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Spokane consultants present early climate-impact, equity findings; city launches public survey and tribal outreach
Summary
Consultants briefed Spokane advisory board on a policy audit, early climate risk and vulnerability mapping and an engagement plan, including a community survey and tribal outreach. The presentation recommended integrating climate considerations across the comprehensive plan and flagged heat, wildfire, floods and reduced snowpack as primary risks.
Consultants leading Spokane’s climate-element work presented a technical update and early findings to a city advisory board, detailing projected local climate impacts, a draft policy audit and a developing climate risk and vulnerability index intended to guide the periodic comprehensive-plan update.
The memo previewed to the board highlighted that under a business-as-usual scenario Spokane could see dramatic changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. “The projected increase expected in Spokane at 11 degrees Fahrenheit in the next 75 years,” Lisa Greeter, principal at BERC Consulting, told the board, and consultants warned of more frequent extreme-heat days, reductions in summer rainfall and a near-certain decline in April snowpack by century’s end.
Why it matters: The state’s House Bill 1181 requires jurisdictions to include greenhouse-gas mitigation and community resilience in their comprehensive-plan updates, and the city must decide how to integrate a new climate element across multiple plan chapters. The consultants said the early technical work will inform where the city needs new or strengthened policy language and where equity-focused responses are required.
Body — findings and methods
Consultants from Burke, Cascadia and partner firms described three parallel tracks: (1) an impacts-and-climate-justice memo that identifies who will be most affected and why; (2) a policy audit that reviewed the comprehensive plan and related documents to flag gaps and strong policies; and (3) a climate risk and vulnerability assessment (CRVA) built from multiple spatial indicators.
Meghan of Cascadia summarized the memo’s purpose: “The memo that summarizes climate impacts and justice will do these things, identify impacts due to a changing climate affecting Spokane, highlight unequal climate impacts and how they disproportionately affect communities of color ... and guide climate justice and resilience planning by informing the community and tribal engagement process.”
Consultants said their exposure indicators combine land-surface temperature, flood-zone mapping, wildfire interface and air-quality measures; sensitivity indicators include age, chronic-health measures and environmental constraints; adaptive-capacity indicators cover socioeconomic variables, tree canopy and access to services. Those layers are combined into a block-group vulnerability score and are available in an internal map tool the team will share for review.
Board members and staff urged additions and refinements. Larry Luton asked that wind events be considered; Kevin Fagan asked consultants to call out wildfire smoke as a distinct hazard requiring separate interventions. Kit Parker of Avista Utilities recommended incorporating electric reliability maps into resilience planning so vulnerable neighborhoods can be prioritized for shelter and charging centers.
Engagement, tribal outreach and the survey
City staff and consultants described an engagement schedule that runs through 2026 and includes a community-wide survey, workshops and focus groups. “The survey is open. It goes until January 31st,” Casey Downey of the city’s long-range planning team said, adding the survey has translations in six languages and a small raffle to encourage participation.
Kauffman and Associates vice president John Mankowski, contracted to lead tribal outreach, told the board the firm will host monthly sessions with the Spokane, Kalispel and Coeur d’Alene tribes and with urban Native organizations to ensure tribal perspectives inform impacts, cultural-resource concerns and adaptation strategies.
Policy audit and next steps
The audit reviewed the comprehensive plan plus related documents including the sustainability action plan and critical-area regulations and found that many resilience-related policies exist but coverage is uneven across plan chapters. Consultants recommended drawing higher-quality, recent policies from plans such as the sustainability action plan into the comprehensive plan where appropriate and noted the Department of Commerce’s guidance that jurisdictions typically adopt 20–40 goals and policies for a climate element.
The consultants said they will issue two memos — the climate impacts/climate justice memo and the policy audit memo — and circulate the map link and memos for board comment. They also asked the board for help identifying community events and partner organizations to boost outreach to overburdened and non-English-speaking communities.
Ending — what to expect next
Consultants will return for another technical session in February, deliver the memos in the coming days and release the interactive mapping tool for public comment. City staff asked board members to share outreach contacts and to review the memos and the map once posted so the CRVA and policy recommendations can be refined ahead of policy drafting later in the grant cycle.
