Medical Lake holds public Comp Plan update meeting

What is Medical Lake's identity?

That seems the primary question that needs answering by the small West Plains community, at least according to some in attendance at an open house intended to inform citizens about the city's current Comprehensive Plan, or Comp Plan, efforts.

A smattering of people milled about the City Council chambers on Thursday, April 11, talking, reading and placing Post-It note comments on five presentation boards that outlined the city Planning Commission's current update efforts.

The boards offered snippets of information on current state Growth Management Act (GMA) policy shifts, local issues and how to "close the gaps between the community today and the community envisioned" for the next 10 years, the update effort and its timeline, and the vision of the Comp Plan.

A key element, according to Scott Hudson, pastor of the Medical Lake Community Church and chair of the Planning Commission, is determining Medical Lake's identity.

"We don't have one," he said. "I think we need to find our identity as a city."

Having an identity and then determining where the city fits into the larger regional growth picture would in-turn help shape the city policies and decisions going forward, he said.

The GMA requires municipalities to update their Comp Plan every 10 years. Medical Lake's last Comp Plan effort was in 2007.

"The Medical Lake Comp Plan is in pretty good shape," according to Bill Grimes, principal planning consultant for SCJ Alliance, hired to help guide the update.

Much of the commission's work is focused on bringing the 2007 plan into compliance with largely technical amendments to the GMA.

"This is compliance-based comp plan update," Grimes said of the updates emphasis. "So we're not really looking at radical changes."

But Grimes also noted that Amazon wasn't on the West Plains in 2007. The retail behemoth's presence and overall growth in the area changes things for the small, quiet city. And while the technical Comp Plan update must be completed by June, other "sticking points" that "really speak to the core of the community" will remain to be addressed.

"As we're going through our conversations we're finding there are some topics we may want to come back and look at again," Grimes said.

Some of those sticking points include whether the city should or should not adopt a pro-growth policy, how to manage the quality and quantity of development and the future of the downtown area and how it might prosper.

Another important growth issue is utility services - sanitary sewer and storm water, and the perennial issue of water.

"How do we mange our public services to be intentional with the type of growth we envision?" Grimes said. "These are really important questions - but they have nothing to do with compliance."

Grimes felt the Planning Commission should come together over the next several months to iron-out those and other questions. He said he was working with the group to "equip them" to answer those questions after completion of the Comp Plan update.

"That's something where we really have to involve the whole community," Grimes, a 33-year urban planning veteran who is working with communities across the Pacific Northwest, said.

The Planning

Commission

It's easy to get into the thick weeds of minutia when planning ahead. For example: is Medical Lake a rural town or a small city? The word "rural" is used "liberally" in the 2007 Comp Plan to describe the city, Grimes said.

But the commission, Grimes noted, feels it's really a small city, and not as closely associated with a rural agricultural economy as the word "rural" implies.

While such definitions may seem tedious, they're important in defining a city's character.

And the commission wants to use certain design elements, such as different types of fencing, or the use of curb, gutter and sidewalks to help establish Medical Lake's character and identity.

"Some of those (design elements) might be rural-like," Grimes said. "And that's the kind of treatments the community seems to want to see."

He said the comprehensive plans of 2005 and 2007 did a good job of reflecting the community's character, which has helped the current update move forward quickly.

Identity in a

changing landscape

Hudson, who also served on the Planning Commission during the 2007 Comp Plan effort, expressed an open-ended attitude about the city's future.

"The dynamics of the city and the surrounding area is changing," Hudson said when asked what he'd learned in the current effort. "We're going to need to change some goals and framework."

He wouldn't offer an opinion about what those changes might be.

"I have my views, but I'm one in the committee," he said.

Again, determining the city's identity was key, he said.

Medical Lake resident Terri Cooper, attending the meeting in her role as a member of Re*Imagine Medical Lake, agreed.

"I'm excited about what's happening on the West Plains," Cooper said. "I think it's going to be good for all of us."

She recalled when Medical Lake was "the happening place to be" for skiing, and other summer outdoor pursuits that drew people from all over.

"We didn't leave the area," she said of her high school days.

Cooper was clear about her personal vision for the city.

"I'm not for growing for the sake of being bigger," Cooper said. "I'm for growing in the sense of quality improvements."

That is, improvements to downtown that would make Medical Lake a distinct place, which would draw people to visit, recreate, relax "and enjoy quality amenities."

"My vision is that (Medical Lake) would be unique," Cooper said. "That it won't look like anything else out there."

But she felt the city needed to determine who it was before that can happen.

"I don't know what that will look like," Cooper said. "We really need to get the community engaged."

Looking forward

According to population allocation projections from Spokane County, Grimes said Medical Lake is projected to grow by nearly 1,000 people by 2037.

Asked for a prediction of what the West Plains might look like in 20 years based on his three-plus decades of experience, Grimes felt that both Cheney and Medical Lake will see "an increasingly local sense of community with more of a drive to centralize activity in their central business districts," including an increasing mix of housing and small, craft-oriented retail and online businesses that thrive on a small-scale urban experience.

Alternatively, Grimes sees Airway Heights growing busier, with an "increased sense of dispersion." It will likely become a regional destination due to entities like Fairchild Air Force Base, the tribal casinos, Spokane International Raceway, and as a gateway to Spokane.

Industry, he said, will likely gravitate to Airway Heights as well.

"That will have an impact on the vibe in that town," he said.

In the meantime, Medical Lake has some work to do regarding who it is, what it wants to be, and how it wants to get there.

Lee Hughes can be reached at lee@cheneyfreepress.com.