City to issue RFP for comprehensive development‑code assessment to align with Plan Spokane 2046

Tim Thompson, operations manager for Community Economic Development, briefed the committee on a proposed development-code assessment and modernization project intended to align the city’s regulations with the periodic update to Plan Spokane 2046. What staff proposed: Thompson said the development code has not had a full overhaul in roughly two decades and needs modernization to reduce uncertainty, remove barriers to development, clarify nonconformity rules and support the comprehensive-plan changes. He said a draft RFP is under internal review and staff intends to issue it in the coming weeks with four to six weeks for proposals and a goal of selecting a consultant quickly so work can proceed before the comp‑plan adoption window closes. Funding and timeline: Thompson said the contract will be funded from the Development Services enterprise reserves (economic/development services reserve fund) and that consultants will be asked to propose costs. He described a short schedule because state law did not extend the usual six‑month period to align code after a comp‑plan update; therefore, the city expects a condensed timeline and anticipates the contract to run through 2027 to support code rewrite and implementation. Why it matters: Thompson said clearer, more usable code will reduce staff interpretation time, lower development costs and encourage reinvestment and building reuse. Stakeholders at the meeting asked about reuse and inspection consistency; Thompson said much of inspection consistency stems from building-code training while zoning and interpretation improvements are a target of the code rewrite. Next steps: staff will issue the RFP, solicit proposals, and return to council with a contract recommendation and an SPO as the procurement completes.