Friends of the Falls are big supporters of long-range planning for Spokane and its river environment, including the current process to update Downtown’s own master plan. In fact, several FOF Board members and regular members took part in the November 29 workshop held to initiate the update.
So we were pleased to see around 100 folks in attendance that night, and to hear folks immediately note the importance of the Spokane River, the falls and the gorge in our downtown’s future - along with other key assets, of course. Among those listed on the “vision board” produced that night as “challenges":
• Improved care for urban forests
• Acting to taper the skyline to protect views
• Completing the Centennial Trail to the SFCC area
• Involving more Native Americans in the planning process
• Developing light rail for Spokane
One of our favorite components from this stage of the plan’s documentation is this quote from the existing “snapshot” write-up on the state of our community:
“Activate Spokane River and Riverfront Park:
The Spokane River and Riverfront Park are strategically located amenities that continue to be underutilized. The recommendations from the River Gorge Master Plan should be used to activate and better integrate these assets into the fabric of Downtown.”
If you missed it, or want to include additional comments for this stage of the work, the Downtown Partnership has decided to post and leave active three ways to register comments, all accessible at their website, linked here. Don’t worry about the submittal deadline listed as December 14 - contacts at the DSP assure us that comments will continue to be received well past that date, and incorporated into the plan.
The DSP site also includes a few downloadable documents from the meeting, including the slideshow presented that night, and the nice “vision board” put together by the consultant during the meeting itself. We’ve posted a copy of the latter for our archives - so check out the DSP link, as well as the vision board and snapshot documents below.
It’s a great start, but it’s just the first meeting in a long process to produce an updated plan, and eventually, more positive progress for Spokane. We encourage all FOF members, and those interested in the river’s future, to attend the full series of meetings.
DSP plan site (Weblink)
Downtown Vision Board (1.0 Mb, Acrobat® file)
Snapshot document (468 Kb, Acrobat® file)
