Rough diamonds? Valley Receives 24.5 Acres of Parkland That Could Become Baseball Fields | Focus on high school sports

On a cold, overcast Monday afternoon, construction workers were working on the skeleton of a house in the Summerfield housing estate, near East Valley Middle School.

Construction was also underway on the pine-covered hill to the north, a quarter of a mile away.

But between the busy buildings there was a flat, huge and strangely fallow plot of land.

It was covered with snow and overgrown with weeds. Three red-tailed hawks watched over it from the ponderosas at the western end. A flock of California quails, 30 pieces strong, chirping and foraging in the bushes along the land border to Forker Road.

These 24.5 acre lots are now owned by Spokane Valley after long-time developer Ken Tupper and his partners at Five Fifty LLC donated. One day this land will likely become a park.

Spokane Valley City Council accepted the donation from Five Fifty LLC during its December 14th session. The land was free, although the city paid $ 6,400 in closure costs.

According to the Spokane County map server, the four parcels that make up the donation have an estimated total value of $ 545,000, although Spokane Valley councilor Arne Woodard believes it is closer to $ 1 million.

The donation was unrestricted and councilors said they were not yet sure what type of park the land could become. Baseball and softball fields are one option. Councilor Ben Wick said he would like to get public feedback before the city decides what works best in the country.

Councilors said northeastern Spokane Valley is in dire need of the donation.

“This is the only place in the valley that has no parkland,” said City Councilor Tim Hattenburg. “Boy, talk about a present.”

Woodard said he believed the donation was the largest the city has ever received.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he said. “It will go down in Spokane Valley history when it is written.”

End of one journey, beginning of another

Attempts to reach Tupper both by phone and through city staff have been unsuccessful. Spokane Valley City manager John Hohman told The Spokesman Review that Tupper did not want to be interviewed for this story.

But at the December 14th city council meeting, Tupper explained part of the property’s long, intricate history.

In 1979 Tupper bought the land that covers the 24.5 hectares. He started building houses on it, but in 1984 he learned that 50% of the land he had bought was in a floodplain.

For a quarter of a century, Tupper and Stan Schultz, his lawyer, tried to find a project that could be built on the land or a way to get rid of the floodplain designation.

“After 25 years we couldn’t achieve any of that,” said Tupper.

Shortly after Spokane Valley became a city in 2003, Tupper and Schultz arranged a meeting with Hohman, the city’s former chief development engineer. The trio had a conversation about “the benefits of seeing if this flood plain could be resolved,” said Tupper.

“It wasn’t just for our benefit,” said Tupper. “It was really for a wider use. First of all, yes, we would benefit from it because we would be able to build even more houses. But apart from that, we had the problem that water came down the fork draw with no other option than just flooding. “

Tupper said the homes in the area were not at risk of flooding, but there was still a lot of water that sometimes got near the homes and he wanted to control it.

A water reduction system would help homeowners in the area, Tupper said. He said many were paying $ 150 to $ 300 a month for flood insurance that they likely didn’t need.

Tupper City, Schultz, and Spokane Valley city officials began discussing how to deal with the floods and eliminate the cost of flood insurance.

“We put drainage basins, dry wells, and all of those things, and we spent about $ 250,000 putting in all of those improvements,” said Tupper.

But the construction of this infrastructure caught the attention of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“They came kind of unglued,” said Tupper. “We ended up having a meeting and basically they were from Seattle – driving cars, flying planes – Department of Ecology and everyone else, and they really wondered why the Valley City would get involved in the things they were doing. “

Tupper said Hohman had explained to FEMA and the Department of Ecology why controlling water was in everyone’s best interest.

“By the time they left the meeting, we had all agreed that we would work with FEMA to change the designation of this floodplain so that the insurance aspect of people outside the area would not have to take out flood insurance,” said Tupper.

Hohman said in an interview that FEMA often leaves flood analysis to the municipalities. In this case, the city’s staff worked on the analysis for nine years and FEMA signed it off.

“After nine years we got our approval,” said Tupper. “This journey lasted forty-five years and we were finally able to achieve it. This allowed us to continue and build on the rest of the project. “

Tupper said Five Fifty LLC wanted to donate the land of Spokane Valley as a gesture of gratitude for years of hard work and support by city workers. He thanked the construction and planning assistant Deanna Horton, the chief development engineer Henry Allen and Hohman by name.

“We’re very, very grateful for all of the things Spokane Valley has been able to do for us,” said Tupper.