Incorporation Petition Ok’d Third Try At Valley City Had Just Enough Signatures For Verification; Backers Hope For Vote In May

Residents who propose forming a city in the Spokane Valley got big relief this week when elections officials verified their petition asking for an incorporation vote.

The verification allows members of Citizens for Valley Incorporation to move forward with their third campaign to form a city in the unincorporated suburbs east of Spokane.

Group members hope to have the incorporation question on the ballot May 16.

As late as last Friday, Spokane County elections supervisor Tom Wilbur wasn’t sure if the petition contained the necessary 3,212 valid signatures - or 10 percent of the registered voters living within the proposed city’s boundaries.

The uncertainty was enough to cause physical discomfort for Citizens for Valley Incorporation leaders, said Joe McKinnon, the group’s co-chair.

“Heartburn? I’ve had a migraine for the past three days,” an obviously relieved McKinnon said Monday. “We were a little surprised. We thought the quality of our signatures was a little higher.”

An invalid petition would have thrown Citizens for Valley Incorporation’s plan for a May 16 election into serious doubt.

Group members want a May election so they can ride the momentum of a close but unsuccessful April 1994 election.

Incorporation made a 10-percent gain at the polls in April 1994, moving to nearly 45 percent approval.

The issue was shot down in 1990 by 2 to 1.

It needs a bare majority to pass.

People who support Valley incorporation say a city government would represent them and respond to their problems better than county government now does.

The proposed city roughly would stretch from the Spokane city limits on the west to Otis Orchards on the east. The north boundary would be Trent Avenue, the south 32nd Avenue.

Nearly 65,000 people would live in the city.

Confident supporters had submitted nearly 4,000 signatures to the elections department late last month. They were sure most were valid.

But elections workers found that hundreds of people who signed the petition weren’t registered voters or didn’t live within the boundaries of the proposed city.

Election workers spent the better part of seven days combing the petition for valid signatures.

They managed to find enough on Monday to put the petition over the top, Wilbur said.

“Barely,” he said. “It was a real struggle getting it that far. They were lucky.”

Upon receiving word that the petition was valid, the state Boundary Review Board set a meeting to take public comment on the proposal.

The meeting will be Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. at North Pines Junior High School, said Susan Winchell, a planner for the review board. The school is at N701 Pines.

The Boundary Review Board oversees the incorporation process, scheduling hearings on the proposal and adjusting boundaries and performing other administrative roles.

Winchell said the board is working closely with incorporation backers to try to keep to the May 16 election date, but that the group’s time line is extremely strict.

“They’re not giving us a lot of time,” she said. “Any little glitch, and the vote’s in September.”

This time around, supporters have taken steps to give themselves a better chance at success.

They trimmed election precincts where residents opposed past incorporation efforts.

Also, they cut the Kaiser Aluminum Trentwood plant and the Spokane Industrial Park out of the proposed boundaries.

Both companies have fought the formation of the city, saying it would lead to higher taxes and more regulation.