SPOKANE, Wash. – Spokane’s City Council passed a unanimous vote approving the contracts for the construction and management of the zipline planned for downtown.
The 1400-foot-long zipline will run from A Place of Truth Plaza through one of the arches of the Monroe Street Bridge and will land at Redband Park in the Peaceful Valley Neighborhood.
The zipline was contracted to Spokane Skylines LLC, a subsidiary of Mica Moon, a Spokane-based company that runs a zipline tour in Liberty Lake.
Mica Moon’s contract with the city designates them as the manager of the zipline and its construction. Mica Moon contracted Synergo, a construction company based in Portland, due to their previous working relationship from other projects.
The project, sponsored by City Councilmembers Jonathan Bingle and Lili Navarrete, is meant to encourage tourism and visitation downtown and at Riverfront Park.
Bingle mentioned that the project is largely aimed to support Spokane’s tourism industry.
“Spokane is a tourist town in a lot of respects and this is just another thing for people can do to love our city and to enjoy our city while they’re here,” he said.
“A lot of people are coming for sports, a lot of people are coming for conventions, I mean, we’re a regional destination. And this gives them another thing to remember about how incredible Spokane was before they go,” he continued.
Bingle also said that the adding the zipline will also add more accessibility features to Riverfront Park.
Chiefly, the project would add more ADA features to the areas around the zipline platform and would provide shuttles that run from Redband Park and through Riverfront Park.
The proposal also adds details about an “observation platform” that will be built at Redband Park. The platform will look back up towards the Spokane Falls to provide a scenic view.
The platform would be staffed during zipline operation hours in order to limit intrusions to the Peaceful Valley neighborhood, but the platform would remain available to Peaceful Valley residents outside of zipline hours for their own access.
Mica Moon proposed that the shuttles that will run participants from Redband Park back through Riverfront Park would include information about the history, geology and resources in the area for riders to learn during the ride.
They use this shuttle method in their own park out in Liberty Lake and cited many of their strategies as based off the methods they developed at the Mica Moon Adventure Park.
Councilmember Kitty Klitzke mentioned that liability issues with the zipline would be handled by the vendor operating the zipline rather than the City of Spokane.
