Good news: The City Of Spokane was recognized for its planning work to lessen its impact on climate change and encourage sustainable practices. The city received a 2010 American Planning Association (APA) and Planning Association Of Washington (PAW) Joint Planning award for its greenhouse gas inventory reports and Sustainability Action Plan. This award will be featured by PAW in the Western Planner Journal and APA Washington in the Washington Planner.

The City has done a great job to become more sustainable in recent years. Couple items we’re currently working on:

* Promoting the use of alternative transportation options and complete streets.
* Using re-refined motor oil and adding all-electric vehicles for the City fleet.
* Adding community gardens throughout the City.
* Finding new uses for recycled products, including using recycled glass in street projects.
* Encouraging people to conserve water and offering rebates for making good water choices.
* Adding educational materials at City Hall and our libraries.
*Implementing the latest in technology to save energy, including a new program that turns off our computers when they’re not in use.
* Accepting food scraps in our yard waste carts for composting in the middle of July. For more information about Spokane’s sustainability efforts or to read the greenhouse gas inventory reports, visit GreenSpokane.org.

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The afternoon council session yesterday was interrupted by the closing of City Hall for a hazmat concern just minutes prior to the meeting. That meant that our afternoon consent agenda, which is an open public meeting, was closed to all members of the public who hadn’t arrived prior to our 3:30 start time. Because the fire department had closed off City Hall as a safety precaution the council did not take a vote on our consent agenda until our 6PM legislative session when City Hall was back open, even though the entire meeting was televised on channel 5. I was a few minutes late to the meeting and had the fire department escort me into the building so that could fulfill my duties for our afternoon session. I’m glad there turned out to be no real danger and I commend the Spokane Fire Department and the Spokane Police Department for their quick and thoroughly professional response to the hazmat concern.

In legislative session we unanimously passed three items; having the City Attorney represent two police officers regarding a lawsuit stemming from action taken in the line of duty, approving a slight lowering of interest rates paid on employee contributions to the Spokane Employee Retirement System, and approval an updating of the priorities for funding for the Human Services Advisory Board, which makes allocations of City funds to local non-profit groups. Regarding this last item, I have had discussions to clarify whether domestic violence related services are eligible for funding under the adjusted criteria with HS Director Jerrie Allard, and she assures me that the criteria is elastic enough to encompass DV.

Come celebrate health and community with the second Summer Parkways on August 22nd. Bring your family, bikes, boards, and feet down to Howard St. between Riverfront and Corbin park. The street will be closed to all motor vehicles and be open for all human-powered transportation such as bikes, skateboards and pedestrians. The event will take place on both days between 9 a.m.-1 p.m. with activities for the whole family, including music, dancing, physical fitness classes, healthy food and a bicycle decorating contest. The idea for the Summer Parkways came from an event in Bogotá, Columbia, called Ciclovia, which means “bike path” in Spanish. The goal is to focus on recreation, fitness and community. For more information about the events, check out the official website and the facebook group. Volunteers are still needed for the upcoming July 11th date to direct traffic, assist vendors, help with recycling, or provide information to participants. Visit http://summerparkways.com/volunteer-opportunities/ or if you have any questions or are interested in signing up to volunteer, please contact Kate Cornwall at (509) 209-2404 or kcornwall@landscouncil.org.

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Last Thursday morning I attended a tour and ribbon cutting of the recently completed Lincoln Street Spokane Urban Runoff Greenway Ecosystem (SURGE) Project. Lincoln Street from 17th to 29th is resurfaced and stormwater will be diverted from the wastewater treatment plant to filtered storm gardens and then routed to the Cannon Hill pond. There was an impressive turn-out and Mayor Verner, Engineering Services Director Mike Taylor, Wastewater Manager Dale Arnold and David Thompson did a great job speaking. More photos after the jump.

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The Council took action to approve a multi-family housing tax break for 8 new units of market-rate housing on 5th avenue near the U-district. The multi-family housing tax break is a state program that helps cities encourage more dense housing in targeted areas–in Spokane’s case near downtown or near centers and corridors. The program is a great benefit to Spokane as it helps guide development to areas where city services are much cheaper to provide thereby saving money for all citizens through efficiency. It is also just a tax break on the buildings not the land so the city still sees some tax benefit even before the 8-year tax break expires. The Council heard that we are seeing more of these projects come on line and more are market rate in addition to low income housing. Both are good trends in my mind. Read the rest of this entry »