commercial node, and then along 5th avenue, along near fresh soul and carl maxey, just continuing that, and then around fred meyer and going down on powers street, a more moderate intensity mixed use, and also north of francis scott elementary, having some more moderate mixed use that would have both commercial uses, more pedestrian-oriented commercial uses, but also support housing.
[00:34:18]
We also indicate some connectivity improvements. I won't go through all of this, but there are safety improvements and as I mentioned, sidewalk and infrastructure improvements. Some priority bus stops that the community has identified for interventions to improve the experience for transit users, and just priority locations for where these improvements can go. We've also indicated where the festival street would go to activate the street as more of a people space. I'll just click through some of the more targeted interventions that I walked through from the perry street underpass and the welcome mat. This is a visualization of what could potentially happen near liberty park and the library.
[00:35:13]
These are some of the traffic calming and intersection improvements. Things like shade structures and tree canopy, bump-outs and sidewalks on both sides, crosswalks, bike lanes, those kinds of things. Some of the early thinking around how the schoolyard could be reimagined to support both student recreation, but also add open space during non-school hours. The plan also has some early wins or what we call day one projects, and they're essentially projects that the working group identified as steps that can be taken immediately, either because there's available funding or existing relationships. The school-- some ideas are pursuing the designation of a cultural district for the neighborhood, which is something 5th avenue forward has already been exploring.
[00:36:12]
The greening schoolyard program, since we had the school principal on the working group, the conversation around that has already startedand then a lot of the transportation improvements that the City would lead that are also high priority and could potentially create the momentum for some of the more longer-term changes that the plan envisions. That's the summary of the draft plan. But as I mentioned earlier, we plan to release the plan this week for just more public review and comment. We do have a range of events and tools planned to gather feedback. We were already at the east central neighborhood Council on the 19th, and we're here today.
[00:37:05]
We'll be shortly releasing a draft plan survey that people can take to give us feedback. We've planned an online meeting on June 11th to just go through the plan and gather feedback. We will have, just like we did during wishling, we'll have an online discussion wall and an interactive map open if people want to give place-based input. We will be at several community events throughout the draft plan engagement phase. I know we plan to be at the juneteenth community events and several others that we're still looking at. And the idea is to offer a mix of tools and be at different locations so that we can get pretty robust feedback. We also plan to translate the survey, and have some small group discussions in potentially spanish, so that we can make sure to capture all of that feedback.
[00:38:08]
I think the more complete schedule is on the website, and mymanda can share any updates to the schedule that we might have. That's all I have. I'll stop sharing and welcome any questions that commissioners might have. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks, radhika. We might jump to a map or a slide, so just be ready for that. Oh, sure. Yeah. Do you want me to keep the presentation up? Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you. Questions? I'll kick it off. Please. Just so I have some context here, once the plan is adopted, what happens to it? So once the plan's adopted, then we integrate it into our own processes. The priorities get reflected through and integrate into capital improvement or looking for grants, give us a foundation to pursue those opportunities.
[00:39:13]
The land use discussions are kind of aligned with the comp plan. So, this happening in tandem with it will inform what changes would be made in that area, depending on the final growth strategy that is identified. So that would be a separate process able to make those changes. So kind of a lot of additional steps to go forward, similar to south logan, where it provides the framework to get us moving. But really consolidating all those ideas, working with partners through this work, or in parallel with that, the fifth half forward group has formed a coalition, and they have their 501 [c] [3] status. So there's some other sort of community things that have come along that can help keep the attention on the plan and keep the energy moving as well.
[00:40:13]
So I guess on that note, are the land use recommendations generally tracking with what's being discussed in the comprehensive plan? And if they're not, how is a conflict between the two resolved? Yeah. Do you want to, radhika, go to the land use framework? Sure. Yeah. We've been working closely with the team on the land use. You can see we're more talking about the kind of qualities or the values that we would want to maintain. So, lower intensity, moderate intensity, residential, mixed use. So trying to use similar terminology without identifying the exact category right now, knowing that is still in flux. So that was kind of where we landed. And from my knowledge, it's still aligned. But there's still looking towards the comp plan to provide the ultimate decision point on how many categories we have or what that looks like. And then using the land use framework as the concept to guide how that would be applied locally.
[00:41:19]
Yeah, because obviously it strikes me that there's a big subject of discussion around there. Yeah. And if does growth get pushed here, does growth not get pushed here? Who decides where that growth goes? It seems like this study should guide that, but I was curious about- yeah... How those two are relating to one another. We provided this work for the EIS, and so it was part of those modeling. But yeah, it's been kind of going together at the same time. Good. Right. Okay. Kind of more specifically on that, one of the areas is listed as lower intensity mixed use, and I'm just kind of wondering how that might differ from neighborhood business. I was going to say neighborhood mixed use. Business, retail use, and does the study maybe have more details that could help identify more specifically what it is.
[00:42:14]
Is it another in between zone? No. Yeah. Again, this is why we're trying to- yeah... Follow what that discussion is. So understanding that there was different levels of mixed use, and how that might relate tothe nodes or the hubs concept. I don't know where we landed on that. But yeah. So trying to identify the values that we want to see. Some of that is similar intensity to what you see now around fresh soul. Maybe allowing one or two more stories. Mm. Although you can have three stories there, it's just hasn't seen a lot of redevelopment. Yeah. And then some slight intensification north of there towards the freeway. And then over in the thor freya area, trying to build on the mixed use concepts that are really promoting pedestrian connectivity.
[00:43:18]
It is a very busy north-south corridor. Not seeing that change in the future necessarily, but as we can contribute to east-west connectivity, trying to highlight the values that we see there and hope that as the land use or the growth strategy is formalized, we're able to align with those that are promoting pedestrian connectivity, transit, biking, and really see that improvement applied throughout. And then as far as the lower intensity residential, so right now part of it is... Well, yeah. So it is lower intensity right now, and trying to maintain that home ownership and the ability to move through the housing opportunities was a really big focus.
[00:44:19]
People want to be able to stay in the neighborhood and not have to leave to find other opportunities, whether it is buying a house or accessing apartments or not. So looking at that balance within here. But knowing that we are talking about slight intensification overall in that category as well city-wide, so just monitoring that and hoping that... Or making sure that we're aligning with those conversations. Let me just zoom in on this. My eyes are apparently not good enough. Oh, no, I'm really good at guessing what those words are. Yeah, I'm referring some numbers. Thank you so much. Oh. Ah. So some of this is a response to some of the visioning things. So you saw on the vision map, we are reflecting what WSDOT has proposing as far as the land bridge and the infrastructure they're working on around the pedestrian crossings, the roundabout.
