Gonzaga Climate Institute outlines draft Spokane heat and smoke plans and a three‑tier resilience‑hub model

Gonzaga University’s Climate Institute presented draft Spokane citywide plans to address extreme heat and wildfire smoke and proposed a three‑tier network of community resilience hubs to provide clean‑air, cooling and charging services during heat and smoke events.

Climate Institute staff Dante Jester (Climate Resilience Program Manager) and Mary Condon (Climate Resilience Program Coordinator) told the board the plans were developed through community engagement — including a 2022 survey with about 1,800 responses and neighborhood‑level outreach — and are being advanced by the Spokane Community Resilience Collaborative (SCRC), a 15‑member group of community organizations, utilities and city departments.

"These plans are really built on community‑engaged research," Dante Jester said, summarizing months of symposiums and neighborhood conversations that identified nature‑based solutions, information gaps about heat and smoke risks, and demand for long‑term resilience investments. The Climate Institute plans to launch the heat plan in June (coinciding with a national Heat Action Day) and the smoke plan the following week during Smoke Ready Week.

The draft plans set out before‑during‑after structures for both heat and smoke preparedness: consistent activation thresholds; coordinated public messaging; outreach and training for vulnerable residents; increased access to portable air cleaners and N95 masks; and prioritizing tree canopy and neighborhood cooling projects where heat maps show inequitable exposure.

A central feature is a three‑tier resilience‑hub proposal. Level‑1 engagement hubs would be community businesses or organizations that host information, make N95s available and provide occasional public trainings. Level‑2 day‑use hubs would be retrofitted libraries and community centers with upgraded HVAC filtration and solar plus battery backups to serve as daytime clean‑air and cooling centers. Level‑3 emergency hubs would add overnight capacity and higher power resilience for short‑term sheltering when needed; the group said level‑3 sites will require separate funding and planning.

Mary Condon described five potential Level‑2 pilot sites that had been identified earlier in the project: the Carl Maxey Center, Liberty Park Library, the Central Library, West Central Community Center and Northeast Community Center. Those pilot selections built on Community Change Grant plans; board members noted that the EPA grant termination places the funding for some retrofits at risk.

Sarah Nuss, the city’s emergency manager, said the city would review activation thresholds and facility readiness and that there is room to discuss lowering AQI trigger levels used for activation. "I did see your chat and do think there is an opportunity to talk about lowering that," Nuss said during the discussion.

The Climate Institute said the drafts will be published as proposals, followed by summer‑long outreach with community organizations and a fall review by the SCRC; the intent is to convert recommendations into clarified responsibilities in the following year.

Next steps: launch draft plans in June, gather community feedback through summer workshops, revise in the fall, and then begin converting recommendations into specific actions and responsible actors in subsequent cycles.