The deferral occurred late last week when the review board continued a hearing on the matter until March 10 and urged the city to shrink its proposed annexation, which would envelop Spokane International Airport and wrap Spokane around two sides of the City of Airway Heights. The airport occupies seven square miles of the proposed annexation.
The annexation would grow Spokane by one-third. One board member, hinting that the city might want to consider shrinking its proposal, quipped that Spokane has asked for "an elephant sandwich" and said it will be up to the Boundary Review Board to determine whether the city's eyes are too big for its stomach and, if they are, how much more area the city can really handle.
Spokane city officials have said their chief goal in the annexation is bringing more business activity into the city. As well, the City says it needs the area to maintain a healthy pool of vacant commercial and industrial property with which to attract new business or provide room for existing businesses to grow.
Spokane Planning Director John Mercer tells GlobeSt.com that the city has just 146 acres of available and viable land for commercial development and about 239 acre of viable and available industrial land. The proposed annexation area, to which the city already has extended water and sewer services, would provide 410 acres of commercial land and 2,728 acres of industrial land.
Assuming a proposal is eventually approved, the next question is whether or not the city has the votes to make it happen. If the review board approves a proposal, registered voters in the annexation area would have the final say.
It might have been a lot easier to get the necessary yes votes if past practices related to extending water and sewer services were still in place. In the past, to get city water and sewer outside city limits, people had to agree not to contest any future annexation of their property. Courts last year ruled the process unconstitutional. Still, there would be advantages for those already on the city's system but outside the city. Such users now pay a 100% surcharge that would evaporate with an annexation.
In a related matter, the review board last week denied an annexation proposal by the City of Airway Heights, citing mistakes in the way the city attempted to annex the land and doubts about the city's ability to serve the one-square-mile area, which is also included in Spokane's proposed annexation.
Mercer tells GlobeSt.com that the city hasn't yet had a chance to regroup since the review board's decision and decide how, if at all, it would be willing to alter its proposed annexation. "We have some challenges," says Mercer. "We are going to look at our proposal and see if there are some modifications that can be made."
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