MUKILTEO — Whether it’s a good idea for unincorporated neighborhoods surrounding the south end of Mukilteo to become part of the city depends on whom is asked.
Petitions are expected to be circulated soon in Picnic Point, Lake Serene and the area south of Paine Field — home to about 11,000 people. They’ll ask property owners to sign their name in support of joining the city.
Mukilteo currently has about 20,000 people, meaning it would grow by more than half. If the plan goes through, it could take effect as early as next summer.
“I’m for it,” said Mary Breen, who lives in the Windsound neighborhood, between Picnic Point and Lake Serene. “I’d like to be part of a city, and we’ve been (unincorporated) county for so long, I just think it would be good to be part of Mukilteo or Edmonds, either way.”
Kelly Eppley of Lake Serene disagrees.
“I’d rather stay unincorporated,” she said. She doesn’t believe taxes will go down, and she’s happier with police response times now than when she lived across Beverly Park Road in Mukilteo, she said.
City officials would like the area to join Mukilteo so the city can guide development, Mayor Joe Marine said. The neighborhoods are part of Mukilteo’s designated urban growth area, and if they join any city in the future, it would be Mukilteo.
“Better to annex that now than have it develop out in a way that we don’t like,” Marine said. He cited a county law allowing billboards, prohibited in Mukilteo, as an example.
People who want to join the city are concerned about controlling development, Marine said.
“A lot of that area, and what the county has been allowing in terms of development, people are pretty upset about, in terms of the density,” Marine said.
An example is a set of townhouse-style homes being built at the northeast corner of Beverly Park Road and Picnic Point Road, said Jan Newell.
“It’s a real eyesore,” said Newell of Picnic Point.
She hadn’t heard of the annexation plan before Friday, but said controlling development would be a plus.
Also, the city wants to take advantage of a state law that allows cities to keep one-tenth of a cent more per dollar in sales tax for every 10,000 residents added to the city at one time. The city would get the money every year for 10 years. The law expires in 2010.
The city would lose more in tax money to serve the area than it gains in the first couple of years, Marine said. But he expects that to change, partly with the help of the tax break.
The city estimates that property taxes for people living in the proposed annexation area would drop about $1,100 a year for the owner of $420,000 home.
People who live in the area recently gathered signatures from owners of more than 10 percent of the property and turned them in to the city. That’s the first step. Next, they have to gather signatures from owners of 60 percent of the property, either residential or commercial. That is expected to take at least a few months.
If those signatures are collected, the Mukilteo City Council and the county Boundary Review Board would both have to sign off.
The city had plans earlier this year to put the annexation idea up for a vote, but it was shot down by the Boundary Review Board. The borders for that proposal extended slightly farther, including strips across Highway 99 to the east and 148th Street SW to the south. It also included a stretch of land along the south and west borders of the airport.
Snohomish County, the city of Lynnwood and Snohomish County Fire District 1 all objected to the boundaries.
The big consideration for Fire District 1, which currently serves the proposed annexation area, was staffing issues, district board chairman Jim Kenny said. Mukilteo at the time didn’t have a plan in place to have a paramedic in each station 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as does District 1, Kenny said. The district and the city are discussing the staffing issues and the talks “are very positive and productive,” he said.
The city already has hired six more firefighters and expects to hire about six to seven more. It also expects to hire the about a dozen more police officers, officials said.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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