Through annexation, the City of Spokane pursues the long-term financial health of the City by expanding the city’s existing tax base, while providing vacant land for future commercial development that will sustain economic growth and maintain reasonable tax rates.  Planning for future annexations allows the City of Spokane to focus infrastructure and resources on areas that can be annexed successfully and cooperatively. The City typically attempts to use logical boundaries that utilize recognizable physical features such as streets, bodies of water and land contours while adjusting for irregular borders. For any proposed annexation, the area must be in Spokane's adopted Urban Growth Area (UGA), must be contiguous to the City of Spokane and must be designated in the City’s Comprehensive Plan as a potential annexation area.

Annexation Methods
Cities in the State of Washington are given four basic mechanisms to annex unincorporated areas: 
     Direct Petition Method
     Election Method 
     Voter/Property Owner Petition Method
     Island Method

Of the available annexation methods, the City of Spokane typically utilizes the direct petition method. The direct petition method of annexation requires that a minimum of 10% of the property owners (calculated by assessed value) sign petitions to initiate the annexation process. Upon a successful initiation the requested annexation is forwarded to the City council for an official initiation action.  Once successfully initiated by the City Council, a minimum of 75% of the property owners within the annexation area (calculated by assessed value) must sign the petition prior to proceeding to the County Boundary Review Board for approval or modification.

Current Files:

Petition for Initiating Annexation