Council votes for status quo

Liberty Lake likes the size it is just fine. The City Council on Tuesday urged Spokane County commissioners Tuesday night not to expand its urban growth area and instead plan for growth within the city’s current boundaries.

The county requested months ago that Liberty Lake and other cities submit a recommendation designating a UGA for an expected population increase.

In response, Liberty Lake’s council voted 4-1 Tuesday night in favor of maintaining the status quo because, as Mayor Steve Peterson said, the city already has adequate space for 9,000 more people – more than double its current population of 6,000.

“I don’t think at this point we need to move the UGA,” Councilwoman Wendy Van Orman said. “Fifteen thousand is plenty to plan for.”

But this hard-fought recommendation raises new concerns.

“How do we accommodate growth in a reasonable manner that meets both sides’ needs – open space, that country feel, what we anticipated the community to be,” Peterson said. “And allowing for growth, which is part of the economic vitality of the community.”

Councilman Dennis Paul cast the lone dissenting vote..

“I think the city should grow out before we move a UGA,” Paul said. “But at the same time, there seems to be nowhere in the process to plan for where it will go in the future … I don’t have a problem with the planning commission’s recommendation, I just have a whole uneasiness about the whole process.”

The recommendation will appear before the Spokane County regional steering committee on April 18.

In Liberty Lake, UGA has been a hot-button issue for months.

Small-town feel and inevitable growth are two clashing realities that have put the council in a delicate position. The community wants to stay small, but people keep pouring into the city, posing a challenge to the council to satisfy both sides.

“We live in the country, but we’re urban. That’s the beauty of the community,” Peterson said.

“Growth is always a challenge we all have to face and we have to choose together as a community what type of growth we have,” said Steve Shirley, a Liberty Lake resident who lives outside the city limits. He’s president of Community Addressing Urban Sprawl Excess. “The one finality that’s sure with growth, once you move the UGA, that land becomes urban.”

Of course, Spokane County can trump the council’s recommendation and expand the city limits. It is not obligated by the recommendation. Liberty Lake is months ahead of other cities in its recommendation. It could be a while before it sees any direct effects.

In other action, the council announced Sean P. Boutz will replace Stanley M. Schwartz as city attorney this spring.