Panel: County More Than Met Requirements

A state panel ruled Thursday that Spokane County went “far beyond” legal requirements for providing public participation when it set boundaries that now guide development.

Spokane resident Lila Howe filed a complaint with the Growth Management Hearings Board of Eastern Washington, saying citizens did not have enough input when county commissioners set “interim urban growth boundaries.” Development is limited in areas outside those boundaries.

Howe also complained that some meetings between county Commissioner John Roskelley and two City Council members were not properly advertised.

While those meetings were informal, they led to recommendations that eventually influenced the location of the boundaries.

But the three-member hearings board said the county did more than enough to solicit public involvement.

During the three-year process, the county surveyed 600 residents, held six countywide meetings, produced videos for use by community groups and distributed 4,500 information packets. The county also set up a GMA telephone hotline and provided information for 96 neighborhood meetings attended by 2,500 people.

Those efforts recently earned the county top honors from the Spokane Public Relations Council. The group gave the county its 1997 Dussault award.

Contacted Thursday, Howe said she had not yet received the board’s written findings. She called the county’s actions “a clear violation” of the GMA and public meetings laws.

Howe, who ran for county commissioner last year on a platform of limiting government regulations, said she’ll probably appeal the board’s decision in court.

This is the second case involving Spokane County that the hearings board has decided. In April, the board ruled that the county did not follow “best available science” when it established minimum distances between streams and new development.

, DataTimes