The Fairwood Community News provided detailed coverage of a September Council meeting which was dominated by talk about the Future of Fairwood (incorporation vs annexation). I thought the journalist who reported on this meeting did a good job capturing the event. The article can be found here, and may be of interest to anyone who lives in the area.
Posts tagged annexation
A group of Fairwood residents are organizing a drive to annex to Renton; campaign to “Choose Renton”
UPDATE: This blog entry has generated two dozen comments so far, and counting. I moved it back to the top, so it was easier to find. Tomorrow, I will link to the web sites for the pro-incorporation and the pro-annexation initiatives.
We received this email at City Hall:
________________________________________________________
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen;
This email is going out to over 100 Fairwood area residents that have
indicated that they want to make a good choice regarding the future of our
community by endorsing annexation to the City of Renton.
We are initiating our campaign “Choose Renton” on Monday, August 11, 2008, 7:00 PM at the Renton City Council Meeting (1055 So. Grady Way – 7th floor Council Chambers). In the next few weeks, we will be asking the Mayor and City Council as well as King County Officials to help provide factual information on three important choices that face the Fairwood community residents in the near future.
Like the Cascade/Benson Hill Communities annexation to Renton, we believe that choosing Renton is our best option, but want to make sure that we have all the facts to share with the Fairwood area community.
Please join us at the City Council meeting.
FAIRWOOD – Fairwood residents are proud to announce the formation of Choose Renton, a new organization created to endorse annexation of the Fairwood
Potential Annexation Area (PAA) into the City of Renton.
“Annexation of the Fairwood PAA by the City of Renton will provide a higher level of service for lower cost, preserve the residential character of our neighborhoods, and allow us to be a part of an economically stable city without the budget problems presently plaguing King County,” said Bryce Nelson, spokesperson for Choose Renton.
Recently, King County Fire District 40 signed a 20 year contract with the City of Renton to provide fire services for the Fairwood area.
Staffing levels at Station 17 on Petrovitsky Road have increased as a result of the contract with Renton, without an increase in taxes – showing that Fairwood will get more for its tax money by becoming a part of the City of Renton. The Renton Police Department would also provide significantly faster response times for the Fairwood area than its present service provider, the King County Sheriff’s Department. Residents of Fairwood voted against incorporation in 2006.
“Incorporation will provide an unknown level of service, at unknown costs, with unknown taxes, and with an uncertain ability to keep Fairwood’s residential character the same,” said Nelson. “We said no to incorporation two years ago for all of these reasons. It was a bad idea then, and it is a worse idea now.”
Choose Renton believes that Renton’s ability to provide us a significantly higher level of service for less money than a City of Fairwood makes it the obvious choice for the area.
As King County continues to cut service levels to unincorporated urban and suburban areas, remaining a part of unincorporated King County is no longer
a viable option for Fairwood.
For additional information on our efforts, endorsement forms, and future meeting dates, please go to our website at _www.chooserenton.com_
(http://www.chooserenton.com/) , which will go live on our official launch date of August 14, 2008.
Please contact Bryce Nelson at _bryce.nelson@gmail.com_
(mailto:bryce.nelson@gmail.com) or (425) 864-7771 with any further questions.
Bryce Nelson, Spokesperson
Renton’s population is about 82,000
With our most recent annexations, we are growing pretty big. There are no prizes for being bigger, but it is not inherantly bad either…so long as we can keep the level of service up to all areas of the city. Traffic continues to get worse, of course, but this is true whether the areas grow around us in King County or whether the land is annexed onto the city. Our zoning is generally about the same as, or less dense than, King County’s in the areas adjacent to Renton (within the urban growth boundary).
Here is an email I received earlier today:
______________________________________________________
—–Original Message—–
From: Denis Law [mailto:DLaw@ci.renton.wa.us]
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 9:30 AM
To: Don Persson; Greg Taylor; King Parker; Marcie Palmer; Randy Corman; Rich Zwicker; Terri Briere
Cc: Alexander Pietsch; Julia Medzegian
Subject: City population
With the recent annexation of the New Life/Aqua Barn and Liberty, our unofficial population appears to exceed 82,000 people. Alex Pietsch will provide you with more specific detail at the upcoming emerging issues at Committee of the Whole. The unofficial number provided by census takers for New Life was 2,377. Alex predicts about 1,000 more from the Liberty Annexation.
Denis
Six tons of trash picked up in Benson Hill so far; speeders ticketed for 25-over marked speed
City services have been extended to Renton’s newest residents of Benson hill this week. City road crews report that they have already picked up 6 tons of trash along road ways, and police officers note they are starting to deal with local enforcement problems.
