Spokane Horizons Wins Top Award

Spokane Horizons, a collaborative effort to engage Spokane’s citizens in planning for future growth, has won a top award from the American Planning Association.

The APA’s Honor Award for the best example of involving citizens in a Washington state planning process was given to the Spokane Horizons project Tuesday at the APA’s conference at the Ridpath Hotel.

Chris Hugo, the city’s lead planner for implementation of the state Growth Management Act, was cited for his work in developing Spokane Horizons.

Susan Virnig of Northwest Regional Facilitators in Spokane helped develop the citizen involvement model with Hugo.

Over the past 18 months, a citizens group serving as the Spokane Horizons executive board has organized eight community meetings and gathered comments from hundreds of citizens to help shape a direction and a set of values Spokane can use as it enters the 21st century.

Citizen input included comments from city neighborhoods, children in District 81 schools, members of ethnic minorities, and business and political groups.

“Spokane Horizons has given Spokane citizens an opportunity to truly participate in the planning process.” said Mayor Jack Geraghty.