Question concerning some oddities in county zoning map

[Greg Cooksey]

Greetings BP,

Spokane Washington is a market that I am considering doing some buy and hold investing in. I lived there for quite a while, and still have family and friends there. My wife and I are considering a move back to that area in the next couple of years, and I'm just getting started with learning about the market to see if it fits my business model. 

I was looking at the online county zoning map - just checking out recent sale prices and various info. I came across a parcel that recently sold for 6 times more than all of the neighboring properties. The high sale price is extremely out of character for any piece of real estate in this neighborhood. What might cause something like this? Google Street View didn't show any signs of something that would be a huge difference between the two properties unless one has a diamond mine in the basement. 

My other question is about the seemingly vacant properties in between the houses. I only found a couple of them, but in some cases the vacant lot is owned by someone with a different first name - same last name as a house next to it. What are these? I will be in Spokane most of the week coming up, so I plan on driving around the area and checking it out, but I wanted to get some info before I do. 

Thanks in advance for any help. As you can probably tell, I'm very new to this. I think this county map is going to be a huge help though.