The Spokane City Council has approved annexation of 496 acres of land near the northwest corner of the city.


The property, which already was partly bordered by the city, is mostly west of Albi Stadium and is east and north of the Spokane River. Its northern border is just south of Nine Mile Road and its eastern border is on the east side of Fairmont Memorial Park. The property includes portions of Riverside State Park, the Fairmont cemetery, a 35-home housing development, and a 43-acre parcel of land that Spokane developer Rod Plese co-owns through a company called Plese/Graham LLC, says Monica Bramble, a representative of the citys public works department. Plese couldnt be reached for comment.


The annexation process began in December 2005 when Plese filed a petition with the city to annex his land while he was trying to get preliminary plat approval for a housing subdivision he wanted to develop there called Park Place, Bramble says. The City Council filed a notice of intent with the Spokane County Boundary Review Board to annex the Plese/Graham property, after which Fire District No. 10 asked the board to modify the annexation boundaries to include 453 more acres of land east of the river, Bramble says. Fire District No. 10, which is located across the river to the west, was having difficulty providing service to part of the property and wanted it to be annexed by the city so the city would provide fire protection there, she says.


The board held public hearings to determine the boundaries of the proposed annexation area and modified those boundaries in early May to include a total of 496 acres of land, Bramble says.


The City Council, which approved annexation of the land on Monday, also gave the area a single-family residential zoning designation, she says. Riverside State Park and Fairmont Memorial Park will retain their boundaries, she adds.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at emilyb@spokanejournal.com.