Liberty Lake Group Keeps Efforts Alive

Sat., Feb. 12, 2000

By Lorie Hutson lorieh@spokesman.com (509) 459-5446

Liberty Lake incorporation proponents let the proposal to create a new city there expire this week without gathering the signatures needed to bring it to a vote.

But they’re not giving up on the idea, they say.

Liberty Lake 2000 - the group advocating incorporation - filed a proposal with the Spokane County Boundary Review Board on July 9, 1999.

The board held a public meeting in August to discuss the issue and answer questions. After the meeting, proponents had 180 days to gather signatures of support from 10 percent of the registered voters within the proposed city. The deadline passed this week.

Incorporation efforts stalled over the planned boundaries of the city. The proposal filed last summer with the Boundary Review Board called for the new city of Liberty Lake to fall within the boundaries of the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District.

Concerns arose because part of the community - around the lake itself - fell outside those boundaries and could not be incorporated unless it was designated urban.

Residents worried that dense developments would endanger the fragile lake if it was included in the county’s urban growth boundaries. Others opposed splitting the community in half.

Lud Kramer, a member of Liberty Lake 2000, said the group has decided to continue to investigate incorporation, but will move ahead on the matter only if there is a way to include the entire area around Liberty Lake in the new city while still protecting the lake itself.

“There’s no question in this whole thing that if we do go forward the lake has to be part of the city,” Kramer said. Liberty Lake 2000 members say they plan to restart discussions about incorporation with a focus on doing what is best for the community, not meeting a deadline.

Susan Winchell, a planner with the Boundary Review Board, said letting the first incorporation notice expire will not endanger future efforts in Liberty Lake. Only when an incorporation effort fails to garner 40 percent support at a public vote does the law require a moratorium on attempts.

“They can try again whenever they want,” Winchell said.

Liberty Lake 2000 will hold its next meeting on incorporation at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District Building, 22510 E. Mission.

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