Imagine a brick-paved, tree-lined pedestrian promenade stretching for a block between Holy Family Hospital and the Franklin Park Commons shopping center on Spokanes North Side. Envision also a pedestrian bridge, just west of there, that spans Division Street at Rowan Avenue, improving neighborhood access to Franklin Park, the big city park on the west side of the busy arterial.


Those projects are two of many being proposed in four neighborhoods chosen as pilot revitalization-planning areas following the Spokane City Councils approval late last year of a new comprehensive land-use plan. The comprehensive plan designates 21 mixed-used centers and corridors where development efforts will be focused.


Extensive streetscape improvements, building faade upgrades, and traffic calming measures are among the host of other projects that have been identified by committees in the four initial planning areas, which include Hillyard, West Broadway, and South Perry, in addition to the Holy Family area.


We want to wrap the planning phase up and move into the implementation as quickly as possible, says neighborhood planning program manager Leroy Eadie, who works in the citys planning services department.


He says his department hope to conclude the planning phase within the next month or two, and then go to the City Council to get its approval of the planning work done so far. It then will begin seeking to implement projects identified in the four initial target areas of town, while also replicating the neighborhood-planning process in the citys other designated centers and corridors, he says.


The biggest challenge is doing this process without a lot of resources and dedicated funding, Eadie says. The most obvious potential funding source, he says, is federal community-development funds, but its unclear to what extent such funds might be available to help pay for identified projects.


Some of these things we just know were going to have to do a lot of in-kind work, he says. Were kind of looking everywhere we can for funding.


Because of a current lack of funding, were not going to see a lot of things happening on the ground immediately, Eadie says. He makes clear, though, that hes intent on the proposals that have evolved from the process becoming reality.


Were trying to do things that have a big bang, but dont cost a lot of money. We want to wow people back into the city, by creating an attractive living environment, and thereby stem the migration to the suburbs outside of the city, he says.


Thus far in the planning process, the visions and identified projects have varied greatly, depending on the characteristics of the neighborhood involved, Eadie says. In the Holy Family area, for example, along with projects designed to make the neighborhood more pedestrian-friendly, much of the emphasis is on expanding medical and business-office space around the Holy Family campus, and blending those uses into the surrounding neighborhood.


In Hillyard, projects are aimed more at bolstering that northeast Spokane areas identity. They include a railroad museum, reviving the Greater Hillyard Business Association, continue to work on historic-preservations efforts in downtown Hillyard, street-related and faade improvements, and property cleanup.


In the West Broadway area, essentially a four-block area around the intersection of Broadway Avenue and Maple Street, the projects include expanding the area there zoned for mixed-use development, street improvements, and adding signs that help identify the business district. Also listed as a project is the development of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co.s nearby 88-acre Summit property site. The Spokane-based financial services company accumulated the property years ago with plans for a mixed-use development there, but has yet to move forward with the project.


In the South Perry area, specifically around Ninth Avenue and Perry Street, the project focus is on things such as attracting a new grocery store, land-use changes, more street-related improvements, expanded neighborhood events, traffic calming, and additional business recruitment. Traffic calming refers to things such as speed bumps, traffic circles, and sidewalk corner bump-outs that are used to slow vehicle speeds.


Looking for quick results


Although the citys comprehensive plan is a long-term document, expected to guide development activity for 20 years, Eadie says, We need some short-term projects (to develop some visible momentum). We need some short-term successes, celebrate the successes, and move forward.


Assisted by a Portland-based consulting firm, the pilot planning process began in January with the creation of teams to represent business and property owners, residents, and others in each area. That was followed by discussions of those participants visions for each area, and then project identification. The process also included an analysis of physical, market, financial, regulatory, and political barriers to those projects.


Eadie says he was disappointed in some cases at the lack of public participation in the process, but was encouraged by the civic-minded spirit of those who did get involved. He notes that it was a learning process for city planners as well.


Earl Reed, who owns a 2-year-old business called Kaleidoscope Quilting, at 1011 E. Second, with his wife, Celeste, and who became a co-leader in the South Perry planning effort, says, Im pretty impressed with the process.


The city employees that we worked with were extremely knowledgeable, he says, and the manner in which they came in and solicited ideas was very patient. They listened to every crazy idea that everyone came up with, as well as the good ones, and let us hash it out.


Reed says, Its going to be very exciting when they actually start doing some of the construction weve asked for. When you start seeing the fruits of this labor, and can see what goods coming from it, not just for yourself and your business but for the whole neighborhood, it makes you feel very good.