North Greenacres Neighborhood

Testimony - Restoring Neighborhood Zoning May 13, 2008

Neighborhood Suupport For Large Lot Zoning for Past 4 years

May 13, 2008

Honorable Mayor Munson and Councilmembers,

Action: Restore R-2 zoning to North Greenacres Neighborhood as recommended by the Planning Commission and supported by the majority of the neighborhood.

Our neighborhood Planning Committee met on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 and gave their support for the restoration of 10,000 sq. ft. lots and has asked you to remember the copious testimony our neighborhood painstakingly gave over the last 4 years.

Please restore the 10,000 sq. ft. lots that I believe is now called R-2 .
We submit to you today, all the public records of every citizen that has spoke and petitioned the City Council for relief since 2004. Everyone believes land owners should have a choice. We would like our choice of 10,000 sq. ft. lots respected. More than the 51% minimum, we turned in over 70% of the areas landowners signatures in favor of larger lot sizes. Rescinding that process was unethical and we thank you for welcoming a new discussion and a new day of opportunity.

Protection of Sole Source Aquifer - Vital to Area

Prime Reason to Zone North Greenacres 10,000 sq. ft. lots is protection of this uniquely situated area over our sole source aquifer and our geographic isolation
Between the river and the freeway.

North Greenacres Neighborhood sits above the deepest and fastest moving part of the aquifer. It should be protected due to it’s vulnerability to pollution of the aquifer.
Washington Water Resources confirmed the science of what I am stating about our area.

The Spokane/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer study that was just completed, was largely a quantitative study – It was not focused on measuring quantity, how much water but not the quality of the water..

Spokane Valley should take the lead in mapping the vulnerable areas of the aquifer as is done in Ireland and other progressive areas of the United States and Europe.

This process is called Land-Surface Zoning for Groundwater Protection (See Attached – study by B. ADAMS, Hydrogeology Group, British Geological Survey. )

It is to protect water against both point and diffuse pollution .

It is time we move from a political model of protecting our aquifer to factual analysis.

Adopting Low Impact Development Standards, leaving less of an urban foot print is more than desirable – it is the duty we owe the next generation. These are the characteristics of our neighborhood.

1. Garrison Gravely Loam is our soil type. This makes our area is prone to contamination from surface sources.

2. Garrison Gravelly Loam means it is very porous and everything runs through it very quickly. Pollutants pass into the aquifer more readily since they don’t stay in the soil very long leaving little time for microbial action for clean up.

3. We are located next to the Spokane River and over the deepest part of the aquifer as well as the part that has the most transmissivity – that means that the water moves rapidly through here – More prone to contamination.

High Transmissivity means this is a very vulnerable area of the aquifer.

4. The aquifer and the river exchange water along our neighborhood, meaning river pollution and aquifer pollution are exchanged into both bodies of water.

Steps to protect our aquifer and this area is to have larger lot sizes – 10,000 sq. ft. lots.

Reduce the number of roads – impervious surface and roads create significant sources of contaminations – hydrocarbons, oils, zinc, copper. Etc.


While other large cities are in hind sight noting the pollution of their waters due to increased impervious surface and are belatedly having to take steps – we should be proactive.

We cannot put our trust in minimum standards and soft policy language that states in critical areas that we will endeavor so we protect our legal backsides while sacrificing real standards. Typically, clean up is 30 – 40% than the cost of prevention.

You have made no ordinances to reduce number of roads a high source of pollutants – street improvements that make sense that are within the purview of the Public works Director are ignored since everything is strictly by the minimum standard book. It is na?¯ve to believe that swales and sewers are the entire answer. Cumulatively, we must utilize many strategies.

Road Concurrency and Common Sense Standards

Concurrency should include the ability to maintain our roads. We have created many new public roads and we have a $7 million dollar deficit in maintenance of our streets.


The transportation impacts of Liberty Lake , the Barker Bridge repair that is going to take out our ability to enter and leave this area to the north, and the increased traffic as the freeway is overcrowded and people desiring to get to the new Kohl’s, Lowe’s and even Walmart will bring even more traffic through our neighborhood.

The City has failed to show outside traffic impacts traveling through our neighborhood and the traffic impact to Broadway and Sullivan.

1. Where is the transportation analysis that shows the impacts from just outside of Spokane Valley and the impacts to the rest of our streets with increased density. Providing street improvements in front of a development while the rest of the roads are eroded is unjust. Simply counting cars at intersection is not adequate in assessing impacts. The city must show that we can take care of the anticipated increased traffic on our streets. We have a finite ability to grow in this area due to its geography. We see children playing the streets, and dangerous intersections created in order to build one more house creating visibility problems.

Respectfully submitted,



Mrs. Mary Pollard
North Greenacres Neighborhood Chairwoman
Planning Committee Members: James Pollard
Diane Johnson
Erica Johnson
Laurel & Bob Ladd
Darlene and Dick Snyder
Alice Beattie
John Patrouch
Nancy (Pete) Miller
Jan Austin
Kurt Parker
Alden and Gail Sherrodd

Email us
marjam17216@msn.com