It's time to start looking up — downtown Spokane could be getting a whole lot taller.
On March 24, the Spokane City Council is scheduled to vote on an ordinance to eliminate height limits in all four downtown zoning districts for six months. The goal is to encourage development downtown, especially housing.
If the relaxed regulation attracts developers, the interim zoning ordinance could be made permanent in the city's update to its comprehensive plan, a 20-year plan required by Washington's Growth Management Act. The next update, required every 10 years, is due by the end of 2026.
There were already no height restrictions in the "downtown core" zone, the blocks between Monroe and Bernard streets and between Spokane Falls Boulevard and the railroad tracks, where Spokane's tallest buildings are, including the Bank of America Financial Center, the Washington Trust Bank tower and the Davenport Tower.
Per the new ordinance, there would also be no height restrictions for the "downtown south," "downtown general" and "downtown university" zones, mostly bounded by Interstate 90 to the south, Browne's Addition to the west, Boone Avenue or the Spokane River to the north, and Exit 290 to the east, with some carve-outs where height restrictions will remain.
The interim zoning ordinance was proposed by Mayor Lisa Brown on Feb. 12 and sponsored by City Council members Zack Zappone, Jonathan Bingle and Kitty Klitzke. But it has also gotten enthusiastic support from the entire City Council.
"I'm obviously very, very glad to see this coming forward," Council member Michael Cathcart said during the Urban Experience committee meeting on Feb. 10. "I made a big push for this in 2021 ... when we adopted the downtown plan."
The current political will and excitement is a marked change from almost a decade ago, when then-City Council President Ben Stuckart introduced similar ideas in 2017 to motivate developers.
Stuckart focused on removing height restrictions downtown and eliminating the requirement for one parking spot per new apartment.
"Heck, I spent my whole time working trying to decrease parking limits, and Spokane is now leading the country [in that]," says Stuckart, who is now the executive director for the Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium. "I took holy hell for that for eight years."
Klitzke is one of the people who has changed her opinion on how important zoning rules around height and parking can be.
"I wasn't super passionate about the issue [years ago]," she says. "But I think popular opinion and political will have both changed. I think people have recognized the need for more housing and really come to grips with the fact that stuff does have to pencil if it's going to get built."
PARKING AND DEMAND
Building a single off-street parking spot can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $35,000, Klitzke says, a cost that pretty much can't be recouped by fees to renters.
Previous city codes typically required developers to provide one parking spot per apartment, which kept most housing projects from penciling out financially when combined with strict height restrictions in most of downtown.
In July 2023, the City Council eliminated that parking requirement thanks to an ordinance championed by Zappone and Bingle.
If this new ordinance removes height limits, the city hopes to give developers the creativity and freedom to respond to the market's demand.
Council members assume that developers will be interested in building housing, even though the ordinance doesn't say anything about housing specifically. But with the oversaturation of empty office space downtown, Klitzke assumes there's a clear advantage to building apartments instead.
"The way capitalism is supposed to work is we expect people to behave reasonably in the marketplace and do their market research before they make an investment," Klitzke says.
More development wouldn't just provide more housing, it could make downtown feel safer, too, Stuckart says.
"Eyes on the street are more of a deterrent to crime than thousands more police officers," he says.
Plus, concentrating people, goods and services in one central place maximizes efficiency, resiliency and attractiveness.
"Think about the vibrancy of downtown if we just had 10,000 people living down there," Stuckart says. "You go to big cities and, man, it's so interesting and vibrant and lovely. We need to get to that in Spokane. We're a huge metropolitan area that is seeing massive growth. We should be encouraging that to be taking place in the center of our community."
Codes to protect the Spokane River shoreline would not be affected by the new ordinance, and some legacy policies like the courthouse "viewshed," which protects the perfect view of the county courthouse up Jefferson Street, won't be overridden either.
The ordinance would also exempt tall buildings from requirements to minimize bulk, which were originally put in place to minimize the impacts of buildings over 70 feet tall — these rules required setting higher stories back and allowed for more stories in buildings that included more ground-level public space.
