Cliff Park Residents Question Inclusion In Cannon’s Addition

A proposal to expand the neighborhood council boundaries of Historic Cannon’s Addition is running into opposition from some homeowners living near Cliff Park.

Neighborhood leaders last week heard from critics of their plan to expand the Cannon’s Addition council over a wider portion of the lower South Hill.

“We are trying to be inclusive and bring us all together,” said a frustrated Janet Davis, head of the neighborhood council.

But homeowners living in the exclusive neighborhood near 14th and Bernard and Cliff Drive have reservations.

“The arguments were not very convincing for going with a large neighborhood council,” said Maria Beebe, a Cliff Park resident.

Cannon’s Addition was one of the first neighborhoods to organize under Spokane’s new neighborhood council movement initiated by the City Council last year.

The councils are meant to guide the delivery of city services and land use in their neighborhoods.

Davis and other neighborhood leaders believe their council should include residents as far east as Grand Boulevard and as far south as 16th Avenue.

The existing Cannon’s Addition area is west of Cedar Street and north of 14th Avenue.

Davis said school officials and businesses are eager to participate in the neighborhood forum.

But Beebe, who was one of the critics who spoke last week at a neighborhood meeting at Roosevelt Elementary, wasn’t convinced.

In an interview, she said she wants the proponents of the larger neighborhood to tell her the advantages and disadvantages of a larger council.

“Is it just one more layer of bureaucracy?” she asked.

Some Cliff Park residents suggested they could form their own council, but there are only about 100 homes there.

“A hundred houses is not what this is about,” Davis said after the meeting.

The Cliff Park residents also said they want to consider teaming up with nearby Manito Park residents to form a neighborhood council that would represent their single-family residential lifestyle.

Cannon’s Addition and other parts of the lower South Hill have lots of apartment buildings.

Davis said such jockeying would create oddly shaped neighborhoods, and break up the continuity of the proposed Cannon’s Addition neighborhood council.

Davis said she tried to explain that neighborhood councils will work better if they are large enough to attract the number of participants needed to do the work.

Cannon’s Addition is planning to form an executive committee and a non-profit board of directors. Also, the neighborhood has representatives on the Neighborhood Services Advisory Committee and Community Assembly.

The community assembly meets monthly to address citywide issues.

Davis said it will be counterproductive if every small neighborhood forms a council. It makes more sense for larger geographical areas, like the lower South Hill, to band together.

Members of the Community Assembly have said they believe that having more than two dozen neighborhoods could become unwieldy.

Davis said she’s going to meet with Cliff Park residents and try to convince them of the advantages of joining the Cannon’s Addition group.

, DataTimes