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After all the hullabaloo surrounding the Riverfront Park YMCA site, county commissioners could move forward with a bit more traditional use for Conservation Futures funds.
When the Board of Commissioners meets next Tuesday, it will decide whether or not to purchase 170 acres overlooking Hauser Lake near the Idaho border. Dubbed the Swank/McPoland property, the wilderness land is located east of Spokane Valley but would be accessed on the Idaho side of the border via Hauser Lake Road.
John Bottelli, county parks special projects manager, said the families who own the property have agreed to sell the county the land for $861,000 – about one-third of its appraised value. The county would use collected Conservation Futures tax dollars, which are set aside to specifically buy property to keep in its natural state but accessible to the public.
“The Swank family wanted to protect this habitat,” Bottelli said – so much so, family members are also looking for someone to purchase adjoining land in Idaho.
The request came to Spokane County last July to use the Conservation Futures funding – tax dollars that are set aside to buy underdeveloped timberlands, wetlands, species habitats, and agricultural and farmlands. The tax, overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2007, takes 6 cents for every $1,000 in assessed property value and raises about $1.5 million a year.
The Swank/McPoland land has been on the county’s “A” priority list for Conservation Futures purchase and will complement nearby Antoine Peak and Newman Lake land that is already in the program, Bottelli said.
Meanwhile, the Spokane City Council will discuss Monday the possibility of supporting the commissioners’ agreement to buy the Y space at Riverfront Park with the Conservation Futures tax money. Unlike the property near Hauser Lake, the YMCA land sits in a developed area – albeit parkland – near the Spokane River.
The commissioners were approached by the Spokane Park Board last year to help come up with $4.4 million after the board had already spent $1 million in a down payment for the land in order to prevent developers from building condominiums on the site. The YMCA needs the money in order to finance a new building on North Monroe, which is set to open in May.
Spokane County commissioners have stipulated that the 42-year-old Y building at Riverfront Park be torn down within five years in order to return the property to its more natural state, keeping with the intent of the Conservation Futures program. On Monday, the Spokane City Council is expected to vote whether or not those terms are acceptable.
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By
Mike Huffman
