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SEPA Comment Period for Moran Estates South

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Southgate received a notice yesterday about a SEPA comment period for a proposed 13-home subdivision along Freya Street called Moran South Estates. You’ll remember this project held a Community Meeting back in August.

You can take a look at the preliminary-site-plan and SEPA Checklist for the project and send comments to the City’s SEPA coordinator, Dave Compton, through November 22nd.

Moran

The project is very similar to the developments on 45th Court and 47th Avenue directly to the north and south of this area. A couple comments related to pedestrian accommodation that I would supply would be to ask if the right-of-way improvements along Freya Street will be completed per Spokane Municipal Code. As you can see, the sidewalk ends as the cul de sac goes out to Freya. Anyone living on the east side of Southgate knows how unaccommodating Freya is to pedestrians and bikes. If we don’t ask developers to fill in the sidewalk between 44th and Palouse Hwy it will never be built.

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Possible pedestrian connections for safer/easier resident access to Southgate’s District Center

Another pedestrian accommodation (supported by the SMC, the City Comp Plan, and our Southgate Neighborhood Connectivity Plan) would be to add some non-motorized connection to the west. A mixed-use Centennial/Ben Burr style trail punching out at the end of the cul de sac or out of the southwest corner of the development across a County-owned stormwater swale would allow residents easier and safer access to the shopping area of our neighborhood’s District Center via Palouse Hwy. It would take some discussion between the developers and the owners of Clare House or the County, but it would be a great amenity and help prevent the continuation of the pervasive lack of east/west connectivity in our neighborhood. Without this type of connection residents would have to walk a 1/3 mile south or 1/4 north to find a route towards the District Center.

The SNC Land Use Committee will draft and submit comments as well, we will upload those here when we have them drafted. In the meantime, please send in your comments so the City knows what you think.

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Community Development Block Grant Project Menu

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Last night at our neighborhood council meeting, we were introduced to the City’s new Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Neighborhood Project Menu.

The CDBG program provides funds to neighborhoods for community-oriented improvement projects based on income. Traditionally, Southgate has not received any CDBG funds. However, a new dispersement formula put in place a few years ago results in us now receiving about $1800 annually. The minimum cost of a CDBG project is $10,000, so we don’t get enough to do anything with that money except donate it other neighborhoods for their projects.

This year, instead of directing the money at a neighborhood, the City has developed another option called the Neighborhood Project Menu to provide area non-profits the opportunity to have their projects considered for CDBG funding. If you follow the links on the Project Menu document, you will see a collection of local non-profit projects vetted by the City to meet HUD requirements for use of CDBG funds.

Please review the list of projects and come prepared to vote for where SNC’s $1800 should go at the next neighborhood council meeting on December 14th.

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SNC Officer Election Happening at December Meeting

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Every year Southgate Neighborhood Council votes for its officers for the upcoming year. This week we opened up the nomination period for 2017 with the vote to take place December 14th at the next neighborhood council meeting.

The officer positions are as follows: Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and Community Assembly Representative. All positions have a one year term. Descriptions of the duties for each position can be found in the SNC Bylaws.

The nomination and voting process follows the policies laid out in the SNC Bylaws. Eligible nominees need to be voting members of the council as defined by the bylaws (a resident of the Southgate neighborhood 16 years or older having attended two consecutive neighborhood council meetings).

Last night the council moved to nominate all existing officers for another term. We will take nominations from the floor during the next meeting and conduct our vote then.

If you want to have a say in the development in our neighborhood, if you want to work to improve the quality of life for our area, please consider volunteering for one of our officer positions.

Get informed/Stay involved!

 

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City Council Approves KXLY Comp Plan Amendment

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Last night the City Council approved the KXLY Comp Plan amendment in a unanimous 7-0 after hearing a presentation from staff and supporting comments from the developer’s representative and the Chair of the Southgate Neighborhood Council.

The proposed amendment would change the zoning of a 2-acre parcel of city-owned land along Regal Street next to the Southeast Sports Center. The current zoning is single-family residential and the new zoning will be Center and Corridor Core (CC-2), similar to KXLY’s existing property in our District Center. The Southgate Neighborhood Council voted to support this amendment back in June and provided supporting comments during the SEPA comment period back in July. For deep background on this amendment, look at the City’s website on the amendment.

