Don’t Give County Over To Developers

Should Spokane County government be a branch office of the local real estate industry? Or does it have other obligations? For instance, to the general public, the folks who suffer when unregulated growth clogs streets, pollutes ground water and fuels firestorms.

In the Puget Sound area, local governments gave free rein to developers for years, happily watching their tax base and agency budgets grow. The undirected sprawl degraded that region’s quality of life. A few years ago, its residents forced the enactment of state growth management laws to make such misfortunes less likely elsewhere.

Is Spokane County repeating Puget Sound’s mistakes?

Last week, county Commissioners Phil Harris and Steve Hasson fired three of the county’s top land-use planners. The shake-up compressed the organizational chart and made remaining planners subordinate to the department that issues building permits. Hasson and Harris make no secret of their desire for a developer-friendly permit process.

There’s nothing wrong with a smooth permit process and a constructive, predictable regulatory environment. But land-use planning doesn’t exist if it’s a set of greased railroad tracks. Often the tracks need red and yellow lights to slow or redirect the locomotives.

State laws still require effective planning. Trampling those laws provokes appeals and litigation that actually can hurt the commissioners’ developer pals. While the long-range effect of the recent reorganization remains to be seen, its design and political origins suggest an intent to assault the independence of professional planners and make them developer-oriented. That’s foolish. Reasonably managed growth saves headaches for everyone - developers and the community.

Harris and Hasson need to think about their legacy.

Spokane County’s voters may be conservative, but they also want to conserve the quality of life in their neighborhoods. Why is our aquifer in jeopardy? Why do rural housing tracts burn down? Why do Indian Trails, Lincoln Heights and the Valley suffer traffic bottlenecks? Because Spokane County was reluctant, for decades, to place reasonable conditions on growth. If commissioners retreat further from that responsibility, they will harm the county and, eventually, their own standing. There are more commuters who vote than developers.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board