Spokane Valley seeking feedback on Balfour Park expansion designs

Spokane Valley is holding a community workshop Thursday to get feedback on conceptual designs for Balfour Park’s expansion.

The expansion will add an additional 5.6 acres of city land – currently an empty lot across from city hall – to the roughly 2.5-acre park.

Spokane Valley plans to build amenities on the expanded park. Public feedback will help decide which amenities. Some options include a splash pad, sports courts and an amphitheater.

The workshop will be at City Hall from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The now-empty lot across from City Hall will also be home to the new Spokane Valley Public Library, which is scheduled to break ground in 2022 and will replace the city’s Main Avenue library.

The Spokane County Library District already has the money to build the new facility, which will cost roughly $15 million. The city is still working to come up with the $7 million needed for the Balfour Park expansion.

Spokane Valley and the library district have spent nearly a decade working on building a new library.

The city bought the land for the property back in 2012 but put the project on hold due to funding shortages.

At last week’s City Council meeting, the new library and Balfour Park expansion designers provided councilmembers with an update on the projects.

Designers shared new conceptual images of the library. Mark Dailey, principal of Integrus Architecture, said the goal is to create a library that meshes well with the park that surrounds it.

The new building design includes a north-facing front entrance made mostly of glass that will allow ample natural light into the library, Dailey said.

Dailey also said the library will be simplistic and use space efficiently. It won’t have “a lot of bling,” he said.

Spokane Valley and designers are planning for the new library to include collaborative meeting spaces and for the facility to be more than a mere storage space for books.