Feedback On Land-Use Plan Not As Helpful As Hoped

Spokane Valley residents want their land to be inside the urban growth boundaries, and they want it outside.

They want their neighborhood to stay rural and they want to be able to subdivide their land.

County planning commissioners are still sifting through the hundreds of comments, concerns and barbs residents sent in on the latest draft of the comprehensive land-use plan.

But some commissioners said they’re disappointed with the bulk of the comments so far.

Most of the people who sent responses looked only at a single aspect of the complex 600-page plan, when commissioners had hoped for more.

“We left a lot of stuff in there intentionally vague or we left the great big word `or’ in there between alternatives. … We wanted input on some of those things and we really didn’t get a whole lot of it. That’s one of the things that is really bothering me,” said planning commissioner Tom Hargreaves.

The volunteer commissioners spent more than two years balancing the complicated legal guidelines of the state’s 1990 Growth Management Act to draft the land-use plan, called the Draft Plan 2000.

Hargreaves said the planning commission has heard little about what residents think of a requirement for a minimum density of four houses per acre in new developments inside the urban growth boundaries.

None of the planning commissioners really wanted to stipulate a minimum density, he said, but it was clear that unless the plan included some way to ensure concentrated growth inside the urban boundaries, it would not meet the requirements of the Growth Management Act. There is no current minimum density requirement in the county.

“We heard absolutely nothing as to whether those densities are good, bad or indifferent,” Hargreaves said. “What do people looking for homes want? We know what the developers want.”

Planning commission chairman Mike Britton said many comments were from residents who were concerned that their neighborhoods will become more dense. The plan will not force existing lots to become smaller.

“Density issues will be affecting undeveloped lands. Existing developments will not be affected,” Britton said.

The commission also surveyed residents who came to the public hearings on details within the comprehensive plan.

For example, the survey asked whether Spokane County should build streets that are connected in a grid pattern or if it should build a system of arterial streets with cul-de-sacs and dead end roads to reach homes.

It also asked residents whether they supported mixed use developments that blend commercial, residential and offices in new neighborhoods; whether they would pay for a light-rail system from downtown Spokane to Liberty Lake; and whether septic tanks and drainfields should be prohibited in urban areas over the aquifer.

Eighty percent of those surveyed said they don’t think new septic systems should be allowed in aquifer-sensitive areas, but the planning commission still must decide how to accomplish that goal and what effects it would have.

The planning commissioners have begun deliberations on changes to the draft plan. At today’s meeting the commission will begin working on the urban land chapter of the comprehensive plan.

They will tweak portions of the plan at each meeting this summer and release a revised plan in mid-August, Britton said. Then commissioners will hold more public hearings to take comments just on the changes that were made to the Draft Plan 2000.

After any final revisions, the planning commission will forward the plan to commissioners in mid-September.

Although the planning commission said decided it would cut off for comments on the overall land-use plan on June 1, Britton said any letters or other reports will still be accepted. The correspondence will be put in a folder indicating it came in after the deadline, but it will be circulated to commissioners to use in their ongoing deliberations.

This sidebar appeared with the story:

DRAFT PLAN 2000

Web site

For more information about Draft Plan 2000 or to check the dates and agendas of planning commission meetings, you can go to the Spokane County Web site: www.spokanecounty.org/lrp. Click on Draft Plan 2000.