City’s Action May Galvanize Incorporation Support

The city of Spokane’s desire to snatch the tax-rich Yardley industrial area was the hot topic at Thursday night’s public forum on Spokane Valley incorporation.

Spokane officials said this week that they are interested in annexing Yardley, an area in the western part of the Valley.

The action is a direct challenge to incorporation supporters, who have included Yardley in the boundaries of a city of 65,000 they want to form in the Valley.

The Spokane City Council is conspiring to thwart the Valley’s right to self-determination by stirring up controversy, said Howard Herman, co-chairman of Citizens for Valley Incorporation.

His colleague, Joe McKinnon, agreed.

“We need to set our own agenda,” McKinnon said. “We don’t need outside interests doing that for us.”

The Spokane County Boundary Review Board must now study the issue and decide what to do with Yardley.

That poses two problems for Citizens for Valley Incorporation, the group leading the incorporation campaign.

First, it jeopardizes the May 16 date the group has targeted for its third incorporation election since 1990. The review board may decide it must hold extra hearings or do further studies on the Yardley matter.

That would imperil a strict time line Citizens for Valley Incorporation must hold to for the May election, possibly pushing a vote on the matter at least to September.

Second, if Spokane was able to seize Yardley, it would mean the loss of millions of dollars in property taxes to the proposed Valley city, Spokane Valley Fire District 1 and the county library district.

Herman called the move a political ploy meant to throw incorporation supporters off balance as they begin their run at forming their own city.

But, he said, the move may backfire by fueling resentment for Spokane among Valley residents.

“If this doesn’t galvanize the voters of the Spokane Valley, nothing is going to do it,” Herman said.

Incorporation leaders plan to take the Yardley fight to the city on Monday night.

The Spokane City Council has agreed to hold a hearing on the Yardley annexation proposal, McKinnon said, and incorporation leaders are urging people to show up.

“Even if you don’t want to testify, it’s important that we have a big showing from the Valley to send them a message,” said Sue Delucchi, a political consultant to the incorporation camp. “Bring your friends and neighbors.”

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Spokane City Hall, W808 Spokane Falls Boulevard. The incorporation item is toward the end of the agenda.

McKinnon said incorporation supporters will send a strong message to Spokane city leaders at the meeting.

“We have a commandment out here in the Valley that we need to teach our neighbors to the west: Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s land,” he said.

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