[00:45:23]
So knowing that's coming, we're at least reflecting that and thinking how that might relate within the community. So we have proactively identifying additional open space where the land bridge might be. And that still has to be determined, but trying to reflect some there. And then the b area is looking at changes that would come along altamont from the roundabout there, and anticipating more traffic volumes and people accessing the freeway. So a shift from residential to more mixed use. And then there will be a pedestrian plaza, so that's why it's going up there to maybe try to help activate the pedestrian with some mixed use as well there. And then the c is looking at-- there is some potential right-of-way surplus land in there.
[00:46:22]
And so between the current lower intensity neighborhood commercial that we have now, and then the more moderate intensity around freya and thor, it leaves a little pocket behind freya and thor. So looking at some maybe more moderate residential opportunities there, and as potential surplus lands might be available, considering that there's some larger parcels there that could allow for redevelopment. And then similar on the other side of francis scott, as svata convention, there is a community vision already underway through take up the cause and maji rising to do mixed use, residential, commercial, kind of a healthcare focus there. So wanting to reflect the intensity to match what they would hope to see as well. But some of that is still dependent on the surplus lands too.
[00:47:30]
Tim. I really like the making fifth avenue the focus. A lot of the proposed increase in development is along third avenue, and I'm just kind of wondering with the freeway, the traffic, what kinds of... There's a couple of thoughts. One is to just plant a row of pine trees along there to help buffer the neighborhood from the freeway, which is up above. Sound wall. And then the other is to think about what kinds of businesses, since there's so much traffic, the kinds where people pull in and need to drive to maybe a commercial strip versus having a residential development right next to the freeway there. So I was just wondering what the thoughts have been about what kinds of development would see along third avenue, and how can we help mitigate the impact on the rest of the neighborhood from the heavy- yeah... Amount of traffic that's going to go both on third and the freeway.
[00:48:28]
Yeah. The City has been engaging with WSDOT and the community on how to address that. So there are some efforts underway to look at visual and sound mitigation in this area. Sort of above and beyond what WSDOT has initially proposed. So that's kind of a separate process through the legislature that is directing WSDOT to do some of that work. And then the balance between residential and mixed use, a lot of what was there was residential. So not saying that we need people to live directly by the freeway, but the community feels strongly that replacing what was lost and allowing whatever form they see as restorative is a really important part of the conversation. So it is a balance, and we looked at some examples of how to shift some of that sort of environmental health to tree plantings or other sort of external features, as well as kind of internal building structure as well. So there's some examples over in Seattle with building close to freeways and whatnot.
[00:49:47]
But yeah, we're working with WSDOT to ensure that those considerations are at the forefront of the development and the infrastructure and try to reflect that as well. How was WSDOT included in this process? Well, we've mostly been working through the community as the main focal point. So we've been sharing updates throughout on kind of mutual meetings, but the focus really has been with the community to drive that voice forward and capture what they want to see primarily. And a lot of this is-- WSDOT discussions make up a small portion of the plan. The majority is focusing on livability, connectivity, shifting the focus to fifth avenue, looking at different ways that the City can support the momentum that's already there.
[00:50:49]
So this is definitely not a WSDOT plan. It's a community plan and driven by the community voice. Yeah, I just wanted to add on to that, just to illustrate one example of where I think we're trying to focus more on the needs that are coming from the community. Maren pointed out the land bridge portion. As I mentioned earlier, the land bridge has no funding. There's no definite timeline for construction. One of the questions I think we're trying to answer with this plan is the land bridge sounds like a great idea. I think we're happy to see that make progress, but we also want to talk about what's happening in the meantime. And so that particular area is a place where we're asking, well, what is the interim condition? Because we don't want that to sit fallow for 50 years for a land bridge that has an uncertain timeline. And so that is, again, that conversation with the community.
[00:51:45]
So yes, WSDOT, we're aware of what they're doing, and we try to coordinate with them on those things. But at the end of the day, we're really working with the community there to understand what their needs are and see how we can meet those, regardless of what may happen in the future from other agencies. Okay. And we do have to cut it off there because we are over time on this one. So thank you all. Will we have another touch point with this? Yeah. So we'll be back in September after engagement and kind of reflect what we've heard and what changes we've made. So looking at a workshop and then public hearing, going through the process in September, October. But if you're interested in engagement and coming to any of the events, please do. We are getting the website updated right now, so it's not live. All the information is not quite there yet, but hopefully by the end of the week is our goal.
[00:52:41]
Great. Yeah. Thank you. Well, thank you all. This is really exciting. Okay, moving on to plan Spokane 2046 chapter review release, incorporating climate and environmental justice review. A real mouthful with kaycee. You want to get some terms in the agenda. You got them. So we met with you all at your last workshop, providing an update on the chapter review. This is kind of just added onto that with some good information or news that the chapters are out. Spencer stole my thunder with that, but really want to emphasize that the chapters are out and ready for folks to take a look at. So as a reminder, we are working on the chapter review process in addition to all the preferred alternative and land use. These are the goals and policies that are part of the comprehensive plan, focusing on streamlining and updating policies based on legislative requirements, but also what we're hearing from the community, and to make the document more usable, easier for folks to understand.
[00:53:40]
And so we do have the publication. They went live this morning. A big shout-out to our web team, spent a lot of time uploading a lot of documents. So appreciate them for getting this available. So this is all of the chapters with an asterisk that the implementation chapter, chapter two, is not yet out. We are considering a different name for this chapter because it's just not descriptive. It's more monitoring and reporting. Implementation comes outside of the document. So we're working on that, but we're also working on getting State direction because this chapter will also include the five-year check-in that we need to do with commerce. So that's why that chapter is delayed, kind of working through that. But all the other chapters are out and available from the introduction, all the chapters. A glossary is available as well that has updated terminology and definitions, so we can all have a shared understanding of the terms that are being used in the document.
