By CARA LORELLO
Staff Reporter
The recent purchase of Spokane Raceway Park has produced a sizable chunk of land both the city of Airway Heights and Spokane County are now considering for a regional sports complex.
The raceway property covers roughly 316 acres just north of Airway Heights, about 212 of which is comprised of the racing complex. That leaves about 100-plus acres officials are planning to make use of for two separate projects. Airway Heights Mayor Matthew Pederson said one of those projects is a new police training facility for the county sheriff's office, and the other a regional sports complex offering amenities for a wide range of sports from baseball to soccer.
Conceptual ideas and costs to pursue this project are not determined at this time, as both the city and county are in the process of working out a partnership agreement on their venture, Pederson explained.
“We're in the very infant, conceptual planning stage of this project,” he said, adding that the whole purpose of pursuing the development of a regional sports complex is to fill the widespread need for such a facility on the West Plains. Another goal is to draw attention to the region as a location with a facility to hold large-scale athletic tournaments, as no such location currently exists.
“Right now we really don't have the area fields for our Little League, local teams, youth soccer, or adult sports,” Pederson said.
“Our intended audience isn't just local teams,” he added. “With this complex, what it does is opens up the area to capitalizing on the region as a destination for national tournaments.”
When a regional tournament comes to town, sports events get divided up among several locations such as area universities and Spokane venues. Pederson used the example of last spring's Inland Northwest Qualifier tournament that brought 389 teams to the region. It brought a $4.1 million economical draw for Spokane County, Pederson said, and had every hotel “from Cheney to Liberty Lake” booked up.
“That isn't even the biggest tournament this area sees,” Pederson added.
Some of the elements officials would like to see in the complex are fields for baseball, soccer and Pop Warner football, plus space for cross country meets area schools would hold, and possibly lacrosse—a sport Pederson says is growing more popular in this region.
Before any plans are made, city and county officials want input from the public to get a feel for the communities' needs. Officials sought public comment on the project on Tuesday at a town hall forum in Airway Heights City Council Chambers, details from which weren't available at press time.
Pederson officiated the meeting, along with County Commissioner, Mark Richard.
In addition to the public, “We also want to reach out to potential users groups and find out what their wants and needs are,” Pederson said, adding there's plans to establish a regional stakeholders group to include the city, county, Spokane Regional Sports Commission, West Plains Little League, Inland Northwest Pop Warner, Spokane Youth Sports Commission, and the Kalispel Tribe of Indians.
Some of the above groups are also stakeholders in the city of Cheney's plans for developing its Betz Park project, which includes both aquatics and sports elements in its design. Having seen the Betz Park master plan, Pederson said the regional project is “sports-focused and on a much larger scale” compared to what Cheney intends to do with its 50 acres of land.
“Airway Heights is not advocating this project for aquatics,” he said, adding that according to the county, the West Plains is being considered as the location for a new county aquatics facility, with Cheney being one option.
Cara Lorello can be reached at [email protected]
Reader Comments(0)