Of broader implication for the neighborhood is the proposed sale of this small parcel to KXLY by the City. By purchasing this land, KXLY will gain access to the new stoplight at the intersection of Palouse Highway and Regal Street. This will unlock their 15-arce District Center property for rapid commercial development. The approval of the Comp Plan amendment is the first domino in a line of many land use actions needed to begin development.

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The draft site plane for KXLY’s District Center commercial development presented to SNC in June 2016.

Next the developers will sign agreements with the Park Board for a perpetual easement across part of the soccer center for their access road, a shared parking agreement where users of the Southeast Sports Complex can park in the future parking lots of the KXLY development, and a ground lease to develop a new soccer field near the radio tower on the western side of KXLY’s property. After those agreements are signed KXLY will begin the process of applying for building permits.

These conditions (approved comp plan amendment, CC-2 zoning, and easement) are part of the purchase and sale agreement between KXLY and the City. There are other conditions proposed by the neighborhood that are part of the agreement as well. Namely settlement of the Regal Plaza Appeal dealing with road design and implementation of the Integrated Site Plan in the Southgate District Center, commitment from the developer to “guaranteed substantive input/collaboration” with the neighborhood on the design of the KXLY development, and $300,000 from the sale price of the land to help develop multi-use trails around the Southgate Neighborhood.

This was the first domino to fall in a rapid chain of events that will culminate in the development of the next large commercial center in our neighborhood sometime next year. Our hope is that the proactive communication that has taken place so far between the developer, the City, and the neighborhood will continue as KXLY moves into the building phase of their project. I encourage all of you to follow Southgate Neighborhood on Facebook and Twitter for updates on this process.

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Cool Beans Espresso Stand Relocating

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Java junkies take heart! Cool Beans Espresso Stand is relocating ahead of the construction of the Maverik gas station at 44th and Regal. Back in July the stand was served with an eviction notice ahead of the gas station construction.

These are the approved plans for the new Cool Beans espresso stand location at the southwest corner of 44th and Regal.
These are the approved plans for the new Cool Beans espresso stand location at the southwest corner of 44th and Regal.

Building permits issued by the City last month show that Mr. Douglass is moving the stand across the intersection of 44th and Reagl to the northeast corner of the parking lot of the Ace Hardware shopping center where the Spokane Boys fruit and Christmas tree lots are located seasonally.

Mr. Douglass owns both the Ace shopping center and the open land at 44th and Regal where the gas station will be built. None of the submitted documents include a timeline for the building of either the espresso stand or the gas station. We will update you when we hear more.

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No Discussion of Impacts at Traffic Scoping Meeting

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Residents of the upper South Hill attended a Traffic Scoping Meeting  last night held by the traffic engineer for the developer of the Regal Commons development along Regal Street. Attendees looking for answers as to the potential impact of the development and solutions to the current traffic issues on Regal were disappointed to learn the there was no real discussion of potential impacts discussed at the meeting. The developer’s engineer, Mr. Whipple, said that this meeting was to gather input from neighbors about areas that needed to be addressed by their traffic study and that results of their study would be presented to the neighborhood in a couple of months.

The only real traffic impact data shared was old data from the developer’s SEPA application back in early June stating that the total buildout of the 8 acre site would result in about 3000 trips a day along Regal Street. As we have discussed in an earlier post, this number vastly under estimates the specific land use impacts of the proposed drive thru restaurants according to rates from the International Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Manual. The ITE Manual is the standard reference and method used in Spokane to determine potential traffic impact of various types of projects. The developer’s SEPA application has been on hold since early August while Mr. Whipple develops new trip generation estimates using more appropriate land use codes for the proposed development. He argues that looking at individual land uses grossly exaggerates the actual number of trips per day which is why he elected to use the broader land use code he originally did. However, these trip generation rates are how the City and County determine the amount of mitigation to be paid for the impact of the development. I would hope that our municipalities would err on planning for the upper end of potential impact, our City planners seem to agree and have asked for revised estimates. We will share the new numbers once they are given to the City.