[00:54:39]
This version does not have maps. It also doesn't have a lot of graphics. We have kind of filler languagethe intent is to have this focus on the goals and policies for community members to really read through. And then the next release, which is tentatively mid-july, will have all of that other information. So chapter review page is up. We have all of the chapters on there. Once you hit the drop-down for folks, there is a description of what the chapters are to give folks a little bit of context before they dive in, and then the links to all of the chapters. And we encourage folks to take a look, all of you, all members of the public, to read through and see what has been done. At the top of all the chapters is a kind of how to read the drafts page. These versions have icons. All the versions that we've been working on lately have icons, but this is a little bit explaining what they are, to try and explain why changes were made, what changes were made to bring folks along with the process.
[00:55:43]
So, as people read through, they'll see icons. For instance, the globe, that's policies that came through the climate resilience and sustainability board. We have notes saying policies were removed, or these new policies were created, trying to just explain the process to make it a little bit easier for people to follow along. And we want to flag in two of the big components that have been integrated into this process. Climate planning, you all have heard a lot about that, but we just wanted to do a refresher for any members of the public watching, because globes are probably one of the most frequently persistent icon aside from just, like, oh, explanation point, this changed. So yes, climate was integrated. It was integrated throughout all of the chapters, not a separate chapter, which is why we have the icon throughout all of the chapters as you review. And this was in order to meet house bill 1181, the requirement of incorporating climate and resiliency, and we opted to integrate to show that climate and resiliency affects really all the topics that are captured in the comprehensive plan. There were policies recommended by the climate resilience and sustainability board.
[00:56:50]
A number of them have been reviewed by the planning commission subcommittee. A lot of them were in the growth strategy chapter and the transportation chapter, so they were discussed during those subcommittee meetings. We had sixty-six primary policies recommended by the climate board. Primary means they directly related to house bill 1181. Overall, we had seventy-five. The additional ones were based off community engagement, what we heard during the climate planning process. I was going through all of our updated language. Seventy-three policies are incorporated. Two were not added just because they were redundant to policies that were already there. A number of them did replace existing policies, so they weren't just adding that many new policies. There's a little bit of give and take. But, those were the policies that were added based off of the crsb recommendations. And again, folks can look for the globe icon to really see what those policies are and what they look like.
[00:57:52]
A bit of a new conversation, but related to climate planning, is the environmental justice review. So the environmental justice review memo was in the briefing paper. This was an effort to look at land use and transportation policies through an equity lens to see how these policies can support environmental justice. This didn't go through the climate planning policy process. This is more of the consultants taking an eye at policies that were already in the chapters that were being updated to let us know, did they identify anything that was a concern with the language? Or suggestions for how the policies can ultimately be implemented to support environmental justice in the community. That full memo is on the climate planning page now and is linked in the briefing paper.
[00:58:45]
But overall, there were three policies that were rated as potentially negative. These ones related to money costs. So we did work on finding language to allow for considerations that costs can negatively impact certain communities, particularly low-income communities. So maybe costs should be evaluated. So we did add language to kind of move that away from the negative, to have that recognition in the policy language itself to support the ultimate implementation, to have a little bit more of an equity lens. Sixteen of the policies were neutral, just means they didn't directly call out equity or supporting specific communities, but didn't have a negative effect. It was going to be dependent on how we implement. And then thirty-nine of the policies were rated as positive, meaning they directly supported environmental justice in the community. So we thought this was really great.
[00:59:38]
We didn't have a lot of x's on the policies that we were proposing, and we were able to update language on some of those policies. In the drafts that are currently online, we have notes when any of the language was adjusted. Believe we still use the climate icon because it is under the climate planning general effort, but it will say environmental justice review memo. Again, just so people can follow along why changes were made. In addition to text suggestions and reviewing the policies, there were also implementation considerations. So all of that is in the memo. But the main five implementation considerations were really focusing on embedding those anti-displacement protections. We've worked on a lot of policies. So again, this is the implementation. So taking those policies and finding how to implement those anti-displacement protections. Prioritizing infrastructure investments to support environmental justice, so that's looking at areas that maybe have historic disinvestment or maybe need the extra infrastructure supportlooking to reduce disproportionate cost burdens, that ties to those three policies that we updated language on. Strengthening inclusive and ongoing community engagement, we have a lot of policies about that, but then it's the implementation, making sure that continues. And then finally, coordinating land use and transportation planning.
[01:00:54]
We're doing that. It's just a recognition to continue to do that. So this memo, um, is helpful in just kind of the initial next steps post, um, the comp plan adoption, um, with an eye on, um, environmental justice. So for next steps, um, sorry, I should have brought my water, but I'm almost done, so I'm good. So next steps is we are accepting public comments for the chapters that are currently out. Um, we encourage folks to take a look, give us feedback, be as specific as possible. Um, we will take any of that feedback and work on integrating, um, any changes into the next round of edits. We're anticipating the next round of edits to be mid-july, and this will, again, include all of the dra- um, the maps and the graphics. We're also going to kick off a formal public comment period. It's part of the process. Again, we accept public comments throughout the entire process, um, but the next issue will be the formal noticed public comment period. But we'll continue taking comments and making edits throughout the process.
[01:01:57]
And with that, um, just really want to encourage any members of the public watching to read through the chapters, reach out with questions or feedback, and hopefully they'll see a lot of changes since the initial, especially the non-technical chapters. There's been a lot of iterations, a lot of changes incorporating feedback, and this is the first time that housing, transportation, growth strategy, and capital facilities is being seen by the public. So we're excited to have folks take a look. Well, thank you. That was incredibly- yeah... Efficient. Good job. Um, congratulations to staff-... For getting this out. That's massive lift. Um, so I, I, yeah, really, really huge commendations to staff for getting that out. And so you can all, all should take a breath- mm-hmm... Now, just for a moment before July, because it'll get wild again. But, um, so any questions? Yeah. Uh, I just want to reiterate something kaycee said earlier, and also congratulate staff. The system they have of the icons and the descriptions of what's changed is really helpful.
[01:02:56]
Yeah. So especially for members of the public that might be watching, I think that's, um, gold standard for transparency and working with a document of this nature and, uh, you know, tracking changes and things. So yeah, it certainly has been as we've been reviewing things, it's made it a lot easier to, to highlight what's going on. I guess on that note, is there a way that, like, a version of that can stay alive after the new, uh, plan is adopted so that people who are, you know, new to the new plan could still access and be able to see like, how it changed? So we do anticipate having the, these icon versions for the July release. However, once we start transitioning to the hearing version, we're gonna be having a template. Um, so the icon versions will still kind of be archived and accessible on the page, but we won't be actively updating them.
