Why neighborhood planning?

• Neighborhood Planning provides a community the opportunity to come together to identify and evaluate issues, solutions, goals and objectives, preparing the neighborhood to take effective action.

• Neighborhood Planning expresses a common vision for the future and lays out clear objectives that provide support for neighborhood response to project or program proposals.

• Neighborhood Planning allows a community to address its issues in a pro-active manner rather than a reactive manner.

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This planning process will involve all twenty-seven neighborhoods, with city planners working with six neighborhoods (two from each City Council District) at a time.  In 2007, the Spokane City Council allocated $550,000 to fund neighborhood planning.  These resources alone are not enough to conduct full neighborhood planning processes as described in the 2003 Neighborhood Planning Guidebook.  A collaborative effort of the Community Assembly, Department of Planning Services, and Office of Neighborhood Services created an abbreviated neighborhood planning process designed to get the maximum impact out of each neighborhood's share of the available funds.

This process contains these five steps:

1. Establish stakeholder team--convening a diverse group of people interested in representing the neighborhood in the planning process.
2. Identify issues--brainstorming issues and needs and sorting them into categories based on the timeline for resolving the problem and the type of response needed.
3. Identify solutions--brainstorming and discussing potential solutions, group similar solutions that address the same issue, and prioritize and reach consensus on preferred solutions.
4. Report to Neighborhood Action Committee (NAC)-- the NAC will be a committee of city staff and neighborhood representatives accountable to the Mayor and City Council.  Neighborhood issues and solutions presented to the NAC will be routed to key departments for resolution and follow-up.
5. Track results-- neighborhoods, the NAC, and city staff will work to track results of issue and solution reports as they are implemented.

Each neighborhood is unique and most have had some level of planning.  The process, begining point, and product will vary by neighborhood based on the planning process.

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What will the end product look like?

One of the most important parts of the identifying solutions stage is determining an end product that best fits the issues your neighborhood decides to address and the resources at your disposal.  Some issues are best categorized as “policy” issues (e.g. land use designations, workforce housing) that are broad in scope and entail long-term measures such as Comprehensive Plan amendments.  Many others deal with more immediate “operational” concerns (e.g. code enforcement, snow removal) and can be addressed by key city departments with a report to the Neighborhood Action Committee (NAC).

Basically, the planning process will lead to different end products for different neighborhoods, depending on previous planning efforts, the nature of the issues identified, and the resources available.

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What is the Neighborhood Action Committee (NAC)?

The Neighborhood Action Committee (NAC) is the group that will respond to neighborhood issue and solution reports.  The NAC will consist of city staff and neighborhood representatives and will be held accountable to the Mayor and City Council.  The Community Assembly shall report to the Mayor and/or City Council if they believe the NAC is not meeting their responsibilities under this process.  They will receive reports from the neighborhood stakeholder manager regarding the progress of each individual neighborhood planning process.  The committee will use these reports to delegate responsibilities to city staff from all relevant departments to assist and assure progress in the neighborhood planning process.  The committee will have a representative from the following departments/organizations:

a)      Public Works Department (including Streets, Engineering, and Capital Programs)

b)      Office of Neighborhood Services

c)      Community Development Board

d)      Community Assembly

e)      Neighborhood Business Centers (Neighborhood Business Associations)

f)       City Council Sub-Committee on Neighborhoods

g)      Planning Services

h)      Contract Manager

The NAC will be chaired by the Office of Neighborhood Services Director, and bring everyone who is involved with creating and implementing neighborhood planning to the same table and allow for the most efficient resolution of identified issues and solutions.

The NAC will then meet with the neighborhood to discuss how, when, and if the proposed solutions can be implemented.

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Where does this process fit into previous neighborhood planning efforts?

Until the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan in 2001, Spokane’s land use plan consisted of the 1983 Generalized Land Use Plan and a series of neighborhood specific plans completed between 1982 and 1993.  The Comprehensive Plan superseded these documents and in 2001 all the neighborhood plans were repealed.

In 2003, the City embarked on a new neighborhood planning program in four pilot neighborhood center plans (Hillyard, Holy Family, South Perry, and West Broadway).  Based on this experience, the Department of Planning Services produced the Neighborhood Planning Guidebook to guide full neighborhood planning processes across Spokane.  This program was eliminated in the Priorities of Government process in 2004, although land use planning processes took place in several more neighborhood centers between 2005 and 2007.

The current phase of neighborhood planning is funded using $550,000 allocated by City Council in 2007 and supported by a 2008 resolution.  Each of Spokane’s 27 neighborhood councils has an equal share of the funds, and the Community Assembly Neighborhood Planning Action Committee (CA-NPAC) has worked with the Planning Services Department to put together an abbreviated “Planning Light” process that will maximize the impact of the approximately $20,000 available to each neighborhood.

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What neighborhood do I live in?

If you aren't sure which neighborhood you live in, you can consult this map or search by address on the Office of Neighborhood Services website.

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What is a stakeholder group and how are they chosen?

Your neighborhood must form a stakeholder team to represent the neighborhood in the planning process.  Neighborhood representation must be as broad and diverse as possible.  Several factors, taken together, define inclusiveness: numbers, diversity across incomes, occupations, location, interest, race, and ethnicity.  Optimally, team membership should be limited to 15-20 people.

If you would like to get involved in the planning process but are not a member of the stakeholder team, you can provide input to the stakeholders themselves or your neighborhood's Stakeholder Manager at the phone or email address listed on the Stakeholder Page.

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