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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Development task force dismantled

Spokane County commissioners have disbanded the county’s five-year-old development task force, just as it finished addressing developers’ concerns and was moving on to neighborhood issues.

Commissioners said the group was formed to address the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce’s concerns that the county wasn’t business friendly. The commissioners say that work is complete.

But neighborhoods say it should be their turn now.

Neighborhood activists say the move shows the commissioners favor developers over neighborhoods and that they’re less willing to listen to environmental and residents’ concerns.

“I think it’s sad they killed off one of the only avenues for neighborhoods to interact with developers,” said Bonnie Mager, director of the Spokane Neighborhood Alliance.

Mager accused some developers of only attending the task force’s last meeting to encourage killing off the committee.

“I’m glad you repeated that. I thought you said, ‘killing off the community,’ ” said Pete Thompson, a task force member representing real estate company Hawkins Edwards.

“That comes later,” Mager answered.

Other task force members agreed with the commissioners’ decision to break up the group.

“My feeling would be the necessity of the task force was before the rules were adopted, and now they’re all there. So I think it’s a pretty good move by the commission to do that,” said developer Cliff Cameron.

Gerry Gemmill, who was recently promoted to be the county’s operations director, said that group members will stay in touch with each other, and that the commissioners could still ask members to examine specific issues.

“They were gracious enough that they would call on the committee again,” Gemmill said.

That’s not enough, said some members.

“I’m really sorry, too, that this has happened, but I’m not surprised by it, knowing the commissioners we have and the way they’ve dealt with neighborhoods before,” said Kathy Miotke of the Five Mile Neighborhood.

Some neighborhood groups and environmentalists predicted last year that the election of Todd Mielke and Mark Richard spelled trouble for their neighborhood interests.

Richard left a job as the Spokane Home Builders Association’s government affairs director, and pro-development interests contributed to both commissioners’ campaigns.

Neighborhod groups point to this early action as the beginning of an era of uncontrolled development that will haunt the county for decades to come, but commissioners said that’s reading too much into the situation.

“I think that concern would be more paranoia than anything else,” said Richard.

Both Richard and Mielke pointed to their willingness to host a recent Neighborhood Alliance “State of the Neighborhoods” report at a commissioner’s hearing as evidence that they’re open to citizens’ thoughts and ideas about development.

But the development task force was never meant to be a citizen forum, said Richard, who added, “That’s what the Plan Commission is for.”

Mielke said it’s pointless for the task force to continue holding regular meetings when it has no set direction from the commissioners it’s intended to advise.

He added that he doesn’t think appointing a taxpayer-funded ombudsman for neighborhoods, as requested by the Alliance, is a good idea. Every special interest group doesn’t need a paid staff person, he said.

Commission Chairman Phil Harris could not be reached Thursday for comment.

Jeff Selle of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce said the group has served its purpose, and its recent meetings had been unfocused because its task was accomplished.

“A task force is established to solve an issue and disband,” Selle said. “It was never intended to be a permanent task force.”