Annexation efforts renewed

Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession is moving ahead on a promise he made five months ago when he took over as mayor: to reignite the city’s annexation efforts.

Under Hession, the city is taking steps to annex a tax-rich commercial area along the west side of Division Street from Francis Avenue to just north of Cascade Way. The city plans to annex the area through the state’s petition method, thus sidestepping the need for a public vote.

The 134-acre annexation would net the city at least $1.2 million a year in general taxes that would help close the city’s ongoing cash crisis in tax-funded services such as police and fire. The increased funds would come largely from high sales tax receipts collected at a Costco store at 7819 N. Division.

The Spokane City Council earlier this month voted to initiate the annexation, which now goes to the city Plan Commission on May 24.

It is the first of what may become a series of efforts to expand the city’s borders to pull in high-tax land as well as provide opportunities for expanded commercial and industrial growth.

Thousands of acres on the West Plains and undeveloped land between Hillyard and Mead are also on the city’s annexation radar.

Hession declined to characterize the annexations as a grab for tax-rich territory but said the city has a responsibility under the state growth-management law to bring urbanized areas into the city.

“We consider that to be the charge to us under the growth management act,” he said.

The city’s gain would be the loss of other local government entities. County commissioners have expressed concerns, and the chief of fire District 9 north of the city recently sent a letter outlining the fire district’s objections.

“It appears to be an ill-conceived ‘cherry-picking’ exercise to bring much needed cash infusion to the city of Spokane,” said District 9 Fire Chief Robert Anderson in his May 8 letter.

Anderson said the annexation would cut a chunk out of the heart of the fire district.

County commissioners also said the city is cherry-picking properties that pay a lot of taxes, leaving the county to service residential neighborhoods west of Division with a smaller commercial tax base.

Commissioners have said they would support an annexation if the request were for a broader area and property owners voted to become part of the city.

“It shouldn’t be done from the perspective of trying to fix your budget woes, it should be done because you think you can serve the community better,” Commissioner Mark Richard said.

The move by the city is a clear reversal of the policy of former Mayor Jim West, who left office in December after being recalled by voters over use of his office for personal relationships. West declined to pursue any annexations without support of residents living in the areas to be annexed.

But in newer developments along the fringe of the city – where developers have needed city sewer or water service to make their projects possible – the city for years has collected annexation covenants, in which the developers essentially agree to any future annexation by the city.

The city, in turn, can use those covenants to satisfy a requirement that owners of 75 percent of the assessed land value have agreed to annexation under the petition method, and thus avoid putting the annexation on the ballot.

The petition method requires approval of the state Boundary Review Board in Spokane County.

Richard said business owners often sign the covenants under duress.

“Even though they might be legal, they might not be ethical,” Richard said. “It borderlines on extortion.”Last winter, an annexation dispute between the city of Vancouver and Clark County resulted in the Clark County commissioners disbanding the state Boundary Review Board in that county in a move to block a large annexation northeast of Vancouver, an annexation that could have given Vancouver the second-largest population in the state.

So far, there has been no talk of disbanding the Boundary Review Board in Spokane County.

In the North Spokane Annexation, the city will not need to invoke its covenants. It currently has petitions from owners representing 77 percent of the land value, including a notice dated May 2 from Costco indicating the corporation’s “intention to commence annexation proceedings.”

As part of the annexation, the city has a longstanding agreement with Fire District 9 to give the fire district its share of property taxes annually for the foreseeable future. Under state law, the city would have to take over the fire district if it annexes 60 percent of the district dating back to the 1990s when the city annexed two other chunks of the fire district. City officials said they want to avoid that.