White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Although most of the details of the proposed agreement between Seattle and Burien for the proposed annexation have been covered in this blog as well as our partner, West Seattle Blog, the Seattle Times has a good article in today’s edition.  Per the article:

North Highline, one of the largest urban parts of King County that isn’t in a city, could be split between Seattle and Burien if the two city councils and voters decide that’s a good idea.

Seattle would become the local government for White Center and neighboring communities in the northern portion of North Highline, and Burien would absorb Boulevard Park and other neighborhoods in the southern part. An estimated 33,400 residents would be affected.

The proposed boundary, tentatively agreed to this month by Seattle and Burien, would run mostly along South and Southwest 112th and 116th streets. The agreement defines how much territory each of the cities could annex through the end of 2011. After that, all bets are off.

Feel free to leave your thoughts, but as always, be civil (and rational).  Thanks.

White Center Now was first to report last night that Burien City Manager Mike Martin announced a mediated agreement with Seattle and two fire districts over the future of annexation proposals - current and potential - in the White Center/North Highline area. Here’s our original report from last night; now, Burien has posted the agreement online - read it here. Also a reminder, the two annexation open houses we reported last month are still on the schedule for January and February; full details here.

With Burien’s proposal to annex part of the North Highline area back on a somewhat fast track, the city has just set dates for two more annexation open houses: One in Shorewood in January, one in Boulevard Park in February.

Here are the details:

ANNEXATION OPEN HOUSE IN SHOREWOOD
6:30-8 pm January 6, 2009
Shorewood Elementary School (map)
More info

ANNEXATION OPEN HOUSE IN BOULEVARD PARK
6:30-8 pm February 12, 2009
Boulevard Park Library (map)

Burien’s annexation-info page is back online too after a recent city website redesign, though some of its information does not appear quite up to date yet.

(Burien Council members, seated tonight in “study session” mode)
From tonight’s Burien City Council meeting: Councilmembers voted to once again proceed with the planned annexation procedure — targeting part of White Center — that ended with the withdrawal of the proposal about a month and a half ago. They described the process as to some degree starting over again from the same point at which they were last spring. Here’s the map of the proposed annexation zone. We’ll be following up tomorrow with Seattle reps and others about what happens next from their standpoint. ADDED LATE MONDAY NIGHT: More details on tonight’s Burien proceedings: Read the rest of this entry »

White Center Now was invited to check out the start of the Burien City Council meeting tonight, to be on hand for a special presentation - on behalf of a program that may be setting a national precedent. Twenty Highline Public Schools teachers are getting financial help for rental housing in Burien, but they don’t have to teach in Burien - and in fact, five of the first 12 chosen for the program are teaching in the White Center/North Highline area, according to Jenn Ramirez Robson from the office of Burien City Manager Mike Martin; Ramirez Robson explains, “To our knowledge we have not been able to find a similar program anywhere in the United States. Many states offer mortgage assistance but I have yet to find anything that relates to grants or subsidies toward rental housing.”. Several of those teachers are in the front row of the group shot we caught candidly above; speakers included State House Speaker Frank Chopp (the state played a role in this too) and Highline Public Schools Superintendent John Welch, who ceremonially accepted the quarter-million dollar grant from Burien Mayor Joan McGilton tonight. Welch explained how the grant is helping with teacher recruiting in the areas where the district needs help the most (he introduces the teachers during this section of his speech, too):

Click pic to play video

34th District State Rep. Eileen Cody was there for the occasion too, along with 33rd District Rep. Dave Upthegrove, mentioned when Chopp alluded to the money’s origins in the long and difficult Lora Lake Apartments saga:

Click pic to play video

Here are a few more details about the program, from a City of Burien document: Read the rest of this entry »