Dan Hansen

1. Down to the wire. Jogging through the open areas of Five Mile Prairie are Jason and Sue McLellan and their malamute, Kaniksu. The cost of extending urban services to the prairie prevented it from being included in the proposed urban growth areas. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 2. Law could limit projects like this one at Cascade and Alberta on Five Mile Prairie. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

The typical new house in Spokane County would have fewer rooms and a smaller lot if the Growth Management Act had been law for the past 20 years, home builders warn. But others say it would have better services, and would be less expensive to maintain. Take, for example, a rancher on one-third acre near Millwood in the Spokane Valley. About 4 years old, it is about 1,200 square feet with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a basement. It was listed for about $130,000 last summer. Under GMA, the house would probably have been built before 1992, since there would have been more demand for buildable land, said county planner John Mercer. The lot would be slightly smaller, but the street might have sidewalks and lights, he said. Almost certainly, the house would be connected to a public sewer system. The new owners would pay $17.50 monthly sewer bills, but construction costs would have been lower, and there would be no septic tank and drain field to maintain.

New Spokane County Commissioner Kate McCaslin is sworn in by District Court Judge Mike Padden. McCaslin's mother, Donna Meidling, holds the Bible. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Monthly sewer bills will increase $4 over the next three years so Spokane County can start a bank account to help pay for future improvements at the regional sewage-treatment plant. County commissioners on Tuesday voted to raise sewer rates $2 a month in 1997, and an additional dollar a month in each of the following years. Homeowners currently pay $17.50 per month. The increase affects each of the county's 12,500 sewer customers. City officials are considering a similar increase. Effluent dumped into the Spokane River by the 19-year-old treatment plant doesn't meet state environmental standards. Engineers say the plant needs at least $50 million in improvements. Commissioner Steve Hasson championed the rate increase, which the three commissioners approved unanimously. Without the increase, Hasson said, county residents eventually would face "sticker shock," as they did in the 1980s when garbage rates skyrocketed to pay for landfill closures and cleanups.

It was the hottest issue in local elections, is a favorite topic for talk show hosts and was mentioned in 15 front-page stories this year alone. It could affect the lifestyles, bank accounts and retirement plans of thousands of Spokane County residents. But three years after the county started planning for life under the Growth Management Act, fewer than one in five residents knows the basics of the state law, a scientific survey shows. Nevertheless, follow-up questions show that a majority of Spokane city and county residents support the goals of the act.

The bridge at Riverside State Park "has far outlived its life expectancy." Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

A committee has cleared the way for Spokane County commissioners to make a monumental land-use decision before the end of the year. After three years of work, the county's Growth Management Act steering committee voted Wednesday to send recommendations for "interim urban growth areas" to commissioners.

After three years of trying to repeal a tax used to prevent development of some environmentally sensitive lands, Spokane County Commissioner Steve Hasson stunned an audience Tuesday night by voting to collect the money one more year. What's more, he and Commissioner John Roskelley were joined by Commissioner Phil Harris. A crowd of about 60 tax supporters jeered Harris at times during a two-hour hearing on the conservation futures tax, assuming he was going to vote "no." "I can't believe I did that," a beaming Harris said after the vote. "I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think it was good for everybody. I'm not intimidated by a crowd."

A walk in the park. Craig Volosing walks through an eight-acre tract along Rimrock Drive bought by the county through the Conservation Futures Tax. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

The faded red pickup rumbling down Interstate 5 bears bumper stickers that mark its owner as an out-of-towner. "Ellensburg Rodeo" reads one that is tattered around the edges. The other, fresh and still clean, has just three letters: "GMA" with a slash through them.

Spokane officials on Friday were forced to delay a key decision regarding the Growth Management Act, further tightening the schedule for complying with the law. The committee had planned to take a final vote on the urban growth boundaries they'll recommend to county commissioners. But a county attorney warned that the committee's haste might spark a legal appeal. Besides, the committee, which includes elected officials from Spokane city and county and the county's small towns, was one member shy of a quorum. The delay puts the county on a tight schedule for setting growth boundaries before the end of the year. The decision is already two months past due.

Spokane County commissioners will take public comment today on a 1997 budget that calls for putting $2 million into an account reserved for emergencies, but still spends $266,000 so employees can be members of professional organizations. The county has a general fund budget of $88 million but less than $400,000 in its bank account. Commissioners wanted to set aside $1 million this year, but saw the amount dwindle as one department head after another made emergency requests.

With thousands of houses still in the dark from last week's ice storm and memories of the destructive 1991 fires still fresh, some Spokane city and county officials say it's time to bury power lines. Power companies say that proposal would be prohibitively expensive and impractical. County Commissioner Steve Hasson is asking planners to study the possibility of requiring underground power lines in new developments. Existing lines should be buried when the county repaves roads or installs sewer lines, he said.

Spokane County's biggest land-use ruling in 10 years will be made two days after Christmas so Commissioner Steve Hasson can help make the decision. Hasson and Commissioner John Roskelley voted Tuesday to decide Friday, Dec. 27, where to put "interim urban growth areas."

Spokane County is investigating reports of corruption and missing equipment at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds. And fairgrounds Manager Paul Gillingham was forced to resign for exceeding his budget, making unapproved purchases and other mismanagement.

It was the fifth day of the blackout, and Lorene Cady wasn't budging from the Shadle Park home that's been hers for 35 years. It didn't matter what her frustrated son said, or the nice young man from Washington Water Power Co.

Spokane's top city planner told elected officials Friday he would "refuse to participate" if ordered to write a land-use plan he considered a violation of state law. "My professional ethics would preclude that," Charlie Dotson, city planning director, told members of the Growth Management Act steering committee.

Finch Arboretum's white willow survived Tuesday's ice storm with a few broken limbs. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

For the fourth time this decade, county taxpayers will pay the bill so Valley residents can decide whether to form cities. Spokane County commissioners on Tuesday agreed to put proposals to form the cities of Opportunity and Evergreen on the ballot. The small cities are portions of larger proposals voters rejected in 1990, 1994 and 1995.

The union representing Spokane County workers agreed Monday to a contract that excludes employees in District Court and the prosecutor's office. The agreement ends the threat of a strike by about 1,000 county employees but does little to ease tension in the prosecutor's office, which had been the center of the labor dispute.

New lots smaller than 10 acres would be prohibited in areas without public sewers under regulations that could guide Spokane County land use for at least a year. And commercial development would only be allowed in areas designated urban.

Tina Knapp was raised in the city. But she's all country now, having moved to 400 acres in the rolling hills south of Mount Spokane to become a farmer. Now she's afraid proposed changes in the Spokane County zoning map could kill her bucolic dream.

Spokane County Superior Court judges will get a new colleague a little sooner than they expected. And the county's public defender will get money he says he needs to make it through the year.

County employees line up outside the WWP building prior to their decision to defer a strike vote. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review