NEWS | GROWTH
Sprawl Things Considered
EXPANDING THE URBAN GROWTH AREA
The latest proposal for expanding the urban growth area around Spokane would add a total of almost 6,000 acres through additions and some removals.
Proposed additions
Geiger Spur area is mostly vacant or industrial land
Palisades area includes the cemetery but not the park AIRWAY HEIGHTS
T
Southeast Valley area includes land for another Central Valley high school
MEDICAL LAKE
to make a final decision later this month. “If we don’t expand the UGA, we hurt ourselves in our ability to attract new business,” Commissioner Al French says. The new Caterpillar plant, he says, was built within the current UGA, but just barely. The Washington State Growth Management act, passed in 1990, requires every county to manage an Urban Growth Area. Inside the area, the municipalities must provide services like sewer, water and transportation, but development can be denser. Outside the area,
inside.
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West Plains-Thorpe area is being removed
Look for businesses with...
20 INLANDER MARCH 7, 2013
Northeast Valley area includes the Monte Del Ray subdivision
Proposed removals
By Daniel Walters
...and find The
Bigelow Gulch area has home sites and vacant land
Urban growth area
The fight over the future of Spokane County developments he character of a region depends on its shape. Leave the edges unregulated, and invite sprawling suburbia and long commutes down miles of highway. Restrict the edges, and, theoretically, get tall buildings, dense cities and walkable neighborhoods. Or, others would argue, those restrictions could strangle the economic growth that feeds the region. Last Wednesday, activists, neighbors, urban planners, developers and school district officials crammed into the county commissioners’ hearing room — lining up on the aisles, peeking through the door — to debate expanding the Urban Growth Area, or the UGA. The mayor of Spokane, the Washington State Department of Commerce and a panel of planners from local municipalities have all come out against considerable expansion. But Spokane county commissioners, taking a combative attitude toward several skeptics at the hearing, believe there’s good reason to expand. They’re expected
Mead and North Metro areas cover 1,900 acres, the largest proposed addition
Moran Prairie area already includes an elementary school
Belle Terre area extended farther south in previous proposals Lisa Waananen illustration
development is limited and lot sizes are large. Those boundaries can impact traffic patterns, transportation costs, the environment, quality of life, economic growth and regional character. For more than six years, Spokane County has debated changing those boundaries. The latest proposal, Alternative 5, would add nearly 6,000 acres to the UGA. Of the five proposals, it’s the largest and includes Belle Terre, Mead, Bigelow Gulch, Moran Prairie and areas to the northeast and southeast of Spokane Valley.