The main point of the traffic scoping meeting is to determine what intersections and parts of the road system to study for current and potential impacts from the development. In this case the City and County asked the developer to study these intersections:

  • Regal and 53rd
  • Regal and 55th
  • Regal and 57th
  • Freya and 55th
  • Freya and 57th

The attendees asked that he scope be expanded to include other intersections such as:

  • Freya and Palouse Hwy
  • 53rd and Crestline
  • 55th and Crestline
  • 37th and Freya

There were a number of neighbors (myself included) that called for a broader comprehensive traffic study on the South Hill that looked not just at issues around Regal Street and 53rd, but looked at traffic patterns on and off the hill as well clear over to the Glenrose area. This is likely beyond the scope of this traffic study, but it is something area residents should pursue with the City and County to do in a coordinated and comprehensive way taking into account the full potential buildout of developable land in the City and out in the County’s Urban Growth Area.

In addition to studying current traffic levels, the study needs to account for “background” projects. These are projects that have already been approved but may not have been fully built out. Mr. Whipple said that in this case that includes the Ben Burr Apartments currently under construction at Ben Burr Road and 57th Avenue, the 55th Avenue apartment complexes, and the “Swarthout” Strip Mall at 55th and Regal. We asked that his background data also include the nearly completed Palouse Trail Apartments behind Target, the KXLY and Maverick District Center properties (there were traffic estimates associated with their SEPA applications from 2008), and the Maverick gas station/Douglass property at 44th and Regal (this property had a 7000+ ADT traffic impact assigned to it during its 1997 SEPA process). All of these projects came with hundreds, if not thousands, of vehicle trips per day associated with them. Adding them all together places Regal Street well over capacity as a designated Minor Arterial. Other items to be considered in the traffic study is a sight distance analysis along Regal at 53rd and 55th and a “Mini-roundabout” at Freya and 57th (we’re looking for more info on that).

Neighbors took the opportunity to discuss their perception of current traffic conditions along the Regal Street corridor and their experiences trying to commute along the street in recent years. KXLY News was on hand to record the event and posted a short story about it on their evening news. Suffice to say people are already experiencing extended commute times during peak traffic hours and many wanted to see Regal widened to accommodate more traffic. As has been said in the past, widening Regal is not an option since the City and County do not have the right-of-way available to put more lanes on the street. City traffic engineer Inga Note, who was in attendance, verified that fact and said there are no plans and no real way to widen Regal. It has been shown both nationally and around the world that widening roads only provides temporary relief to auto congestion. While no solutions were forthcoming at the traffic scoping meeting, the issue is now very apparent to the developer, the City, and the County.

One possible mitigation proposed by the developer is to add a traffic light at 53rd and Regal. This will not reduce traffic, but could help manage its flow, especially into and out of the new development. However, the City Capital Improvement Plan does not have this project listed and the COS Transportation Impact Program report cited by Mr. Whipple that lists a traffic signal at 53rd and Regal has not be adopted by the City, so their mitigation funds cannot be used for that project. Additionally, City policy states that traffic signals need to be placed at the intersection of designated arterials. Regal is designated a Minor Arterial, but 53rd is not. Another detail for the City to work out with the developer.

Finally, there were concerns from a few attendees about the non-auto users of the neighborhood roads. Bicyclists and pedestrians (including school kids) use Regal and adjoining roads as paths to school and businesses around Southgate. No one felt that Regal was a safe environment for these users. Mr. Whipple took the time to explain that existing conditions cannot be blamed on the proposed Regal Commons development. However, it should be incumbent upon him and the developer to make sure their project does not exacerbate these issues, especially since the zoning for their project is supposed to be pedestrian-oriented as described by both the City and County code.

Overall, there were no solution offered at the meeting last night, and there was not a clear picture of the potential impacts given either. Southgate Neighborhood Council will continue to monitor the progress of the SEPA application and notify folks of any opportunities to give comment or learn more about the state of the development.

If you have concerns and comments about this issue I encourage you to email the SEPA Application coordinator for this project, John Halsey at the City Planning Department. You can also send a note or CC our City Council representatives, Breean Beggs and Lori Kinnear.

As always if you have questions for us you can email us as well.

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October SNC Meeting Materials

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Check our Minutes and Agendas page for the agenda for our October meeting. See you Wednesday, October 12th at ESD 101!

NOTE: There is a Traffic Scoping Meeting for the Regal Commons project right before the SNC meeting from 6-7pm at Fire Station 81 at 61st and Palouse Hwy. So we may start a few minutes late. I encourage you to attend this meeting and comment on the traffic impacts of the proposed drive-thru restaurants and shopping center at 53rd and Regal.