Fiction taints debate

Misinformation does no one any good. The twists concerning Prop 4 have been egregious.

For instance: 15 percent of neighborhood people could put the kibosh on any development. Patently not true. Prop 4 was designed to give neighborhood comp plans teeth.

Right now, any developer can disregard what the neighborhood wants (what was painstakingly written into their design plans or has gathered hundreds of signatures on a petition) and usually City Hall just goes along with it. The Community Bill of Rights was written because we neighborhoods in Spokane have been overridden time after time.

The truth as written in Prop 4: A neighborhood council has to consult with at least 15 percent of neighbors who’ve voted in the last general election that a development goes against their neighborhood plan and the comp plan. If the council disagrees with those residents, it would then take 50 percent of the voting neighbors to override their council to stop that development until the problem is resolved. Prop 4 is intended to balance neighborhood rights with developer rights so we can all create a city we want to live in, not just make money on.

Renee Roehl

Spokane