Lilac Valley Backers Will Keep Waiting

The decision to delay a vote on two proposed Spokane Valley cities also has slowed efforts to form an even larger city.

Backers of Lilac Valley, a Valley-wide incorporation movement, may have to wait until late next year before their proposal finally comes to a vote.

Proponents of the proposed cities of Opportunity and Evergreen - angered by a decision by elections officials to conduct a mail-in election - appealed the Boundary Review Board’s final decision last Tuesday, kicking incorporation off the May 21 ballot.

The news disappointed Lilac Valley supporters, who vow to wait.

“There isn’t a heck of a lot we can do, because they’re still locked in,” said Ed Mertens, chairman of the Community Action Committee, the group leading the Lilac Valley effort.

Lilac Valley would encompass all of Spokane Valley Fire District 1 - including the proposed cities of Opportunity and Evergreen - and be home to about 75,000 people.

The proposal has been on hold since February, when supporters were forced to redraw their boundaries to exclude the two cities or wait until the other two cities went to election.

Mertens and his group tried unsuccessfully last winter to persuade proponents of Opportunity and Evergreen to abandon their efforts and join the Lilac Valley crusade.

Proponents of the smaller cities thought their proposals would pass. They were disheartened this month when elections officials invoked a temporary state law allowing the county auditor to call for a mail-in election.

Mertens admits he is intrigued by the mail-in ballot, but sympathizes with Opportunity and Evergreen proponents, who questioned why elections officials waited until two months before the law sunsets to use it.

Now, the earliest incorporation of Opportunity and Evergreen could be voted on is the September primary. But proponents of the cities do not want a large turnout and are not likely to push the issue onto a ballot until a February special election.

The delay does not bode well for the Valley-wide effort.

“The Lilac Valley effort will pretty much die a natural death in June,” said Donald Kachinsky, who led a movement to form the city of Dishman before joining the Lilac Valley effort.

Mertens plans to make sure that doesn’t happen. He said he will renew the Lilac Valley proposal to keep it alive while his group waits for voters to make a decision on Opportunity and Evergreen.

Lilac Valley supporters had hoped the voters would decide on Opportunity and Evergreen in May. If the two proposed cities were unsuccessful, the Valley-wide issue could have been put to a vote later this year or early next year.

Despite the delay, Valley-wide incorporation is not dead, backers said. If the proposed cities of Opportunity and Evergreen are successful, supporters of Lilac Valley said they will probably request to annex to the cities.

If Opportunity and Evergreen are unsuccessful, Valley-wide incorporation supporters will continue the Lilac Valley effort.

“We’re definitely looking at wanting the whole Valley as one,” Kachinsky said. “I’m sure that’s going to happen.”

Meanwhile, Mertens said, “We’re patient. We’ll wait.”

, DataTimes