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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

County May Ask For Inclusive City Borders

Spokane County officials are concerned that a proposed city in the Valley will create “islands” of unincorporated areas where it will be difficult to provide sewers.

They may ask the state Boundary Review Board to include those areas within the city’s boundaries, said Dennis Scott, county public works director.

The review board is holding a public hearing on the incorporation proposal Monday at 7 p.m. at North Pines Junior High School, N701 Pines.

The board has the authority to change the boundaries of the proposed city, as long as it doesn’t alter the total area by more than 10 percent.

“We don’t want to take sides one way or the other,” Scott said this week. “But logically, those areas should probably be in the city.”

The areas of concern to the county are the Orchard Avenue neighborhood west of Millwood and the residential areas south of 32nd Avenue.

Incorporation supporters have trimmed those areas from their proposal because voters there rejected two past efforts to form a city, said Joe McKinnon of the group Citizens for Valley Incorporation.

But their exclusion has caused some consternation at the county, Scott said.

County commissioners are worried that if the city is approved by voters, the county would have to negotiate easements and other issues with city officials to extend sewer lines into the isolated areas, he said.

That would be costly and timeconsuming.

“Any time that there’s an island like that, either the cost to provide services there goes up or the level of service goes down,” Scott said.

McKinnon said his group would not fight an effort to have the Orchard Avenue area included.

“But we will probably draw the line at 32nd,” he said. “Otherwise, we’ll have to rehash all of 1994.”

The neighborhoods south of 32nd, including Ponderosa, fiercely fought incorporation in the April 1994 election.

The Dishman Hills Natural Area is another concern of county officials, Scott said. Part of the proposed city cuts into the Dishman Hills Natural Area, some of which is owned by the county.

Scott said it wouldn’t make sense for a small part of the natural area to be in the city. McKinnon said his group wouldn’t fight that adjustment of the boundary, either.