The city of Spokanes efforts to spur concentrated development activity in 21 designated centers and corridors with its 4-year-old comprehensive land-use plan hasnt worked out as well as had been hoped, say some city and neighborhood representatives.


Yet, John Pilcher, the citys economic development director, is armed with statistics that he claims point toward substantial business growth in the 21 targeted areas of town.


I know theres frustration out there because they want the city to take a greater role, Pilcher says of the citys critics. Still, he says, Spokane is seeing record new construction and remodeling work, and much of that activity is occurring in the 21 designated areas.


Some of the designated centers, such as the South Perry District, tapped into available funds early and already have seen significant street, lighting, and sidewalk improvements; improvements to some residents homes through federal loans; and even some business growth.


Nonetheless, growth in other areas, such as West Broadway, hasnt evolved beyond the conceptual stage.


I think we are making progress, says Steve Franks, city planning director, but the biggest changes have come downtown, which is a precursor to the centers-and-corridors project.


Amid the concerns, 2004 was a record year for building permits in the city, with values totaling $280 million, and this year has been even better, with permit values through October climbing to $345 million, Pilcher says.


Neither Pilcher nor Franks, however, would say that the record growth in 2004 and 2005 came because of the centers-and-corridors plan or because the 21 targeted areas were prime for growth.


We would have to look at each project individually, says Pilcher.


Its a matter of speculation, and I dont know, says Franks. Yet, I do think such development shows that the concept has merit.


City Councilman Al French, an architect and developer here, says, Its a little too early to tell how the centers-and-corridors plan is working because we are just getting the regulations in place. Were four years behind.


Spokane County acted much more quickly to adopt regulations to guide development after it approved a new land-use plan in November 2001. The county adopted its regulations in two phases. It adopted a first phase of regulations two months after the land-use plan was enacted to ensure compliance with the plan, and a second phase with all new zoning codes was adopted June 1, 2004, says John Peterson, assistant director of the countys building and planning department.


French says the city could have adopted regulations as quickly as the county.


In the city, he says, There has been development in some centers, but its isolated and not citywide yet. French has been involved in two such efforts. They include construction of a 30,600-square-foot medical office building near Holy Family Hospital by a group named Franklin Park Medical Center LLC and the planned construction of a nearby seven-story medical office building by a group called Franklin Park Medical Center II LLC.


Modeled after urban planning efforts done elsewhere in the U.S., the centers-and-corridors strategy is to focus a mix of business development, entertainment, and housing growth in targeted areas.


In 1995, the City Council created 26 neighborhood councils, which were involved in designating the 21 centers and corridors, says Rod Minarik, spokesman for the citys office of Neighborhood Services. The centers were selected after the city studied activity hubs and infrastructure. Three of the centersthe South Perry, East Sprague, and Third and Thor areasare in the East Central neighborhood.


A big component of the centers-and-corridors plan is for neighborhood development to accompany business growth. Still, other than for major improvements on Perry from Ninth Avenue to 11th and a few isolated projects, such as four business-faade improvements in the Hillyard corridor and one of the two projects in the Holy Family area, few on-the-ground changes have occurred in the neighborhoods designated for growth.


Franks says the city has been drafting new land-use regulations and zoning laws to enhance development in the targeted areas. Nonetheless, money to help implement the overall plan has come in only sporadically from grants written by the city, says Teresa Brum, the citys director of development incentives and head of the city-county historic-preservation office.


The centers are grassroots driven. We provide the tools and the incentives, she says.


The city has two main incentives to spark growth. One is a property-tax break for the renovation of historic buildings, and the other is a property-tax exemption for residents who buy units in newly constructed or renovated multifamily developments of four units or more.


Brum says about 300 buildings in the city qualify for the incentive available for the renovation of historic structures, and part of the Hillyard corridor has been named as a National Historic District, making that incentive available for renovation of structures in that entire district.


She says the West Central neighborhood, not including the portion of West Broadway listed in the centers-and-corridors plan, is nearing approval as a National Historic District as well. Brenda Corbett, chairwoman of the West Central Neighborhood Council, says, If approved, West Central would become the largest historical district in the state of Washington.


