North Greenacres Neighborhood

North Greenacres Neighborhood Park Site (Name Nomination Greenacres Pioneer Park)

About our association

Vision Statement

North Greenacres Neighborhood is committed to improving and preserving the quality of life, customs, traditions, and culture that reflects our past, has the courage to face the challenge of change, and shape a neighborhood that will inspire future generations.

History of What Brought Us Together

1993-1994 Many of us took a journey in community activism when the first development in our rural neighborhood was proposed. The County had rezoned us from Agricultural to U.R. 3.5 - protests resulted in a Spokane County study that in 1994 restored our animal keeping rights and gave us SR1 -1 acre lot size minimums but changed us to a residential category not agricultural. 

Spokane Valley incorporated as a new city in Spring of 2003 and the implementation and most were unaware of the new zoning throughout the city. 
We went on with our lives until spring of 2004, only to discover we had been rezoned along with any other large parcel areas to Urban Residential 7* (meaning 6 houses per acre) In a flash, we were all non-conforming uses.

The Growth Management Act that was enacted in l991 mandating that counties draw an Urban Growth Boundary and develop urban densities within those boundaries.  Unfortunately, our rural area was included at the very edge of what was drawn. 

Neighborhood Planning

Development notices began popping up throughout our neighborhood.  We decided to try to rezone to the largest urban lot size of 10,000 sq. ft.. One acre lots no longer were in the zoning code.  From the last weekend in May 2004 until the deadline of July 1st we gathered the signatures of 71% of the owners of 260 parcels in our area to petition for a rezone and pay $1800 in city fees. The money was raised by people contributing $15 per parcel on an average.  July 1, 2004 was the deadline because our land was so desirable for developers that they did not treat this as a typical rezoning request but processed it as a comprehensive plan amendment.   It was such a feat to meet the deadline by such overwhelming neighborhood support that we were a news item on TV that night.   Approval due to many strange turns did not come until January 25, 2005, and wasn't signed by the City Council until February 8th.

The neighborhood felt very betrayed by the city council when in October of 2007, despite overwhelming neighborhood testimony, the same Council rescinded the zoning we had been granted after an expensive and time consuming process.  Ironically, some  areas were given the 10,000 sq. lot designation while we were upzoned to R-3 or 7,500 sq. ft. lots but there wasn't any criteria to be met to upzone; so a developer only had to pay the same rezoning fee and would be upzoned to 6,000sq ft. lots.  It turned out to be a hollow process.   While some believe people don't want space for  yards, we see many children playing in their driveways as they haven't adequate space for playing.  River danger of the Spokane River and lack of personal property in these development cause our neighborhood to make creation of a Park a high priority. 

The impetus for neighborhood planning in December of 2004 was because we are a neighborhood that has two deadend boundaries due to the river. We are geographically isolated in many ways but there is a new elementary that is going to be built in our area. We are underserved in Parks and this was a time to be proactive. There were three working research committees: Parks and Schools - This was actually achieved and 8.3 acres of parkland was purchased by the City in 2006 and the school district is willing to plan cooperatively their adjacent future school site with the park.  The Livestock committee was successful in that the City adopted in their comprehensive plan the right to have livestock/agricultural rights based onthe size of youru property rather than the zoning.  Similar County livestock guidelines were adopted by the City.  Roosters are definitely a very unwelcome bird.   A third committee studied the City's drafvt of their first comprehensive plan and we participated in the process for over 3 years becuase once the comprehensive plan was adopted, the development regulations were also updated.  We wrote a neighborhood chapter and lobbied with support from the Chamber of Commerce.  The City adopted a very small about 3 page neighborhood chapter and while of little use now is at least a foot in the door for more visionary communities in the future, but it was a step in the right direction.   We just finished our neighborhood survey the end of February 2005 andshared our final results at our 2nd large area meeting for North Greenacres April 12th, 2005.  We were helped in much of this process by the guidance of Mike Terrell, landscape architect. 

It is now spring of 2010 and Mike Terrell was hired by Spokane Valley to have public meetings, conduct a survey of what we wanted in a park and to draw up a conceptual design.  We are actively in this process.  The next meeting will be May 12, 2010 at the Greenacres Christian Church that is a historic 100+ year  church on Mission Ave.  It has been a great central meeting place.

One family that lived her for 100 years, suggested the Park be named Greenacres Pioneer Park since part of the land purchased for the park was a homestead family and many families had come here to homestead. 

The street adjacent to the Park will be sewered this summer.  Our spindly roads are looking more urban all the time.  The population of this small neighborhood has almost doubled since 2006.  That's a lot of change.  Now, it's time to roll up our sleeves and ensure we have a legacy for our families in the future by finishing this park and creating a culture of being neighbors that care about one another and our neighborhood.