Parking structures replace surface parking lots in the city’s core. A cultural trail through the center of downtown informs and inspires residents and visitors to a more broadly defined downtown Spokane, expanded to include the North Bank, as well as parts of the lower South Hill and the University District. Throughout, housing is available for people of all income levels.

Such is the future of downtown Spokane as envisioned by a group working on a new downtown plan that is expected to be finalized and put into action by mid-May.

Much of the proposed plan for downtown is intended to address transportation, especially the conundrum of parking. Andrew Rolwes, vice president of public policy and parking at the Downtown Spokane Partnership, says a steering committee assembled to update the downtown plan is looking to tackle both sides of the issue by increasing multimodal transportation options in downtown in addition to increasing parking availability.

“We have an opportunity as a community to work on both sides of the parking equation,” Rolwes says.

The City of Spokane and its planning consultant, Seattle-based Framework Cultural Placemaking, drafted the plan last month. The public is invited to share their opinions via an online survey, available at spokanedowntownplan.org through Saturday, Feb. 15.

The steering committee recommends establishing a Public Development Authority to focus on parking and other downtown transportation issues.

Tobby Hatley, local government affairs manager at the Washington Hospitality Association and a member of the steering committee, says a PDA could help by taking over the issue of parking, acting for parking the way the Business Improvement District overseen by the Downtown Spokane Partnership does for business.

Spokane City Councilwoman Lori Kinnear, also a steering committee member, says one way in which a PDA could alleviate parking downtown is by developing a plan to build a parking garage. The cost of building a parking garage — about $30,000 per stall — is prohibitive for the city, Kinnear says, but could be more feasible for a PDA, which could dedicate time to finding solutions for parking problems and finding money to fund those solutions.

Rolwes says the draft plan also calls for making it easier to navigate the downtown area. That means investing in the planned City Line bus rapid transit project, sidewalk improvements, safety measures for bicyclists, encouraging use of scooter and bike sharing, and investing in wayfinding, Rolwes says.

“What we’re hearing from the business community is that we want to ensure that all modes are made available,” Rolwes says.

Improving parking and increasing multimodal transportation were both elements in the 2008 downtown plan, the most recent iteration of the plan, though they figured less prominently.

The 2008 plan focused on making streets attractive to pedestrians, fostering a mix of local and national stores and restaurants, and creating and enhancing public spaces.

“Downtown has seen good, steady progress over the past decade,” Rolwes says. “Now that the ground floor has been built and we’ve made progress, we get to build on top of that.” 

As shops and restaurants occupy more space downtown, the steering committee sees an opportunity to refine the identities of some downtown areas. The committee proposes the creation of a cultural and historic trail, which would run east-west through downtown and would illuminate some of Spokane’s history through art installations and interpretive signage.

The trail would link parts of downtown that have begun to develop distinct identities in the past decade. The committee views the area bounded by Monroe and Wall streets and First and Riverside avenues, which includes the Bing Crosby Theater and the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, as the perfect spot for a theater district. The west end of the envisioned theater district is home to several breweries, while the east end has seen development related to low-income housing and social services.

As downtown evolves, the committee expects demand for downtown housing to increase.

“I think we can foresee a commitment to downtown becoming a residential downtown once again,” Rolwes says.

Some of the steering committee members have expressed concern for diverse options for downtown housing.

“How do we envision housing happening downtown that is housing choice, so it’s all the way from high-level luxury to affordable workforce housing like the Ridpath?” Kinnear asks.

People who are homeless play a part in the draft plan as well. Managing the concentration of services for the homeless is part of the committee’s goal to create more welcoming public spaces. Some resources for the homeless have gathered toward the east end of downtown.

Nathan Gwinn, assistant planner for the city of Spokane, says the committee hopes community members will address whether such a concentration of services is a benefit to the city.

“It’s a valid question: Is it good to concentrate those services or is it good to have them more disbursed? And disbursed where?” Gwinn says.

The 2020 draft plan proposes expanding the boundaries of the downtown area to include the North Bank area, south of Dean Avenue between Washington and Howard streets, as well as the south end of the University District and part of the lower South Hill. The 2008 plan considered downtown to be the area between Boone Avenue to the north, Interstate 90 to the south, Maple Street to the west, and the University District to the east.

Rolwes says the question of whether and how much to expand downtown’s boundaries is one that members of the community will have to consider when responding to the draft plan.

“Certainly, a lot of development has happened on the North Bank and … in the Kendall Yards area, but what does a focus that shifts south do for the community?” he asks. 

Kinnear cautions that the plan is a preliminary view of what downtown Spokane could work toward.

“It doesn’t address some of the tiny details; that’s not what the plan does. Those are just action items,” Kinnear says.

She says people should think creatively about what they’d like to see happen in downtown over the next decade.

“I encourage people to think broadly about when they travel,” Kinnear says. “What do they like about other cities our size? If you go to Austin or Boise or Salt Lake City, what about those cities do you notice that is positive that we could replicate here?”

Framework Cultural Placemaking and the city held two public workshops in October and in early February. Now they are working to finalize the draft plan and present it to the planning commission and City Council. The public will be invited to a planning commission public hearing on the plan, which will be the last step before city council adoption. 

The city and the nonprofit Downtown Spokane Partnership have split the $95,000 costs of surveying the public and creating a new downtown plan.