Fairwood roundabout fulfills purpose, but area residents want to beautify feature

When Spokane County put in a roundabout at Waikiki and Mill roads in the Fairwood Neighborhood just north of Spokane city limits, it fulfilled its purpose of cutting down on the number of wrecks at the busy intersection.

But residents said it also grew a bumper crop of weeds after hydroseeded natural grass didn’t grow as planned and there was no other beautification completed.

“The weeds took over,” said former Fairwood Homeowners Association president Rob Allen. “It became kind of a garbage area.”

Neighbors tried to keep the area cleaned up and it was decided in 2015 to tackle the improvement of the roundabout on their own, Allen said. Residents often ask why the county isn’t doing it, and Allen has a set response.

“My response is this is our neighborhood,” he said. “We probably should, as a community, take care of our infrastructure.”

Allen said he’s had individuals and businesses offer to donate trees, plants, dirt and decorative rock for the beautification project, but it isn’t as simple as just planting vegetation. The county requires a landscape plan, which has been done by landscape architect Curtis Morin of Clearwater Summit Group who lives in the neighborhood.

“It’s complicated working with the county,” Morin said. “We’ve had to submit plans and revise plans and resubmit the plans. I think there have been two or three iterations.”

But steps have been taken so that irrigation can be added later.

“The County has been a cooperative partner,” Allen said. “They installed a conduit under the circle so we could run electrical and irrigation.”

The neighborhood was ready to do fundraising for the project in 2018, but the county decided that the roundabout was undersized and might need to be expanded because people were driving through the center and off the outer edge, Allen said. The amount of traffic using the intersection has also increased and three new planned developments were recently approved in the neighborhood.

“We’re continuing to experience quite a bit of growth,” he said. “In the morning commute, traffic is backing up in all three directions.”

While the county considers whether to add so-called “slip lanes” to make it a two-lane roundabout, much of the work the neighborhood wants to do is on hold, Allen said. A GoFundMe was created last year and so far, $7,530 has been raised toward the goal of $39,150. In April, the group completed Phase 1, placing five vertical basalt pillars in the center of the roundabout to prevent people from driving through the middle.

“Let’s hope it slows them down,” he said. “We’re trying to get the center done while we wait on the county.”

The next step is to install irrigation equipment and get a water meter put in, which costs $5,500. Allen said he’s hoping to get a discounted price for that, however.

Neighborhood resident Kelly McCann, who works as a project manager, is also volunteering to help with the project. He believes it is important to make the roundabout, which is a gateway to the neighborhood, look better.

“It’s kind of a source of pride for all of us to have that look nice,” he said.

McCann helps keep track of the expenses and the amount of money raised. The group spent $5,400 on the basalt pillars, and he estimated that completing the center of the roundabout will cost between $15,000 and $20,000.

“We have a ways to go for Phase 2,” he said.

He credits Allen with keeping the project going, including paying $1,000 a year through his business, Allen Family Properties, to insure the landscaping. The insurance is a county requirement, McCann said. “It really wouldn’t have legs without Rob’s major contributions,” he said.

Fairwood is a neighborhood that includes Whitworth University, the Indian Painted Rocks, the Little Spokane River, hiking trails and the Kalispel Golf and Country Club, Allen said.

“There’s a little community pride here,” he said. “This is really a gateway into what I think is a unique community.”

Allen said there’s an easy answer to the question of why the neighborhood is working on the beautification of the roundabout.

“If not us, who is going to do it?” he said.

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Nina Culver can be reached at nculver47@gmail.com