City Of Opportunity Backers Hand In Petitions Drive Collects 1,400 Signatures

The Valley incorporation proposal with the best chance of success took another step toward the polls last week.

Proponents of the city of Opportunity turned over to county officials Friday petitions calling for an election on the proposed municipality.

Chief supporter Ed Meadows turned in nearly 1,400 signatures to the county auditor.

If 1,006 of them are from registered voters living within the proposed boundaries of Opportunity, the proposed city could be on the ballot as early as spring.

Elections officials are expected to begin verifying the signatures next week.

Meadows, who collected most of the names, said he’s sure the petitions are good.

Opportunity would be home to about 16,000 people. It is bounded roughly by Interstate 90, 16th Avenue, Evergreen and Argonne roads.

It would include the University City Shopping Center and the Valley’s busiest intersection - Pines and Sprague.

Opportunity supporters became the second Valley group to turn in petitions calling for an incorporation election.

Proponents of the city of Evergreen found out recently that their proposal will be headed to the polls in 1996.

Judging from past Valley incorporation efforts, Opportunity has about an even chance of passing.

Past campaigns to form a Valley-wide city got their best support in the voting precincts that make up Opportunity.

In 1994, more than half the voters within the proposed borders of Opportunity cast ballots in favor of incorporation.

Support dropped to 46 percent in an election held this year but remained well above the 41 percent approval the proposition garnered Valley-wide.

Meadows said he’s confident the city would pass if it made the ballot.

The retired United Airlines employee said the recent effort to consolidate Spokane’s city and county governments wasn’t popular in Opportunity, where many fear annexation by the city of Spokane.

That issue may push many to vote to form their own city, Meadows said.

“I think the consolidation thing scared a lot of people out here,” he said. “We’ve got a good shot.”

If Opportunity supporters get their proposition on the ballot, it would be another blow to a group trying to mount a campaign to form a city of 75,000 in the Valley.

The Community Action Committee wants to form Lilac Valley, a municipality that would stretch from the Spokane city limits to the Washington-Idaho line.

Evergreen and Opportunity are smack in the middle of Lilac Valley territory.

Lilac Valley supporters must either alter their boundaries to exclude Evergreen and Opportunity or wait until elections are held on the two smaller cities before launching the Lilac Valley campaign.

, DataTimes