The City has issued a Determination of Non-Significance (DNS) for their new update to the City’s historic preservation and demolition ordinances. The changes would strengthen the historic preservation rules in Spokane to assure demolished historic structures would be replaced with ones that reflect the character of the remaining neighborhood. You can read more on the City of Spokane’s website.
The DNS means that there are likely no major environmental impacts to updating this ordinance. However, once you read it, this determination can be appealed and comments submitted to the City until 5:00pm on Thursday, January 25th. Send comments and questions about appealing to Tirrell Black at the City Planning Department.
This week received notice of the proposed demolition of a single family home at 5216 S. Perry Street. Per the City’s demolition ordinances, the neighborhood council is to be notified of any pending demolition in the neighborhood and the public is given 10 calendar days to provide comments or voice concerns. In this case, comments need to be provided to permitmanager@spokanecity.org by the end of the day Sunday, January 14th.
We were given the demolition permit application from the City. The only other information I have found is from the City permitting system that describes the project as, “Full house demo including attached garage. Structure built in 1965 not in historic district. Not listed as historic property.”
The property is located just inside the City border (the City line is 53rd Ave.) and backs up against the Manito Country Club. It is zoned Single Family Residential and that is what the zoning should stay.
Check our Minutes and Agendas page for the agenda for our January meeting and minutes from way back in October.
This month we have our regular business and elections for next year’s neighborhood council officers. We will also be discussing traffic calming applications for the 2018 cycle.
Happy new year and we’ll see you on January 3rd at 7pm at ESD 101!
Due to work obligations and family conflicts, the officers of the SNC have decided to cancel the December meeting of the Southgate Neighborhood Council. We will plan to meet in January and hold our annual elections then. Please email us if you have any questions.
Check our Minutes and Agendas page for the agenda for our October meeting and minutes from September.
We will have an update from the Office of Neighborhood Services and a presentation on the South Hill Coalition, its relationship to the neighborhood councils, and how it is implementing the neighborhood plans for the South Hill.
More Apartments Proposed for Land at 55th and Freya
On Wednesday night Todd Whipple from Whipple Consulting Engineers came to out monthly meeting to discuss a proposed Comprehensive Plan Amendment to change the zoning of a 9 acre parcel at the corner of 55th Avenue and Freya from Residential Single Family to High Density Residential.
The parcel for re-zoning through the Comp Plan Amendment is shown in purple.
This parcel is owned by the Moody Bible Institute and it was part of the annexation earlier this year that included the apartments on 55th and the Regal Commons property. The property currently has a radio station on it, but it is zoned for single family homes. This change would allow them to build apartments on the property.
Moody Bible Institute wants to keep the existing buildings on the site, so of the 9 acres only about 8.5 will be available for development. The total number of apartments on site would be between 144 and 188. Mr. Whipple said that they would be market rate apartments, not subsidized. The land has not been sold yet, but Dennis Crapo and Diamond Rock construction are interested in purchasing it to build the apartments. If they were to build a single-family subdivision on the site it would have about 85 homes.
Development of the parcel would include building sidewalks and planting strips along the parcel frontage on Freya Street and 55th Avenue. They will also build 53rd Avenue on the north side of the property to connect to the partially completed 53rd Avenue to the west.
But Wait, There’s More…Apartments
The 64 Unit Complex on Palouse Hwy. is in the County and the land is already zoned for apartments.
In the course of the meeting Mr. Whipple mentioned that there is a 64 unit apartment complex planned on Palouse Highway just south of Freya Street. These apartments are being built in the County on land already zoned High-density residential. The developer is Lancze Douglass and there should be a public comment period coming very soon.
What’s Next
For the Comp Plan Amendment, Mr. Whipple says they need to supply the City with a trip generation letter (for traffic impacts), submit a non-project SEPA application (which should include a comment period), among other documents. Their deadline for submission is October 31st. SNC will let you know when these comment periods open up. If you have questions or concerns about this, I encourage you to contact our City Council members because they will be the ones to vote on the Comp Plan Amendment next year.
Check our Minutes and Agendas page for the agenda for our September meeting and minutes from July.
We will have a presentation on a proposed County Comp Plan Amendment to change zoning on the radio station at 55th and Freya from Residential 4-10 to High Density Residential.
A quick reminder, we will not be having our monthly SNC meeting scheduled for this Wednesday, August 2nd. We will resume our regular meeting schedule on the 1st Wednesday of each month starting on Wednesday, September 6th. Enjoy the rest of your summer, see you next month!
Check our Minutes and Agendas page for the agenda for our June meeting and minutes from May.
FYI, there is a traffic follow up meeting for Regal Commons at the Perry Branch of the Spokane Public Library from 5pm-6pm before the SNC meeting at 7pm at ESD 101. I hope you can make time for both.
Southgate Neighborhood Council 