White Center Now: The blog about White Center

(Map of potential annexation area – click for larger version, from City of Seattle)
The last time King County convened a meeting between potential parties of interest in North Highline annexation, the process ultimately led to Burien’s annexation of the south part of the area. Now that Seattle has pushed off its final decision, and Burien hasn’t leaped forward immediately to step in, a new round of talks is about to start. Tomorrow, representatives from the cities of Seattle, Burien, and Tukwila, as well as the North Highline Fire District, will sit down for a mediated closed-door meeting in Seattle. Karen Freeman, senior policy analyst on King County Executive Dow Constantine‘s team, says this is something that’s provided for in the complicated process laid out for unincorporated areas becoming part of a city. As she observes, and as anyone watching this process is very well aware, it’s “very complicated … this is the only area in the county that has triple designations” — as a Potential Annexation Area for Burien, Seattle, and Tukwila.

Though Seattle and Burien had an unofficial (since the Seattle council never ratified it) agreement that Seattle would have dibs on the north area until the end of this year, Tukwila is now raising its hand to try to claim part of it – specifically, Freeman says, a small area of mostly industrial land toward the northeastern edge of the Potential Annexation Area. One problem, she says, is that there are no clear boundaries until an annexation process is initiated.

She says it’s hoped the meeting will clarify “what we need to wade through to present residents (of the remaining unincorporated area) with the best options possible.” And during our phone conversation, she referred repeatedly to the unprecedented nature of this situation, with multiple jurisidictions having claims in one area, yet no one moving on a clear path forward toward incorporation. “This has never happened before.” And the state Growth Management Act, while calling for urban services to be provided by cities, not counties, “doesn’t provide any hammers” to force cities to take possession of unincorporated areas.

Freeman describes it ultimately as “a maze of process … (and) no matter which way we go into the hedge, we’ll all wind up staring at each other … It’s clear that in the next year or two, somebody’s going to want to do something (regarding annexation) – or if not, let’s understand more about (why not).” In her view, the area’s residents “are really ready to consider something” in terms of an election. The question is … what … who … and when.

Though the lion’s share of the unincorporated area won’t be directly affected, Freeman says it appears Tukwila “would like to move forward” with annexing that small area in which they’re claiming an interest. She also notes that they did not come to the last round of mediation a few years ago.

The area “needs a good home,” she concluded, saying county leadership is hopeful this might make that possible, even though tomorrow’s meeting is “probably just the beginning of the process.” She also says it was not the result of last week’s Seattle vote to delay a decision, but has been in the works since before that vote.

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