Council discusses issues it will bring to Legislature

As the Washington legislative session approaches, Spokane Valley’s city leaders are starting to consider what they will ask the Legislature to do for the city.

“We’ll be looking at going to Olympia in January and talking to the Legislature,” said Mayor Diana Wilhite at Tuesday’s council meeting.

The City Council went through a list of priorities outlined by the Association of Washington Cities, a statewide lobbying group that Spokane Valley participates in.

In addition to AWC policies it chooses to endorse, the council also plans to ask for state money to help build a universal children’s park at Mirabeau Point.

Mirabeau Point Inc., which organized the construction of the Mirabeau facilities before the city formed, has for years envisioned a park specifically designed to accommodate children with disabilities. Draft designs of the park include a cave-enclosed sandbox, Palouse-like rolling hills, slides, artwork, mazes and picnic tables.

“Having it available to be used by the handicapped is the number one priority in this,” said councilman Mike Flanigan.

The price tag for the park could be as high as $700,000. The city has $30,000 set aside for the project and it will likely receive funding from a variety of sources, but the City Council plans to ask the state for help, too.

Law changes the city will push for in January remain up in the air. Council members evaluated a long list of items the AWC plans to lobby on, many of them bills the organization has pushed for unsuccessfully for years.

In future meetings the council will decide which items it will emphasize specifically when approaching area legislators.

Some would change the state’s Growth Management Act. One proposal would specify how a city’s overall housing density is measured. Another would give cities the authority to exempt some development from mandatory infrastructure upgrades known as concurrency requirements. Other AWC proposals would change the way cities levy taxes.

“A lot of these are simply trying to recover from past initiatives and referendums,” said councilman Rich Munson, who added that he didn’t think some of them would be a good idea.

Munson, who represents the city in the AWC, did support a proposal that would allow cities to give monetary enticements to companies considering relocation.

“We would like, as a city, to give incentives to businesses to come into our area and build,” he said, noting that the state gave a considerable economic package to Boeing when it promised to bring more jobs to Washington.

He will attend another AWC planning session later this month, and the council plans to visit Olympia at the end of January.

In the meantime, the council’s legislative priorities remain up in the air and the mayor encouraged residents to suggest other possible funding requests.

“I invite the community to come forward with suggestions,” she said.