White Center Now: The blog about White Center

After a lively discussion which we’ll recap shortly, Seattle City Council members have just voted 8 to 1 NOT to endorse the “memorandum of understanding” with Burien and two fire districts, regarding allowing Burien first rights to annex part of North Highline, and Seattle first rights on the other. Council President Richard Conlin said repeatedly that he believes the agreement is “falling apart at the executive level” – we will be checking on that. More shortly. ADDED 3:30 PM: A few more details – read on (including a comment from the Seattle mayor’s office, added 5:17 pm):

The meeting began with a suggestion by Conlin to just set the whole thing aside and not even vote on it today, but his colleagues disagreed, so they went ahead. They had one member of the public speaking first – Liz Giba from White Center, calling herself “one of 32,000 people who have been in limbo for quite a while,” said she believes the entire area that’s now unincorporated between Seattle and Burien city limits should go with Burien.

Some councilmembers were clear that their vote didn’t necessarily mean they were against any annexation – just that they are not in favor of this agreement, although West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen made it clear he is not in favor of any annexation, and wanted to proceed with a vote today because “by placing it on hold, it keeps the whole question alive.” Conlin noted that the prospect would remain alive anyway because the city’s Comprehensive Plan lists a “potential annexation area” and that will remain in the plan unless that section is repealed at some point down the line. He also said his concerns with the agreement include the fact that Burien has already sought to amend it (by clarifying that a public vote would be required before any annexation could proceed). Rasmussen said, basically, Seattle just can’t afford to add more land and residents, “when we know we can’t meet all the needs of our neighborhoods now.”

Councilmember Sally Clark had a similar concern, although she also noted “the Roxbury boundary just doesn’t work.” Councilmember Tim Burgess showed charts that he said showed serious problems in fire coverage if the potential annexations proceeded per the areas laid out in the agreement. Councilmember Nick Licata said he’s concerned that something has to be done regarding the White Center area — or else the question of who provides services to WC people will be a “festering problem” — and he felt an obligation to figure out what that would be (Rasmussen disagreed, saying ultimately it’s the county and state’s responsibility, and he is troubled by the amount of resources the city is already spending on this issue, saying he was in a meeting with “three executive staff members who are working on annexation”).

Councilmember Jean Godden was the only person voting in favor of the memorandum of understanding, saying, “It’s keeping the door open (to future possibilities) … (White Center is) an exceptional area, it has young families and children .. If we were going to vote on annexation itself today I would say no, it’s not a good deal, but all we are doing is holding the door open so that maybe in two years a vote may be taken on this … and those may be good times. Remember, this is land, everybody, and we just don’t have people manufacturing (land) any more. It has some of the best views in the area.” She had made a comparison to arguments that could have been made against annexing Ballard a century ago, and said White Center could turn out “to be another Sunset Hill.” Conlin in the end recommended a no vote because he believed Burien had not been forthcoming in terms of the deal, including supporting legislation to make sure Seattle could get sales-tax money to support an annexation, although he also added “I think Seattle should be considering annexing the WHOLE area, but at this point, I’m going to recommend going back to the drawing boards regarding what we’re going to do next.”

And with that, only Godden voted in favor of endorsing the agreement, with her 8 colleagues voting against it. We have messages out to Burien and Seattle city leadership regarding what happens next.

5:17 PM UPDATE: Haven’t heard back from Burien yet; from Seattle, mayoral spokesperson Alex Fryer says: “The MOU with Burien took some time, but we had an agreement that made sense for all the parties. With the City Council decision today, we’re done with the issue for this year. As Deputy Mayor (Tim) Ceis said: ‘There are no do-overs’.”

Tags: Annexation, Seattle City Council

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