City looks ahead 20 years

Spokane Valley looked into what it would take to expand its borders Saturday.

Specifically, how to accommodate 36,000 new people over the next 20 years.

That’s the medium-range population estimate that the City Council agreed to at its winter retreat. The council also considered establishing the legal basis for annexations so Spokane Valley can acquire land to provide for future residents.

“Right now we don’t have the vehicles we need to be successful in an annexation,” City Attorney Mike Connelly told the council.

City and elected officials were quick to say that it would be unlikely that the city would annex areas by coercive means, and there aren’t any plans to annex land in the near future.

If a group of landowners wanted to join the city, though, Connelly recommended making changes to the developing Spokane Valley Comprehensive Plan that would allow it.

The city also could tag portions of Spokane County’s urban growth area as potential places where Spokane Valley could expand.

“If it’s designated as (an urban growth area) in the county Comprehensive Plan, a city can file an annexation petition for that,” Connelly said.

Annexation has been a sticking point in negotiations for joint planning in developing areas just outside the city. At meetings of elected officials from around the county to discuss growth, county commissioners have said repeatedly that areas developed at urban densities outside of cities’ borders should not be automatically considered areas where annexation will occur.

Spokane Valley council members, meanwhile, have said at past council meetings that they interpret provisions of the state’s Growth Management Act to say that all urban areas are required to be part of cities eventually.

Another contentious item that the council addressed Saturday was the population estimate for the next 20 years.

Under that state Growth Management Act, counties can expand their urban growth areas only if they run out of land for the increasing population. The state Office of Financial Management provides low, intermediate and high population estimates, which counties can choose from as they look for more space to develop.

The county has indicated it may choose the high number, which envisions close to 700,000 people countywide by 2025.

During the county planning process, individual cities also ask for a certain amount of land in the urban growth area that they think they will need based on future population.

By council consensus, Spokane Valley will make its case for the medium population number by planning for a 1.89 percent increase in the city’s population each year over the next 20 years.

“I feel more comfortable going with the midrange number,” Councilman Steve Taylor said.