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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Joint planning effort

The Spokesman-Review

Last week, several dozen local officials and agency employees gathered in the Champions Room of the Spokane Veterans Arena to hear representatives of the city and county talk about working through their challenges more cooperatively.

Yawn.

Not the city of Spokane and Spokane County, by the way, but the city of Vancouver, Wash., and Clark County. Hosted by the Boundary Review Board of Spokane County, the afternoon session was intended to show Spokane’s city and county leaders how their counterparts in a far corner of the state were managing the stresses that afflict local governments when constituencies, responsibilities and tax bases overlap.

Yawn, and double yawn. To most people, this whole area of inquiry is a bore.

Until, of course, you want the police – or a snowplow. At times like those, the availability and adequacy of local services is a big deal indeed. You want the potholes patched and the parks maintained. You think your kids should be able to walk to school safely. You want convenient shopping, but you don’t want a big box store across the street.

But as old cities grow and new ones form, the roles of city and county government drift, requiring adjustments, especially in what the state Growth Management Act refers to as urban growth areas. Those zones, scattered along the edges of Spokane and other cities, lie just outside the city limits, but their population and development are at urban density. By law, they are destined to be annexed.

Until annexation, though, urban growth areas stretch the ability of city and county agencies to put the public’s interests ahead of institutional rivalry and political fortunes.

The city of Spokane and Spokane County are trying to forge an agreement for joint planning in those transitional areas. In time, this process could produce a template to guide such ticklish enterprises as annexation.

That still sounds like a yawner, we know, but how those issues are handled ultimately affects how public safety is protected, how the infrastructure is maintained and how efficiently tax dollars are spent.

In her State of the City Address on Friday, Mayor Mary Verner called the joint planning effort “unprecedented.” Bonnie Mager, chairwoman of the Board of Spokane County Commissioners, calls it a “big, positive step” toward a less contentious relationship between the city and county. Director Susan Winchell, of the Boundary Review Board, considers it a major breakthrough.

Nobody, including last week’s visitors from Clark County, suggested it’s going to be easy, however. Decisions about who should turn over which services to whom, and how the costs and revenues are to be divided will require shared pain.

But the Vancouver and Clark County officials identified three factors that motivated them to reach the interlocal agreements now being held up as models for the Spokane area:

“Annexation of the urban growth areas was inevitable.

“They wanted to stay out of court.

“Their citizens were fed up with the squabbling and paralysis.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? So while “joint planning” might make some heads nod, alert local leaders must see it through.