North Highline annexation? Seattle City Council committee to discuss Wednesday, with Friday deadline for filing ‘intention’ notice
Just received the Seattle City Council Education and Governance Committee agenda for this Wednesday (June 3rd), 9:30 am, and it includes a discussion on two potential annexation areas for the city – one of which is the remaining unincorporated North Highline area. This is a briefing item, not a vote; the NH-related portion of the staff memo says:
In December 2014, the Council passed Res. 31559 calling for the annexation of the larger and more populated North Highline Annexation Area. At that time, the Council made clear its intent that this resolution was a placeholder to preserve the ability to take advantage of an expiring state sales tax incentive that could come with annexation. The incentive redirects to the City $5 million a year in sales tax revenues for 10 years, but there have been attempts by the City and the County to improve this incentive from the State Legislature. A legislative proposal was floated to change the incentive to $8 million a year for 6 years, but nothing has been adopted at this time. The City’s efforts in this regard are ongoing.
This Council has not yet taken a policy position on the merits of annexation of North
Highline. In order to preserve the option of utilizing the existing sales tax credit, Res. 31559 calls for the filing of a Notice of Intention to Annex with the BRB within 180 days of passage of the resolution. June 5 is the last day to file this notice, which essentially continues and solidifies the placeholder set by the Council last December.If the BRB completes its review and determines that the City may proceed, the Council would need to make a policy decision about whether or not to send an annexation vote to the residents of North Highline. Presumably, such a decision would come after an extensive public outreach process and more detailed discussions regarding financial and operational considerations.
The committee meets in the City Council chambers in downtown Seattle at 600 Fourth Avenue. If you can’t be there in person, the meeting will be webcast live at seattlechannel.org.
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June 1st, 2015 at 1:22 pm
As I said on WSB, I’m torn. On one hand, no, I do not want to pay the Seattle premium on taxes and services (and it’ll kill my “I live across the street from Seattle” joke), but…on the other hand, maybe it’ll keep cretins who don’t live here from treating WC like the wild, wild west (e.g., the kids from Burien who drove up to shoot fireworks off on our street because there ‘are no rules’ in WC). Ultimately, I think the County will force the issue. The folks I talk to that work for KC give me the impression that there’s a ‘tired of taking care of WC’ feeling going on.