In 1989, when Terry Novak was Spokane’s city manager, Japanese university officials and attorneys were researching the possibility of bringing a young women’s university to Spokane by purchasing Fort Wright College. When they arrived at City Hall with a multitude of questions, it was obvious they had done their homework.

“They even knew the width of the water mains connecting the buildings,” Novak remembers.

Contrast this type of preparation with how people sometimes buy their homes. They find a house they like and ask a real estate agent: “Will anything ever block this gorgeous view? Will this alley become a major thoroughfare someday?”

Real estate agents do their research, too, and often know the answers, but future homeowners have a resource they seldom bother consulting: planning commissions and departments within cities and counties. The people who work for these entities know the nitty-gritty of a community’s future. They know about that planned view-blocking subdivision. They know that the alley will become a four-lane highway sooner rather than later.

They are the keepers of the plans and the codes that guide land use. In the city of Spokane Valley and in Kootenai County, citizens have a multitude of opportunities this month and next to get involved with the planning process that will determine the look and feel of their communities.

Spokane Valley is holding hearings on proposed regulations within its uniform development code. And if that sounds like a lot of boring minutiae, it isn’t. The regulations will guide the very quality of life Spokane Valley citizens hunger for: open spaces, parks and ease of driving in the Valley. It will also determine, to a large extent, where the dense subdivisions get built and where they won’t be allowed.

The Kootenai County Planning Commission is rewriting the county’s comprehensive plan and has “Open Mic” nights where citizens can ask anything planning-related. Commission members are also taking their show on the road by meeting citizens in eight areas within the county.

Monday night, 115 citizens showed up to discuss land-use issues on the east side of Lake Coeur d’Alene. The planning commission got an earful. Jan Gera, the planning department’s administrative supervisor, points out: “You can’t be heard if you don’t show up to speak.”

The women’s university’s intense research paid off. Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute, a 17-year success story, provides a spot of beauty and calm in a development-happy area in northwest Spokane.

Residents in Spokane Valley and Kootenai County have the opportunity right now to shape the future success of their neighborhoods and communities. Go for it.