The Airway Heights Planning Commission gave a thumbs-up approval at its Dec. 9 meeting to a professional service agreement the city hopes to sign between itself and the Spokane consulting firm Studio Cascade. The agreement would allow the city to move forward with revitalization plans for U.S. Highway 2, as well as provide assistance reviewing the land use element of its comprehensive plan in 2016.
Development Services Director Derrick Braaten explained to the commission that design aspects of Highway 2 are what he receives the most complains from residents about. The city has tried multiple times over the years to formulate a plan to upgrade the highway, the portion through the city of which was designed to provide up to six or eight lanes to service Fairchild Air Force Base and is not safe.
“Too often we’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on plans that then sit on the shelf,” Braaten said.
Under the contract, Studio Cascade would create a “unified design approach” for U.S. 2 through the city by “identifying specific design elements and streetscape treatments to improve the corridor’s aesthetics, stimulate economic activity and effectively communicate a community identity of which residents and business owners can be proud.”
Braaten said part of the plan for the highway is to break it down into sections and design aesthetic elements and treatments that match that particular section of the city. The plan will involve the public through a variety of ways, including three workshops.
“It’s prime time for us to have this in place,” Commissioner Sonny Weathers said in endorsing the plan.
As for the comprehensive plan, Braaten said while that is something his office would normally be working on, they are short-staffed and currently consumed with trying to keep up with reviewing the many development applications being filed with the city. When new Commissioner Nicholas Messing pointed out that the contract’s price of $58,275 would be enough to hire a new employee for the department, Braaten said he had considered such an approach, but would be faced with having to pay that employee beyond the one-year timeline of the contract.
“We can only do so much,” Braaten said. “We are just slammed with development.”
The professional services agreement now goes to the City Council for final approval.
Also at the meeting, the commission held a public hearing on a State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) review application for a new 500-foot rail spur on property owned by SCAFCO along McFarlane Road. The spur would connect the manufacturer to the nearby Geiger Spur, which is owned by Spokane County and operated by Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad, allowing the operator to deliver and pick up three rail cars per week.
Braaten told the commission the public hearing was just procedural and called only to receive public comment, required by the filing of a SEPA application. Approving a railway application is outside the commission’s purview, something done by other agencies.
“It’s very unusual that you’re going to be doing a hearing without taking action,” Braaten said.
No citizens were present to provide comment on the SEPA review.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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