Boundaries For New City Realigned

Thu., July 27, 1995

By Adam Lynn adaml@spokesman.com

People who want to form a city called Evergreen in the Spokane Valley have realigned its boundaries to remove possible opposition.

Gone are the communities of Otis Orchards and Liberty Lake.

Barker Road is now the eastern boundary of Evergreen.

The Spokane River is now the northern border.

The proposed city formerly ran all the way to the Idaho-Washington state line on the east and as far north as Moffat Road in the Otis Orchards area.

Many Otis Orchards and Liberty Lake residents have given incorporation a cool reception in past elections.

That’s especially true of Liberty Lake, where anti-incorporation grumblings began anew when Evergreen supporters unveiled their plans last month.

“They were just making so much noise out there, we just said the heck with them,” Evergreen proponent Vivienne Latimer said.

In addition, some Evergreen supporters feared that Otis Orchards was too rural to belong in the city, Latimer said.

The group also tweaked the southern boundary of the proposed city, moving it north from 32nd Avenue to 24th along most of the southern border.

The cuts reduce the land area of Evergreen by nearly two-thirds and the population by nearly 11,000.

The population of the proposed city is now about 15,000.

Proponents of Evergreen and four other cities in the Valley - Dishman, Opportunity, Hillcrest Park and Park Place - are busy trying to collect signatures to get their measures on the ballot.

The groups have until December to gather the signatures of 10 percent of the registered voters within their respective boundaries in order for their measures to qualify for a vote.

Latimer said the going has been slow for her group, which has been soliciting voters door-to-door.

“It’s real tough,” she said. “A lot of people think the whole thing’s over. I have to tell them no, no, no, we don’t give up. We just keep going.”

Valley voters in May rejected an attempt to form a single city in the unincorporated area east of the city of Spokane.

It was the third such defeat since 1990.

, DataTimes

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