By John McCallum
Editor 

Planning Commission approves Cheney capital facilities plan

 

Last updated 2/18/2016 at 7:41am



With a prognosticating eye to the future, the Cheney Planning Commission approved a motion to forward the city’s capital facilities plan to the City Council and recommended its approval.

Required by state law, the plan is based upon providing measurable and financially feasible service levels so that a community’s growth over time does not exceed its government’s ability to provide system improvements to deliver those services to residents — known as concurrency. Cheney’s plan envisions the facility needs through the year 2037, and is part of the city’s comprehensive plan’s capital facilities element.

City planner Brett Lucas told the commission the capital facilities element provides a general idea of growth, with the capital facilities plan more specific with projected facility needs costs required to be balanced by funding sources and amounts. The final piece is the capital improvement plan, which is more detailed than the facilities plan.

According to the plan’s language, level of service standards — LOS — is “best considered a measure of quality of life.” These are set by the city, can change over time as the city changes and include elements such as water, sewer and stormwater service, emergency services response times and facility needs along with desired parks and open space acreage to accommodate population density.

As an example, Cheney LOS for fire and emergency services is a 3 – 4 minute response 90 percent of the time, 2 – 15 minutes for law enforcement depending on the “priority of the call” and 10 acres of parks and open space per 1,000 residents.

Regarding the latter, the city’s current LOS is 3.7 acres per 1,000 residents, a number that does not include the soon to be opened 50-acre Betz Park along with other nearby open spaces such as the Columbia Plateau/Fish Lake Trail and the Williams Lake Plunge Pool.

According to the Spokane Region Population Study, which utilizes population projections for the county from the state Office of Financial Management, Cheney’s population could swell by an additional 2,922 people by 2037. In calculating projected facility needs, Cheney staff estimated the city’s population would increase by 3,275 residents by 2037.

Buildings are facilities not subject to concurrency, or the need to grow in conjunction with population growth in order to remain reliable. Based upon the city’s 20-year population projections, however, all of its physical structures will need expansion in order to meet service needs.

Some of those buildings in the facilities plan come with a price tag for expansion, such as the fire station which could run $750,000 – $3.5 million sometime in the next seven to 20 years. The police station faces a similar outlook, with limited renovation costing $750,000 – $1,000,000 while a full-scale replacement up to 20 years down the road could run $3.6 million –$4.3 million.

Police and fire service LOS needs for equipment and personnel are being taken care of through the assessed property tax levy lid lift passed by Cheney voters last year.

Concurrent services such as streets, water and sewer and electrical power have a more concrete view of the funding sources available, which include grants, rate revenues and loans. Some of these have a shorter, six-year replacement window, such as wastewater collection that will need almost $2.5 million in new equipment by 2021, a figure that does not include a new storage facility, estimated at $350,000.

Much of this comes from the treatment plant, which while upgraded in 2010 has equipment from its original construction in 1994.

“Keep in mind we still have to replace some of that (1994 equipment),” Public Works Director Todd Ableman told the commission.

The Light Department has a projected facilities need of $4 million in the next six years, $1.25 million of which is potential construction of a third substation in 2021.

Included in the capital facility plan is the Sterling-Moorman House, a historic 1883 structure bought by Cheney in 2006 whose maintenance and restoration is overseen by the non-profit Sterling-Moorman House Foundation. Ableman said the house was included because it is a public facility.

“If we don’t address it in the plan, it’s hard to get grant funding,” he added.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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