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Planners outline three growth alternatives; action alternatives increase multiunit housing capacity
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Summary
City staff presented three growth alternatives in the draft EIS—no action, distributed and balanced, and Center City/regional hubs—and said the action alternatives provide greater capacity for multiunit housing and for households below 80% AMI.
City of Spokane planning staff laid out three growth alternatives in the Plan Spokane 2046 draft EIS and described how each would change the geography and intensity of future development.
Terrell Black said Alternative 1, labeled the "no‑action" or "stay the course" option, uses current regulations and the existing land‑use map as a baseline for analysis. "Alternative 1 reflects our current regulations and land use plan map and is the state required lens of analysis for the draft environmental impact statement," Black said.
Alternative 2, described as "distributed and balanced," concentrates additional housing and job intensity along frequent transit corridors, encourages neighborhood‑serving small retail and mixed use, includes a proposed SEPA infill exemption in parts of the city to avoid duplicative project‑level review, and integrates newly required climate and resiliency policies.
Alternative 3, the "Center City and Regional Hubs" approach, prioritizes growth in downtown, the University District, medical district and employment hubs such as West Plains and Hilliard, while simplifying the land‑use map and updating critical‑areas regulations.
Black said the action alternatives (2 and 3) increase the share of multiunit housing compared with Alternative 1 and, according to the draft analysis described in the webinar, are able to provide housing capacity across income bands including households under 80% AMI; staff said Alternative 1 does not provide adequate capacity for that lower income bracket.
The webinar did not publish numerical capacity figures or modeling outputs in the spoken transcript; staff referred participants to the draft EIS and story map for detailed comparisons and to the slider tool that allows side‑by‑side scenario review.
Next steps on alternatives: public comments received during the official comment period will be used to refine the preferred alternative, the Plan Commission will recommend a preferred alternative to City Council, and Council will pass a resolution directing staff. The preferred alternative may combine elements of multiple alternatives rather than adopting a single option unchanged.