[01:03:50]
Oh, sure. Yeah. Um, with the template, um, actually I had a meeting today, we're gonna try and figure out an icon version that isn't necessarily like, "this is a new policy," because that's not relevant after so many years, but maybe, uh, this is a policy related to climate, or this is policy... Like, thematic icons to continue that through the template version, so folks can still follow along, at least with themes that they're interested in. Um, but the, this icon version, we update in July, and we'll keep archiving. So yeah, there'll be an archive version. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for your presentation. It's nice to see all the chapters out. I feel like I'm a day late and a dollar short on what environmental justice means. What, what, in your words, what would be a, a good definition of, of what environmental justice means? Yeah, so environmental justice is just recognizing that different communities, either because of geographic location or income or other socioeconomic, um, situations, are more negatively harmed by infrastructure, climate hazards, weather, natural disasters, that entire list.
[01:04:58]
So recognizing that because folks are more impacted, taking efforts to kind of mitigate and provide support for those communities. We have a lot of definitions throughout that is in the glossary. I just don't have the full definition-... Off the top of my mind, but, um-... It's generally- no, I haven't done my homework either, so... That's generally the direction that- yeah... Um, we're considering, recognizing that just some folks are more, uh, negatively impacted. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else? All right, well, thanks so much, kaycee. Um, and yeah, we'll look forward to next updates. And with that, we are gonna move on to sta wellesley corridor development plan with mike tressider. Hi, mike. Hello, hello. Schedule. Thank you. Uh, I'm mike tressider. I'm a senior transit planner with Spokane transit. Um, and I'm just here to talk to you today briefly about the wellesley corridor development plan. I did hear, uh, ryan talk briefly about it. Um, I wanna thank spencer for inviting us.
[01:05:56]
I think this is a good timing, um, as we talk about plan Spokane as well. Um, so first of all, what is a corridor development plan? It's in our comprehensive plan, and it is a plan that we develop, um, to formally acknowledge a route as an hbt line. Um, so we write the plan, it gets adopted by our board of directors. Um, what are hbt lines? Those are their major corridors where we justify significant investment in passenger amenities. Corridor development plan helps us determine how best to in, um, invest in that corridor, helps us engage stakeholders, um, and it says it may identify, generally identifies locations of stations and stops as wellso what is hbt? High performance transit is our term for our core lines serving local and regional corridors all day, two-way, frequent, easy to use.
[01:06:54]
Currently, that means the City line, the 4 monroe/regal, the 6 cheney, the 7, which is our regional liberty lake route, and the 9 sprague. Currently, we're studying the 33, which will end up being the 3 wellesley, and then the 25, the division, which will become BRT. The two. Two? Five? I should know, and I don't. We have several principles in our comp plan. I've highlighted appropriate scale and permanence because when we think about those routes, as I mentioned, this is a map from our comprehensive plan that looks at our future hbt developments. And you can see all of those lines that I just mentioned with the next two, as I said, the 33 wellesley and the 25 division.
[01:07:54]
As I mentioned, those current hbt routes, not all stops, but certainly more stops will have stations, and stations have quite a bit of amenities at them. So including the lighting, the marker, which has real-time information, post and flag, which is at every single bus stop, a shelter with bench, which if you've been along the wellesley corridor, is lacking throughout the corridor. Trash cans, leaning pads. This is quite a significant investment. This will not certainly be appropriate for many places in the corridor or possible at many places in the wellesley corridor. So why route 33? From our perspective and from our guiding documents both in connect Spokane, which is our comprehensive plan, that map that you just saw is policy 4.0, our hbt map, and then within connect 2035, our strategic plan, under goal 1, we identified upgrading route 33 wellesley to a high-performance transit line.
[01:09:03]
From our partner's point of view, from the City's point of view, the recently adopted growth alternative 4 plan Spokane puts an emphasis on transit corridors, including wellesley. So route 33 wellesley, as ryan was mentioning, it goes from sfcc, travels north, then along the entire wellesley corridor, and then down through hillyard to scc. This is our busiest east-west route in the City. It also crosses, as you can see, any number of existing sta routes. The ones in blue are frequent, so the 4, 25, 28 have 15-minute service. Regular routes have 30-minute service. So wellesley by the numbers had over 600,000 riders in 2025. This is our fifth busiest route in the system.
[01:10:05]
So it worked out to over 22 boardings a year, 2,000 average weekday riders. And if you'll notice, the peaks on the ridership, it has a morning peak, which corresponds generally with the a. M. Peak for both work commute and school commute. You'll see the afternoon peak comes a little earlier because of those schools along the corridor. Serving both rogers and shadle, this is quite a bit of high school ridership in this corridor. With that said, it can be difficult to wait for transit. These are just a couple of pictures from along the corridor. So belt, westbound 68 ons, 90 offs per day average. It's a narrow sidewalk with just the post and sign. Monroe.
[01:10:59]
I was lucky enough to be standing there when the bus came by. Same thing. And you see this little retaining wall that's also pretty common along the corridor. There's a lot of residential along this corridor. They have little retaining walls by their lawns, so you don't have very much space there. And then pittsburgh, this is directly across from rogers high school. 67 ons, 52 offs. And there is that building that seems under always construction. And so it has a fence there to prevent high school kids from getting into the property, but it also squeezes them onto the sidewalk. So the corridor itself transitions through a lot of different types of zoning. There's a lot of single-family zoning. There's an excuse. There's the schools. There's also quite a bit of traffic volume as we look at this corridor, and that has come up as I've been talking to communities, even just the ability to cross wellesley at times can be difficult.
[01:12:04]
And then as far as active transportation goes, there is an existing sidewalk pretty much the entire length. It is that narrow sidewalk that you saw that's curb tight with no buffer. Does connect to trails on both ends once you can get to either of the community colleges. And there are multiple north-south bike connections across wellesley. But as I said, it's that curb-type sidewalk. Crossings between signalized intersections can be lengthy. And then typically, the roadway is four lanes, sometimes five, as it broadens out at some of these wider intersections. So I met with students at rogers high school. I went to five or six neighborhood meetings and talked about just experiences in the community... Of the corridor of using route 33. As you saw from the pictures, and these up here, there's minimal room to wait, and minimal protection from the elements, as well as lack of protected crossings at some of these stop locations.
