Peaceful Valley is a gem but the secret is out and running up the hill. The scenic location and closeness to downtown are too much to resist for developers. For several decades, the neighborhood has resisted drastic changes and remained a sweetly paced, unique community in the heart of Spokane.
Our first Indians fished here, wood-frame homes designed by miners and loggers still make up the district, and today residents work hard to retain that integrity. The Peaceful Valley Charrette was a recent effort to involve the community in the design and planning process around the neighborhood’s parks.
Now the Riverview Condominium proposal looms, a creeping abstraction some neighbors say is equivalent to a solar eclipse. It is a monolithic juxtaposition in a neighborhood full of small charms and idiosyncrasies. Residents who had worked tirelessly to improve the neighborhood opposed the tower. So they sued and were called NIMBYs for their efforts. Then developer Mick McDowell filed a lawsuit against the city in an attempt to bypass the comprehensive plan and build the tower for less money closer to Peaceful Valley. It was part of this controversy that birthed the more controversial Proposition 4 – to give neighborhoods a stronger voice in the development process.
Image courtesy of Steven Meek Architects.
The City Design Review Board examined elements of the condo proposal at 1404 W. Riverside Avenue just east of the Maple Street Bridge and it sounded like the structure adhered to all downtown design guidelines, codes, and zoning regulations. The stars aligned for developers since the property is located in a special height district that allows a construction height of 150 feet off of Riverside Avenue and north of the street for 100 feet. The project includes:
- 18 floors of residential on top of a 3 floor parking garage.
- 60 total units.
- There will be approximately 93 parking stalls in the garage for a ratio of 1.55 stalls per unit.
- The site is approximately 96 feet wide and 212 feet long.
Still, a building permit application has yet to be submitted. It’s easy to look at McDowell with a jaundiced eye and not just with knee-jerk defiance to a new developer in an old neighborhood. This from McDowell in an interview with the Spokesman:
“I find the constant paralysis by analysis frustrating. I have never ever shied away from presenting my case to a jury of peers. If I have a disagreement with a neighbor and we both present our cases to the appropriate body, I will live with the decision that’s reached. But what drives me wild is when we have a holdup of the process by a minority. It drives me wild.”
Not exactly a display of the self-consciousness a concerned neighbor would hope for in the role of the development process. But if you build it, will they come?
Builder George Doran knows. He lost hundreds of thousands on his Peaceful Valley project, the Lina Marta Condos, located at 1405 W. Water Ave. And this was just a four-unit building! Word is that foreclosure awaits. “Maybe we went a little overboard for that area as it is right at the moment,” Doran said in a story, aptly titled Condo cooldown.
While we’re all for dense living and urban revival in old neighborhoods, the Riverview structure would be Spokane’s mammoth pink elephant, casting a shadow on century-old dwellings. Peaceful Valley residents cherish the unique and fragile – whether student murals on the Maple Street Bridge or renovating a dilapidated house – and they are deeply rooted in this place as the landscape continually threatens to change. Something important is at risk of being lost.
Tags: Community · Identity Crisis · Political Surprise · Sustainable Development12 Comments
12 responses so far ↓
What is really short sighted about that architectural mock-up is that it fails to show the three small renovated family homes that line the right side of the street on Cedar.
Does Mick McDowell propose to bulldoze those homes outright, much like what eventually happened to the houses that got shadowed out by the Riverfalls Tower back in the 70′s?
Density is good, but this design is a joke in terms of integrating with the surrounding area.
Funny the developer is whining about a minority. Isn’t he the minority of one?
Who are we kidding anyways, democracy has nothing to do with this. If the guy has bought a license to overdevelop, he will do so at his earliest convenience. Neighbors’ property values be damned.
“Now the Riverview Condominium proposal looms, a creeping abstraction some neighbors say is equivalent to a solar eclipse. It is a monolithic juxtaposition in a neighborhood full of small charms and idiosyncrasies.”
Juxtapositions of old and new, the monumental and the vernacular, are the signature of dynamic cities. It is often called “texture.”
San Francisco:
http://www.inetours.com/Pages/SF-photos/Victorians/Postcard-Row-Victorians.html
Vancouver:
http://www.guestlife.com/media/GuestLife/Vancouver/Annual-2007/VA2007-Area-West-End/vc07-area-westend-today.jpg
http://www.vancouverreflections.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/php9bjbmgpm.jpg
New York:
http://wirednewyork.com/piers/pier45/pier45_greenwich_village_6sept03.jpg
Atlanta:
http://img4.southernliving.com/i/2003/03/springtime-strolls/atlanta-neighborhood-m.jpg
Uptight Portland:
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/9392/img3421shxx4.jpg
I’m not sure how McDowell plans to overcome the “condo cooldown,” much less the recession. Maybe he knows something we don’t. That’s usually the case with entrepreneurs — they know something others don’t. Too bad the law compels him to fight these contrived and costly battles, based on complaints about shadows, no less.
