The city of Spokane plans to take a look at the potential to encourage property owners to assemble adjacent vacant pieces of land into parcels of 10 to 25 acreslarge enough to attract new and expanding businesses.


The idea is for the city to complete an inventory for such parcels first.


In our commercial, business, and industrial corridors, we need sites 10 acres or larger for business or technology parks, says City Manager Bill Pupo.


Spokane needs the larger parcels to recruit new businesses here, Pupo says. The larger pieces of land also could be of use to Spokane-area companies that want to expand. Vacant land within developed areas usually already is served by roads, utilities are available, and in many cases the property is zoned for appropriate uses, he says. Without parcels of at least 10 acres, the city cant compete with unincorporated areas of the county when wooing businesses that will spur economic growth.


The city began working on plans to study vacant land areas and group lots into more desirable, larger parcels last year after Focus 21, a business-community growth effort that seeks to create good-paying jobs in Spokane, approached the city seeking financial support, Pupo says. Rather than providing a monetary contribution, the city wanted to develop a program that could be offered as in-kind support, he says.


The city determined that a land inventory and a program to bring landowners together to group their properties into larger parcels could encourage future development here, and decided to pursue the idea, Pupo says.


The plan, still in a rough draft stage, is being worked on in committee, he says. Although the proposal that will be considered by the City Council isnt complete yet, Pupo hopes to have a scope-of-work plan prepared soon enough, so that a request for proposals can be sent out in the first quarter of next year.


The request will call for a consultant to earmark parcels of developable land, and offer ideas on how to work with property owners to gather land into parcels that can be of use to larger businesses.


In doing the study, the city is cooperating with the Spokane Area Economic Development Council and contacts in the commercial real estate field to make sure were not duplicating any private effort, Pupo says.


EDC President Mark Turner says he is not aware of any similar program in Spokane and thinks the inventory is a worthy idea, although the EDC is only minimally involved at this time.


Its very important from many angles, Turner says.


He says companies looking for new locations consider both available land and infrastructure, such as utilities and roads that serve the land. If those opportunities arent there, its not likely to happen that companies will put new operations in a community, Turner say.