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For nearly two years now, the Sprague/Appleway Revitalization Plan has emphasized the benefits of change.
The design itself includes tree-lined streets, bustling retail areas and a new city center along Spokane Valley’s main thoroughfare. The goal, according to the most recent brochure issued by the city is “to reshape the Sprague/Appleway corridor into a thriving commercial and residential district.”
Last Thursday, the Spokane Valley Planning Commission heard from many local residents who feel that the high-profile project may not represent an improvement after all.
Around 150 people showed up for a public hearing at Spokane Valley City Hall on March 13, the latest in a series of community meetings devoted to mulling over the future of the city’s most traveled roadway. Scott Kuhta, project manager for the revitalization plan, opened the discussion by talking about “the concerted effort to get Sprague back to a two-way street.”
The notion of east/west traffic has been supported by the majority of merchants on the affected portion of Sprague – around 90 percent favor the idea, according to Kuhta. Many have expressed concern that one-way travel at 40 mph does not create the best avenue for business. The five-lane, one-way stretch of Sprague runs approximately 2.5 miles west from University to Thierman.
Ian Robertson, chairman of the Planning Commission, made it clear at the outset of last week’s meeting that “nothing is set in concrete” as far as the subarea plan is concerned. The city held another public hearing this week (after press time) while the final public comments on this phase of the project were requested by the city by 5 p.m. Friday.
Robert May was one of several speakers at the public hearing to suggest that any project involving a change to the corridor or construction of a new city center should be included on a ballot.
“I feel a matter of this magnitude needs to go before the voters,” he said.
Others, like Ponderosa resident Charles Gillingham, urged the city to keep the one-way traffic on Sprague and extend Appleway east into Liberty Lake. Gillingham said he took a survey of 50 people in the Ponderosa, 49 of whom were not in favor of the proposed changes to the corridor.
Many at the meeting who use Sprague/Appleway to commute to and from work said the current configuration supports efficient traffic flow.
“Keep it the way it is,” said Chris Sheppard. “I drive to work on this road and if it goes back to two-way, trying to get home from the Valley would be like living in Seattle.”
Mike Andrews, one of a handful of business owners to speak at the hearing, attributed the drop-off in business around U-City to the emergence of the Spokane Valley Mall and places like Wal-Mart, noting that both are conveniently located near an Interstate 90 exit. Andrews added that the failure to continue Appleway to the west – the road currently ends at University and is at the center of an ongoing legal squabble between the city of Spokane Valley and Spokane County – has also hurt business.
Bill Coyle, owner of Plantland near the intersection of Sprague and Sullivan, applauded the idea of a city center, but urged the city to keep the corridor one-way in both directions.
Kuhta said feedback from the public hearing ran contrary to the input at previous community meetings including a public workshop last year where 14 out of 15 tables voted in favor of two-way traffic along the corridor.
Valley resident Robert Wesner, one of the few who spoke in support of the plan last Thursday, described how attendees at the first meeting nearly two years ago felt it was time to alter Sprague/Appleway.
“Everyone there at the time was for this change,” he said.
Kuhta also made it clear that any transformation of the roadway would not involve “tearing up streets,” a phrase used often during last week’s testimony, but rather restriping along the established pavement.
The Planning Commission is expected to have a recommendation on the subarea plan prepared for City Council by mid-April.
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By
Craig Howard
