Why was Thorpe considered for development?

Well, it sure is great to have a guy who can insert something in the budget be on our side. Thanks, Marcus. Well, I'm full of gratitude, and thank you, every one of you, for being here. And quite frankly Hey, you got time. The commissioner was a little late to the press conference, so take all the time you need. So those on the west side do not understand that this 200 acres is amazing, biodiverse land. It's in WDFW's Critical Wildlife Habitat with forests, cliffs, and wetlands, as well as the DNR's Natural Heritage Program actually identified rare forest types on this property. So why was this considered for an exchange to a developer? And I can understand why the freight train was let loose, why DNR advocated for it. Spencer Gardner, the Spokane planning director, and Steve McDonald, the economic development director, encouraged the development, ignoring all these factors, including the Critical Areas Ordinance and the WDFW designation, which they're required to do. So I'm not blaming DNR as much as taking responsibility as a community for this is an opportunity for us to really take a look at the way our planning department works with developers and make sure that we can limit this kind of thing from happening in the future. Now, especially want to thank the commissioner for stopping this. I'm not sure how he did that, but I give you all the credit. Thank you, sir. So the advisory committee has almost uniformly ranked this property high. So we're vindicated in suggesting that this is better to be conservation rather than housing, which obviously we need, but We also need open spaces for all those reasons that we're well aware of. So of course, with these gentlemen who've already spoken, it's pretty clear we need to continue to work for getting this funding. I hope both the City of Spokane and Spokane Parks put the Thorpe property high on their legislative priority list. We've got to have that. I don't have time to thank everybody, but wow, looking around, there are people here who have spent an amazing amount of time. Phil Larkin, Alan McCoy, Brian Nagy. We've had terrific support from local organizations, some of which haven't been mentioned, like Friends of the Bluff, Spokane Urban Nature, Spokane Audubon, and there's many more. So as has already been said, by working together and bringing forth our desire to protect this property, has actually worked. So, I was maybe going to skip my favorite thing to do, which is to report on the numbers. So, we mentioned a statewide letter with 100 organizations on it. We had a public hearing at the Spokane Library about the exchange. There were 30 commentators, and all opposed the exchange. There was no one that spoke in favor of it. We had about 150 letters and emails that went into the record. Phil put together a petition with 500 signatories, and we got almost unanimous support from elected officials at the city, county, and legislative level that represent this area. So, let's finish this in Olympia in 2027.