Boundary Hot Spots Pose Quandaries

The state Boundary Review Board is considering some substantial changes to the boundaries of the Spokane Valley city proposed by Citizens for Valley Incorporation.

The board may alter the boundaries as it sees fit, so long as it doesn’t change the land area of the 33-square-mile city by more than 10 percent.

Following is a description of those areas under the heaviest scrutiny.

Yardley

This is one of the most complicated areas with which the board is wrestling.

The city of Spokane has asked that the industrial area on the extreme western end of the Valley be excluded from the boundaries.

Spokane officials have said they want to protect $100,000 in water pipes they have extended into Yardley and give voters there a right to choose their form of government.

Some business owners in the area have expressed similar concerns, and 40 of them have signed a petition saying as much.

Many of them want to stay in the county to see if the new city forms and then decide whether they want to annex to Spokane or Spokane Valley.

“The owners in this area want a choice,” said Mike Murphy, president of Central PreMix Concrete Co., which owns land in Yardley.

Many incorporation supporters say the move is a prelude to Spokane annexing the area, which produces gobs of tax revenue and requires few services.

Otis Orchards

Another tough call for the board.

Many of incorporation’s most strident supporters live in the mostly rural area north of the river and east of Barker Road.

So do some of its strongest critics, and the board has heard from both.

Chairwoman Sally Reynolds expressed a strong interest in getting more information on the area.

“My great concern is the Otis Orchards area,” Reynolds said. “It clearly fits the definition of a non-urban area under the Growth Management Act.”

That doesn’t fit with the review board’s guidelines on incorporations. Those guidelines make it difficult for the board to recommend approval of proposed cities that have rural-like lands within their boundaries.

Attorney Howard Herman, an incorporation leader, has argued that Otis Orchards has many of the same urban services that more intensely developed areas of the Valley do.

There is a library, school, post office, a fire station and community-oriented policing station in Otis Orchards, Herman said.

“Essentially, the only urban service they don’t have out there is sewer,” he said.

Ponderosa and Orchard Avenue

Neither incorporation supporters nor residents of the neighborhoods seem to want these areas included in the proposed city.

Support for incorporation has been weak there in the past two elections, so supporters cut both the Ponderosa and Orchard Avenue neighborhoods out of their proposal this time around.

But Spokane County officials have expressed some concern over that move.

If Ponderosa and Orchard Avenue are excluded, it will be difficult for the county to provide services to them because they would be “islands,” of unincorporated area, said Dennis Scott, county public works director.

The county would have to negotiate easements and other issues with the new city or other jurisdictions in order to extend sewer lines and do road work in the neighborhoods, Scott said.

It would be easier, from the county’s perspective, if the two were included in the proposed city, he said.

Scott told the board members he wasn’t asking for boundary changes, though, that he was just bringing to their attention “areas that would hamper how we provide service.”

“Should the boundaries not change, we’ll still provide service,” he said. “It obviously won’t be an efficient service.”

MEMO: This is a sidebar which appeared with story: PUBLIC MEETING The state Boundary Review Board will meet March 8 to discuss altering the boundaries of a city proposed for the Spokane Valley. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the downstairs meeting room of the county Public Works Building, W1026 Broadway. No oral testimony will be considered, but written comments will be accepted through noon Friday.