New Chapter Opens In Incorporation Saga Five Groups Proposing New Cities Around Valley

They’re serious, folks.

The five groups that propose forming five cities in the Spokane Valley weren’t kidding when they filed paperwork last week kicking off the process.

“We’re dead serious,” said Ed Meadows, who is leading an effort to form a city of 16,000 people called Opportunity.

People who want to form the cities of Evergreen, Hillcrest Park, Park Place and Dishman are similarly determined.

The problems of local government are such in the Valley that incorporation must pass in one form or another, they said.

Valley residents don’t have the representation or control they deserve in the local political process, they added.

“Right now the Valley has nothing, and there are too many people out here to leave hanging,” said Raymond Perry, a leader in the effort to form Park Place, population 9,000. “We want to try our best to take care of the citizens out here.”

According to local officials, there’s nothing to stop the five groups from moving forward - no legalities anyway.

“The way the law reads, you can do about anything,” said Susan Winchell, planner for the state Boundary Review Board for Spokane County.

Ready or not, Spokane Valley, another incorporation campaign is under way.

Winchell already is working to schedule a public meeting for later this month where the proponents will discuss their proposals.

After that, city supporters will hit the streets in an effort to collect the signatures necessary to get their propositions placed on the ballot. They’ll have six months to gather the signatures of 10 percent of the registered voters within each of the proposed cities.

If they’re successful, elections could take place as soon as November, although spring elections are more likely.

Leaders of the five groups are serious about winning, too.

They think they can push at least some of the five smaller cities through, despite the pummeling the most recent effort to form a single Valley city took at the polls.

Just last month, Valley voters overwhelming said no to a proposed city of 73,000. It was the third defeat of a single-city proposal since 1990.

Meadows said he plans to run his campaign differently this time, by conserving money until the latter stages to buy television and radio time.

Former incorporation leaders spent a lot of their money on campaign signs and didn’t have much left for advertising at the end.

Reaction among residents to the latest proposals is mixed. Many people aren’t even aware of what’s going on.

Winchell said she’s fielded calls from several people wondering about the process.

“It makes people in the Valley, in the affected areas, feel real anxious,” she said. “It’s the uncertainty of it.”

Some people were glad to hear the incorporation effort isn’t dead. Raymond Fones was one.

Fones, who would reside in Opportunity, said he supports a city in the Valley because he wants vacant yards and unkempt properties in his neighborhood cleaned up.

He said he thinks a city government would be better equipped than county government to force his neighbors to do that.

One woman who would live in Evergreen said she wants it all to go away.

“It’s kind of like the O.J. trial - I’m sick of it,” said the woman, who didn’t want to be identified. “To me, they should give it up.”

The only thing that can make it go away now is for residents to refuse to sign the petitions.

That might not even work. Incorporation supporters could refile their paperwork and keep trying.

History suggests they would.

, DataTimes