Panel’s 10-Acre Lid: No Fewer Without Sewer Growth Act Committee Recommends Interim Regulations To Commissioners

New lots smaller than 10 acres would be prohibited in areas without public sewers under regulations that could guide Spokane County land use for at least a year.

And commercial development would only be allowed in areas designated urban.

The interim regulations proposed by the Growth Management Act Steering Committee would preclude new subdivisions in roughly two-thirds of the Spokane Valley and much of the North Side. But it wouldn’t affect the thousands of undeveloped lots that are already platted.

The rules would stand until the county writes a new comprehensive plan with permanent regulations for land use.

Under state guidelines, the comprehensive plan is supposed to be done in about a year. But the deadline will be tough to meet because the county is behind schedule for finishing other requirements of the state Growth Management Act.

The steering committee - which includes elected officials from the city, county and small towns - can only make recommendations to county commissioners. It has no regulatory authority.

Commissioner John Roskelley supported the interim regulations at Friday’s meeting, saying the county needs to protect its underground water supply. But Commissioner Steve Hasson warned the regulations could hurt the community’s ability to attract new businesses.

The third commissioner, Phil Harris, missed the meeting to attend a gathering of the Washington Association of Counties in Tri-Cities.

The Growth Management Act requires counties to limit urban growth to areas where sewers and other urban services are available.

The steering committee will vote next Friday on its recommended location of urban growth boundaries that would guide growth for the next 20 years. County commissioners are set to take their vote on the boundaries by the end of the year.

In several areas, residents disagree with each other or with developers on whether their neighborhood should be declared urban or rural.

Committee members tackled one of those contentious areas Thursday, with most saying that land in the drainage for Liberty Lake should be designated rural, even though much of it is already developed and has public sewers.

Land near the lake but north of Sprague Avenue would be designated urban.

Developers want the entire area designated urban, but many lake residents say they fear more homes will mean more pollution in the lake.

Suzanne Knapp of the Spokane Home Builders Association said the residents are being selfish.

“To me, it shows how a group of upper-income neighbors can influence the process,” she said. “They have their beautiful home on the lake or the hillside. They don’t want anybody else out there.”

Many committee members also agreed that most land north of the Spokane city limits - including some densely developed areas that don’t have public sewers - should be designated rural.

Only a slender strip starting in the Linwood neighborhood and extending north of the Little Spokane River would be designated for urban development. The county is building sewers there.

Roskelley agreed with the majority that growth should be limited near Liberty Lake and on the North Side. It remains to be seen whether Harris and Hasson will agree with that conclusion when commissioners consider the steering committee’s recommendations.

, DataTimes