[01:13:08]
What we heard was, if we can highlight where the shelters and stops are a benefit to the neighborhood, to the community, the drivers pay a little more attention. Our sda facilities will pay more attention to those stops. One of the students mentioned, can we identify interim steps the community or student groups could take to provide benches or just to provide eyes onto stops, which I really liked. And then as you saw from the map, there's a lot of intersecting routes. Are there ways for sta to look at co-locating shelters if we can't get shelters directly along the wellesley corridor? I thought those were all interesting ideas from the community. And then just making sure that we are tagging and touching those key destinations. So this, again, from the map as you saw, there's transfers to nine different routes along wellesley, so there's an opportunity to really travel through the system, travel through Spokane.
[01:14:19]
And then making sure that we're touching upon key destinations. So hillyard, particularly there. Market and haven, where wellesley comes in. The high schools. The shopping, shadle park center, northtown mall, the library. And then garland avenue, which has access to the community center, to ontrack, to northeast community center, to shopping. And then as well as the two key anchors on either end, the community colleges. So we're taking all of this information. So our existing policy that's in connect Spokane, there's at least seven different policies that help us assess bus stops, including when we want to identify benches, which would be 10 or more daily boardings, we'd like to have a bench at that stop.
[01:15:14]
When we'd like to have a shelter, which would be 25 or more daily boardings. Community input, where has the community seen either safety issues or kids or other riders just waiting in the inclement weather? And then site assessment, both driving the corridor, riding the corridor, looking at scout, what is the current available right of way? What are the surrounding land uses? As I mentioned, there's quite a bit of residential on there, and so you have a five-foot sidewalk, a little retaining wall, and then a front yard. And that makes it quite difficult for any type of shelter, let alone an hbt-type shelter.
[01:16:12]
And so we put this into a matrix that we've been starting to review with internal and external stakeholders. I'll be going out to neighborhood meetings in June to talk through this more with them. Been meeting with City Staff, looking at plan Spokane synergies, and this is still going to be refined, but what it does, so the blue is what are the boardings? Average daily boardings at the site. What are the transit connections? What are the destinations, regional, local? The site assessment, does it seem like there might be enough right away based on visual analysis, based on map analysis? And then just a general overall sort of matrix score for each stop. And so just preliminary. If you look at tier one, those light blue ones, those are the stops that scored the highest.
[01:17:09]
And you'll see that, from just looking at it at first glance, it makes a lot of sense. Several there by shadle. Several there by the division. Then you have nevada. You have rogers. You have the heart of hillyard. So that makes a lot of sense from that perspective. Tier two, they scored pretty well. Ideally, those might get a shelter. But we're going to take this out, talk more with the community, refine this, and then ultimately, in the final document, we'll have an assessment of each of these stops about what improvement we want to have for that stop, if any. You can look at there on the west side, you see a lot of purple.
[01:18:06]
It has generally low ridership, consistent ridership, but it's in the eight, seven daily ons. So we also want to be prudent with our investments through this corridor. So next steps, as I mentioned, I'll be going out in June to the community to look at the evaluation matrix results, talk more about what that might look like in the community. We're also applying for a regional mobility grant from WSDOT for this project. And then we'll be updating our planning and development committee, which is a subset of our board, on the progress. Developing a draft plan for September, going back out to the community, have a public meeting at our board of directorsin October, with adoption slated for November. And then, as ryan was mentioning from our tdp, that then this will get transferred to our capital developments team, which will start looking at planning construction for '27 through '29.
[01:19:12]
So I think that is what I had at a high level. Good. Well, thanks, mike. Questions? Just one. One of the challenges I imagine with transportation is you want a lot of access and a lot of stops, but you also want it to have some speed- yes... So it's worthwhile to commute on. Are you analyzing how to consolidate any stops, or how are you thinking about that? That is a excellent question because, yes, we are also looking at some of these for stop consolidation. If you look at both the lacey and cook, they're pretty close together. They both have similar ridership. I think lacey has a little bit more, so it's like, "do we need both of those?" and at times, we had both of those because they were the best connection down to shaw.
[01:20:09]
Mm. And now there's other routes that are closer as well. So yes, we are looking at stop consolidation because part of hbt is the speed and reliability, and so we want to ensure that. And if we're looking at stops too frequently, it- yeah... It impacts it. So yeah, great question. Linda? I use 33 a lot, so I think this is really great. I might suggest that a couple of other constituencies that would be- yes, please... Helpful to consult. My dad taught at rogers for decades, so the first thing that popped into my mind... Students, great. That's wonderful because the kids take the bus- yeah... And they know a lot. But the teachers know a lot, too, about how the kids take the bus and that. Yeah. So teachers, and possibly, this may sound kind of 19... I don't even know if ptas still exist anymore. They do.
[01:21:02]
But one of the things that we've found, because I'm on the cac, one of the things we found through the cac was talking to parents, because the parents are going to work and, "my kid can take the bus to school," so the parents can give you a lot of good information, too. No, I think that's excellent. Thanks, mike, for this. There was an earlier map, this is just a comment and a question, I guess, that showed it looked like shaw was closer down south of empire, but that shaw campus and the northeast community center are between empire and wellesley. Yes. And I know that a lot of students use the cook crossing to get to school. Yes. Like, a way earlier slide that was just a bubble that said, "shaw campus." so I would say, the northeast community center, shaw, on track, all of that would be just...
[01:21:57]
I'm sure you're already thinking of them and including them, but the one map made it look like they were less significant. Oh, that was not the intention. No. So I appreciate that. Yeah. That sidewalk along wellesley is scary, especially- yes... If it's trash day and everybody's trash cans are out there. Wow. And I just- I didn't even think about that. Yeah. I was not out there that time. You have to go out into the street to get around them. It's scary. And snow berms. Yeah. Yes. Where I just put shaw campus, and it slid too far. Right away to cover. Yeah. It's got to go north. Yeah. No, and it slid when I inserted the map. I guess one question that I have about this is, does this study include recommendations to the City of Spokane for streetscape improvements or crossings that would improve the performance and safety of this corridor? We have not included those in past corridor development plans. I think we can take it under consideration, and I think as we consult more with the City...
[01:22:55]
Obviously, the City does their own analysis of this stuff too, but- yes. It is also, as we mentioned, a constrained corridor because... Yeah. I'll just add, I think this is part of why I think we wanted to include this in the EIS and identify it as a place for potential growth. I think we see from the City side that there is value in making those investments in areas where we expect also for more growth to occur. So, we're on the same wavelength- yes... Here on that aspect. I did have a quick question. You've shown on the map here, and you have a list elsewhere, all the connecting north-south routes. Mm-hmm. Maybe it's obvious to people, or maybe it isn't. I'm just wondering if you can talk about why it's important to have those connections, as opposed to if I'm at scc, I can also take the 1 and connect to all those routes downtown.
