A zipline running down into the Spokane River gorge just took another step toward reality

click to enlarge A zipline running down into the Spokane River gorge just took another step toward reality
Young Kwak photo
You might zipline from outside the downtown library to Redband Park.

The dream of a zipline near the Spokane River has become tantalizingly closer. In a resolution passed last week, the Spokane City Council endorsed a general plan to build a zipline — or a "1,400 foot long ecotourism and cultural experience" as the council resolution calls it — from the top of the CSO tanks across from the downtown library, under the Monroe Street Bridge, and to the bottom of Redband Park in Peaceful Valley.

City Director of Parks and Recreation Garrett Jones says the idea is nearly a decade old, going back before the community finalized its master plan to upgrade Riverfront Park in 2014. The central question: What downtown attractions would appeal to different age groups? Cue the brainstorming sessions for "big thinking-outside-the-box type of attractions that would really gather that excitement of park users coming downtown."

"And you can imagine during that discussion: a lot of it was, 'Hey, man, let's have a zipline go across the river,'" Jones says.

But that proposal ran into a whole thicket of issues relating to the federal regulations on Avista's dams at that location, forcing a change of plans.

"Rather than going across the river, is there an opportunity to go parallel to the river where you can still have that same experience?" Jones asks.

The council resolution calls for the parks department to move forward with a formalized process to solicit bids for a public-private partnership to design and build the zipline. Along the way, there's a whole host of questions that need to be answered, Jones adds.

How do you construct it? How do you operate it? What about shuttle transport back to the start? How do you deal with liability and insurance? How much would it cost, and would scholarships or discounts be used to make it cheaper and more accessible for some groups? Putting the proposal out to bid, Jones says, lets the city answer those questions.

"It gives us an opportunity to go out and investigate to see what's possible," he says.

There was one City Council holdout to supporting the zipline: Councilwoman Lori Kinnear says she lost her zipline enthusiasm ever since the plan to put it across from the river was nixed. The rest of those in attendance, however, were unanimous.

"My grandchildren all the time ask me, 'When is the zipline coming?'" Councilwoman Betsy Wilkerson says.

Frequent City Council public commenter Kim Schimdt, meanwhile, declared it the "raddest idea I have ever heard in my entire life." ♦

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Daniel Walters

A lifelong Spokane native, Daniel Walters was a staff reporter for the Inlander from 2009 to 2023. He reported on a wide swath of topics, including business, education, real estate development, land use, and other stories throughout North Idaho and Spokane County.His work investigated deep flaws in the Washington...