Mountain Preserve, Incorporation May Keep The ‘L.A.’ Look At Bay

I grew up in Phoenix in the 1960s. I remember that one of the comments people there used to make was that they didn’t want Phoenix to become like Los Angeles.

We would note with loathing how the hills surrounding L.A. were covered with houses. This surely gave the occupants of those homes a nice view. But, oh, what an ugly view looking up from the valleys below.

Fortunately, the city of Phoenix formed something in the ‘60s or ‘70s called the Phoenix Mountain Preserve to buy up the surrounding mountaintops and preserve them for posterity.

If you visit Phoenix today, you’ll notice that the mountainsides and mountaintops have been saved from development. In a large, heavily built city, this contributes greatly to a feeling of openness and adds wonderfully to the area’s unique beauty.

Why should we care about this? Because the Spokane Valley is poised for a major residential growth eruption.

The commercial buildup of Sullivan Road in the past two years and the abundance of land available for industrial development is like a prophetic finger pointing at the future. All it would take to ignite this explosion would be a major company like Micron to plop down a huge factory somewhere between Yardley and Post Falls.

Liberty Lake and other areas of the Valley will continue to grow and open areas will be filled in with houses and apartments. Residential developments will sprawl and demand more space in spite of growth management.

All of this means that the hills surrounding the Spokane Valley are in danger of a taking on a decidedly L.A. look.

I live in Veradale. Like many of you, I drive south through the Valley on Highway 27 or Sullivan Road. One thing I can’t help but notice amidst the beauty of the Valley and its surrounding mountains is the not-so-beautiful appearance of an area known as Bella Vista.

Sure, I know those folks up there have a great view and I don’t hold that against them. But it is not so great for those of us looking up at that mountainside stripped of trees.

Take a good look at Bella Vista, and also at Northwood, the hills above Liberty Lake and the Saltese Flats, and the area north of Otis Orchards.

See how the houses are spreading across the hills? Any one of these areas is a potential L.A. lookalike.

What to do? We need to form a Spokane Valley Mountain Preserve to protect our beautiful hills and mountains.

This could be accomplished by Spokane County, although I don’t personally put much hope in the county buying up such properties.

More likely, it would involve a group of individuals concerned with saving the pristine, tree-covered mountains of the Spokane Valley by purchasing property and putting it into a sanctuary not for re-sale.

There is one other possibility: an incorporated city in the Valley, which might have a greater interest than the county in creating a mountain preserve for posterity. With all the new commercial and industrial development here, a Valley city could have the money to do it.

No matter what approach we might take, one thing is for sure: the sooner the better. Let’s not wait until it’s too late and our mountainsides look like L.A. north.

Tom Shelly is a four-year resident of the Spokane Valley, having moved here from - you guessed it - California. He is a member of the Valley Voice Council of Contributors.