[01:23:53]
Yes. So what, I guess for the layperson maybe watching online, why is it valuable to have those connections on the 33 as well? Excellent point, because like you said, if you're at one of the ends, connecting the 1 will get you downtown really quickly. If you're further into the system on the 33, either it's just easier to get off at division, grab the 25, and head south. But also, there's still quite a bit of City to the north, access points to the north. And particularly as you noticed, or what we noticed, high school students, even outside of school, this is one of our busiest corridors, and kids are coming from all over the City. And so, coming from north down, coming from south up, so you get a lot of east-west traffic along there. Plus, it really just increases your mobility and your access to wherever you're trying to get. Right?
[01:24:53]
And whether that's shaw or somewhere-emerson, garfield, there's opportunities to transfer without having to come downtown, which is still a core function of our system, that we are a hub and spoke. But this is one of those routes where you don't necessarily have to travel downtown to get to a destination. And maybe I can just follow up quickly on why I think that is important for us as we're doing the comprehensive plan work. Because there is immense value in exactly what you just said. I think that's why we identified it as a priority corridor for increased growth, because that transit service, and not just in the east/west direction, but the fact that you can connect north/south so easily, opens up access to a much wider area.
[01:25:46]
And so, that just makes the usefulness of, specifically of the route 33, so much more than another route that maybe doesn't have as many intersections with other routes. Yes. So. Okay. Well, anything... Go ahead. Kind of a general question here. I'm a new guy. Yeah. How do you evaluate different areas for additional or brand-new transit lines? So- and I know that's a broad question. No, it's a very broad question. Obviously, we want what we think would be a sufficient amount of ridership, and ideally, that's generated in multiple ways. It's both residential, but then it's also business. It's other commercial developments. Because when you look at the weekly ridership, this isn't dropping down to zero.
[01:26:46]
We like to see and go through locations where people may work there, or there's doctor's offices and people have appointments, and so we're seeing a flow of ridership throughout the day. Also, we like to be able to connect from... This touches upon so many different... This is a unique one, almost, because it touches upon so many destinations. But most of these locations have multiple reasons for people to be there. If we're just going and, say, there's just a residential development. That'll generate good ridership in the morning and probably in the evening as people leave or come, but then sending a bus there throughout the rest of the day is less efficient.
[01:27:40]
So we're also trying to look at efficiencies about maximizing the dollar that we have. And then it's also, does it connect well into the system? Again, this is a very good example. It connects well into the rest of the system. Something like Latah is difficult because it doesn't connect. That is out there and still primarily residential, so you don't see a lot of trips there throughout other parts of the day, and then it's just back. Which is why we are also now looking at mobility-on-demand pilot projects, because we recognize that there are areas in the system, especially areas in our ptba that would like service, but maybe fixed-route service isn't the answer. So mobility on demand is going to have small shuttles that residents in that area can just book, basically, to get them back into the transit system.
[01:28:42]
As we're developing more of these more high-performance transit routes, and they have the enhanced stations, I was thinking especially about the connecting routes. You're on the bus, there is a little announcement that says, "this is the stop that connects to some other route." but when you get off at the stop, there's no way-finding. And this is especially when you're on the one-way streets. It could be down there and around the corner kind of situation. And I was just like, especially on those kind of streets, but some sort of way-finding at the stations, literally like, "go left." mm-hmm. "connects that direction." mm-hmm. Yeah. Just because I think the transfers could be really helpful, but for people who aren't... You're going to have to pull out a map and click through and zoom in and try and figure out where you're going.
[01:29:35]
I think that could be really helpful to help people feel more familiar. Yeah. So way-finding was part of connect 2035, and I think you're absolutely correct. Navigating the system, there's a level of difficulty involved, and- especially as we have more kids. Yeah. And it changes, and so- yeah... Yes. Great point. Well, there's where the sta website is terrific. The maps on the sta website, the stops, the number of stops, and all the rest of it. I call it bus surfing. And the kids are very good about it. They're very familiar with the websites. I don't know if you could use qr codes or something like that, that would take people to the sta website. I just had a curiosity question because of my history with that neighborhood. What are you seeing in your statistics about market street with all the businesses along there as being part of the route that gets more use, say, more in the middle of the day than in the beginning and the end?
[01:30:37]
I don't have the numbers on me, but I'm happy to share those with you. But you can see that's... Ridership was a driver of the entire matrix. And you definitely saw blue and green up there at the top. Mm-hmm. And then definitely at garlandso through there, we're definitely seeing more ridership. Yeah, and I'm just thinking market on the east end, because many years ago, that was a very busy commercial corridor. It's a little bit less now, but still, there's a fair amount of- yes... Businesses along the market street end. I'm just curious, one of the challenges you mentioned early on was where you have the little cement walls- mm-hmm... And you just have a sidewalk and then a street.
[01:31:33]
I had a situation with a rental house where the City said, "well, we own 50 feet from the middle of the street into your yard," and they plopped the new water meter, because we needed to repair the line, kind of in the middle of the yard. And I was kind of surprised, but I figured they knew what he was doing. Is there any legal rights that sta has or the City has to encroach on a few properties or compensate the people possibly, but to create the ideal bus stop? Because that seems like that's part of the issue is creating these nice stops. So I was just wondering legally what's allowed and then is there any strategies for trying to carve out a little more space? So legally- mission did that- yes... In the right of way. We are a governmental agency with rights associated with that, which means that we could legally do that, what you were just talking about.
[01:32:34]
But at heart, we're a more conservative organization, and we like to be patient. And so we would first negotiate. It would be a choice of last resort. Mm-hmm. And we might even just hold off at one point. Right now, the analysis is really leaning towards city-owned properties, which is nice. School properties, library properties. My department, community development, is also in charge of our tod. We have become more of buying property than we had in the past, so that is always an option. But we also try and get site licenses and site agreements where we'll pay for an easement or pay for a right of way, whether that's five feet or 10 feet.
