Mukilteo considers expanding its borders

Published 11:07 pm Sunday, March 29, 2009

MUKILTEO — Some say the annexation of Lake Serene, Picnic Point and other areas south of the city will help Mukilteo control its future. Others say the city doesn’t completely understand the impact of such sudden growth.

The proposed annexation would add 11,000 residents and a commercial district on Highway 99 to what is currently a 20,000-person, mostly residential city.

“This area is designed to be annexed by Mukilteo. The real question is when we annex it, and to what degree,” Mayor Joe Marine said.

The entire area is within Mukilteo’s urban growth area.

The City Council is scheduled to vote tonight on what the next step should be.

Last year, the city’s plans for annexation were thwarted by the state’s Boundary Review Board, which ruled in part that the city hadn’t done enough planning for police and fire service. This proposal is also for a smaller area than last year.

Mukilteo has since won over some of its opposition — the city of Lynnwood and the Snohomish County Council haven’t voiced complaints as they did in 2008.

Still, not everyone is happy.

The union that represents firefighters in Fire District 1, which currently serves the annexation area, is using its Web site and a mass mailer sent to Mukilteo residents to warn against annexation.

The group suggests that annexation will expose current Mukilteo residents to prostitution and drugs, could lead to casinos on the city’s rustic waterfront, and will stretch city resources such as police and fire service.

“Fire service is an expensive business. Public safety is expensive,” said Scott Hamilton, president of the union. “It’s our feeling, looking at their numbers, that they simply cannot afford to do it.”

Marine said the union is trying to scare people and protect its turf.

“It is a scare tactic,” Marine said. “They are saying that as soon as Mukilteo annexes, (we) will take down the level of service. We won’t.”

“They do not want to give up any of their taxing area, because they will shrink. And unions don’t like to shrink,” he said. “It’s not in their nature.”

If the annexation is ultimately approved, Mukilteo’s fire department, which is also unionized, would take over the district’s Station 23.

Currently, the station serves a larger area than just the 11,000 people Mukilteo is planning to annex, Marine said.

Rather than staff the station with five people as Fire District 1 has, Mukilteo can use just three, he said.

Councilwoman Jennifer Gregerson said annexation is about controlling development in an area that will eventually be part of Mukilteo anyway, and about securing a more diverse tax base than the city currently has.

Still, many current residents worry about Mukilteo’s identity, Councilman Tony Tinsley said.

“I interpret some of the concerns — about casinos or strip clubs or registered sex offenders — as expressions of that issue. People are saying that’s not what Mukilteo stands for,” he said.

Tinsley is also worried about the short-term financial implications of annexation and wants a new study of the costs and benefits.

Marine said more studies would be unnecessary.

“What I don’t want is another five or 10 years of studies and time put into this,” Marine said. “That’s what Mukilteo has done in the past — we talk things to death for decades.”

Chris Fyall: 425-339-3447, cfyall@heraldnet.com.