North Greenacres Neighborhood

Comprehensive Plan Committee Short Report

Spokane Valley Plan Needs Guidebook for Neighborhoods

NORTH GREENACRES
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN COMMITTEE REPORT

April 12, 2005

The North Greenacres Neighborhood has been holding a neighborhood planning process for the last four months. The Neighborhood Planning Committee held six initial meetings to organize our efforts by establishing a schedule and process.

Our process was presented to about fifty-five people at our initial neighborhood-wide meeting held on January 28, 2005. At that meeting where we established a working neighborhood vision and distributed our subarea planning survey; in a month’s time we had received ninety-five responses!

Subcommittees were quickly established, responding to our neighborhood’s initial thoughts. The Comprehensive Plan Committee has studied much of our city’s Draft Comprehensive Plan (SVDCP) and we now offer the following additions in an effort to help fulfill its vision and goals.

I. Neighborhood Subarea Planning
a. We request our city’s officials make it their goal to contain an easy-to-use process for Neighborhoods and Subareas (example: Spokane Industrial Park) within our Comprehensive Plan for writing neighborhood/subarea plans that:
i. Recognize the unique interests, knowledge, history, local conditions, boundaries and goals.
ii. Provides an easy-to-understand guidebook for neighborhood/subarea planning.
iii. Ensures two-way communication between citizens and a designated staff position that will respond to and assist the public.
iv. Provide resource commitment for adoption and use of neighborhood/subarea plans and establish a reasonable time period for adoption.

Road Designs that Fit - Want out of Alice In Wonderland

II. Transportation
a. Our city’s Draft Comprehensive Plan contains four possible road designs. The least intrusive of the four has a 64’ cross-section containing a 30’ wide road, two 10’ wide planting strips, two 5’ wide sidewalks, and two 2’ wide curb and gutters.

We recognize that the people working for our city give top priority to preserving neighborhood character (SVDCP, Chapter 5, Section 5.4, Priorities and Implementation Strategies, HP.1), yet the tools they are given limit their ability to fulfill this goal. When utilizing the least intrusive roadway option, many homes will lose their frontage, trees, privacy, etc. – the very things that contribute to overall neighborhood character.

We offer the following additions to our Comprehensive Plan based on ‘Smart Growth’ roadway policies found in Portland and British Columbia that prioritize:
i. Neighborhood preservation
ii. Reducing road construction costs
iii. Maintaining safe roads
b. The recommendations are as follows:
i. Public Works should consider reducing standard road width cross-sections in order to limit adverse impacts to neighborhood/subarea character provided insurmountable safety hazards do not result from reduction in standards.
1. All new, local and neighborhood/subarea streets shall be built to the minimum allowable width in order to appropriately serve the average daily travel (ADT) and parking needs expected from the homes and businesses they serve.

Added benefits to the inevitable reduction in street widths using this method are the preservation of neighborhood character, the protection of sensitive areas, and the reduction of stormwater runoff.
ii. City-wide curb and sidewalk standards should be modified in order to preserve neighborhood/subarea character and existing uses.
1. Retain existing trees along roadways while accommodating allowed development and buffering residential areas.
2. Road designs shall include options for one, attached or detached sidewalk on either side of the street
a. Provisions shall be made for hard-surface sidewalks to be replaced with a soft-surface, multi-use trail where appropriate.

Land Use - Keep the Green in Greenacres and Livestock

III. Land Use
a. Livestock and Agriculture
i. Ongoing agricultural and livestock keeping practices shall be allowed as permitted uses, without needing to be grandfathered-in within low-density zoning designations.
1. Protection shall be provided for land owners continuing agricultural and livestock keeping from frivolous complaints by adopting regulations that outline best practices.
2. Mitigation policies shall protect the financial investment of existing landowners and protect them from liability, noise, privacy, and incompatible use complaints that are frequently created by new development sharing adjacent property lines.
3. Additional fencing and significant (50’) setbacks from livestock land uses are required.

b. Future Development
i. Impact fees shall be charged to land developers in proportion to the needs for parks, schools, roads, police, fire, and other public services created by their projects.
1. Collected fees shall be categorized and placed in the appropriate fund for future use.



This document is a portion of the future document of comments and recommendations that will be available on our website in the next week or so. All are welcome to email, add news, and neighborhood-related information to our neighborhood website at:

http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/sv/ngn

Email us
maryp@icehouse.net