City staff says Spokane has physical land to meet 2023–2046 growth target but flags data limits

Kevin Picasso, principal engineer in the city’s Integrated Capital Management group, told the Plan Commission on Feb. 26 that the land capacity analysis (LCA) prepared for the comprehensive plan update finds the city has capacity to accommodate the regionally assigned growth for 2023–2046.

"The land capacity analysis itself is part of a comprehensive plan update," Picasso said, and he summarized the work the city followed: classifying roughly 81,000 parcels, subtracting physical constraints and lands reserved for other public uses, and applying a county market-factor to produce a conservative estimate of buildable acreage and likely dwelling units.

Picasso said the regionally assigned population growth for the city is about 23,400 people between 2023 and 2046, and that the Commerce housing allocation tool translates that into roughly 22,300 housing units the city must be able to accommodate. After applying the LCA methodology — which subtracts wetlands, slopes, rights-of-way, public property and an agreed-upon 30% market factor — the staff conclusion was that the city does have enough physical space to meet the allocation.

The report emphasizes conservative choices. Staff…