Cedarhome annexation panned

By Brian Kelly

Herald Writer

STANWOOD — Bad idea, bad timing.

That’s what most Stanwood-area residents had to say Monday night about a 330-acre annexation proposal that would almost double the population of the city.

It was the third time the controversial Cedarhome annexation has been taken up by the city council. And residents had plenty to say about the proposal; testimony stretched late into the evening and the council vote was not available before press time.

More than 100 people attended the meeting, held in the gymnasium at Cedarhome Elementary School. Some said the annexation would only line the pockets of developers but leave longtime residents dealing with more traffic, badly built homes and crowded schools.

"From the beginning, this annexation has been plagued with greed and coercion," said Mike Carmichael.

City planning staff, however, have recommended annexing the area, which fits with a recent study on the proposal.

The report, prepared by Shockey/Brent Inc. of Everett, said the annexation is consistent with city and county growth plans, and infrastructure improvement plans are already in place to handle new burdens on roads, sewers and other capital facilities.

Currently, 188 people live in the Cedarhome annexation area. That will change as the area is brought into the city, said Stephanie Cleveland, Stanwood’s community development director.

"The potential for growth in the annexation is great," Cleveland said.

By 2005, the population of the Cedarhome area could grow to 525 residents. And 2,500 people — or more, if the economy rebounds — could live in the annexation area by the end of the 15-year planning cycle, she said.

Cleveland said the property would be more intensely developed in the future anyway even if it stays unincorporated, but annexing the land will give Stanwood greater control over the development and also increase tax revenues for the city.

Jim Miller, the main proponent of the annexation, told the council that the county and city have eyed the area for urban development since the 1970s.

Miller’s annexation proposal, though, has shrunk somewhat since its most recent incarnation.

The Cedarhome Elementary property has been cut out, largely due to an opinion from Snohomish County that school property annexations have to occur separately, Miller said. That cut the annexation area from 343 acres to 330.

Several others also spoke in support of the annexation.

Robert Crow, who lives just outside the annexation area, said he supported the annexation if new roads were put into a grid system so traffic impacts could be lessened.

He said Camano Islanders were moving in with "gates on their rear ends," but no one should put up a barrier to new residents, including those who live in the Cedarhome area.

But not everyone thought enlarging Stanwood was the right thing to do right away. Some said new homes would be built before the city was ready to handle those new residents.

The annexation may become even bigger in the months ahead, however.

If the council approves the annexation, it will go before Snohomish County’s Boundary Review Board, which has the option of including an unincorporated area of 129 acres that would link the Cedarhome annexation to the existing city limits at 80th Street NW.

If that land is included, Stanwood’s geographic area would increase by 41 percent, making Stanwood’s biggest annexation ever even larger.

Although the city said citizens should take their concerns about that extra area to the boundary review board, some weren’t willing to wait. They also criticized Miller for pulling in the boundary lines of his annexation proposal to leave out people who opposed it, and in a way that would create an unincorporated peninsula that would jut into the city.

That would leave county officials in the position of adding it — and increasing the annexation area by more than 100 acres — so the new city limits would not have irregular boundaries.

"It’s a sleazy process and you knew it," Karen Eidsness told Miller.

"We tried that," Miller said later, explaining that he tried to get a smaller 30-acre annexation in Cedarhome approved but it had been rejected by the city.

"We did what you asked, and it was denied," Miller said.

You can call Herald Writer Brian Kelly at 425-339-3422 or send e-mail to kelly@heraldnet.com.

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