MUKILTEO — The city got some cold water poured this week on its effort to annex a large area south of town from Picnic Point to Highway 99.
The Snohomish County Fire District 1 board of commissioners voted to take the city to court over the proposed annexation. The Mukilteo City Council had hoped to ask voters on Nov. 3 whether to approve it.
Now, the issue may be tied up in court.
“I’m quite surprised, actually,” council president Randy Lord said Tuesday. “I didn’t expect that at all.”
The fire district doesn’t want to lose the revenue from the area, which has 11,000 people and is a large chunk of the fire district’s service area.
The city had been looking for two separate votes on Nov. 3. One was going to ask residents in the proposed annexation area whether they wanted to join the city.
The other was an advisory vote asking the people within the city of Mukilteo whether they wanted to add the area in the first place. That vote will still occur Nov. 3.
The fire district voted Tuesday to appeal approval by the Snohomish County Boundary Review Board to allow the annexation vote. The issue will now go to Snohomish County Superior Court.
In the appeal, the fire district says the city doesn’t have a clear enough plan to provide fire and emergency medical services to residents in the area to be annexed.
“They seemed to have a menu of options but no menu for what they were actually going to provide,” said fire district commission chairman Jim Kenny.
The district also contends the city should not have put the two votes on the same ballot. And the district said that boundary review board member Lori Kaiser had a conflict of interest because she sat on Mukilteo’s 2009 salary review commission.
The fire district has also opposed a Lynnwood annexation proposal.
Some residents have expressed concern that the annexation could burden Mukilteo finances and quality of life.
“One contingent says we ought to stay small,” Lord said. “Another contingent says we ought to grow a little bit.”
Councilman Kevin Stolz, who opposes the proposed annexation, said he voted to place the annexation on the ballot only because the council agreed to ask city residents their opinion.
“If we’re willing to do an advisory vote that’s an opportunity for the city to ask the residents and find out if the residents buy off on it or not,” he said.
Stolz said he opposes including Highway 99 from Highway 525 to 128th Street SW in the annexation.
“The massage parlors and the strip clubs and casino — areas that seem to have a high demand on police services — I don’t see that as being good for Mukilteo,” Stolz said.
Oscar Halpert: 425-339-3447; ohalpert@heraldnet.com.
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