Who's going to run this farm called the Valley?

Did you ever drive through the Spokane Valley and see remnants of the not so distant past?

You might see a ghost of a stock fence, a grove of fruit trees or an occasional chicken coop. Those symbols of simpler times tug at us and our sense of nostalgia.

Compare those thoughts with the thoughts you might have after a rush-hour drive up Sullivan Road, and it's not so hard to see why many of us in the Valley wouldn't squawk too much about a return to simpler times - as long as those times included satellite dishes.

It might be that this longing for what once was is at the core of our collective indifference over the winds of change now blowing through the Valley.

It's an indifference we can ill afford.

I don't claim to know all the ins and outs of incorporation, annexation, Boundary Review Boards or growth management. But I do have a more than basic grasp of the issues.

If we're all in love with the pastoral view of the Valley - i.e., small farms and orchards - maybe it would be best to put things in those terms.

Think of the Valley as part of some giant open range (the county). The Valley incorporation group has come along and said, "We'd like to run our own farm here."

The size of this farm, and what's included therein, has been set by an independent third party, the Boundary Review Board.

Now on this farm, we have a couple of pretty good-sized draft horses, namely the Yardley industrial area and the Spokane Valley Mall.

In fact, these two are prized draft horses because of all the tax revenue they generate on our farm.

The city of Spokane has designs and, it says, a claim to one of these economic horses, Yardley.

The Valley incorporation people, in return, say, "Whoa there!". And that's pretty much where things stand. But it won't stand there for long.

We have some decisions to make.

Do we like the open range idea, in which the county continues to run things?

Can we profitably run our own farm by incorporating?

Can we run our own farm even without Yardley?

The next time you take that trip down Sullivan, think back to what that area was like 10 years ago. That's my answer to the question about remaining an unincorporated part of the county.

I think this particular set of commissioners has performed admirably. Their work to protect the river that winds through our Valley has thrilled me.

But times are changing. The growth we have experienced, and will continue to experience, along with state laws governing growth, would mandate that we seek urban services.

That makes the idea of staying county-run less viable.

Annexation? The city of Spokane's attempt to annex Yardley is understandable. They could use another draft horse on their farm to right their bottom line.

But the truth is we'll need that horse ourselves if we're to run our own farm.

Valley incorporation? Being honest here, any political cause or group largely funded by a big developer scares the heck out of me.

But, ultimately, should it? The best method to get something to work is to get involved, take ownership.

The solution is the same whether we're voting for county commissioners or city councilmen. We vote for the best qualified people who best represent our wishes for the Valley. My only real question involves how these people, once elected, would perform. Will running our farm be their real job, or will there be other responsibilities involved?

If we delay incorporation, the main threat is the loss of that workhorse, Yardley. The city of Spokane has made its intentions clear, with its claims on Yardley and the tax revenues it produces.

Whether we remain an unincorporated part of the county or incorporate as a city, losing that tax revenue is our worst-case scenario.

We can't think of it as just tax dollars but rather what those dollars represent to us - the police protection they could buy, the roads they could improve, the parks they could build. These are Valley quality of life dollars.

It's time for serious consideration of incorporation.

We're not often called upon in our regular everyday lives to make decisions that will affect future generations.

We're being asked to make one now.

Copyright 2002 Cowles Publishing Company
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