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When Dick Behm – a longtime business owner on Sprague Avenue – approached the podium last Tuesday night, probably more than one person assumed the first words out of his mouth might be this:
“I told you so.”
They weren’t. Instead Behm, owner of Behm’s Valley Creamery, gave a brief history lesson to the 60 or so who attended a joint study session between the Spokane Valley City Council and Planning Commission on the transportation aspect of the Sprague and Appleway corridors sub-area plan. He outlined how Sprague, the once main east-west artery through the area, had been changed from a dirt road, to paved four lanes, to five lanes to the one-way west leg of the couplet it is now.
“There’s a lot of distrust among Sprague businessmen of engineers,” Behm told the group. “The small businessmen on Sprague support the city. You don’t see the big box stores doing that.
“Sprague Avenue has never been good,” he added. “Let’s make it good this time.”
The city has been taking a hard look at the Sprague/Appleway corridor – which has been a couplet with one-way streets since 2001 – practically since incorporation in 2003. Behm – along with the Spokane Valley Business Association – were hard critics of the one-way configuration because they contend the five westbound lanes brought cars, headed west downtown to work, rushing past their businesses in the morning. Eastbound Appleway, constructed by Spokane County prior to election to ease 5 p.m. rush hour traffic from Interstate 90, has little or no commercial frontage.
But if city officials are serious about creating a vibrant city center in the area of University City, it will have to slow traffic down, create more pedestrian-friendly walkways and return Sprague back to a two-way arterial.
Another preference, according to Troy Russ, a consultant with Gladding Jackson, would be to extend Appleway Avenue to Evergreen Road (eventually to Sullivan) from its present terminus at University Road and also have it be a two-way roadway with two lanes in each direction with a center turn lane.
“Put Sprague on a diet,” Russ said, adding that traffic studies have shown that two two-lane roads can handle more traffic than a single four-lane one-way road.
While there have been some options that have included leaving the couplet as-is west of Dishman-Mica Road, Russ doesn’t recommend that course of action.
“There’s very little difference in the time it takes to drive the corridor,” he said, adding it would add about a two-and-a-half-minute delay heading east. Going west, Russ said, the time is about the same whether the road is one-way or two-way.
He added that the idea of Sprague and Appleway serving as a high-volume conduit for east-west traffic is a misnomer anyway. Studies have shown that only 4 percent are traveling the entire distance of the corridor to and from downtown Spokane.
“If 96 percent of your traffic is local, it changes the dynamic,” Russ said. He added that even mass-transit works better on two-way roads as it allows riders easier access.
Carlos Landa, a developer whose Opportunity Shopping Center is just east of Pines, said he has had a much easier time attracting businesses now that the city has more or less determined leaving that section of Sprague a two-way arterial.
“I need Sprague to be a two-way street to make my business viable,” he said.
Rusty Barnes, who owns property farther west in the one-way section, agreed.
“I hope this change takes place,” he said. “And rapidly.”
Still, the success of the city center and the development around it will ride a lot on whether or not the Spokane County Library District will be able to build a new Spokane Valley branch near University City where a proposed City Hall will also be located.
“There is almost nothing as big of a puzzle piece as a library,” Michael Freedman, the city’s lead consultant, said. “To add a city hall and library would make this one of the most unique cities on the west side,” he said. “It would be a really special place.”
Want to know more?
The city of Spokane Valley has set a Planning Commission public hearing on the Sprague/Appleway revitalization plan set for Thursday, Feb. 28, at 6 p.m.
The meeting will be held at Spokane Valley City Hall, 11707 E. Sprague Ave.
This is an opportunity to share input on the sub-area plan on the Sprague/Appleway corridor.
For more information, call 688-0232 or visit www.spragueappleway.com.
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By
Mike Huffman