If the PV NIMBYs truly wish to preserve their neighborhood, they’d better realize that goal depends upon the health and vitality of the city surrounding it. Peaceful Valley is not a insular, isolated tribal village in a temporal stasis.
Good luck to Mick McDowell.
“Who are we kidding anyways, democracy has nothing to do with this.”
You’re right, George. Democracy has to do with whether to install a merry-go-round in a public park, or set the speed limit on a public street. It does not give you a say in how Mr. McDowell develops his private property. You are confusing private property with public property, and a consitutiional republic with a democracy.
(Mariah, I posted another comment which has not appeared. A glitch?)
That glitch is my spam filter. If you include several links the software will flag you as spam. It is good to remind me to check the spam box as I don’t look at it very often.
“That glitch is my spam filter.”
That’s what I suspected.
Having worked on condo projects downtown before, I find it interesting that our city, seemingly regardless of how the economy is doing, seems to be spectacularly unable to develop them well.
I think there are larger issues at play than the downtown design review board.
From a massing and design standpoint, the highlighted project in no way speaks to the character or the context of Peaceful Valley. The designer does seem to address Riverside with the townhome portion of the project, and yet I think that stepping up off of the hill is overly monumental for the site and references nothing except the adjacent tower.
If you want to develop a tower in that area, may I suggest moving your site a few blocks back where you won’t destroy both the character of one of our best neighborhoods and create all sorts of issues involving that hillside.
Fail.
Oh, also – I neglected to mention that raptors like to hang out near that site, so perhaps it would be best to just not build there to begin with.
Jon wrote,
“I think that stepping up off of the hill is overly monumental for the site and references nothing except the adjacent tower.”
Then you should make an offer on the site and build something more to your liking.
“Oh, also – I neglected to mention that raptors like to hang out near that site, so perhaps it would be best to just not build there to begin with.”
Similar answer. Buy the site and designate it a raptor reserve. No doubt the project (like all construction projects) will disturb some earthworms, wasp nests, skunks, maybe some marmots, and numerous other birds. But this is a city — a human habitat — not the Turnbull Wildlife Refuge.
Minor changes to your I (heart) PV.
I (heart) PV*
As it is or only with changes that I approve of.
It seems to me that the design is similar to the MAC in the way that it integrates into the hill. Any thoughts or discussion on getting some retail space at the bottom. Maybe a mom & pop grocery store? or a Rocket Bakery?
Good luck to Mick McDowell. As an urban planner I’ve been waiting to see this project for years. It furthers the will of the citizens as laid out in the Spokane Comprehensive Plan. Sure, one can find articles in the plan to refute this, but there are just as many to support it. This new housing will strengthen the core of our city and the neighborhoods surrounding it.
This is not an example of “overdevelopment” by any means and nor has the developer purchased a license to do so. Also, I see this building not as a giant monolith but as a very well designed piece of art. It enhances the surrounding neighorhood and the skyline overall. It’s SURELY an improvement over the RiverFalls Tower.
I’m in town visiting so I think I’ll add a viewpoint….or two.
First, not sure what’s prompting this thread. There’s no money being made available for this project. New banking rules ( Gee Thanx Obama) dictate such a huge redtape mess, that not only do the banks not have loan money, they couldn’t spend it if they had it.
Second,Jon…HUMANS….not birds… should take precedent. I’ve reviewed those plans in depth. Good project. The developer isn’t a political genius but he builds good buildings…attractive ones. And expensive ( pardon that since it appears maney libs are allergic to someone else actually making money by working for it…you know..the motivated self starts who don’t like what’s going on now) ones too. This developer should be welcomed. That is a terribly depressed neighborhood and has been since I lived there for part of college. Yes…right there in that old schoolhouse with 4 others…bottom of the hill across from the tennis courts and under the bridge.
Thrid….new and old side by side. Do you ever travel people??? It’s what hapening in forward ( not progressive…ugh) thinking cities. I’m not sure what happened to that project in West Central next to the Courthouse but what a shame that it was block by 1 single person…just for spite. Now THAT one was how “new and old” complimenting each other should look.
Spokane is funny…when someone has an idea..a project…right away people think of the things ( like raptors or squirrels …I had a deal over red bush tailed squirrels…in Omaha…our side won and actually paid taxes and supported a woman’s shelter) that are tangential to human advancement and can be used to slow it. I revere the environment…..not so much the people who use it as a club to foist their private ideas on people who are trying to help other people and the environment…like a park we built in that Omaha project.
I don’t know McDowell but I’ve met him and his wife. Really good people…just not good politicians with the neighborhood. I hope he succeeds. Long overdue.