"What we found is that those are probably pretty limiting in terms of what you can build," said Spencer Gardner, the city's planning director, at the Feb. 10 committee meeting. "If the goal is to prompt development, that was another area that we saw to reduce barriers."
Is Stuckart jealous that his passion projects are finally taking off without him?
"I think it's great as long as we get there," Stuckart says. "It's too bad we got there too late. Better now than never, but maybe we'd be in a less poor space with high rent had we done more 10 years ago."
BY THE NUMBERS
288 FEET
The height of the tallest building in Spokane
The Bank of America Financial Center is the tallest building in Spokane, and it was built in the downtown core, which didn't have height restrictions even before the proposed ordinance. It has 20 stories, and probably won't be overshadowed anytime soon.
"I don't think you'll ever see anything taller than the [Bank of America] building," Stuckart says. "But it'd sure be nice if we saw some additional 10-plus story buildings."
Klitzke also thinks the chance of a skyscraper in Spokane is slim.
"I am a little skeptical that it would happen, at least in this decade," she says.
If you're a diehard fan of How I Met Your Mother, you and fictional architect Ted Mosby will probably have to keep dreaming of a Spokane skyscraper a bit longer.
12
The number of stories currently allowed
Most buildings in downtown Spokane outside of the "downtown core" zone are currently limited to 12 stories, which would typically be between 120 and 144 feet. Some areas closer to the river, however, are limited to 100 feet or 70 feet.
One of the major concerns during Stuckart's time was the potential for extra shadow cast on Riverfront Park by extra tall buildings on Spokane Falls Boulevard. However, a 2017 study by the city's Planning Department showed that "when compared to the shadows cast by existing development (or potential development of vacant lots fronting on Main Avenue, where there is no height restriction), the increased shaded area would be minimal."
Klitzke says the City Council has heard a little bit of concern around shade and is studying the maps seriously before making a decision. There is a chance that the minimal increase in shadow could be beneficial, she says, both for the Numerica Skate Ribbon in the winter, and for people and plants during the summer.
"As a person who likes shade and was kind of disappointed with how many trees we cut down in Riverfront Park, I think that conversation can go both ways," she says. "I think people forget that some amount of shade benefits plants and people."
60
The estimated number of low-income apartments made available for every 100 high-income apartments built
"Data shows the 'housing ladder theory' is true," Stuckart says. "That says even if you build housing at the high end of the market, people move up into that housing. For every hundred units of high-income housing you build, that frees up 60 low-income units."
Stuckart says that Spokane used to have plenty of housing available, so it didn't need to build much low-income housing because supply aligned with or exceeded demand. But in recent years, housing stock hasn't kept pace with the growing population, and that is one of the main things driving skyrocketing rents.
"Any type of housing makes housing for everyone more affordable," Stuckart says. "Spurring market rate housing keeps rents down for all other market housing."
459
The number of surface parking lots downtown
That is, to be more specific, the number of parcels that are only surface parking lots. Of the 2,730 parcels downtown, 1,223 of them contain some surface parking, according to the city's land capacity analysis completed this year.
The analysis estimates that surface parking lots represent about 4,488 units of lost capacity, or rental space for more than 7,000 people. But realistically, the parcels that are only surface parking lots probably offer the best potential for development — those represent 388 potential housing units, or room for 622 people, the report says.
However, the analysis was conducted before the discussion to lift height restrictions, and it is unclear how much those estimates might change after the new ordinance, if it passes, Gardner says.
As for the rest of the parcels, the analysis encourages creativity.
"The need for parking in downtown Spokane is not going away in the foreseeable future," it reads. "However, parking needs can be addressed through structures and other solutions that take up less land and that leave space for other uses like residential units."
23,357
Spokane's expected population increase between 2023 and 2046
Spokane is projected to keep growing. The land capacity analysis estimates that the city has enough space to create and sustain 23,000 more housing units, should developers be motivated to build them. That number would be enough to house the additional population and make up for housing shortages in recent years, which would start to address the high cost of housing in the region. ♦
