Spokane Valley plans an outdoor music venue in Balfour Park

May 6-Summer weather is taking hold, and Spokane Valley is working to build a music venue in Balfour Park.

It could take several years, but plans are being made for an outdoor amphitheater in the northwest corner of the park able to hold thousands of people.

"We've already done the grading for it, so if you go out there, you can kind of see where it will be," said Spokane Valley's parks and recreation director John Bottelli. "But we won't get to detailed design until we get funding and a timeline."

The cost will likely be more than $3 million and feature a large covered stage, a grassy area for the audience, and an arching pathway. The food truck pathway that exists now would border the back of the amphitheater space.

"It would be great to have live music," Bottelli said. "You could have the symphony there with people on blankets and picnics. If you really wanted to pack them in for an exciting event, I feel like we could fit like 4,500 people there."

The amphitheater won't be like the Pavilion in Spokane, but it will be a space that the city could generate revenue out of with things like a summer concert series or big yoga classes.

"It'll be interesting to see how the community embraces and uses it," Bottelli said. No park in the Valley has an amphitheater, Bottelli said.

Spokane and neighboring cities have several outdoor music venues, including the Gesa Credit Union Pavilion in Riverfront Park and the BECU Live venue at Northern Quest in Airway Heights.

The Balfour Park amphitheater would be among many improvements at a park that the city envisions as a part of city core.

When finished, it will have had around $10 million worth of improvements, featuring green lawns, soccer, basketball and pickleball courts, pathways, a playground and splash pad.

"We're creating a bit of a downtown community civic center down there," Bottelli said. "Now that the library, City Hall, fire station and this park is there, Spokane Valley has a central place."

Spokane Valley has been expanding Balfour Park since 2024. The city purchased the land at 105 N. Balfour Rd. for the park, across the street from City Hall, in 2012.

About 13,000 people live within a mile of Balfour Park. In that area, the median income level in the area is below the state average, and around 750 households there live below the poverty level, Bottelli said.

"Having an amenity like this serving such a large population in need is tremendous for a city of our size and the kind of thing we should be doing," Bottelli said.

Matthew Phippen, fire science instructor at Spokane Valley Tech, brings his students to Balfour several times a week to play ultimate frisbee in the sun. Most of his students are high school juniors and use the class to get ready for the fire academy. It also provides students with a PE credit.

"At SVT, we don't have a field of our own," Phippen said. "We're two or three blocks away ... in the summer, it's nice to come here, take our shoes off and enjoy the sun and grass."

The last improvements - which included building a mini pitch for soccer, veterans memorial, events plaza, lighting, pathways, landscaping and restrooms - were completed in 2024 and cost the city $5 million.

This year, the city is planning on finishing $715,000 worth of improvements, which includes two basketball courts with five basketball hoops and four pickleball courts in the northeast corner of the park, Bottelli said. The money for the courts is from the Washington State Appropriation and Spokane Valley's Capital Improvement Program funds.

In 2027, the city plans to build a new playground and splash park at the park. The city already has $4 million worth of funding for the projects - $500,000 from Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program local parks grant, $2 million through the land and conservation water fund and $1.5 million from the city, according to Bottelli.

"It's a 15,000-square-foot playground," Bottelli said.

Phippen was excited to hear about the improvements planned for Balfour.

"If there are more amenities, if there were basketball courts, I'd for sure say, 'Hey, let's go play basketball today,' " Phippen said. "It's good to be outside enjoying. I think we're all so locked in on, like, the computers these days, especially in the classroom. It gets the kids involved in socializing with each other in a common place."

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