Thursday, August 14, 2014

County Commissioners Explain Vote On Urban Growth Area

Spokane County commissioners yesterday reaffirmed their rationale for adding about a big chunk of land to the county’s urban growth area.The expansion increases the area where subdivisions, businesses and industry can locate. Commissioners approved the 3,600 acre expansion in 2013, but the changes were sent back to them by the state Growth Management Hearings Board on an appeal by a coalition of neighborhood groups.

Here's why many citizens weren't happy about the annexation and why Commissioners defend it.

So here's why its' a concern to us at SRTC- while much of the area to be annexed has homes and businesses on it already, every time a new development is built on the fringes of the urban area, roads have to be built to reach them. Then they have to be maintained. We already have thousands of miles of roads we can't maintain. In many cases, developers are required to pay impact fees for road maintenance but it doesn't always work out with all infrastructure. 

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About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.