EVERETT — The Snohomish County Boundary Review Board unanimously approved a controversial annexation after an almost three-hour hearing on Tuesday.
The North Lake Urban Growth Area covers 241 acres north of 22nd Street in Snohomish and east of Highway 9. More than 200 people live in the area. The North Ridge neighborhood — with a population of around 100 — on the east side of the area is leading the charge against the annexation.
The city of Snohomish is using an interlocal agreement method to annex North Lake and approved the agreement Aug. 19. Snohomish County approved it Sept. 24, which sent the agreement to the county’s Boundary Review Board for final approval.
North Ridge resident Jesse Podoll submitted a petition to the board to re-review and adjudicate the agreement, which was received on Jan. 6. The petition was signed by 79 residents of North Ridge.
The petition highlights three Boundary Review Board objections that Podoll believes the annexation does not meet.
The first is the preservation of natural neighborhoods.
“North Ridge is a long-established, cohesive neighborhood with documented opposition to annexation,” Podoll wrote. “Including it in the annexation would disrupt a stable community and fail to preserve a natural neighborhood.”
In response, the board said the annexation did preserve natural neighborhoods because North Ridge falls within Snohomish’s urban growth area, which designates it as an eventual part of the city, board member Grace Kane said during the meeting.
The annexation would also discourage North Ridge from incorporating into its own small city, which is another objective of the Boundary Review Board, board member Katherine Nesse said during the meeting.
Podoll also wrote in the petition that the annexation does not meet the objective for logical service areas.
“Existing services provided by the County and North Ridge Water Corporation fully meet current needs, with no evidence that City annexation would improve efficiency or coverage,” he wrote.
However, the board disagreed with Senior Planner Eilleen Canola with Snohomish County Planning and Development Services.
The annexation would allow future development in North Lake to connect to city water and sewer, and the county hopes to move away from providing services to that area, she said.
“The city is the logical provider of public facilities and services,” she said. “The county is more of a regional provider.”
During public comment, North Ridge residents said the interlocal agreement process made them feel they didn’t have a voice.
“Unfortunately, with the 2020 amendment with the ILA, the state law did cut that process — or minimize that process, or streamline this process, however you wanted to say it — so it’s not necessarily that the city’s at fault, the county’s at fault, or the boundary review board’s purview to change that process. It’s just that is the process,” board member Grace Kane said.
At the end of the meeting, Podoll wasn’t happy with the board’s decision, he said in an interview.
“I’m not surprised by the hearing outcome, but I am disappointed,” he wrote later in an email. “I’m sad that this has set a precedent that will further remove the voice of the people from being able to make decisions that directly affect them.”
He will be appealing the board’s decision once he has the ability, he said in the interview.
Snohomish Planning and Development Services Director Brooke Eidem represented the city during the hearing.
“They made the decision based on state law,” she said in an interview after the meeting. “So, I think they made the right decision. I appreciate that it was a very difficult decision.”
When she was told Podoll was likely to appeal, she said, “I’m not surprised.”
Taylor Scott Richmond: 425-339-3046; taylor.richmond@heraldnet.com; X: @BTayOkay
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