City Council eyes zoning overhaul

A major effort to rewrite Spokane’s residential zoning code moved closer to approval Monday night.

More than a dozen residents appeared before the council and asked for modest changes in the proposal.

Council members voted to defer consideration until May 1 to give themselves and city staff time to consider suggestions made Monday night.

“We’ve got to put a little more time into this before you vote,” said Paul Hamilton, a neighborhood activist from Hillyard.

The residential zoning code in Spokane has not been revised for 48 years, and an attempt to update the code in the 1990s failed after widespread opposition.

The city is being forced to rewrite the zoning code to bring it in compliance with the state’s growth-management land-use law, which seeks to increase densities in urban areas and reduce urban sprawl. The new code would allow lots as small as 2,500 square feet in multifamily zones and 4,350 feet in single-family zones. Single-family home lots now run from about 7,200 to 10,000 square feet.

In Spokane, 66 percent of homes are detached single-family structures, but many of them are occupied by just one person. According to the 2000 census, nearly 34 percent of residents live alone. Only 18 percents of househoulds consist of two parents with children under 18. That survey included housing of all types.

At Monday’s hearing, it appeared that opposition to the proposal is limited to specific issues. Council members said they will consider those issues initially at a study session on April 27 at 3:30 p.m. at City Hall. The public can continue to submit written comments to the city planning department for another two weeks.

Those specific issues include:

•At Monday’s hearing, Hamilton and others said that a proposal to increase the size of private streets in planned unit developments may not help the city achieve a goal of increasing densities because wider streets take up land that could be devoted to houses.

•Developer Cliff Cameron said the city’s current zoning regulations are likely more generous in terms of allowing greater densities. He pointed out that a proposal to require transition areas between larger and smaller lots would reduce housing densities. “I’m not really in favor of what we are doing,” he said.

•Advocates for affordable housing told the council they were opposed to provisions that would downzone some sections of the city from multifamily to single-family zoning unless the council includes provisions to allow multifamily dwellings through a conditional use permit. About 7 percent of the city’s residential areas would either be upzoned or downzoned under the plan.

•Attorney F.J. Dullanty asked for an amendment to allow offices in some apartment zones to provide a greater mix of land uses.

•Two residents of the Cliff-Cannon neighborhood asked council members to consider downzoning their area from multifamily to single-family zoning to be more consistent with the existing pattern. They said several older mansions have been reconverted from apartments to their original historic use as single-family homes, and the total investment is in excess of $1 million.