Small neighborhood opposes annexation plan

An effort to pull a North Side neighborhood into the Spokane city limits has residents protesting that the city has nothing to offer their tidy, gated community, but it’s unfairly dragging them in anyway. They charge that democratic processes are being ignored in a city effort to help patch its ailing budget.

The city of Spokane is proposing to annex the Park On Calispel neighborhood – along with a strip of nearby businesses on North Division Street – in a bid that could yield about $1.2 million a year in additional taxes for the city, with most of the money coming from sales taxes, according to a city feasibility study. The centerpiece of the city’s proposal is Costco Wholesale, which is adjacent to the neighborhood and wants to be part of the city.

Costco’s residential neighbors to the west don’t.

Each of the 39 houses in the Park on Calispel, separated by Costco only by trees and a fence, signed a petition opposing it.

Underlying many neighbors’ worries is a distrust of government, and especially Spokane city government. Others say they simply don’t want things to change when they already have it good. And while varying rumors of cost increases have flowed between neighbors, some residents said they don’t want any increased costs – no matter how little, because the city can’t give them anything they don’t already have.

“I just don’t want to be part of the city,” said Shirley Spurgeon, adding that she’ll move if the area is annexed. “They’re not going to be any help to us at all.”

It’s also a matter of principle, said residents, who charge that their opinions are being intentionally ignored.

The city chose to try annexing the neighborhood through the direct-petition method, in which owners representing 75 percent of the land value in the proposed area need to agree to the annexation. A second possible method includes putting the annexation on the ballot for a public vote. A third is the voter/property owner petition method, in which approval is required of a majority of voters and property owners, by acreage.

“It makes me sick to think that they would do it that way,” resident Sandy Munro said of the choice of the direct-petition method. “When you encourage people to vote and then deny them the vote, that’s very unjust.”

The city’s position is that it has used the direct-petition method several times in the past, and it’s widely used throughout the state. The city also claims that residents signed away their legal right to oppose the annexation when they moved into homes that rely on city sewers.

City Councilman Bob Apple, who represents nearby District 1, said Park on Calispel residents are being unfair to city residents because they’re using city services – city streets, as well as the sewer – but they’re not paying for them.

“They say they don’t want to be part of the city (but) that they want to be part of your services,” Apple said. “It’s not fair to everybody else in the city who’s subsidizing them.”

The Park On Calispel debate has triggered concern among residents living in the much larger Linwood neighborhood nearby, which the city tried and failed to annex in the past. A group called Linwood Friends Against Annexation was recently created to fight any potential annexation bid.

But the worry that this annexation will expand to encompass the entire Linwood neighborhood is probably groundless, said Susan Winchell, director of the state’s Boundary Review Board for Spokane County, which would decide the final boundaries. The board would need substantial testimony and evidence from nearby residents who want to join the city, Winchell said. She doesn’t see that happening in this case.

The Linwood neighborhood has voted several times to stay out of the city. The last time, in the 1980s, they voted it down by a wide margin.

The city doesn’t need consent from Park on Calispel residents to annex their neighborhood. That’s because Costco and the developer of the Park on Calispel both signed agreements stating that in exchange for connections to the city sewer lines, the landowners wouldn’t fight future annexation efforts, said Monica Bramble, a representative of the city’s Public Works and Utilities Department who is leading the city’s annexation effort.

When developers build outside city limits but within reach of city utilities, they often sign such agreements

Those covenants are all the approval the city needs, Bramble said.

The city couldn’t have excluded the Park On Calispel development – the only residential area in the proposal – because without it, the city wouldn’t have had the formal approval of owners representing 75 percent of the assessed value in the proposed area, Bramble said. Because annexations are a slow and expensive process, the city tries to avoid smaller annexations, she said. That doesn’t mean the Park On Calispel is guaranteed to become part of the city.

The Boundary Review Board has several criteria it must look at when deciding whether to accept, reject or modify an annexation bid, said Winchell.

Residents could argue, for instance, that the inclusion of the Park On Calispel would break up existing neighborhoods by putting some in the city and leaving some outside its boundaries.

Residents have already sent a letter to the boundary board arguing that the annexation doesn’t mesh with several of the board’s criteria.

Spokane County government strongly opposes the annexation because “there’s some people that want to be able to vote on it, and the city is attempting to utilize annexation waivers to get there,” said Commissioner Todd Mielke. “If the city can make its case and convince people it’s a good thing, they ought to put it on the ballot.”

Mielke contends the city is trying to “cherry pick” high-tax commercial areas.

Park On Calispel residents say they fear the cost of joining the city will price them out of their homes.

The city counters that residents’ net tax and utility costs would go up only $5.10 a month for a $200,000 home. Those estimates are disputed by the residents who believe the costs will be higher, based on informal comparisons.

Beyond the potential cost, many Park On Calispel residents, particularly older ones, say they just don’t want to change.

“I lived in Oakland, Calif.,” said resident Mary Browne. “I do not want to live in the city. I feel safe here, and I’m comfortable.”

But Bramble, who grew up in the city, sees things differently.

“I understand their position,” she said. “But it’s not going to be a terrible, terrible, terrible thing to be in the city.”