The city of Spokane has declared as surplus slightly more than seven acres of land on both the southwest and southeast corners of the intersection of Southeast Boulevard and 31st Avenue on the South Hill. Also, it has agreed to sell about two acres of that land to Spokane Transit Authority, which plans to develop a park-and-ride lot there. The city plans to auction the remaining land this summer, says Dennis Beringer, the citys real estate manager.


Beringer says the city already has received queries about the remaining nearly five acres, located at the southwest corner of the intersection, from two groups of buyers, both of which are interested in developing a retirement community similar to the Waterford on South Hill complex. The land currently is zoned residential, and the zoning would have to be changed for a retirement community, Beringer says.


The citys purchase of the land for right of way for the Southeast Boulevard extension project was finalized late last year, although the city had obtained early use and possession of the land so it could build the boulevard extension last summer, Beringer says. Not all of the land it bought was needed for that project, though, he says.


STA has agreed to buy the roughly two-acre, triangular-shaped surplus parcel on the east side of Southeast Boulevard for the nearly $330,000 price the city paid for that piece of land, Beringer says.


The transit authority has been looking for a South Hill location to build a park-and-ride lot similar to lots it has constructed on the North Side near Hastings Road and in the Five-Mile Prairie area, says Allen Schweim, STAs executive director. He says STA plans to set aside $900,000 in its 2001 budget to design and develop the planned South Hill lot. Construction at the park-and-ride lot likely would start in the summer of 2001.


The lot would include a storage building, a concrete-paved area for buses, an asphalt parking area, a covered waiting area for passengers, and landscaping. Other passenger conveniences, such as bike lockers, might be included, Schweim says.


Beringer says he is preparing documents to auction the surplus land on the west side of Southeast Boulevard at a public auction this summer. Several other properties are scheduled to be sold at that auction, he says.


Among them is a 4.3-acre parcel at the southwest corner of Trent Avenue and Cincinnati Street, along the Spokane River. Beringer says the city leases the vacant land to EZ Loader Boat Trailers Inc., a Spokane-area boat-trailer manufacturing company that uses the property to store trailers.


Also slated to be sold at the same auction is a nearly 27-acre parcel in southwest Spokane called Albion Heights. Beringer says that property could be developed as a residential subdivision.