Valley council approves paving projects
The Spokane Valley City Council approved full-width paving for Sherwood Forest, Mica Park, Johnston and other neighborhoods in line to receive sewer lines this summer but cautioned Tuesday that the money for the paving could dry up in the future if city revenue is not set aside for road work.
“It’s a wise spending of the money to repave curb to curb when we’re tearing up the street,” said Mayor Diana Wilhite. But she cautioned that important road maintenance needs a steady source of funding, adding that the council likely will be asking voters to approve some type of dedicated road funding in the future.
A September ballot issue failed. It would have raised property taxes 21 cents per $1000 of assessed value for six years, bringing the tax to the same level as the county’s. Before the election, city officials warned that if the bond did not pass, there probably would not be enough revenue from city sales taxes and other sources to cover the cost of full-width paving.
A significantly lower estimate of what the work would cost and an unexpected increase in sales tax revenue provided the city with enough money to cover this summer’s projects. But tax revenues fluctuate, and council members repeated there is no guarantee that money for paving will be available in coming years.
Councilman Mike DeVleming told the room full of pro-paving homeowners that he did not want to see residents from other neighborhoods giving the same arguments for funding next year only to find that the revenue disappeared.
Deputy Mayor Richard Munson said that the vote on the bond indicated to him that voters did not want to spend city money on repaving.
DeVleming and Munson voted against the paving, with the mayor and Mike Flanigan and Steve Taylor voting for it. Councilmen Dick Denenny and Gary Schimmels were excused from the meeting.
Before the vote, Taylor emphasized that he was supporting the funding for one year only and that without drastically improved city revenues, the city would not be able to fund paving for all of the future sewer projects.
The city also heard testimony from Planning and Development Commission Chairman David Crosby regarding proposed changes to the city’s sign ordinance. Munson and others had questions about how and when the city would make property owners take unused signs down, which the city staff will look into for a council meeting next month.
The council also asked the city’s legal staff to look into whether a proposal to allow Valley residents to initiate petitions and referendums could be split up, allowing the council possibly to vote on only one. Munson asked the staff to look into whether either of them could be used by residents to put the paving issue on the ballot again.