The hearings board agreed.
Spokane County Commissioner Kate
McCaslin called the changes "dinky" Tuesday, adding that the
county needs to take care of the required hearing and finalize the plan
as soon as possible.
The plan will guide the growth and
development in Spokane County for the next 20 years.
"This needs to be wrapped
up," McCaslin said.
Commissioners held three public
hearings before making more than 50 changes to land-use maps and
policies. But no hearings were held to allow the public to comment on
those changes.
Assistant civil prosecutor Rob
Binger advised county commissioners last year that no further hearings
were necessary.
Tuesday he told commissioners that
they could just go through the motions of a hearing without really
considering the testimony, and still satisfy the Growth Management
Hearings Board's requirements.
"What it boils down to is that
you have a series of never-ending hearings or you tell people at the
last hearing, `You know what folks, we're not going to do anything with
what you say because we don't want to have another hearing,"' he
said.
That's the type of attitude that got
Spokane County in trouble in the first place, said Bonnie Mager,
spokeswoman for the Neighborhood Alliance.
"If they are basically going to
say that they are going to ignore the public input and go through with
the changes, then I think that is very arrogant," Mager said.
"That would be a mistake, and
would continue to undermine the faith that the public has in their
elected officials," she said.
The county commissioners said they
would ask the Spokane County Planning Commission to hold another hearing
on the plan this summer, prior to a hearing before the county
commissioners.
The city of Spokane, in its appeal
of the county's comprehensive plan, also argued that Spokane County did
not hold enough hearings. A decision on that appeal, which raised
several other issues, isn't due until July.