In one highly visible move, officers have been issuing many, many warnings, and a few citations, to speeders on Benson Highway who need to SLOW DOWN when they get inside of Renton City limits. the police chief reports that the first day on the job, police stopped dozens of speeders on this road to let them know that speed enforcement was going to be taken seriously. In kindness however, they only issued citations to the four worst offenders of the day, all of whom were speeding more than 25 miles per hour over the posted speed. And three of the four cited speeders did not live in the new boundaries of Renton.
Considering we had a speed-related fatality in December in this area, 25 MPH over the limit is just plain reckless.
In coming weeks, lesser violations will switch from warnings to citations…so please slow down. Remember, the police are trying to keep us all safe.
From Denis Law; Benson Hill is now officially part of Renton!
From: “Denis Law”
To: “Don Persson”
Cc: “Jay Covington”
Subject: Benson/Cascade
Dear Councilmembers,
The city of Renton grew by 16,272 residents today with little obvious impact. I spent the evening out with the police last night and it was a relatively quiet . There were many traffic stops, a narcotics arrest and clearly a significant police presence. Those driving the area were certainly aware that Renton Police were in the neighborhood, and the King County Sheriff added extra cars to assist during the transition.
In addition to extra patrol officers today, the Traffic Division has been working the area. They have made some warrant arrests and there was an armed robbery at the Mission Ridge apartments on the Petrovitsky Road. It was apparently a drug-deal gone bad.
I recommend you drive the area if you have not yet done so. It’s quite large and there are a lot of homes, including some very nice neighborhoods. And there are tons of apartments, which have been the focal point of a lot of crime activity. We had adopted a little city!
So far, so good! I’ll let you know if there is any other news this weekend.
Denis
West Hill Potential Annexation Area
A few years ago, the Renton City Council held a hearing regarding the West Hill/Skyway area, and the possibility of adding the area to Renton’s Potential Annexation Area (PAA).
Residents in the West Hill area seemed evenly split on the idea, with some wanting annexation to Renton, but many others being very adamantly against it. Some were very clear that they did not want to be part of a city, as the sign below indicates.
Mayor Keolker was pushing to add West Hill to the PAA, and the council somewhat reluctantly went along with it. I voted with the majority, who voted to expand our potential annexation area, but Council Member Denis Law voted against the proposal. He was understandably very concerned about the costs to the city in taking on an area with so many infrastructure needs, and the impact such an annexation could have on our ability to serve existing residents.
As we have gathered more data on the costs of annexation in recent years, it has become increasingly clear to me that Denis Law’s position was the right one for West Hill. We have found that there is no way that the city can annex this area without a major subsidy from all the rest of us in the city of Renton, on the order of many millions or even tens-of-millions of dollars.
With Denis in the Mayor’s office, he will likely get council support if he choses to revisit this issue. While state growth management law does not make it easy for us to remove West Hill from our PAA, it’s possible we could find a way to do it. Even if the area stays in our PAA, Denis has promised voters that he will be slow to annex the area if it costs existing residents too much….and I will support him in this view.
Renton and the West Hill is starting to look like a marriage which will never make it to the alter. I would encourage the residents of this area to put thought into where they really want to end up, and let the governments of King County, Seattle, Tukwila, and Renton know their preferences.
This area has some pretty dramatic public infrastructure needs, as well as a clear need to bring in private investment dollars. Here are a few more pictures, along with the shot of the dilapidated building with the No On Annexation Sign…that pretty much says it all.
The “No Annexation” sign says it all. While it was put up by West Hill residents, it could have just as easily been installed by Renton officials
Curious addition to Renton’s Wikipedia page….
I wonder who made this addition to Wikipedia. The council was neutral on this annexation (which was defeated by the voters two to one), and the entry misleadingly implies that the annexation would have improved the financial well-being of our city.
New Entry: Unfortunately, a resolution to annex a nearby plateau area that would have increased Renton’s population and tax base was defeated in a special election. [2]
I am neutral on Fairwood’s Incorporation
There is an important election on the horizon for Fairwood residents. They will soon need to cast ballots relative to whether or not they wish to form a new city. This is an important vote because King County continues to make public statements about curtailing urban services to communities like Fairwood, which puts pressure on these communities to either incorporate as an indepedent city or annex to an existing city.
I am neutral on Fairwood annexing to the city of Renton. As I stated in my June 17 entry to this journal;
“There are many neighborhoods bordering our city that are looking at the potential of annexing over the next few years. People in this position often have many questions and concerns, and I’m not going to try to address them all with one journal entry this morning.
