County Closer To Setting Boundaries Panel Hopes To Have Growth Plan By Feb. 11

After three years of debate, Spokane County commissioners appear ready to decide which areas of the county should be off-limits to urban development.

Although they can be modified in about a year and every five years thereafter, the “urban growth boundaries” commissioners plan to set early next month will provide a blueprint for county growth for the next 20 years. Outside the boundaries, no new urban subdivisions will be allowed. Under temporary rules, the minimum lot size of new lots will be 10 acres. County officials will spend the next year writing permanent regulations.

Inside the boundaries, Spokane County, the city and small towns must provide sewers and other services needed to serve 120,000 more people by the year 2016.

This morning, commissioners will hear complaints from nine developers about the way a steering committee arrived at proposed growth boundaries. The committee’s recommendations are one factor commissioners will consider as they set the boundaries.

If the commissioners agree that the developers’ complaints are valid, public hearings on the urban growth boundaries will be postponed until corrections are made.

If commissioners disagree with all nine developers, the first of four hearings on the growth boundaries will begin at 2 p.m.

Commissioners hope to set the boundaries Feb. 11. By then, the decision will be four months late.

According to state guidelines, Spokane County was supposed to set growth boundaries by October 1996. The work was delayed in part to give county residents more time to comment.

Commissioners’ plans to set the boundaries in late December were sidetracked by appeals filed by nine developers or development companies. They are: TFH Corp.; Five Mile Corp.; Dahm Development & Meridian Land Co.; Outlook Development; Bar-4-Bar Inc.; Kennett Land Co.; Harley Douglass; Robert Heitman; and Liberty Lake Land Co.

Among other things, the appeals allege the amount of land available for development inside the city boundaries was overestimated, and that traffic, affordable housing and other issues have not been adequately studied.

The delay means Commissioner Kate McCaslin, former director of Associated Builders & Contractors Inc., will help make the decision.

On Jan. 1, McCaslin replaced Steve Hasson, who said he thought commissioners should closely follow the steering committee’s recommendations. Many developers and large landowners consider those recommendations too restrictive.

The Legislature passed the Growth Management Act in 1990, but Spokane County did not fall under the law until 1993.

The steering committee, comprised of elected officials from the county, the city of Spokane and small towns, began discussing where to put urban growth boundaries in 1994.

Although the state can withhold funding from counties that do not meet deadlines set by the Growth Management Act, that’s been done only in Chelan County, where officials refused to comply with the law.

The sanctions were lifted this month, when Chelan County commissioners dropped their legal battle with the state.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Urban Growth Areas

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: The agenda Today, 8 a.m. at City Hall, arguments from nine developers appealing proposed growth boundaries. If commissioners rule against the developers, a hearing on the boundaries will begin at 2 p.m., also at City Hall. More hearings are scheduled for: Thursday, Jan. 30, at 6:30 p.m. Horizon Junior High School, 3915 S. Pines. Monday, Feb. 3, at 6:30 p.m. Cheney High School, 460 N. Sixth. Wednesday, Feb. 5, at 6:30 p.m. Northwood Junior High School, 13120 N. Pittsburg.