[01:33:35]
So those are always our first steps is making appropriate offers. So legally you can, but you don't want- we've never done it... You don't want to- as far as I know... Create the ill will that would go with- yes... Those kind of decisions, but you might provide incentives to people in a couple specific cases- yes... If that's the right spot. Yes. Okay. Okay. Anything else for mike? Okay. Well, thanks a lot, mike. Yeah. Obviously, for me, this is very exciting, but- yes.... I imagine for everyone else as well. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moving on to the flume development introduction with someone who does not look like kevin. I am not kevin. I'm brandon whitmarsh, and I am filling in for kevin today, so give me a second. He's probably really disappointed he's not here to introduce the flume, though.
[01:34:43]
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. You know him well. So yeah. I am brandon whitmarsh, and on behalf of kevin today, I will be talking about the future land use map and how we work from the conversations that we've had so far into an actual map, with the details that you all have been wanting from the beginning. It's really not wanting to be helpful today. Just wanted to highlight that the preferred alternative was adopted by City Council last week, with a few modifications from when you guys recommended it, including the removal of the property in north indian trail, and then a small extension at the north end of the four line and along francis on the east side. So it originally was just at that intersection of francis and nevada, and now it's across francis as well.
[01:35:43]
Can I ask, because I was trying to dig up what these changes were- yes... Looking at minutes and agenda packets and all that the other day. Is that indian trail that was just that little node up further on indian trail? Yeah. Just northwest of that 23. Okay. That's what I thought. Okay. Yeah. Cool. And those were the only changes at Council? Correct. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. Those were the three changes. Just wanted to let you all know so that when we get to actually having changed maps, it's not a surprise where things are changing. In general, the future land use map is the main way we implement the direction of growth in the City. And speaking of the preferred alternative, that will also be the main driver of change across the map. So first off, we've discussed the land use designations quite a bit, including your last meeting. But we're talking about nine land use designations from the previous 19, looking at streamlining those designations, looking at future-focused designations that are general in nature, and may not match what's existing on the ground today, but really what we want to see as the future of that area over time.
[01:36:56]
And also, as previously discussed, we're looking at a range of zones being allowed within each land use. So, overall, to get to that final land use map, we're talking about the conversion of the existing map from the 19 land uses to the nine land uses that we've all discussed. That'll be that first shift just to get a clean baseline for everything, and then working from there, we'll work to do amendments within those preferred alternative areas, doing targeted amendments based on that preferred alternative, followed by engagement with the planning commission, with the public. I'll talk a little bit about what that looks like in the future. And then after that engagement, we'll bring it back for the planning commission hearing along with the entirety of the comp plan. So, the main things as we convert the existing land use map to the future land use map, removing areas outside the City. We are allowed to plan for areas outside of the City under GMA. However, there's not any regulatory effect on the areas that we're planning for, even if we do anticipate future annexation.
[01:38:08]
So just to prevent any confusion, we're looking at removing those areas from the land use map and just focusing on what we do have direct control over right now. Like I said, converting those 19 land uses down to nine land uses to really clean up the map, streamline general allowances, and then finally, over the last 20 or 30 years of technological changes we have a lot of minor mapping errors all over the City. So this is honestly taking more time than anything else to try to clean all of this up and really align the lines. You can see that open space and how that aligns with the parcel lines. Neither one of those two designations have ever changed, but that is indicative of what is all over the City. And so trying to clean that up and have something that is really clear, that we don't have to keep making those minor amendments every time we do a comp plan, like comp plan amendment piecemealing these just extra little five-foot strips all over the City, which has been the practice for a very long time.
[01:39:14]
And then working to amend that base land use map based on the preferred alternative. So that guidance will come from the preferred alternative, as well as some strategic guiding principles that we'll talk about on the next slide. Areas inside the preferred alternative boundaries are the only areas we're looking at intensity changes. Outside of that, when we're talking about the conversion of land uses from 19 to nine, there's obviously going to be changes in what the land use will be, but our intention is not to change the intensity. So, we might be talking about what exists as the residential two family of the duplex type land use exists as a land use, but isn't inclusive of middle housing and anything we would be talking about in residential low as a whole. And so that is like a one for one conversion.
[01:40:07]
That is a change in name, but not necessarily a change in intensity when we're talking about these things. And then finally, as we're going along, we're also identifying areas for future study and improvement. There are areas, this is the example out in the west plains around the airport, where when we annexed that area, we adopted the County's land use. These lines do not align with anything built on the ground today, but this is not within our preferred alternative area, and we are not intending to change anything in this particular location at this time. But it's a future conversation of finding these areas that may not be addressable through the preferred alternative changes now, but are areas that we do want to identify to resolve these mapping conflicts in the future. And then overall, I think this speaks to every presentation we've seen so far today, working to integrate the preferred alternative and the feedback we've heard from the planning commission, the community, through the drafting of the chapters, and then as well as integrating all of the ongoing studies and work that have been existing. So fifth avenue planning, that portion of fifth avenue is included in the preferred alternative area and is anticipating growth. That growth will be guided by the fifth avenue plan generally.
[01:41:27]
And then division tod, even wellesley at this point, we're talking about where are these additional future improvements we know are going to occur? Where can we accommodate and/or incentivize development based on those things? And then finally, a list of guiding principles that help us determine as we're adding these new places within the preferred alternative area, what are some of the changes we want to focus on? They're written out more extensively in your packet, and they're in priority order of when we come to a particular parcel or designation, what are our priorities and how do we weight balancing things that we've been talking about for a long time? So we have talked about, in the past, intensity near transit. That's a huge priority. Obviously, where the preferred alternative areas are is inherently linking those two things together, but really focusing new intensity around transit, maximizing the depth in the street, so we have a lot of designations that might just be one or two parcels, might only be half parcels or one parcel off of a main street, but when we're talking about certain designations, that isn't necessarily enough depth to develop at a scale that's reasonable for that designation. And so thinking about those kinds of things, filling out blocks, designating more than a single parcel, those kinds of things, so we don't have all of this kind of patchwork stuff around the City.
[01:42:59]
Again, this is generally limited to the preferred alternative areas, unless there's no change in intensity in doing so outside of that areaand then once we have integrated the preferred alternative into a draft land use map, then we will release that with the July release of the comprehensive plan as a whole. Then we are working on developing an online tool in which people will be able to do the thing everyone wants to do, which is zoom into particular properties and see what the changes are going to be, or the proposed changes are. And so this is the opportunity for both the public and the planning commission to really do that deep dive. Also, a time for us to have potentially targeted conversations about particular areas that either we have drafted something but we want your direct feedback on this particular area, or having larger conversations of things that maybe didn't fit into that general framework of guiding principles we just talked about, highlighting where we might make some changes that might not align with those as a whole.