The historic-renovation tax incentive involves a 10-year reduction in tax assessments for up to the value of the improvements. Increases in assessed valuation during those 10 years are included in the amount the renovator doesnt have to pay, unless the assessed valuation exceeds the amount spent on the renovation.


Brum says 14 of 15 applications have been issued for the multifamily tax exemption since 2000 on projects with a total value of about $42 million, she says. Brum says those exemptions, good for up to 10 years, are applied against the assessed value of the buildings, up to the amount invested, but not against the assessed value of the land.


Huge costs


Even if business growth does concentrate in the targeted centers and corridors, for neighborhood groups and private investors to develop those areas aesthetically will take much more funding than is available currently.


In the West Broadway area, revitalization of Broadway Avenue from Monroe Street west to Summit Boulevard is expected to cost between $8 million and $10 million, says George Craig, an executive committee member of the West Broadway Neighborhood Council.


In the East Central neighborhood, which includes the South Perry district, the estimated revitalization cost over the 20-year plan is about $20 million, not including business investment, says Jerry Numbers, chairman of the East Central Neighborhood Council. That money would pay for additional street, sidewalk, lighting, and storefront improvements, as well as parks and trails, says Numbers.


Numbers says the city has no money to invest in the East Central area, and leaders there will continue to use federal community development block-grant money as seed capital to attract other grants for one project at a time.


We have to have the money in hand before we start each phase, he says. There is no way we could do it otherwise.


South Perry, West Broadway, and Hillyard, three of the four centers designated as pilot-revitalization areas by the city in 2002, recently have used their block-grant money as matching funds. Their goal is to attract a total of nearly $1 million in centers-and-corridors development money through the Spokane Regional Transportation Council, says Melissa Wittstruck, a city planner.


Its hoped that money would be approved no later than February, and priority projects in those three centers would either continue, or, in the case of West Broadway, get under way.


We cannot do this without the help of the Legislature, asserts Corbett, whose territory includes the West Broadway area. She envisions SRTC money kick-starting a first phase of development that would include an eight- to 10-block redesign along Broadway and a proposed plaza south of Broadway, at Ash Street.


Questioning city support


Sandy Martin, co-chairperson of the Historic Hillyard Partnership, which she says is one of three active neighborhood groups in that designated corridor, claims the city initially wouldnt help Hillyard write a technical SRTC grant proposal. She says neighborhood volunteers muddled through a first draft, and Eastern Washington Universitys planning department edited it before city planners would view their efforts.


Brum says city staff members wrote the first grant requests for South Perry. Still, she concedes that technical services havent been provided to the neighborhood groups quickly.


Wittstruck says South Perry was targeted first because that area already had set aside community development grant money for matching money, and had gone through much of the planning process.


Franks says the city is doing what it can.


We have no new people to work on centers and corridors, and are using no (direct) city money, only grant money, he says. We are working with the existing resources and doing the best we can.


He adds, Centers and corridors was a major shift of thinking, a much different vision. I think its positive that its five years later, and we are still actively implementing the plan.


Brum says the city is acting in the role of a coordinator.


We cant fund the revitalization, but we can provide incentives for focused growth and give technical assistance and help with new zoning regulations, she says.


Wittstruck says the public is impatient, but is beginning to see the early fruits from efforts at the neighborhood level.


These people have a lot of pride and have invested a lot of time in their neighborhoods, she says. Some have shown impatience with the time it takes to get things done at City Hall. They tell me it may not be happening as fast as theyd wanted, but its happening.


Brum and Franks, who repeatedly stress the lack of manpower to promote the 20-year plan, say the city received a $35,000 grant last year from the state Department of Community, Trade, and Economic Development that enhanced staff training and enabled the city to work more closely to determine needs in the neighborhoods. A more recent $18,000 grant from Foundation Northwest helped the city establish a number of neighborhood business centers. Those business centers now have created an official channel to transfer technical assistance from some of the citys many departments to the neighborhoods.


Within the past month, the city began approaching centers with application forms to fill out and submit for technical assistance from City Hall, says Brum. They have to apply first and let us know they are organized and interested, she says.


The South Perry, Hillyard, Garland, and North Monroe neighborhood groups have returned the forms and now are receiving such assistance, Wittstruck says.


She says a group from City Hall formed to disseminate that technical information to the neighborhood groups includes representatives from a range of city departments.