Airway Heights refocuses attention, energy on downtown study

After a slight hiccup as city leaders focused on local public art projects, Airway Heights’ downtown study is getting back underway, with officials planning to approach property owners within the next three months.

The city’s downtown study began in the spring of 2018 and has been slowly ongoing for the better part of a year. The purpose of the study is to identify ways to improve Airway Heights’ “downtown” area — a four-block zone that runs from Yokes on Sunset Highway to the west near the post office on Mullen Street. The area encompasses land from 17th Avenue to the south up to about two blocks north of U.S. Highway 2.

A consulting firm specializing in transportation planning and design, civil engineering and landscape architecture, SCJ Alliance, has been hired by the city to assist with both the public art project and the downtown study.

“We got a little bit — I don’t want to say sidetracked — but we had important issues to deal with on the public arts sides,” SJC Alliance Spokane Office principal Bill Grimes said. “That has a lot of influence on what downtown could look like, so we’ve been waiting for that progress.”

The city authorized a public art program in August 2018 and hosted a meeting last month kicking off its US-2 Beautification and Public Art Program, which gathered community members to hear their preferences for public art and landscaping for the new roundabouts planned along Highway 2.

According to city documents, Airway Heights officials have been considering revitalizing the downtown corridor since at least 2006. Now, the city is planning to reach out to property owners in the area and gauge their desire to redevelop or change their properties.

“(The study) is somewhat indistinct at this point,” Grimes said. “It depends a lot on how much property owners would like to redevelop.”

Grimes said while the improvements would likely bring in tourists or visitors from other areas, the city wanted “to dial it in to the locals and create something the community wants to call their city center.”

“We want to have an atmosphere of a real city center,” Grimes said. “An identity-rich, complex space with a destination feeling.”

The study is predicted to take another eight months to complete.

Shannen Talbot can be reached at [email protected].