I would instead like to convey my basic position on annexations, and invite readers to contact me at 425-271-6913 or leave comments below with any questions they have of me on the topic.
My basic position is this:
If you are in our Potential Annexation Area (PAA), and the majority of your neighborhood wishes to join our city, then I welcome you with open arms. If you are in the PAA, but the majority of your neighbors do not wish to join our city, then I understand and I have no issues with that..peace to you, and your settlement 
. Lastly, if you are outside our PAA, and you wish to join our city, we should work with other jurisdictions to update the PAA and go from there.
My only wish is that you and your neighbors have accurate facts and data to work from (this is my inner engineer’s voice), Therefore, I support our staff’s printing of materials that explain how your situation is affected by annexation. I want this material to be politically neutral, accurate, and readable.
I will generally not plan to attend meetings of King County residents who are weighing an annexation decision, because I don’t want to put myself in the position of taking their decision personally. If I’m not at their meeting, I won’t have my feelings hurt if they decide not to annex…better for them, and better for me!
In summary, if you are in our PAA, treat it like an event invitation. Ask your questions, get the facts, and make the decision that works for you. I’ll support you either way.”
I wish to clarify that I a neutral because I realize that my opinion, whatever it may be for a given annexation, is completely trumped by the opinions of the people living in the affected neighborhood (in this case Fairwood). The choice Fairwood residents make will affect their daily lives, as they experience everyday things such as water and sewer service, stop lights, parks and libraries, tax payments, and building permits…around the clock…winter, spring, summer, fall…for countless years into the future. The choice may also affect the more anxious moments of their lives, such as the way police or fire services are dispatched in an emergency. While it’s true that their choice may also affect residents of Renton here and there, any impact on existing Renton residents is very small compared to the impact on the Fairwood households. Many Renton residents wont even notice the apparent nuance of Fairwood being unincorporated versus incorporated versus annexed, and those that do will generally forget all about it in a week or two. If I saw a family in my neighborhood having a passionate argument about the choice of carpet they were installing in their home, the last thing I would do is walk over and tell them that they should go with my choice because I sometimes visit their home and I want it to look just right for me, or because I am worried that their carpet choice may affect my property value. While I may in fact hold an opinion on their carpet, I am wise enough to know that their collective opinion simply overwhelms mine, that they are the ones that perpetually live with the choice, and I should stay out of it. The same is true for an annexation discussion.
I have recently been told by a Fairwood resident that there is still confusion about what will happen if the area votes against incorporation. Up until a few weeks ago, I would have said that I expect that nothing would happen unless the residents formed an annexation drive. However, Renton Council recently got a surprise in the Maplewood neighborhood along Cedar River a couple meetings ago, when the King County Boundary Review Board increased the size of an annexation by five hundred percent, after some citizens had made an application to annex. I would have expected such a change to go to a vote or petition, but it did not. In this case, the majority of the residents of the affected area seemed to be in favor of the expansion, and I was extremely happy for Wonderland Estates residents that benefited from this decision. But the surprising turn of events left me with questions about how the 2006 annexation process really works. I have promised the inquiring Fairwood resident that that I will seek clarification on what happens if the vote for incorporation fails. When I sort this out, I will post the answers here.
Best Wishes,
Randy
Annexations
There are many neighborhoods bordering our city that are looking at the potential of annexing over the next few years. People in this position often have many questions and concerns, and I’m not going to try to address them all with one journal entry this morning.
I would instead like to convey my basic position on annexations, and invite readers to contact me at 425-271-6913 or leave comments below with any questions they have of me on the topic.
My basic position is this:
If you are in our Potential Annexation Area (PAA), and the majority of your neighborhood wishes to join our city, then I welcome you with open arms. If you are in the PAA, but the majority of your neighbors do not wish to join our city, then I understand and I have no issues with that..peace to you, and your settlement . Lastly, if you are outside our PAA, and you wish to join our city, we should work with other jurisdictions to update the PAA and go from there.
My only wish is that you and your neighbors have accurate facts and data to work from (this is my inner engineer’s voice), Therefore, I support our staff’s printing of materials that explain how your situation is affected by annexation. I want this material to be politically neutral, accurate, and readable.
I will generally not plan to attend meetings of King County residents who are weighing an annexation decision, because I don’t want to put myself in the position of taking their decision personally. If I’m not at their meeting, I won’t have my feelings hurt if they decide not to annex…better for them, and better for me!
In summary, if you are in our PAA, treat it like an event invitation. Ask your questions, get the facts, and make the decision that works for you. I’ll support you either way.