Incorporation Again? Another Movement Is Brewing To Incorporate All Or A Portion Of The Valley. Can It Succeed This Time?

Three years after defeat forced incorporation efforts into a legal hiatus, talk about government options for the Spokane Valley is slowly resurfacing.

Leaders of the most recent Valley incorporation effort — the 1997 attempt to form the cities of Evergreen and Opportunity — have either withdrawn from the debate or left town. But the group stepping forward to lead efforts into the next decade is familiar with the divisive issue.

Retired businessman Ed Mertens and the Community Action Committee first entered the incorporation flap in the mid-1990s. His group backed an unsuccessful attempt to create a Valleywide city in late 1995 that never made it to the polls.

With a little leftover money in its coffers and renewed enthusiasm for a Valley city, the committee has started thinking about a new incorporation proposal.

“If we can put something together I believe this could be a crown city,” Mertens says, “a city with a heart for the people.”

Valley voters rejected five different incorporation bids during the past decade: in 1990, 1994, 1995, and two in 1997.

Incorporation took its worst beating during the last vote when residents rejected the planned cities of Evergreen and Opportunity. Evergreen received only 26 percent approval at the polls and Opportunity got just 27 percent.

Because those two proposals failed to garner at least 40 percent voter approval, those areas could not be included in another attempt for three years. The three-year, post-defeat moratorium expires this month.

Mertens’ committee is just beginning to consider the best way to present a new incorporation proposal to Valley residents and they want to make sure they have the answers to economic questions that have clouded past campaigns.

“We’re still in the investigative stage, because we feel we should work together with the Valley Chamber of Commerce,” Mertens says.

The chamber’s governance committee recently invited Mertens and his group to join its efforts to spearhead a comprehensive feasibility study of Valley incorporation.

“We recognize that the community is better off if we have a coordinated effort toward studying incorporation,” says Robert Henry, chairman of the chamber committee.

The groups will combine efforts to create the criteria and framework for the feasibility study, with the goal of calling for proposals from independent contractors in about two months.

“It is an extremely complicated and involved task to do an accurate study,” Henry says. “Our No. 1 priority is that it’s a complete study and that we try and anticipate what questions people will ask. We don’t want something that raises more questions than it answers.”

Once a firm is hired, the analysis is expected to take from six months to a year and cost more than $50,000.

In the past, the Valley chamber has remained neutral on incorporation. The chamber’s membership was evenly split on the issue the last time it was polled in 1995.

The chamber formed a governance committee to study the issue and collect more information about local government options for the Valley, including annexation, consolidation, incorporation, home rule charter and the status quo.

The committee has since narrowed its focus to incorporation, and eventually the Valley Chamber plans to take a stance on the issue.

“We’re not willing to take a position until we understand how much it will cost,” Henry says.

“I would hope that everyone in the community allows this process to take place before anyone moves forward. That would be very detrimental I think.”

While Mertens agrees that the fiscal study will be the key to selling Valley residents on incorporation, his patience may wear out if it takes too long.

“I’m not going to be sitting around too long. I think the time is ripe and we can get some people excited about it,” Mertens says.

He pointed to the state’s political climate in the wake of Initiative 695, a measure that requires voter approval of new taxes.

“I-695 is just another example of the people saying, `We want control over our destiny,”’ Mertens says.

This sidebar appeared with the story: INCORPORATION Rejected

Spokane Valley voters rejected five separate incorporation proposals in the 1990s.

In 1990, residents said no to a proposal to incorporate the area between Spokane’s eastern city limits and the Idaho state line as the city of Chief Joseph. The Valley city would have had a population of about 90,000. The issue failed in all 70 Valley precincts and received just 34 percent support.

In 1994, incorporation backers changed the name of the proposed new city and pulled in their boundaries - excluding Liberty Lake, Pasadena Park, Northwood and several other Valley neighborhoods that in 1990 had showed little interest - but the issue again failed. However, support grew to 44 percent.

In 1995, the boundaries of the proposed city of Spokane Valley shrunk again. Eliminated this time were areas south of 32nd Avenue, north of the Spokane River and east of Harvard Road. Still, incorporation was rejected, 59 percent to 41 percent.

In 1997, incorporation proponents shifted course and put two separate Valley cities on the ballot. The city of Opportunity, with 19,000 residents, was bounded by Argonne and Evergreen roads, Interstate 90 and 16th Avenue. The city of Evergreen, with 14,400 residents, was bounded by Evergreen and Barker roads, the Spokane River and 24th Avenue. The plan for the city of Opportunity got just 27 percent voter approval and Evergreen received only 26 percent.