Projects

5th Avenue Community Plan

Project Updates

Baseline Conditions Report

This baseline conditions report underpins a community planning effort for the 5th Avenue community. It provides an exploration of the community profile, as well as keep topics that have emerged through engagement: walkability and connectivity, homeownership, community identity, community wealth building, and restore the land. The report is a foundation that will help establish a community-led framework of goals and policies for future land use, economic growth, connectivity, and quality of life improvements for the 5th Avenue community in the East Central neighborhood.

• 5th Avenue Plan Baseline Conditions Report – September 2025 (PDF 9.5 MB)

5th Avenue Interactive Map

Do you visit, live, or work in the 5th Avenue area in East Central neighborhood? Share your ideas for the future of the neighborhood in the interactive map!

Minecraft Student Workshop

The City of Spokane, Carl Maxey Center, New Urban Mobility Alliance, and Spokane Public Schools partnered together to host a Minecraft student workshop at Frances Scott Elementary School in June 2025. The two-day workshop brought together 5th graders to reimagine the schoolyard and area around the school. A final workshop summary will be shared in September 2025.

Recent Community Engagement

We have been out in the community over the spring and summer visiting schools, parks, and community events! We will have an engagement summary shortly to share themes and community feedback so far. Stay tuned for upcoming events in the Fall 2025! Sign up to receive email updates about this project.

Council/Commission Updates

We shared project updates at the following Plan Commission and City Council meetings:

• City Council Urban Experience Committee – June 9, 2025
• Plan Commission Workshop – June 11, 2025

Project Purpose

The City is embarking on a planning process to create the 5th Avenue Community Plan, reflecting the vision and desires of the community with priorities and action steps. The 5th Avenue Community Plan will establish a community-led framework of goals and policies for future land use, economic growth, connectivity, and quality of life improvements for the 5th Avenue community in the East Central neighborhood. The plan will build on the 5th Avenue Initiative and other initiatives and build synergy with ongoing and upcoming public projects from both the City and other external government agencies.

Project Timeline

The project began in spring 2025 with early community interviews and building connections along 5th Avenue. Following engagement in spring and summer 2025, a draft plan will be developed in fall and winter 2025 with more engagement in early 2026. We expect a final plan in summer 2026 for City Council adoption.

Image by Seva Workshop, Updated February 2025

Study Area

The study area is located south of I-90 around the 5th Avenue corridor, in the southeast section of the East Central neighborhood. This area includes the historical Black business district and is home to several diverse community organizations that serve both local residents and regional visitor. Key community-based organizations include the Carl Maxey Center, Martin Luther King Jr. Family Outreach Center, Spokane Eastside Reunion Association and Fresh Soul Restaurant, and New Developed Nations among other businesses along 5th Avenue. Key destinations include Liberty Park and Underhill Park, Liberty Park Aquatic Center, Liberty Park Public Library, and the Frances L.N. Scott Elementary School, named for the Spokane civil rights leader, educator, and lawyer who grew up in the neighborhood.

Background

The 5th Avenue community is the historic center and cultural hub of the Black community in Spokane and is also home to a growing diversity of residents, including Latino and recent immigrant communities. The City, through its hired consultant team, Seva Workshop, will develop this plan in collaboration with community members over the next 24 months, including those who live, work, visit, and have community connections to the area. The planning process will have a focus on addressing the historic and ongoing impacts of divisive highway infrastructure that has bisected East Central, displaced residents, and isolated the 5th Avenue area to repair damage and bring reconnection and restoration to the community.

This plan is funded through American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) recovery funds received by the City of Spokane in 2021 to keep municipal governments afloat amid the financial crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, City Council passed Ordinance C36163 appropriating some of the ARPA funds solely for subarea planning to increase housing along transportation corridors, with a focus on historically marginalized communities. In 2024, City Council passed a resolution initiating subarea planning in the 5th Avenue Community, which kicked off the process.

Other Initiatives

This plan will build on current and past planning efforts in the 5th Avenue community and help move vision into action through a cohesive co-design process with community leaders and members.

• 5th Avenue Forward Coalition
  5th Avenue Forward is a grassroots vision for revitalizing East Central Spokane through investment without displacement, honoring its past while shaping a thriving, inclusive future. Led by community members and anchored by the Carl Maxey Center, this effort centers equity, culture, and long-term stewardship. Visit the 5th Avenue Forward website for more information and to learn how to get involved with the coalition.

Past Initiatives

• Smart Growth America Community Connectors Program
  This program, in partnership with New Urban Mobility Alliance (NUMO), provided a capacity building grant to the Carl Maxey Center to support local leaders in the 5th Avenue community in advancing locally driven projects that reconnect communities separated by transportation infrastructure. This program concluded in June 2025.
• View the East Central Land Use Analysis, conducted by NUMO (PDF 4.9 MB)
• EPA Rethinking Highways for Healthy Communities Pilot Program
  This pilot program provides environmental planning services in communities impacted by highway re-design efforts. The EPA’s Office of Community Revitalization provided the City technical assistance to support an equitable community-led visioning process for the redevelopment of the surplus lands owned by the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT), with a facilitated workshop in November 2024.
• Read the final report to learn more about the workshop and next action steps.
• 5th Avenue Initiative
  The subarea plan builds on the foundation and vision established in the 5th Avenue Initiative Community Strategy, adopted in 2021 as the culmination of a multi-year process of community engagement and work by community leaders, residents, businesses, and organizations in collaboration. This multi-faceted project reflected the diversity of East Central Spokane to foster neighborhood identity and enhance quality of life for citizens and businesses along the 5th Avenue corridor.