[01:44:11]
And then taking all of that community feedback, like I said, we're really working on an online interactive option where people can literally place pins on the map and provide public comments that we can then integrate into the land use map. So the final aspect will be integrating public feedback, planning commission feedback into a clean land use map that will then be brought to you for your hearing later this year. Like I said, July draft is the tentative release of the land use plan map and all of the other maps and graphics along with the plan. And we'll continue to do engagement up to and through that hearing, all the way to Council. Community comments are always welcome, and I've put up the usual planspokane. Org and planspokane@spokanecity. Org for email.
[01:45:07]
We're happy to take comments. Are there any questions? It's going to be a busy June. So they're like, "oh, it's like a calm time." no. Yeah, but you won't hear from us during June because we're going to be busy doing that work. Yeah. It might get a little bit quiet in planning commission. We're putting our heads down so that we truly can bring a fully fleshed out map for conversation. Okay. I was going to say, that was going to be my next question, is when do we next touch this? As far as just timelines, as we've continued to discuss, I think that guiding framework that we put out as the general tools and principles we're going to use to develop or to implement the preferred alternative, that draft will be in that July release. And I don't know that there will be a conversation before that time with planning commission. But the time between that and the draft that will be the planning commission hearing version is the time that both the public and the planning commission can have discussions on those and really provide feedback.
[01:46:11]
I guess from my perspective, and maybe this is just a deeply, deeply nerdy perspective, but I think everyone else is probably on the same wavelength. I'd love to see the iterations. Like you walked us through the process. I'm really curious to see new land uses mapped onto existing map- yeah... And then see how that sort of morphs with the preferred alternative. If not for my own edification, if for no other reason than for my own edification, I would love to see that. So like, can we get a draft in gis, not just a pdf kind of deal, or? I mean, pdf is fine for me, but... Thinking in stages. Yeah. So what you're talking about is we're doing the, I forget what you called it in the presentation, brandon, the convert- yeah... Part. Yes.
[01:47:02]
Yeah. And then we're doing the amend- right... Part. Right. And you wanna see the convert part- and then-... Separate from the amend part. Yeah. Is that what you're saying? I'd like to just sort of look at them and see how they lay out and see how the pieces translate, because I think that's where the devil's gonna be in those details. Yeah. I mean, the- you wanna see where this- the map version of that. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Further you're not busy enough. Well, if you're creating it. If you're making it. Please don't do anything extra because of that, but if you're going to create it anyway. No. As the presenter of the topic, but not necessarily the decision maker of the topic- the viewer... I will bring back your feedback. I made that note. Presentation or- absolutely. I was like, no, just the nicest way. Just in the package, I think for me, helping me digest the changes and how things have moved around- mm-hmm... Would be helpful. But again, please don't.
[01:48:03]
It also helps us then see what the intensification is, if we know what it was before it was intensified. And how some of those decisions are made. Just because the names are all different. Yeah. Based on conversation so far, I can say I know that we internally intended to create a usable option that showed the base, meaning the converted base, with what the changes are on top of that, not necessarily something that shows what exists to the converted. No, no. That's not what I'm talking about. Oh, perfect. That makes things a lot easier. Yeah, base. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Not what it is now. Yes. No. The intention, which again, was conversation internally, but potentially could be a larger conversation, was to have something that was interactive, that had the base clean map that did not have the preferred alternative changes, simply had the conversion, and then the preferred alternative changes being able to see.
[01:48:55]
Because the preferred alternative changes are where we really have the most potential for conversation. Yeah. Right. And so it wouldn't make any sense for us to only show, to combine those two things as to one thing for- right... Consideration about what that change is. That's exactly the point that I was trying- yeah... Fumbling through making there. Otherwise, then we're all using different language and words and- sorry, I misunderstood the request. No, it's okay. It's late in the day, and I'm far from my best at this hour. So linda, please. I was very impressed with the procedure used for the refi project and the whole concept of putting the community first and finding out what the community wanted. I would like to suggest that as much of that as possible be brought into this process. And for example, that could involve putting, instead of convert, amend, engage, put engage, convert, amend, because people who live in the community are the ones who have the most information to give you and have the most at stake. And in addition, I very strongly recommend that there be engagement with neighborhood councils as these things are being worked out. That there, unfortunately, is not the same kind of time available for the refi project.
[01:50:17]
I was very impressed by the neighborhood institutions that were involved and the monthly regular meetings for real engagement. I don't see the time for that kind of thing being here, but I think engaging at a minimum with neighborhood councils is really important. Yeah. So, the basis of a lot of the changes, like I said, are based on the preferred alternative, which is general in nature, I will acknowledge, but is fully based in the community engagement that we've had up until this point. And then, completely agree with engaging with neighborhood councils. I know that was directly called out in the slides for when we're talking to other agencies as well, just recognizing that is the time to do that direct communication. And I think with the understanding that we'll convert, amend, engage, and then there will be revisions based on that engage.
[01:51:12]
Absolutely. Right? Yeah. Well, I think perhaps more useful conversions could take place if engagement occurred first, or at least contemporaneously. Well, I can say that kaycee presented to the central neighborhood Council, and they learned about this map, even though that wasn't part of the preferred alternative map that she was trying to talk about. They were like, "when is the map coming out? We're ready for the map. We have lots of comments for this map." so they are chomping at the bit. And we anticipate there being many. Yeah. I think based on just that one session even, I think the map is really going to help people engage. Don't forget, we also have the zoning map. Whoo. Which did come up when you were asking some of the questions about central. In my mind, the land use plan map will capture those broad categories, but some of the nuanced stuff about this block or that block may be- yeah, a lot of that conversation will get pushed into zoning, yeah.
[01:52:16]
Yeah, zoning. We can only handle so much excitement here. Yeah. We still have a goal of December for this work, so we'll be having public comment period then. But remember when it seemed like we could meet the original June deadline of the-... Like four years ago? No, you're like, "no, we never thought we could." never. Thanks for letting me know. That's like the old joke, what you mean we, white eyes? Okay, anything else? Great. Thank you, brandon. Appreciate it. Looking forward to this. Is there anything else for the good of the order? Hearing none, we're adjourned. You alive? Yeah. Thank you. I'm happy to be alive. It's funny, just the scope of change in this version-