Today we celebrate the 5th anniversary of the incorporation of the
City of Liberty Lake with a Spokane Symphony Orchestra concert in
Pavillion Park complete with birthday cake!
Yes, I realize that most of you believe that you're celebrating labor and all the labor movement did for this nation this weekend (like bringing us the weekend), but perhaps, if you give me a moment to explain, you'll agree that there's plenty of weekend to go around this year.
And I hope we'll also agree that local elections make as much difference in the lives of Americans as do national elections.
On August 31, 2001, the small community of Liberty Lake officially became a new city, the 280th in the State of Washington and the first to incorporate in the new millennium. This was merely a milepost in an effort which had started years before, with the creation of an all-volunteer, local citizen governance committee, a petition drive, an election, a 120-member transition committee, two more elections, and a band of newly elected officials attempting to pass all the laws and establish all the policies a new city would need in less than four months.
And none of them had held elected public office before. Talk about your grass roots effort!
The going was rough at first. While there was plenty of energy and enthusiasm in the community, time was short, and those red and white octagonal signs at street corners don't actually mean anything until you pass a law which enforces them. Several 4-hour city council meetings per week were not uncommon. All this at $40 per month.
As the council established community policy, they found that some of the policies followed by Spokane County were not what its neighborhood wanted. Of course, they knew that otherwise there would have been no reason to incorporate. However, there was a pattern to Spokane County's failings. It didn't move our community forward.
(This is not an indictment of Spokane County. Spokane County has over 400,000 residents, and just three county commissioners running it. It's not a representative government. The form of government proves that it isn't meant to be.)
The City has adopted a comprehensive plan which encourages more efficient land uses, such as mixed use neighborhoods, and mixed use buildings. These land use initiatives have encouraged a new 900-acre mixed use development which includes 6-story buildings and townhouses (both of which are totally unheard of in this area).
The mayor and city council support the creation of a regional light rail project which would enable more even more efficient, live-work-play communities to be built in our town, and across our region. The city recently purchased land in the center of town, including the land necessary for the construction of a proposed light rail station, for the purposes of developing our town center--a mixture of a public library, city hall, public safety, retail and public open space.
And Mayor Peterson, a man who has photos of Bush I and Bush II in his home, has stated his interest in building the city hall complex with energy-generating capabilities. When searching for an architect for our community and civic center, the city council required LEED certification, so the facilities will have a lower lifecycle cost and be environmentally friendly.
The City has established commercial and industrial architectural standards intended to ensure that they not only present a pleasing external appearance, but that the larger ones (read "Wal*Mart") can also be subdivided into smaller spaces rather than becoming a blight on the community when the big box store abandons it.
Prior to our incorporation, roads were vast expanses of asphalt and concrete. With our very first road project, Liberty Lake set a new standard, including medians with trees, bike lanes, and 10-foot trails with trees and pedestrian-scale lighting. This will calm traffic and make pedestrian travel safer. And the trees will keep the roads cooler during our hot summers.
In an effort to reduce water use, the City is currently replacing pre-incorporation grass medians with colorful bushes. Not only will this reduce the amount of water falling on the roadway, but it also reduces maintenance costs.
Our development code was designed to encourage pedestrian access by moving parking lots to the side or rear of the building. The City provided gap funding to build a pedestrian bridge over Interstate 90, so that our community would be made whole, and to provide better access to the regional pedestrian pathway, the Centennial Trail.
Liberty Lake saved a 60-acre open space in the middle of town by purchasing Valley View Golf Course, which was threatened to be converted to industrial uses right in the middle of a residential neighborhood, renaming it Trailhead Golf Course in recognition of our trail system. An additional intended consequence of that purchase was saving several acres of trees when a pedestrian trail was constructed on the new City property.
Our community's open space standard of service is 30 acres for every 1000 residents, which is an order of magnitude higher than surrounding jurisdictions. We are a Tree City, and recently began development of an arboretum. The City is also preserving a pair of historical buildings, a barn and a turn-of-the-century stone pump house, as part of our new Rocky Hill Park. The City secured a permanent source of revenue for the maintenance of our public parks by applying an admissions tax to our three local golf courses, and dedicating it exclusively to that purpose. Meanwhile, our property taxes are lower now than they were before incorporation.
Liberty Lake is leading the region in the establishment of impact fees, not only to shift the cost of development off the backs of taxpayers, but also to ensure that critical infrastructure needs are satisfied when new residents demand them.
Liberty Lake was also the first area government to fully embrace Project Access, a regional effort which provides universal, on-demand health care to those without medical insurance and earning less than 200% of the federal poverty guideline.
This may all seem like a huge advertisement for Liberty Lake, but from my point of view, it's an advertisement for progressivism. What the City of Liberty Lake has done shows what happens when local folks get involved in their own governance. Eastern Washington is not a hot bed of blue action. However, across the region, I often hear comments about how progressive Liberty Lake is. I agree, however, if you ask the city council, I suspect they wouldn't say that they're progressives. They're just doing what it takes to improve our community.
And that's what being a progressive is all about.